I slammed into the emergency exit door. It shook, but it wouldn’t budge. Sealed and probably barricaded from the outside was my guess. Damned lockdown protocols... We were trapped in this hellhole.

  I grabbed Tina’s hand again. “Come on, we gotta find another way.”

  We ducked into a side room, looking for a place to hide.

  That was a big mistake. The room was filled with bodies. Dead staff members, torn apart. Blood everywhere. The metallic stench hit me in the nose.

  Tina let out a choked sob. I pulled her close.

  “Don’t look,” I told her, but it was too late for that.

  Something skittered in the hallway outside. I reflexively raised my laser scalpel. A spidery shape darted past the doorway. One of the aliens. Damn, this was a quick one!

  I pushed Tina behind me and kicked the door shut. We needed a barricade. I grabbed a metal shelf, ignoring the bits of viscera clinging to it, and shoved it against the door.

  Tina snapped out of her daze and added her weight to mine. We pushed until the door was fully blocked.

  For a moment, everything was nice and quiet. Then a heavy thud sounded against the door. The metal dented inward.

  Thud… Thud... The thing was trying to break through.

  “Get back,” I told Tina.

  I let go and stepped back. With nothing pushing against it, the door burst open in a shower of twisted metal.

  A nightmare creature skittered into the room, a mess of too many legs and glistening fangs. It lunged at me.

  I dodged to the side and lashed out with the laser scalpel. The blade missed, but the beam sliced through chitin and flesh. The thing let out an ungodly shriek.

  Pressing my advantage, I came in like a buzzsaw, hacking and slashing. Gore splattered the walls. Finally, the creature collapsed in a twitching heap.

  I stood over it, breathing hard. Tina stared at me with wide eyes. I probably looked like a demented serial killer, covered in alien blood. I didn’t care. We were alive.

  Skittering sounds echoed from the hallway. More of them. Coming this way.

  “We need to hide someplace else. Now.”

  Tina was no use. She was out of ideas and ready to piss her pants. I pulled her into another supply closet and shut the door behind us. We crouched in the darkness, hardly daring to breathe, as the sounds of the alien horde drew closer.

  We crouched in that closet for several minutes. There were sounds of eating outside—feasting. I guess the bodies had distracted the monsters. That made me think I’d been a moron from the start. Where do you NOT hide from predators? Why, in a room full of meat, that’s where. The blood-stink was drawing them from all over the Complex.

  Tina pressed up against me. She covered her ears and messed up her hair with her cupped hands. Her hair smelled like smoke and blood. I tried not to think about how good she felt, all trembly and pushed up against me. This was no time to get distracted.

  “We need to call a tactical team,” I whispered. “Is your implant working?”

  Tina shook her head. “No implants work down here. Against the rules. You’re security—you know that.”

  “Yeah… but I was hoping what with the power outage and the total meltdown, they might slacken the rules, you know?”

  Tina gave me a trembling smile. “Never. Not in the Complex.”

  I nodded grimly. We were expendable—the whole lab was, in a way. If we fucked up down here, well, we could damn well fry. They’d probably bury the whole place and let us suffocate down here rather than let all these experiments loose on Earth.

  Tina must be having similar thoughts. She slumped against me. I patted her shoulder, aiming for tender and affirming.

  Hours passed. We listened to things howl and scrabble. Over time, it seemed like they’d left the area—but I didn’t open that frigging door. I was going to wait until we were driven out by thirst.

  Someone had to come—didn’t they?

  Suddenly, footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. Heavy boots, not the skittering of alien feet. I raised my laser scalpel, since experience told me not to assume happy things. It could be a doppelganger-type again after all.

  The footsteps stopped outside the door. I held my breath. This was it. They’d found us.

  The door flew open. I lunged forward, tackling the figure to the floor. We grappled on the blood-slicked tiles. I brought the scalpel down, aiming for the throat.

  “Dane, no!” Tina’s scream pierced through the red haze. “He’s human!”

