WE DESCENDED THROUGH FLOORS OF barracks, training rooms, and high-tech computers—human computers, potentially useful even without alien information, but beyond my understanding, unfortunately. The other teams had not reacted well to learning the facility was massively bigger than we’d anticipated, but they were on the move now, descending in our wake. “Maybe Eden didn’t know how big the facility really was?” I said dubiously as we reached the thirteenth floor. We weren’t being quite as cautious now, having come so far without seeing any alien presence. “Maybe she’d never been here?”
Alexei frowned. “She knew about an alternate entrance,” he said. “One hidden in the sand. How did she know that but not know the extent of the facility?”
“I would like to point out how I never trusted her,” Mia announced.
“But what’s her endgame?” Matt sighed. “What does she gain from lying to us?”
Cage shook his head, clearly baffled. “I don’t know. But we’ve descended more than ten floors without seeing this so-called alien technology of hers. I’m not sure it even exists. What do you think? Do we turn back? Confront her?”
We all hesitated in the stairwell. “If we do,” said Matt at last, “we give up on that ship. Assuming it exists, of course.”
“Eden has nothing to gain by killing us,” I added. “And if she wanted to, she’s had a dozen opportunities. Whatever’s going on here, she didn’t send us to die. I think we should keep going. At least find out what’s at the bottom of the facility.”
A noise in the distance made us all freeze. It was a strange, scraping kind of sound.
“Eden?” I whispered. My mouth suddenly went dry, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.
“The other teams would have alerted us if she’d followed,” Cage replied, moving to the front of the group and drawing his gun.
Mia fumbled for Matt’s light, and he jerked it out of her reach irritably. “Would you stop? Whatever that is, it’s not a twenty-foot-tall monster. Have you noticed the ceilings in here? No way Karoch’s stomping around this area. And I’d rather not trip over anything because you’re more comfortable in the shadows.”
Mia hesitated, looking ready to argue, but another thump came from behind the closed door. She swallowed and stepped back, shimmering into invisibility as a silent protest.
The rest of us followed Cage and Matt to the door. Matt took a position against the wall, suddenly very military in his bearing. How much training had Legion given him? He’d mentioned some prior training, but he hadn’t moved like this, not on Sanctuary, not when I’d known him.
Of course, he wasn’t some kind of cyborg back then either. It was entirely possible they’d implanted behavioral modifications, changes to his mind as well as his body. Did Matt himself know the full extent of what Omnistellar had done to him? Did anyone?
He gestured to the rest of us to stand back, and I moved a few steps up the stairwell. Alexei followed, half shielding me behind his bulk, probably intentionally. I wasn’t about to complain. Instead I closed my eyes and focused on Alexei’s power. I’d never drawn from him before, but I was getting better at this process. Each ability spoke to me individually now instead of the mishmash of power I’d sensed before. Alexei’s talent, a sparkling, crimson shimmer, hovered at the edge of my senses. I reeled it in, wrapping myself in its warmth, ready to attack at a second’s notice.
Matt nodded to Cage, eased the door open a crack, and recoiled against the wall.
But nothing leaped out, and after a moment, Cage nudged the door the rest of the way open. He peered inside, glanced back at us, and beckoned for us to follow.
We did, weapons clutched, powers ready. I kept Alexei’s ability charged in my fingertips. Could I use it and Mia’s invisibility at the same time? I’d never tried. I hadn’t had much time to experiment with my newfound powers. None of us had. A combat situation probably wasn’t the time to start, but I might be left without a choice.
We wound through the corridor in a loose line, Cage and Matt in the front, me in the middle, Alexei at my back, Mia God knew where. After a few seconds the sound echoed again: a rattle, or a drag, or a shift. Whatever it was, it was coming from farther down the corridor.
