“Both good points. But if the ship was designed for us to have access to the cache, why wouldn’t Stone know about it?”

  “I thought maybe he did, which is why I asked you if you knew about it. But Stone isn’t the person who was supposed to be Governor when the Deliverance reached its destination.”

  “Doctor Valentine again?”

  Caleb nodded. It was starting to make more sense. Riley needed control over the colony regardless of the outcome of her work. He could guess there would have been some risk of resistance if she opened the seal after two hundred years and Stone wasn’t so compliant, but the Cerebus probably would have quelled that risk. Would she have sent the colonists into battle without the genetic perfection she had hoped to achieve?

  He had a feeling she would have. Without hesitation.

  “They screwed us good, didn’t they, Sergeant?” Dante said. “Your superiors, I mean. They put us in the hands of a monster.”

  “I don’t agree with what they were trying to do, but I can almost understand why they did it. We were desperate and scared, and we’d just lost our entire planet.”

  “I can’t speak to that. Only where we are right now. Riley Valentine sounds like a real bitch, but I wish she were alive right now to give us more information.”

  “Surprisingly, so do I. In any case, how well do you know this place?”

  “I’ve worked here since I was seventeen. But we don’t do all that much. Not since the uprising. The citizens know better than to stand up to the Governor.”

  “Fourteen-thousand dead,” Caleb said. “They learned that lesson the hard way.”

  Dante nodded somberly. “Yes, they did. You’ve gotten a good look at the city. Metro has been falling apart for years. In that sense, it’s good we’re somewhere because I don’t know how much longer we would have lasted otherwise.”

  “Silver lining,” Caleb said, pausing to think.

  The main hangar connected to the city through the largest of the seals, which were currently locked in place. No amount of explosive would get them open without doing a ton of damage, which meant Deputy Klahanie was going to have his work cut out for him to get into the primary network and get them open. That was secondary. If the cache were stocked with vehicles — drones, APCs and the like — access to the main hold would have been required in the plans.

  He turned in the office, orienting himself in the direction of the main hangar. The base of the city was positioned at the same level. But Valentine had said the cache was under the city. Did that mean there was a Deck Thirty-one? He had been outside the major seal they had used to bring the blocks into the massive hold to construct Metro. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t noticed the seal on this side of the city, and it was way too big to miss.

  “There have to be two seals,” he said, thinking out loud.

  “What?” Dante asked.

  “There are two seals to the main hangar. Like an airlock. Outer and inner. The largest doors.”

  “There aren’t any large doors in Metro,” Dante said. “Only the exits into engineering to the north and south.”

  “That can’t be right. The blocks were carried in here on massive loaders. They had to get access for those machines somewhere.”

  “Another hidden door?”

  “Or a false wall. I wish I had paid more attention the first time I was here. When I met your many times great-grandmother.”

  “If it’s here, I’m sure we’ll find it, but the Governor’s announcement is in thirty minutes. Are you sure you don’t want a uniform?”

  “I do want a uniform,” Caleb replied. “Just not yours. When Stone tells the people what’s really happening, he’s going to need someone who looks like they know what they’re doing, not a beat up sheriff who looks like all of the other sheriffs. No offense.”

  “None taken. I understand. But that means we don’t have much time to find your secret passage. If there is a secret passage.”

  Caleb was still facing in the direction of the hangar, trying to visualize the layout of the Deliverance in his mind. He realized the grid he had seen was missing pieces, blocked out to keep everyone either confused or safe. He wasn’t sure which anymore.

  “Does the Law Office continue back that way?” he asked, pointing at the back of her office’s wall.

  Dante nodded. “There’s an old garage back there. We used to have drones to help us monitor the colony, but they were stripped for parts a long time ago. Now it’s more like a junkyard. I don’t think anyone’s been back there in at least fifty years. I’ve looked at it through the window. It’s a machine graveyard, Sergeant.”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing for us that the Deliverance’s dead kept such good secrets.”

  Chapter 5

  Sheriff Dante led Caleb out of her office, past the cell block and into the rear of the building. The corridor leading to the garage was dark and dusty, clearly ignored for years, to the extent that the walls had been opened up, the wiring pulled from them to use somewhere else.

  “Beautiful, right?” Dante said.

  “You do what you have to do.”

  They approached the door. It was made of metal, with a small window in the center. A control pad to open it sat on the wall, but Caleb never expected it to function. Dante put her fingers around the edge of it and pushed, straining to slide it open.

  “You should let me do that,” Caleb said.

  Dante paused, made eye contact, and then glanced at his replacement arm, smiling sheepishly. “I suppose I should.” She moved aside.

  Caleb stepped up to the door, peering in through the dirty glass. Two doors sat in the back of it to allow access from outside, both rusted and probably non-functional. As Dante had said, there were bits and pieces of machines and shells of vehicles strewn across the floor, which was stained with grease and smaller debris, enough that it nearly hid the actual surface from view. The way the building was positioned, if there was a secret passage to the deck below, it had to be in the floor.

  Was the mess a natural accumulation of junk, or had it been manipulated to hide something?

