“Good to see you, mate.”

  “And you. Fall back with the others. Jade and I will hold them off.”

  Jess handed him an odd, banana-shaped trigger mechanism. “When you’re ready, flick the toggle and press the blue button to arm it. A countdown of fifteen minutes will start. To override the timer, press the red button. That will give you thirty seconds to reset it.”

  “Understood. Is your family out?”

  “All safe, thanks to you guys. Colonel Miller gave the final green light.”

  “Thanks, Jess.” Eli stared at the mechanic for a moment. A sense of pride came over him. Like everyone, Jess had his demons. But he had stood up when it mattered. All of Lincoln had.

  A screeching sounded out. A tank shell clipped the remains of a concrete wall, struck the three-storey admin building above them, then exploded, tearing a huge hole out of the corner. Eli wrapped Jess in a bear hug and fell to the ground. Debris rained down, showering Eli and Jess like monsoon rain. Each hit stung, causing him to wince. It lasted less than thirty seconds.

  “You okay, Jess?” Eli pushed back onto his knees.

  Jess stared at him with blank, open eyes, a large gash on the side of his head. Eli checked for a pulse and cursed when he felt nothing. Checking the wound closer, he understood why. The gash was deeper than it looked. And Jess’s skull was soft underneath.

  Eli shut his eyes and cursed again. Life was so fragile. In a nano second, Jess was gone. He wanted to scream and mourn the loss of his friend, but he couldn’t. The mercs were now firing at will. Eli crawled to where he had last seen Jade. He found her underneath one of the drilling machines. Covered in fine concrete dust, she reached for his outstretched hand and he pulled her free. Together, they jogged down the nearest alley to the final defendable position before the crushing plant.

  CHAPTER 16

  The remaining battalions of Falcon Legion and Colonel Noah Miller stood behind the makeshift barricades greeted the muck- and dust-covered Eli and Jade. The normally aloof soldiers saluted the pair, and more than a few slapped them on their backs, offering their appreciation. For years, Eli had thought of the elite soldiers as snobs, but he was coming to realise it as part of their mystique. The men and women of Falcon Legion carried a heavy burden. They were Lincoln’s protectors and, during times of war on the surface, they contributed. If they performed well, the citizens of the city could go about their daily lives. The Legion separated themselves so that no one could see the pain behind the veil of confidence they portrayed. Lincoln held veterans’ days and parades to honour their fallen soldiers. People thanked them for their service and would receive a nod back, but Eli now saw those nods were hollow, filled with trauma, guilt and pain. To a tiny degree, he had experienced it after stopping The Nine. He, Ley and Colter had been thanked countless times by people who knew, but the emotions remained. They never went away. He doubted they ever would because their lives were forever changed.

  “Good work,” Noah said, falling into step beside his son.

  “Cheers. Evac?”

  “Just us and a few stragglers left now.”

  Eli pulled out the control Jess had given him and pressed the blue button, arming the explosives. In bright numbers, the display flashed fifteen minutes. “Zapata?”

  “Spotters clocked him with his personal squadron. He’s waiting for the rest of his forces. Any minute now, they’ll attack.” Noah snapped his fingers at a couple of privates. One ran to a waiting buggy and started it. “We took back gates 3, 4 and 5. We’ll hold them open for thirty minutes, then we’re sealing them. Don’t be late.”

  “Not if we can help it. Have some other business to attend to after this, so you won’t see me for a while.”

  Noah frowned. “What?”

  “Safer if you don’t know. Trust me.”

  He hated not telling his father about their plans if they survived the next half an hour, but he suspected the reason Zapata wanted to personally kill Ley, Colter and him was because of the journal. If the knowledge it contained was really that valuable, then all this death, all this destruction would be worth it to the former commander. He was sadistic and could be doing all this for fun, but Eli didn’t think that was the only reason.

  “Trust you? What’s going on, Eli?”

  “I can’t tell you. It could put you and our family in even greater danger. But we believe Zapata will follow us if we move into the labyrinth.”

  Noah stared at Eli for several moments. “Thirty minutes. Listen, come to the evac camp and help defend the retreat. Then you can go do whatever it is.”