Cage looked over his shoulder and our eyes met. In the dim light I couldn’t distinguish his expression, but his body was taut, his muscles standing out beneath the body armor. Would it provide any protection against alien claws? I doubted it. Maybe against the harvesters, but the memory of those razor-sharp, far-too-long hunter claws assailed me and I trembled. I clenched my fists and locked my jaw to hide it, but I was shaking so hard I wasn’t sure I dared use Alexei’s power.
Much less a gun.
We resumed our trek and then, as we rounded a corner, Cage and Matt both stopped short.
Alexei and I followed suit. For a moment we all stood there, silent and still. The boys blocked my view, their broad shoulders a shield of tension. Every inch of me wanted to scream, to demand to know what they saw, what was ahead. I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood and didn’t let a sound escape.
Finally, Cage and Matt nodded at each other and stepped aside. I already knew what we’d see from the way they moved: each step a careful placement designed to make no noise whatsoever. It took them a full minute to retreat four or five steps, to plaster their backs against the wall to reveal what lay ahead.
My heart gave one final beat and went still.
The area ahead was full of aliens.
Hunters, by the looks of them: taller and stronger and more muscular than their harvesting compatriots. At a glance, there were at least two dozen just milling around. Not even that, I realized: just standing there, frozen, like the ones I’d encountered in the medical bay on the Omnistellar ship. They’d stood there, too, until the moment they scented me.
And on that thought, one of them raised its head and sniffed.
It was like being trapped in a slow-motion loop, watching the most horrible episode of Robo Mecha Dream Girl ever, praying with all my might for the alien to turn back, lower its head, look away.
But it angled itself directly toward us and sniffed the air again.
A low purring emerged from its throat, and a collective stir ran through the hunters.
And then Alexei had my arm and was pulling me along the corridor, out of sight, moving as fast as we dared without making a sound. I realized Matt and Cage were retreating too. We scrambled down the hallway, guns raised, everyone shaking so badly I didn’t trust a single person’s aim, and each second I expected the aliens to come charging along the hall in front of us.
But they didn’t, and a minute later we were in the stairwell, Alexei easing the door closed again.
For a long moment we all stood and gaped at it in silence, and then Alexei whispered, “Mia?”
She shimmered into existence at his shoulder, and for the first time in my memory, Alexei glared at her. “I didn’t know where you were.” He was whispering, but his voice was sharp, clipped, each word a strike of precision. “Whether we were locking you in with those things. Don’t do that again.”
For once Mia had no argument to give. She only nodded.
“There was alien tech in there.” I closed my eyes, wishing I could unsee it. “I recognized it. Just like what we saw on the ship.” The consoles had wrapped around the room, occupying the space that had probably belonged to military computers in the facility’s previous life. In places, I’d still spotted human-looking keyboards and screens wedged between the strange alien screens.
“We’re not sending Rune in there,” Cage growled.
Matt scowled. “Of course we’re not. We have to keep going farther down and look for somewhere safer she can connect.”
Or we could just get the hell out of here. The words hovered on my lips, unspoken. I wanted so, so badly to retreat up the stairs. To leave the building entirely. But we had a mission, and if we didn’t complete it, we’d be trapped on this planet for the rest of our short lives. Cage beckoned and we followed, heading to the next level down. We kept our weapons drawn, and every two steps I twisted to check for pursuit, but nothing followed.
We’d lucked out. The aliens hadn’t realized we were there, or hadn’t been sure.
I hoped. There were other, more sinister explanations, but if I even began to consider them, my throat closed, so I pushed them aside and forced myself to face the problem at hand—which right now was just putting one foot in front of another and getting down those stairs.
We reached the next landing without incident, and my breath came a little easier. “Okay,” Cage whispered, so softly we could barely hear him. “I think we’re safe. Kenzie, can you radio the support teams? Tell them what we saw and to wait for more information.”
I nodded and relayed his comments, starting with the second team, the one most likely to be directly behind us. Reed said his team was on level nine and promised to take a position on eleven, ready to warn us if they saw activity below.
Hallam didn’t answer.