of a bomb. She didn’t find anything that looked out of place until she followed the giant pipes running from the condenser to the blower unit. When she walked around to the front of the blower, she spotted a canister of gas, this one stamped with a skull and crossbones, attached to the blower and fan. There was a single tube running from the canister into the blower unit box.
That would be easy enough to remove, but there was another problem.
A really, really big problem.
The canister was rigged to explode.
In less than seven minutes.
She didn’t hesitate. Lifting the glasses onto crown of her head, she rushed forward to examine the small metal case holding the canister and explosives. She could remove the case from where it had been screwed into the wall of the blower unit, but she couldn’t remove the canister from the explosives or case. There were too many wires, too many decoys and not enough time.
She checked the explosive device, the canister and the case for any sort of pressure or movement switches. Years earlier, her father had taught her how to build that sort of explosive charge. Back when their people had first settled the mountain, the miners had accidentally dug into the burrows of underground creatures, terrifying man-eating monsters that could see in the dark. They had used explosives triggered by movement to trap and kill the monsters and make the mines safe.
There weren’t any of those monsters left, just the occasional set of bones in an abandoned shaft or newly opened mining section. Still, her father had wanted her to know how to build that kind of device, just in case. She silently thanked him for being so thorough and prayed that he was somehow looking after her now, guiding her from wherever the soul went after death.
After her third check, she was relatively sure that there were no pressure or motion switches. She looked around, desperate for a tool to remove the screws bolting the case to the wall of the blower. An idea struck her. She reached up and grabbed her collar, unbuckling it and studying the silver buckle. It looked to be close enough to the correct size.
With hands that were surprisingly steady, she started unscrewing the bolts. She hissed when she tore her fingernail on the sharp metal but ignored the pain and kept going. One bolt. Two bolts. Three bolts. She was working on the fourth when she heard a man screaming in pain. He was so loud she could hear him over the clang and hiss of the compressor. She glanced toward the nearest door. It was closed, but she suspected Terror and Rake were fighting on the other side of it.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
Her nimble fingers twisted the buckle of her collar, loosening that final bolt. She was just about to wiggle it loose when it happened.
A blast.
In a split-second, all the air in the compressor room seemed to suck away from her body. Not even a heartbeat later, it was rushing back at her with such pressure that her lungs felt like they were being crushed under her ribs. The force lifted her from the ground, flinging her across the room and into a metal chute as if she were lighter than a feather. A scorching wave of heat kissed her skin and singed her hair as she screamed into her arm, hiding her face and desperately hoping she wasn’t about to burn alive.
As quickly as the blast began, it stopped. Ears ringing and head throbbing, she pushed up on shaking arms to survey the damage. There was fire and smoke everywhere. Her eyes stung, and she coughed, wondering if it was the smoke or if the gas canister had been damaged in the explosion. The door to the room had been blown clear out of its frame and had landed against the blower unit, denting the side of it.
She spotted the case holding the gas bomb. In a panic, she clambered toward it, crawling over metal shards and stumbling over broken pipes until she reached it. Somehow, the damn thing had survived without being detonated or damaged. There was a slight ding in the case, but that was it.
The timer was still counting down.
Are you kidding me?
In that moment, the reality of her situation became crystal clear. This bomb wouldn’t be as powerful as the one that had just rocked the ship, but it would be deadlier. It would kill everyone. The gas would be blown