  “All right. Thirty minutes.”

  Eli found Ley, Colter and Nox waiting behind a large drilling machine. Nox bounded up to Eli and playfully tugged on his hand. Crouching, Eli unclipped his helmet and pressed his face to his furry best friend’s. Nox licked him and let out an excited yelp. “I missed you too, bud.”

  “I fed him,” Ley said. “I’m surprised he’s so unfazed by our changed appearance.”

  “It’s his nose.”

  “I know, professor.” Ley rolled her eyes. “Last phase.”

  “I want to sleep for a week after this.”

  “Just sleep?”

  “Well…”

  Ley winked and locked her helmet back into place. She was helping Eli with his as the rattle of rifles sounded out.

  The mercs and The Nine attacked in an awe-inspiring push. The three tanks Eli had seen earlier were now seven. In an arrowhead formation, they tore around the corner and ploughed into the barricade manned by Falcon Legion, bouncing over the soldiers, crushing them beneath their tracks. When metal track met human flesh, it chewed it up and spat it out, plastering the debris with gore. Falcon Legion scattered. Out of the corner of his eye, Eli witnessed something he could never have imagined.

  Miners, rock hoppers and blasters burst out of every building still standing, carrying pneumatic jackhammers, drills, pressure sprayers, grease guns. The Mining Guild ran at the attacking mercs like the old-world Charge of the Light Brigade. Senseless. Foolhardy. But incredibly brave. Most were cut down by the EV suit-wearing soldiers and mercs, but their sheer numbers worked in their favour. Some managed to take down soldiers, hitting them with the jackhammers and drills. The swarm caused the mercs to break ranks to deal with the incursion.

  “Holy shit!” Ley said, voicing Eli’s thoughts. She raised her rifle and fired into the rear of the attacking force, then gestured to Colter. He gave the okay signal, and the three of them, and Nox, jogged down the ramp. Glancing at the timer on the trigger, Eli halted in the doorway at the entrance to the ore-crushing plant and turned to face the raging firefight.

  Two minutes.

  The radio clipped to his suit hummed with chatter. Seconds later, the remaining Falcon Legion and Mining Guild personnel scrambled away from the battle and sprinted down the streets leading to gates 3, 4 and 5. Eli brought the trigger up to eye level as Colter, Ley, Jade and Nox joined him.

  Thirty seconds.

  A familiar voice came over his EV suit’s internal comms. “Run, Gnat, run.”

  “Zapata?”

  “Yes, Miller. I applaud you for your little trick with the suits.”

  “What do you want.”

  “You, Haru, and Stone dead, for a start.”

  Everything he’d suspected became clear. The mere thought sickened him. Zapata was indeed here for them because of the journal. They not only knew about it but had read it and solved the first clue. All this death was because of that single reason. Eli dropped to his knees, the confirmation overwhelming his senses. His stomach churned, thinking of all the innocent lives lost. Like Jess.

  Eli clenched his fists. “Fuck off and die.”

  Explosions boomed out across the city, starting in the distance and drawing nearer. The mercs and The Nine turned towards the noise, expecting a counterattack from the rear. But it never came. Not in the way they were thinking. Sounding like firecrackers on steroids, the last explosion rattled off. The streets beneath the feet of the attacking force suddenly lifted as though a horde of stone worms slithered past. Concrete, steel, cables and pipes blasted out, throwing mercs and The Nine soldiers into the air. The gaping holes left by the explosion began to cave in, swallowing up any tank or merc standing nearby.

  As Eli tossed away the trigger, he spotted a squad of mercs sprinting towards the ore-crushing plant.

  “Let’s go,” Ley said.

  The group fled through the first floor and into the plant proper, with its massive crushers.

  Zapata’s voice came back over the comms. “Full of surprises, aren’t you, Miller?”

  While he was disappointed the former commander wasn’t dead, Eli was glad, in a strange way. “How does it feel not being able to finish the job?”

  “Not going to work, baiting me. You see, those suits have a contingency.”