  I squinted, staring down at the man pinned beneath me. He was wearing a uniform. Definitely not an alien.

  I let him up slowly, keeping my scalpel ready. The soldier eyed me warily, rubbing his neck.

  “Tactical team,” he said. “2nd Squad. Corporal Bennings.”

  I nodded. “Security, Labs 11 to 13.”

  “So, twelve is yours, huh? That’s the one that went bad.”

  I nodded again. I was still watching the guy. Seeing if he went all twitchy. So far, I hadn’t given him my name. He should know it. That was part of the briefing before you went into a shitstorm like this one.

  But doppelgangers didn’t know shit about anything. They just faked it.

  “You Dane Tanner?” he asked at last.

  “Yeah…”

  “We’ve secured the floor. Killed the last of those... things. You’re safe now.”

  Safe. The word seemed almost foreign. I’d been running on adrenaline and instinct for so long, I’d forgotten what safe felt like.

  I helped Tina stumble out of the closet. Bennings looked at her, then back at me.

  “You kept somebody alive besides yourself, huh? That’s pretty good, Tanner.”

  At first, I wasn’t sure if he was being a dick or not—then he laughed. Yeah, he was a dick.

  Sure, a lot of people had died. Most of that had happened while I was having surgery or recovering afterward. I didn’t think that was funny.

  Tactical Squad boys thought they crapped ice cream. They figured I was just a flat-foot donut-eater. A joke walking around down here in the labs as a first responder. But I had a history…

  I could have laid him out. Cold-cocked him for being a smart ass. Then, I could have claimed it was some kind of accident or misunderstanding. That kind of behavior, of course, had landed me down here in the first place, so I stifled my inner demons.

  Forcing myself to relax, I decided I couldn’t blame Corporal Bennings for not knowing I used to work for XCU in a bigger capacity. It wasn’t something I talked about. People never liked guys who’d fallen from grace. They preferred to associate with regular people.

  Bennings shook his head. He was too dumb to let things go. “You’re one crazy son of a bitch, you know that? Charging me headfirst like that—you scared the piss out of me. I might have put you down.”

  I didn’t bother correcting him. It was me who had been about to put him down, and I might have finished the job, too, if Tina hadn’t saved his ass by hollering.

  Bennings finally shut the hell up and led us out of the Complex. Up topside, there was a bunker-like building and a big parking lot. People had often wondered how so many cars could park up here and disgorge employees into a relatively small building. The Complex people never answered questions like that. The regular townsfolk had no idea they were sitting on top of an ant farm—full of alien ants, and worse.

  Emergency vehicles were everywhere. Flashing lights painted the night in shades of red and blue. Medics swarmed around us, patching up our wounds. They started to fuss over the wound in my gut. They didn’t seem to like my amateur patch-up with the molecular printer. I waved them off, I’d had worse.

  Tina wasn’t so lucky. They were pumping a whole chemistry set into her veins. Maybe she’d been poisoned or infected with something. At least they didn’t haul her away after the examination to some quarantine center.

  I was thinking about sneaking off and going home when I caught a glimpse of my supervisor, a sour middle-aged woman by the name of Bette Mitchell. She was picking her way through the chaos. There was no soot or blood on her uniform. She looked like she’d just stepped out of a board meeting, not a war zone.

  Mitchell’s eyes flicked over me, cold and assessing. She didn’t come over to talk, however. Instead, she turned away, one hand going to her phone implant at her jawline. She whispered to someone on the other end. Management, probably.

  I had a bad feeling about that. The way she looked at us... it was like we were a problem to be solved. Or maybe swept under the rug. That look had all my instincts humming.

  I limped over to Tina’s ambulance. She was sitting up now, a blanket around her shoulders. Her eyes were haunted.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  Stupid question. Of course, she wasn’t okay.

  She managed a weak smile. “I’ll be fine. Thanks to you.”

  I shrugged. “Just doing my job.”

  “Your job is fighting aliens? I thought you walked around checking IDs and aiming flashlights into offices.”