  He was assuming that if Dante didn’t know about the deck below this one, then Stone didn’t either. But what if he was wrong?

  The cache had to be intact. If Stone or any of the prior Governors had known about it and used it, there would be evidence of it in destruction of the city. And the Governor’s guards wouldn’t be walking around with bows and arrows fashioned from Metro’s limited number of trees. They would be toting fully loaded MK-12s.

  Caleb grabbed the edge of the door with his left arm, pushing it easily aside. A musty smell escaped through the opening, causing him to wrinkle his nose.

  “Pleasant,” Dante said. “Yuck.”

  “Old grease and rust mixed with seriously stale air. I’ve smelled worse.”

  “I’m sure.”

  They entered the garage. Time wasn’t a luxury, and Caleb immediately moved to the outer perimeter, staring down at the floor. He dropped to his knees, using his replacement hand to brush the dirt and debris away. If there was a hidden door in the floor, would he be able to find it?

  “This could take all day, Sergeant,” Dante said. “I know you don’t want to wear a sheriff’s uniform, but maybe that’s the best option right now?”

  “Tell me when we have ten minutes.”

  “You can’t get dressed in ten minutes.”

  “I can be fashionably late.”

  “The Governor will have my head if you show up late.”

  “Do you mean that figuratively or literally?” Caleb asked. He was still trying to get a full impression of how Governor Stone liked to operate.

  “He’s not an evil man if that’s what you mean. But he likes things to operate on his time. Yesterday, it might mean losing a meal chit and going hungry for a night. Today? I don’t know.”

  “I’m going on the belief that he needs me more than I need him,” Caleb said. He pointed to a pile of old drones near the wall. “See that garbage over there? Let’s shove it aside. There may be a clue beneath it.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Most of the crap in the garage is spread out across the floor. But that garbage is piled higher than everything else. Why?”

  “Are you a Space Marine or a detective, Sergeant?”

  “Raiders are trained to be observant, so I guess a bit of both.”

  “How about I sweep the floor, and you move the trash? I think it’ll be more efficient considering your augmentation.”

  Caleb stood up. “Fair enough.”

  He crossed the room to the garbage pile. Was he wasting time down here when there were so many other things to do? Could searching for fresh weapons and ammunition ever be a waste of time considering where they were and what they were up against? He had no idea what they were up against. But that was the point.

  He grabbed at the debris with his replacement hand, lifting away the carcasses of stripped down drones and dropping them to the side. It only took a minute to move the whole stack, the effort revealing a dented panel in the wall. It was bolted closed, but he ripped the cover away and exposed the wiring beneath.

  He stared at it for a moment, tracing the different colored wires. One of them was disconnected, each end of it occupied by a clean and apparently unused connector. Had someone opened the panel once, discovered the unidentified wire inside, and then closed it again? Or had they found the cover and tried to get in but failed? Why was the panel dented?

  “Dante,” Caleb said, getting her attention.

  “What is it, Sergeant?” she replied.

  “I’m not sure. I’ve got a disconnected cable here. I’m going to plug it in.”

  “Roger that.”

  Caleb connected them. Nothing happened. “Damn it ” he said.

  “We stripped so many wires; maybe it’s cut somewhere else in the wall?” Dante suggested. “Or maybe there’s no power coming to the garage at all.”

  “We’re keeping the engineers busy, aren’t we?” Caleb said. “I’ll have to get one of the Kings down here to look at it.” He stood up. “I guess I’m getting a sheriff’s uniform after all.”

  “It won’t hurt, Sergeant. I promise.”

  “Tell me that when this starched collar rubs my neck raw.”

  He started crossing the room to join Dante at the door. He paused when he noticed a small, flashing glow escaping from behind a bit of debris.

  “Dante, look at this,” he said, directing her attention to the light. He pushed the scrap out of the way, revealing the green LED illuminated behind the wall, the light projecting through microscopic holes in the surface and forming a simple toggle. “Ever seen this before?”

  “You know I haven’t.”

  “Think we could be this lucky?”

  “I think we’re due right about now.”

  “Agreed.” Caleb reached out and tapped on the toggle, covering the light. As soon as he did, something made a loud clunking noise from somewhere below them. They both spun around to face the center of the room as the floor began to slowly sink away.

  “Jackpot,” Dante said, turning back to him and grinning. Caleb smiled back at her. It was almost too easy.

  They stood aside as the floor continued to drop, scrap and debris tumbling off the edges and into the new hole. Caleb moved to the corner and looked down. He couldn’t see anything but darkness around the edge of the moving floor.

  “Down we go,” he said, hopping off the edge and onto the platform. Dante hesitated a moment before jumping down behind him.

  They rode the platform to the bottom. The new space remained dark until the lift settled with a sharp thunk that echoed across the area, the depth of sound a preview of its size.

  Lights flashed on one at a time, spreading out around them and continuing across the length and width of the room. Caleb found himself spinning in a quick rotation, trying to take it all in.

  Riley and the Reapers had brought the Deliverance here to fight a war.

  They had just found their armory.

