Roku reached the control room first, and Aubry, disguised as Ni, a moment later. There was a door with a wide glass window in it, and within they saw the control room, a series of flickering panels, and holographic displays of the Menagerie.
Their eyes met. They synchronized breathing, their bodies and minds becoming one. They smashed through the door.
“One chance,” Roku barked. “Away from the panels.” One of the technicians moved toward the alarm, and Roku fired instantly. The hapless technician flew back against the control board, bullets stitching his body.
He slid down slowly, leaving a slick of blood and tissue.
The other Japanese and two Ugandans stood, raising their hands.
Roku linked his shock armor’s tactical computer into the main boards. Circuits appeared, crawling in the air before him; one of them blinked red.
“No—!” one of the Japanese said. Aubry pulsed him in the leg. Cloth and skin burned. The Japanese crumpled, cursing.
Roku dominated the circuit.
He scanned the holographic model of the Menagerie. He weakened the inner electronic barrier’s signal, then killed it. He pumped up the outer barrier’s signal, trebled it, and then trebled it again.
He disabled all electronic alarms and safeguards on the drawbridges across Caernarvon’s moat.
Aubry fired his pulse rifle into the control panels themselves. Bits of steel and plastic fountained flaming into the air.
Roku looked at the men and women cowering on the floor, and his voice was deadly. “Stay here,” he said. “If we see you outside, you die.”
Roku turned, then turned back, an instant too slowly. One of the technicians had a pistol, aimed at Roku’s open visor.
They fired at the same instant.
Roku’s finger remained on the trigger, hosing the room with death, even after the visor slid down, concealing the ruined cavity that had once been another of Aubry Knight’s faces.
Aubry stood silently, breathing hard. The room was full of death. Blood trickled from beneath Roku’s visor. He fought the urge to lift it. Instead, he turned, and ran from the room.
In the halls outside, the alarm was blaring.