  “That, too.” I glanced over at Supervisor Mitchell again. She was a serious Karen, that one. She was still deep in her hushed conversation.

  “You think she’s demanding they give us a raise?” I asked Tina.

  Tina followed my gaze. Her face fell. “What do you think she’s saying about us?”

  “She’s probably trying to figure out how to spin this. To make it look like she had everything under control.”

  “But they didn’t. It was a total nightmare. So many people died. If you hadn’t been there... They can’t blame you!”

  “Hey, don’t worry about that. Let them try to blame me. I dare them.” I forced a grin. “I’ve faced down worse than a bunch of suits.”

  Tina didn’t look convinced, and I didn’t blame her. I wasn’t feeling too confident myself.

  Mitchell finally finished her call. She strode over to us, her face an unreadable mask.

  “Mr. Tanner?” she said coldly. “You’ve been through quite an ordeal. Management has arranged for your care and debriefing. If you’ll come with me...”

  It wasn’t a request. I didn’t have a choice. I exchanged a glance with Tina, and she shrugged.

  Mitchell led me back into the bunker-like building that hid the Complex. We stepped into a cold, sterile office.

  White walls, a metal desk, hard plastic chairs. The place felt more like an interrogation room than an office, because that’s what it was. She gestured for me to sit, but I leaned against the wall near the door instead.

  “Let’s cut to the bottom line, Mr. Tanner,” she said sharply. “Your employment with us is being terminated, effective immediately.”

  I stared at her. “Terminated? What the hell for?”

  “Liability reasons.” She shuffled some computerized slips of plastic on her desk, not meeting my eyes. “Your actions today have put this organization at significant risk.”

  “My actions?” I said, unable to believe what I was hearing. “I saved lives today—mine and Tina’s, anyway. I stopped those alien gremlins from killing every last one of us in the frigging lab!”

  “What you did was cost us an insane amount of money. The lawsuits to come will dwarf those damages, I’m sure. If we can’t tell the aggrieved families that at least someone—the first line security man, in this case—is being held accountable—”

  “Accountable? I didn’t breed any alien hybrid freaks, did I? I didn’t import clearly illegal shit from some colony world, hoping to make a buck on the side—”

  “Careful, Mr. Tanner.”

  “Careful? Why? You’re already firing me. I didn’t let anything loose in this lab. Who did that?”

  The overgrown Karen squirmed in her chair uncomfortably. “All the decision-makers perished. I’m sure you know that.”

  “Bullshit. They’re off in some ivory tower pushing numbers around a spreadsheet. Meanwhile, I’m taking the fall, here.”

  Mitchell regained her composure and lifted her nose a few inches higher. “Mr. Tanner. You were in charge of security at the installation where it all started. Your portion of this facility doesn’t look all that secure to me. Can you claim otherwise?”

  I laughed at her. “You can’t believe you’re going to get away with blaming me for all this fuckery, can you?”

  She winced at my choice of words. Management types often did that. They liked to ruin people’s lives, but they didn’t like bad words.

  “Possibly, you aren’t the sole individual worthy of blame. But your... unorthodox methods have drawn unwanted attention. The higher-ups feel it’s best to distance the organization from you, specifically.”

  “Distance themselves?” I got it now. They were hanging me out to dry. Using me as a scapegoat to save their own asses. “This is such a load. You can’t do this.”

  “It’s already done, Mr. Tanner. Your final paycheck will be deposited automatically in a few minutes. I suggest you leave quietly.”

  “You think you can just sweep this giant turd under the rug?” I asked. “Pretend like none of this ever happened? I don’t think so.”

  “Mr. Tanner, you are under countless non-disclosure agreements. Everything that happens at the Complex is classified. You’ll say nothing, or you’ll be saying it in a prison cell.”

  I turned and stalked out of the office, slamming the door behind me.

  The hell with them. The hell with all of them. I stormed out of the bunker, my blood boiling. They figured they could just toss me aside like trash.

