Chapter Forty-Five

 

Seven minutes.

The timer was counting down in Yara's head and the workers still hadn't moved. Between the explosives in the building and on the elevator, she wouldn't have enough time to escape the blast radius. If she was on the wall, even with her topaz strength, she'd get knocked unconscious into the abyss and her emerald wouldn't be able to save her.

Six fucking minutes.

She was going to die because of a group of chatty engineers. They were blathering on about load calculations and the tensile strength of support beams. Yara wanted to scream. She scooted to the edge under the assumption she had to move now, or be turned into a bloody pulp.

A cry of surprise from the workers had them scattering. The flying snake had appeared by the elevator. Before she could hop down, the two guards came over to investigate, but Koro was already gone. When they neared the edge, Yara checked to make sure no one was in sight range. The workers were still running the other way and the two guards near the ramp were looking into the massive chasm.

When Yara saw a hand reach up from the edge, grabbing the guard's black pants, she rose to her feet and using Lightness, made the thirty-foot leap, kicking the second guard with both feet. In the blink of an eye, both went tumbling into the yawning expanse, their screams devoured by the distance and the rumbling generators.

Yara scrambled over the edge. Five minutes. It wasn't enough time. The abundance of caution that had safely gotten them over was thrown to the winds as they moved like frightened monkeys across the cliffside. Yara didn't bother checking back to see if the guards had spotted them. Dead by bullet or explosion, either one she could do nothing about unless she reached the ledge where Tick was waiting.

"Hurry! One minute!"

The call from Tick came down to them, but there was still too far to go to reach him. She risked a glance back to see the other guards near the elevator and still more headed that way. They needed somewhere to hide from the blast. Looking down and to their left, she spotted a large crevasse running up the wall at an angle

"Choo-Choo. Down to your left. Hurry."

No further explanation was needed. She swung after him, barely finding a new handhold before reaching out to the next. Rock exploded by her ear. The guards had spotted them and were firing. Choo-Choo pivoted around the edge, hiding from the shots. Yara followed, jamming herself next to him. The ledge was only wide enough for half their feet.

"Jam your hands in the crack."

She shoved both hands as deep as they would go, tearing away skin and cracking nails. Yara ducked her head behind the knife-edged rock as the countdown fell to seconds.

The explosion hit them like a two-by-four, slamming her head into the rock wall. She nearly loosened her grip, thinking the worst over, when the second one triggered. Loose stones bounced off her head and shoulders, while blood ran into her eyes, but she didn't dare wipe it away, so she kept them squeezed shut. When the rumbling stopped, she risked leaning back to see the entire elevator structure was gone. A hole in the side of the cliff was matched by another where the building had been. Tents were flattened for hundreds of meters. From the farthest side in the part of the camp unaffected by the blast, a black-clad team of men and women came running.

"Go!"

She nudged Choo-Choo, who shaking away the worst of the blast. Her ears were ringing and the first couple of handholds came with stabs of vertigo. The explosion had damaged her inner ear, making it harder to climb. Choo-Choo pulled himself onto the ledge first, and as she caught Tick's hand for an assist, bullets pinged off the rocks. Yara threw herself over the edge and behind the wall as the mercenaries fired on their location.

"This isn't going to make escaping easy," said Tick as he led them down the tunnel to the lower cavern.

Yara checked back before she followed, seeing dozens of mercenaries and guards gathering. Someone in charge was shouting and pointing towards the tunnels that would intersect with theirs.

"No. No it isn't."