  Chapter 6

  “I don’t know what to say,” Dante said, making the same turn as Caleb, trying to take it all in.

  It was impossible. The area was too large to absorb all at once. Caleb quickly recognized racks of MK-12s in the corner, hundreds of them, with stacked crates of ammunition piled high beside the weapons. He saw half a dozen armored drone carriers with full complements of weaponized drones. His eyes crossed over not one, but four of the robot Butchers, static and dark, waiting to be activated. Waiting to kill.

  There was more. A pair of three-dimensional printers sat heavily against the wall, dozens of shipping containers aligned beside them, likely filled with raw materials for the machines, which could produce guns, bullets, and armor among other things. Looking in the other direction, Caleb found organized racks of combat armor and helmets, thousands of units strong.

  “I think jackpot may be an understatement,” he replied, forcing his mouth closed. He had expected a small armory. A few weapons, a few vehicles. He had underestimated the truth of Commands intent, and he had a feeling that as they got deeper into the equipment stored down here, he would find he was still underestimating it.

  What else had Command sent to this place with them?

  “I feel a little better about not dying,” Dante said.

  “Stay focused, Sheriff,” Caleb replied. “Remember, these things can make you convince yourself you’re dead. No amount of guns or armor is going to help with that.”

  Dante’s face dropped. He hated to splash cold realization on her hope, but it was vital they kept their perspective.

  “That’s not to say that if they send trife after us, we won’t at least have a chance to defend ourselves. It’s a good find. An important find.”

  The floor of the Law Office garage had joined with a ramp leading to the floor of the new armory. Caleb walked down it, heading directly for the combat armor. “We’ll get a team down here to take inventory as soon as we can. Washington can identify everything for you. He might not be able to speak, but he’s as sharp as they come, and he knows his equipment. For now, I’m going to get suited up so I look the part of a…” Caleb’s voice trailed off as he neared the racks of armor, his attention drawn to a shape on the floor. “Sheriff, do you know how to shoot a mark-twelve?”

  “No, Sergeant,” Dante replied. “Do I need to?”

  Caleb didn’t answer. He walked over to the shape on the floor. It was dark and thin, with shriveled leathery black flesh.

  A xenotrife.

  Caleb stood over it. Where had it come from? What was it doing here? He tapped it with his foot. It didn’t move. It appeared to be dead, but he didn’t see any external damage. Had it gotten trapped down here and starved?

  “What is it?” Dante asked.

  “A trife,” Caleb replied.

  He heard her walk over to where he was standing. “I’ve never seen one before,” she said, pausing and looking down at it. “Disgusting. Is it...?”

  “Dead. Yes. But there may be more.”

  Sheriff Dante continued staring at it, her eyes trailing from its head to its clawed hands and feet. “We need to tell Governor Stone about this.” She tapped on her badge. The LED flashed red. “Are you kidding? I’m right under Law and there’s no signal?” She tapped it again, getting the same result.

  Caleb scanned the area. He didn’t see any more corpses, but he did find a set of larger blast doors leading out toward the main hangar, right about where he had expected them to be. He also found another hatch against the port-side wall. “There must be something blocking it.”

  Dante stepped away from him, trying the badge a few more times. Finally, it flashed green.

  “Zane, do you copy?” she said. “It’s Dante.”

  “I copy, Dante,” Zane replied, his voice mingled with static. “What’s up?”

  “I need you to get in touch with Governor Stone. Tell him we're checking on something critical, and won’t make it back for his address.”

  “Something critical? Can you be more specific?” Sheriff Zane asked.

  “Not right now.”

  “Sam, that’s not a good idea.”

  “It can’t be helped. Just do it.”

  “He’ll have your head.”

  “Things have changed, Hector. If Stone doesn’t change with them, he won’t be Governor for long.”

  Zane was silent for a few seconds, taken off-guard by her response. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that and pass your message on.”

  “Thank you.”

  “De nada. Whatever it is you’re up to, be safe.”

  “Copy that,” Dante said, tapping on her badge to disconnect it.

  “Sheriff,” Caleb said. “I need to stay down here and make sure the area is clear. But you should go topside.”

  “Governor Stone told me to work with you, Sergeant. Not for you.” Dante walked over to a control terminal paced beside the platform and tapped on the toggle to send the floor of the garage back up. “Teach me how to use the mark-twelve, or whatever it is, and I’ll be good to go.”

  Caleb stared at her, their eyes meeting. “Not my decision then, is it?”

  “Nope. Look at the bright side, Sergeant.”

  “There may be trife under Metro, but there’s a bright side?”

  She smiled. “At least you get to be down here with me instead of up there with the governor, addressing twenty-thousand colonists.”

  “Here’s hoping you’re the only other living thing down here with me.”

  “Roger that.”

  Chapter 7

  It took Caleb ten minutes to get himself and Sheriff Dante into combat armor, another five to get the ATCS booted and networked and five more to give her his quick start instruction on handling the MK-12. Fortunately, since she already knew how to aim and shoot a weapon, the assisted aiming functionality of the combat system would make up for her inexperience with the specific gun.