  Eli froze as the suit went rigid. The helmet’s visor went dark. Desperate, he tried to move, but either his body had forgotten how or the suit was malfunctioning.

  “Figured it out yet?” Zapata taunted. “I wonder how Haru is. Terrified, I bet.”

  Eli could do nothing. He could neither move nor think his way out of this. The tech that integrated his suit with his brain didn’t respond to any of his commands. Besides that, he couldn’t move to take off his helmet. He was stuck like an insect in a glue trap. “Tell me something.”

  “What, Miller?”

  “The Nine and all that. Why? What was the point of it all?”

  Chuckling, the former commander said, “Years ago, I served under a tough captain. Guy was modified for war. Lived it. Breathed it. Above all, he loved it. The killing, the death. Everything. We were fighting the Europe Alliance for Arabia, and we were stuck in a mountain pass. Hemmed in from all sides. I swore we were going to die, but this captain got their CO on the radio and keep him talking while a few of us snuck over goat trails and ambushed them from behind. So keep talking, Miller, but it ain’t going to work on me.”

  “Let me ask something else, then. Does it bother you that we figured out the first clue?”

  “You pathetic Gnat. You are nothing but a slave to do our bidding. That’s all you will ever be, no matter what you think you can achieve. Nothing but a slave.”

  “Yet, we have the second clue.”

  “And you think I don’t? Mayor Sousa was eager to give it to me, like the puppy dog he was. Ah, I can see you now, like a statue. And there’s Haru. You both look like you saw the Gorgon.” Zapata chuckled again. The sound of his mirth was beginning to annoy Eli, but he pushed his irritation aside and tried to figure out how much time was left before his father sealed the gates. Something banged into him, but he barely moved.

  Bang.

  There it was again. This time against his legs.

  Thump.

  The something went through his legs and tugged on his hands. Nox. The dog was quickly followed by something else banging into him. That had to be either Jade or Colter.

  “Good. You’re all together now,” Zapata said. Big yellow numbers appeared in the HUD. They flashed sixty seconds and began counting down.

  “See that, Miller? Smart of Agent Wilson to get you in the suits, but as commander, I have override authority. I can freeze any merc I want. And if the occupant goes postal — Boom! What’s it saying in the display? Forty seconds? Awww. And you can’t even say goodbye to Haru or that stupid mutt of yours. I’m going to enjoy roasting that canine and feeding it to my hyenas.”

  Eli took a deep breath to try and calm his pounding heart. Terrified wasn’t the right word to describe the hundreds of thoughts buzzing through his head. But above all it was the sheer panic. Helplessness.

  Something banged against him again, and he found himself flat on the ground.

  Twenty-seven seconds.

  A strange thought popped into his mind. Instead of thinking of a happy moment during his life, like when he had graduated from the academy, when he and Ley had admitted their feelings for each other, or finding Nox on Level One, covered in fleas and mange… Nox had gazed at him with wide black eyes that had somehow conveyed love and friendship in a split second. In that moment, Eli knew they were fated to be together… Instead, he thought of the number twenty-seven, and how so many old-world musicians had died aged twenty-seven. Like the number was cursed. Jones, Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain and Winehouse never made it to twenty-eight. Fate, or a result of their hedonistic lifestyles?

  Now the display showed thirteen. Another supposedly cursed number. Weird how some numbers become more than a sum of things.

  Colter tugged on his helmet. At least, he thought it was Colter. It could be Jade. She was certainly strong enough. But somehow, it felt right to think that Jade had gone to assist Ley.

  Five seconds.

  Eli prayed that whatever went boom, it was contained within the EV suit and didn’t kill his friends.

  Two seconds.

  Bringing the image of Nox, Ley and Colter into his mind, he was just happy that he’d got to know them all over the years, and that they had succeeded in buying time to evacuate everyone.

  Zero.

  Nothing happened. No sudden heat. No nanosecond of pain. No boom. Nothing. The only sound was Zapata chuckling his annoying-as-hell laugh over the comms.

  “You thought the suit would blow up, didn’t you? Like we would destroy valuable hardware.”

  “You’re a kint.”