  What was really galling was—they were probably right.

  Chapter 3

  A week went by real fast after that. One day I woke up at the crack of dawn, like always. Old habits die hard, I guess.

  I rolled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen. My head was already pounding. Breakfast was a handful of stale chips and a flat soda.

  Washing it all down with a shot of whiskey was the best part. The breakfast of champions.

  It wasn’t like I had anything better to do. After a week of pounding the online pavement and searching for work, I hadn’t gotten so much as an automatic reply in return. Nobody was interested in hiring an ex-security guard with a bad attitude and a worse reputation.

  I slumped on my shitty couch, staring at the cracked ceiling. The Complex gig had been better than anywhere else I’d worked since I’d stopped playing field operative for XCU. The Complex had given me good pay and decent benefits. It was boring, but easy as hell.

  That was all gone now. That was the story of my life. Dane Tanner, a professional bad luck charm.

  I took another swig of whiskey, letting it burn its way down my throat. I thought back to that day at the Complex. The aliens, the blood, the screams. I’d done my job, dammit. I’d saved Tina. And what did I get for that? A pink slip and a slap on the head.

  I hauled myself off the couch, my head swimming. I needed some air. Needed to clear my head.

  I stood on my balcony, a thousand feet above the city streets. Then, I went one better and climbed up to sit on the corner of the railing. I dangled my bare feet over empty space, gripping the rail with one hand and the whiskey bottle with the other. Drones buzzed by beneath me, their humming motors echoing off the crumbling buildings. I watched them zip through the maze of skyscrapers.

  Somehow, I began wondering how long it would take me to hit the pavement if I jumped—not that I was going to, mind you. I’m not the suicidal type. That route was for losers. But sometimes, when the world felt like it was closing in, it was nice to have options.

  The metal railing was cold against my skin. The city stretched out before me, a sea of neon and concrete. It was a hell of a view, and despite that, the rent was a joke.

  I’d been lucky to snag this place. It was falling apart at the seams, sure. Concrete doesn’t last forever, you know. This building had to be two centuries old—maybe three. When they’d built it way back, they’d probably figured they’d knock it down and build something better by now.

  But no. The old skyscrapers had been converted from office space into low-rent housing. Mostly, it was full of druggies and hookers—but I didn’t mind. They didn’t seem to like the look of me. I didn’t make eye contact, and they stayed away. It was a system that worked.

  I was about to head back inside when I heard a buzzing sound coming from my cracked coffee table. I frowned, moving closer to investigate. It was my old phone implant, the one they’d ripped out of my skull when I’d left XCU. A sudden thought made me smirk—Tanner’s lost jobs were piling up.

  Curious, I picked up the insistent device. It kept buzzing, and I turned it over in my hands. It shouldn’t have been working, not without being jacked into my jawline. The battery should have been dead, and even if it wasn’t, XCU had deactivated this line months ago. Security men didn’t get free implants from their employers, so I’d just left the thing on the coffee table to gather dust.

  The implant stopped buzzing and then started again. It looked like a rubbery finger of flesh, shivering by itself like an angry hornet.

  I stared at it, my mind racing. Who the hell would be calling me on this thing? And why now, after all this time?

  Hesitantly, I reached for it and picked it up. Kind of sticky…

  Part of me wanted to smash the damn thing against the wall or throw it over the balcony and be done with it. But another part of me, the part that never could resist a mystery, was curious.

  Taking a deep breath, I pushed it up against my jaw so it could contact meat and bone. Implants liked to vibrate your bones and talk to you.

  “Tanner?” a familiar voice crackled through the implant. “Happy birthday, you dumb bastard.”

  I recoiled, almost dropping the thing. “Dom?”

  Dominic Serrano. My old boss from XCU. I hadn’t heard from him in months, not since before I’d taken the job at the Complex.

  “The one and only,” he chuckled. “How’s civilian life treating you?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Cut the crap, Dom. What do you want?”

  “Can’t a guy wish his favorite ex-employee a happy birthday?”