into the air and that would be the end of every life on the Valiant.
Cipher.
And Hallie and Dizzy and their babies.
Ella and Naya and their dreams of becoming powerful businesswomen.
Raze, Venom, Menace and the general. Risk. Men. Women. Children. All of them, murdered in the most horrific way, strangled and choked by an invisible assassin
NO.
She remembered her promise to Terror who was likely dead after that explosion.
I’m not going to fuck this up.
She scanned the place where she had been tossed by the bomb and found the glasses. They were a little cracked but still worked when she slid them into place. She brought up theblueprints of the ship and flicked her fingers until she found the closest space vent. There was a cargo bay, a small one meant for medical waste, not far from here. She would have to run faster than she ever had in her life, but she could make it.
Not wasting another second deliberating, she snatched up the explosive case and canister and sprinted out of the compressor room, through the burning doorway and onto the destroyed gangway. There was a hole in front of her, not too wide, and she bravely jumped it, leaping over it and landing on the other side. The metal was hot beneath her feet, and she cried out in pain as her tender soles were burned. She cast a glance on either side of the gangway, hoping to see Terror. She couldn’t see anything but smoke and fire and some sort of strange white foam spewing from broken pipes
Hugging the case to her chest, she sprinted as if she were being chased by some great and evil monster. She ignored the pain in her feet. She ignored the burning ache in her chest. She ignored the throbbing in her head. None of it mattered. If she didn’t reach that cargo bay in time to vent the bomb and gas, she would be dead.
All around her, there was collateral damage from the explosion. Ceiling panels dangled precariously. Smoke filled the air. Pipes had fractured. Torn wires sparked. She dodged each hazard as the bomb’s timer continued to tick away the seconds. She looked down and winced at the sight of one minute and seventeen seconds remaining.
Up ahead, she spotted the cargo bay and kicked up her pace, sprinting with every ounce of energy she had left in her battered body. She slapped the door button but nothing happened. Realizing it had been damaged, she set the case on the floor and growled as she tugged on the heavy door with all her might. It slid open just enough for her to squeeze through with the case.
She rushed inside the dimly lit the cargo bay. It wasn’t very big, maybe forty feet by forty feet. The pale green glow of emergency lights powered by batteries illuminated the space. There were sealed bins of medical waste stored all the way to the ceiling. Many of them had fallen over in the blast, spilling out used needles and empty vials. In the far corner, she spotted a familiar device. It was the broken hyperbaric chamber that had necessitated her traveling to the Mercy for treatment.
She found the control panel just to the side of the door. When she raced over to it, her heart sank. It had been damaged in the explosion. The screen was broken, and there was no power to the unit. She slapped it angrily. “No!”
Seeing the seconds ticking by on the bomb’s timer, she glanced frantically around the room. Her eyes lit up on the emergency ejection button. She had read about the system for ejecting damaged sections of the ship in the event of an attack. Each section could be sealed off from the ship, maintaining hull integrity and giving the ship a chance to stay in the sky until repairs could be made.
She glanced back at the door she had squeezed through to get into the cargo bay. There was an emergency lever to close and lock the door from the inside. She looked back at the emergency ejection button as a wave of crushing sorrow overwhelmed her.
Was there really no other way?
An image of Cipher looking down at her as they cuddled in bed, his strong hands stroking her face as he gazed at her with such tender adoration tore at her heart. The days she had spent with him had been the happiest of her life. She had finally found the one person in the entire