him!”
“Unless they, too, are compromised,” Kai said, his head swiveling from side to side as he sought threats.
Lomas stared another moment, then shook her head. “But this makes no sense. Is he just going to leave us trapped here . . . what, to die? He must know that with that huge mech of yours out there, there’s no way he could get away with this!”
Dash hesitated, but only just. “Not sure. He’s probably just making it up as he goes along at this point.” He bit his lip, sifting the possible motives Envaer had. “There’s probably something in here he doesn’t want us—more specifically you—to see. He said he oversaw building this place. Is that right?”
“Yes. He did,” Lomas said. “We needed someone senior in our ranks to manage the project—” She stopped and let out a breath. “So he volunteered and had pretty much a free hand once we assigned it to him.” She gave Dash an imploring look. “It was a historical archive, not a military project. How could we have expected—?”
“You couldn’t,” Dash said. “Sentinel, are you there?”
“I am. I am also aware of what’s going on.”
“Have you detected any other ships, weapon systems, anything like that, either around here or somewhere else on this planet?”
“I haven’t, no, nor have I detected any inert assets that could be used against the League and its rightful government,” Sentinel said.
“Taking a side in this one?” Dash asked.
“I always do, especially when the criminal is foolish enough to place you at risk.”
Dash smiled. “Thank you, I’m touched. I wonder what his next move—”
He didn’t get to finish because a shot cracked out, a bolt of energy slamming into Lomas and knocking her to the ground. Dash dropped into a crouch and raised his mag-pistol toward the shot. But a second bolt slammed into him, and he went down, too.
Dash heard footsteps, deliberate and careful, approaching.
“Kai!” Envaer shouted. “That’s your name, right? Kai? Well, Kai, I don’t feel like hunting you through this room, especially since I suspect you’re pretty good with that stick you carry. So how about this? You come out of where you are, surrender, and I won’t finish off your precious—what do you people call that preening idiot? The Messenger?”
Silence.
“Okay, I’m giving you a ten count, and then I’m blowing his head off. Lomas’s too, though you’ve probably figured out that’s essentially a foregone conclusion.”
Kai’s voice drifted from among the stacks of shelved crates.
“And what then? How will you escape here, with the Archetype waiting outside?”
“Oh, I’ll find a way. I mean, you don’t think I’m doing this alone, do you?”
Again, silence.
“Okay, I figure that was good for five seconds, so let’s start the count,” Envaer shouted. “Five. Four. Three—”
Dash, who’d been watching through slitted eyes, saw Kai finally make his move. The monk appeared like a ghost, crossing the few meters from the shelves he’d been using as cover in utter silence, stopping behind Envaer—
And delivering a powerful blow with his staff to the man’s shoulder. Envaer cried out and tried to turn, but his arm had gone lifeless. His hand slipped off the pistol grip of the rifle he’d been holding ready and flopped down to his side, utterly inert.
Dash leaped up from the floor—a little awkwardly in the vac-armor—lunged at Envaer, and slammed his armored fist into the man’s face as he started to turn again, sending him slumping to the floor like a dropped sack.
“You cut it a little close there, Kai,” Dash said. “I thought I was going to have to blow him away, except you were standing right behind him.”
“Apologies, Messenger,” the monk replied. “I had little time to develop a plan of action.”
Lomas groaned. While Kai watched Envaer, Dash went to Lomas, saw that she had a nasty char wound to the right side of her chest, and applied first-aid spray. Her face, a rictus of pain, relaxed.
“Holy crap,” she gasped. “That stuff is—it’s amazing.”
“Thank the Unseen,” Dash said. “It’s their concoction.”
Dash helped Lomas sit up. As he did, Sentinel came on the comm. “Messenger, I heard weapons fire, but your subsequent conversation seems to suggest that you are largely unharmed.”
Dash glanced down at the pocked scorch mark on his armor. “Largely, yeah.”
“I have continued scanning the archival facility, as you requested. Resolution is poor, so I can offer little. However, I have detected a new signal, that of a small ship powering up. It would appear that Envaer had a means of escape.”
“I’m not surprised.”
Lomas looked from Dash