purple fire and killed Officer Menz and me.
Yellow belly has two weapons—EW and KZ, I send.
Sending the map to the rest of the team, I message that it’s go time even though I have a communicator—that’s for emergencies only. Because Jarren could worm into them just like I’m about to do to his. One. Two. Three.
“…the door,” Jarren orders.
“It’s locked,” a man says.
“Not for long, but first...” Jarren goes over to a terminal. “Let’s get all the shades on base open, letting in the sunlight.” He worms into the maintenance programs.
A mechanical whirr sounds below me as the shades in the chem lab retract. The light in the duct brightens. Ah. He’s worried about the shadow-blobs, which proves he can see them and also explains attacking us when the sun is high in the sky—fourteen hundred hours. It’s not going to be as bright as they think, since the maintenance crew covered the shattered windows with boards until new glass could be installed.
In the port, Jarren returns to the door into the rest of the base and keys in the override code.
Oh my stars. I send another message. Jarren has override code!
The door unlocks. He steps back and says, “Alpha and Beta teams take security and free our people from detention. Delta team sweep the labs. Epsilon team the housing units. My team with me to the Control Center. Watch for hostiles both alien and human.”
We’re right, Jarren’s people can see HoLFs, I send.
The red dots burst out of the port and scatter in different directions like ants searching for food. A few remain behind to guard the shuttle. I switch to the cameras in the corridors. Looters run through the empty hallways with weapons drawn. Watching them reminds me of when I came here with the security team to check for intruders before the rest of the scientists shuttled down from the Big Fat Frog.
Delta team bursts into the biology lab as Alpha and Beta reach security. I wait. After a couple of minutes it starts.
“Delta team commander to Boss.”
Boss. Jarren has such an ego.
“Go ahead, Delta,” Jarren says.
“There’s no one in the bio lab, sir.”
“Follow the plan and check all the labs, Delta.”
“Yes, sir.”
All is quiet for a while.
“Alpha team commander to Boss.”
“Go ahead, Alpha,” Jarren says. He’s almost to the stairwell to the archeology lab. There are twelve looters with him.
“Security is a ghost town, sir.”
“Did you check detention?”
“Yes, sir. No one there.”
Jarren curses. Then he sees the floodlights and stops. “They’re battery powered. Smart.”
“Can you repeat that, sir?”
“They obviously evacuated, Alpha. They’re probably hiding in the Warrior pits.”
“What about the hostile aliens, sir?”
“Not those pits, Alpha. There are sixty others.” Jarren sighs. “Boss to all team leaders, clear the base and ensure no one is here. I’m continuing on to the Control Center. Once I’m there I can find out where they’re all hiding.”
I grin. You can try. I wait until the red dots are spread out all over the base and Jarren’s in the Control Center.
Show time, I message my team.
Worming into the maintenance programs, I close all the blinds. Then I turn off all the lights. My hidey hole is dark, but I don’t need light to access the Q-net. I close the ceiling in the port.
Jarren’s team leaders call in right away. All are very concerned.
“Wait for orders,” Jarren says, turning on his flashlight. The others with him do the same. He sends two of his men to check on the floodlights and report back. Then he sits at my dad’s terminal. Too bad for him, Dad disabled it. So fun to see Jarren punch the screen in frustration.
I check the port. There’s enough light from the flashlights to see Ho and Bendix sneaking out from the hidden room near the port’s exit. Elese and Beau were harnessed to the ceiling, but now they drop down on ropes. The four of them quickly disable Jarren’s crew that was left behind. Boo yah!
The two men Jarren sent to check the lights reach the stairwell. The floodlights are off and they shine their flashlights at the stairwell as if that will protect them.
“Conner to Boss,” one says, backing away.
“Go ahead, Conner,” Jarren says.
“The floodlights are out.”
“Return to the Control Center, now.”
Too bad they’re not fast enough. Radcliff and Morgan emerge from the stairwell and shoot them in the head with their pulse guns. They drop to the ground. Morgan has a squeeze bottle full of fake blood and she uses it to make the unconscious