  Colter tugged on his helmet again. This time, a slither of light appeared.

  “You and Haru are still going to die, Miller. A nice neurotoxin should be pumping around your body about now…”

  The helmet hissed and popped off.

  A cacophony of sounds assaulted Eli all at once.

  Explosions thumping into the crushing plant.

  Screams of pain from dying mercs and The Nine soldiers.

  Shouting. So much shouting.

  The next thing he noticed was Colter’s face staring at him. He had been right. How about that? Nox yelped and licked his face as Colter dragged him deeper into the ore-crushing plant. Now that he could move his head, Eli searched for Ley. He was pleased to see she was still breathing and smiling back at him. He still couldn’t move any of his limbs, and he desperately wanted to reach out and touch her.

  “Zapata?” Eli asked.

  “Delayed by rubble,” Colter said. “Stay with me, buddy.”

  “Neurotoxin.”

  “Yup. Jade has a plan.”

  That was music to Eli’s ears. He had hoped. While frozen, with Zapata taunting him, he had accepted his impending death.

  Barking out a laugh, Eli realised he always expected that. One had to. It was part of existence. “How lon⁠—”

  Something exploded against the plant. It sounded muted, like a floor tom being hit behind a closed door. Colter propped him against a concrete pillar as the upper level, at the entrance, deconstructed in slow motion. First, the ceiling bowed, then peeled apart from the stress of whatever was falling. Then tonnes of concrete, brick and metal cascaded down. The crushers were separated from the admin section by the rail yards full of carts. They were therefore spared the destruction but didn’t escape the fine dust that spread over everything like a sea fog cloaked with a million coal fires smoking.

  Colter reached inside the suit, now that the helmet was off, and pressed something. “Going to get really hot, professor. Stay with me.”

  All Eli could do was nod. It felt like he was swimming through hot soup. His mind was slow. His senses were fine, as were his cognitive functions. Then his skin screamed at the sudden rise in temperature. In seconds, sweat poured down his spine and dripped from his forehead in a torrent. Nox went to lick his face, but Colter stopped him.

  Next, Colter injected Eli with a series of three stims.

  “Three?” he asked someone out of sight.

  “Give him one more.” The voice sounded like Jade’s but was the wrong speed.

  Whatever Colter had injected him with worked fast. First, his mind cleared. Then the suit fell away from his body, leaving him lying naked on the floor. Eli didn’t care. He was relieved the damn suit was off. Colter pulled the remainder of the parts away and cradled Eli’s head while he held a water bottle to his lips.

  Suddenly, Jade was standing in front of him. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “None.”

  “Good. Wiggle your toes and fingers.”

  Eli tried. His fingers moved, but his toes remained still. “Bad?”

  “Not good. Toxin is still in your body. If we had more time to flush it out, that would be optimal, but we don’t. Try moving your upper body.”

  Rolling, he was happy to see Ley. She had managed to prop herself up on one elbow and was downing some liquid.

  “Good. Have some electrolytes,” Jade said.

  “Zapata?” Eli asked.

  “He’s trying to get past the rubble,” Colter said. “Being cautious after our little stunt.”

  Determined to get up, Eli pushed off his elbows until he was on his knees. He had to move his legs into position and keep his hands out like he was doing a press-up, but at least his head wasn’t spinning anymore.

  “What the hell was that?” He spat out the weird taste in his mouth and swallowed a few more gulps of the electrolyte drink.

  “Paralysing agent. It shuts your body down slowly, destroying your vital organs in the process. An hour later, the merc is taken from the suit and disposed of. That’s why I could recalibrate the suit to you and Ley. Thule way of thinking. Tech and hardware are expensive. Lives are not. Grow another one in less than a week.”

  Eli kept his mouth shut. Instead, he shook his head to express his feelings. The more he heard about the Thule, the more he realised they were barely human. They certainly expressed no empathy, kindness or compassion.

  “Hostiles are through the rubble,” Colter warned. He reached into a duffel bag and passed Eli and Ley their packs.

  “You’ve been carrying that around?” Eli asked.

  “Nah. Jess brought it here.”