Chapter 20

The passageway was still under construction. Sections of ceiling and wall lay in perfect piles at the sides, furred with dirt and dust that had gathered in their slumber. Tools and machinery frequently appeared as we wound our way up the twisting, turning path, abandoned either by inactivity or the panic of intruders. It made our job easier, and we sped along as fast as possible to take as much time as the base's limited, unprepared security would allow. Santorelli led the way, an enormous battering ram that almost scraped the walls on either side, knocking over pipework and indistinct metal containers like they were made of styrofoam.

Jake's eyes remained fixed on the schematics of the base. He held it up in front of him like a newspaper, his eyes only escaping its clutches to dodge the next obstacle that Santorelli had disturbed. One hundred feet! he estimated, doing his best to convert Kelbrid measurements to ours. He was using distances between obscure side doors to aid his math, and we could be sure his guesses were satisfactory.

The winding passageway straightened and widened. The walls and ceiling were now more complete. They boasted large composite metal girders that provided extra support to the slanted ceiling panels. Large pipes jutted out from the sides, and the delicate sound of traveling water waved from them. We didn't need Jake's announcement to realize this was the section nestled beneath the river bed. Everybody turned to Jake for his verdict, and his golden Kelbrid eyes tracked up and down the slanted panels like the punch of hammers on a typewriter.

Four inches, he said. Try the laser. Aim it from an angle.

He looked at me and so handed over that responsibility. I turned up towards the long passage and eyed a slanted ceiling panel, aiming with the heavy laser tool that I'd so far only used on living beings. I was annoyingly reminded of my injury by a steady ache at my side, still mostly numb. I pulled the trigger, and the weapon hummed a rising pitch before the thick laser shot out of the barrel. It hit near the panel I had aimed at, striking the one just two feet further along. Not that it mattered. The metal around the laser started to glow a heated red, but I was more concerned with the dispersed reflected laser that bounced zigzags down the rest of the passage. The heat traveled and, within seconds, it felt like we were about to cook, fizzle like meat on a barbeque.

Jake reacted quickly. Stop. We need to remove a panel. Use the lasers on the earth.

How do we do that? I asked.

He didn't reply. We couldn't expect him to have every answer. That was my job, of course.

We needed an entry point to the ceiling behind the thick panels. To do that, we had a very determined, very massive ox at our disposal. I observed the passage, and the answer stuck out like at least twenty sore thumbs.

If we take out the pipes, I started. Then that'll give us some purchase.

That had already gotten Santorelli purring for something to hit. Jake stepped back, nodding, before he jabbed a clunky finger toward one of the thicker pipes protruding from the ceiling. It was perhaps three feet in diameter, made from some concrete-like material. The target was established, and Santorelli stepped back to take aim.

The pipe was nothing compared to the watertight door. The ox pounded forward, snorting droplets of mucus as his head oscillated angrily up and down. With the least graceful of leaps, Santorelli launched himself upwards, catching the thickest section of the pipe with forehead and horns. It cracked at a right-angle seam joint, about a foot down from the ceiling where it turned to disappear into the wall. A steady flow of water began to pour out, a puddle forming on the floor and snaking down the passage we had arrived from.

The water flow was unsatisfying. We needed the whole river down here. Jake knew that and was just as aware of how much time we didn't have. The Kelbrids had built this passage with sturdiness in mind, and it was proving difficult.

Again! he called.

Without hesitation, Santorelli turned and charged again, jumping up to hit the pipe with as much force as before. This time, the pipe broke entirely in two at the right-angle. The water fell straight, with only gravity dictating its flow.

However, the ceiling panels remained intact, firm in their resolution. The seals had not broken yet, and we were fast running out of time.

It would take a moment of madness.

A moment of madness we got, though I didn't think so at the time.

Screw this, I growled. We're getting nowhere.

I straightened my laser in my grasp and walked forward past the swaying, adrenaline-rushed Santorelli.

What are you thinking? Tobias asked, the sound of emotionless concern.

I'm thinking we stop messing around and make this damn hole before security comes to rip our collective testicles off.

And with that, I stepped directly beneath the pipe. A tricking of water splattered over my tendrils and down my face, making me wince but doing nothing to nullify my intentions. I raised the laser's barrel in my left hand, aiming it directly up the black hole of the pipe.

I didn't see the look in their eyes. I only heard their thoughts in my head. Their concern and their aversions to my impulse solution. Whatever. I wasn't staying down in that hellhole. So, I fired the laser.

The orange beam shot straight up into the pipe, creating an instant, haunting hiss as the small trickle of water was super-heated to steam. Some spilled out of the sides of the pipe, and it descended like a mist over my damp skin. I screamed out in the burning pain but kept my finger on the trigger. I was burning right through the pipe, right into the ground.

Hey, Mendy! I called to him. Keep away from the river. Tell me when you see the laser!

The laser? he questioned, voice faint but just about audible.

Just tell me when you see it.

Another heated blast cannoned from the open mouth of the pipe, and again, it wrapped me in firey, scorching pain. My skin was bone-dry, and I could feel the outer layers cracking, ravaged by the extreme heat. I could no longer see, so compelled to close my eyelids to protect my vision for as long as possible.

I ignored the calls of the others, the urging to stop me before I did permanent damage. How irritating that they couldn't see that it was best for me! A small bit of pain now, rather than a life of torture in some dark cell… This was my best option. It was their best option. They were too blind to see that. I was doing it for them. For them.

I see an orange laser! Menderash alerted. It's coming out of the river!

I grinned to myself. My finger left the trigger, and the laser died immediately. The stinging of my burns came at me in a torrent, but that would be soothed. I knew what was coming.

"Ing redun!" shouted a voice from down the tunnel. The security had finally caught up to us, and a horde of them was just turning around the corner to greet us, weapons clutched and ready in hand.

They certainly weren't prepared for what was to come. The noise of the water was slight at first, like the distant sound of waves from a nearby beach. But the noise grew and grew to a crashing, roaring wail. The river was coming, and it would stop for nobody.

It burst from the remnants of the pipe behind me, a solid pillar that turned the floor into a river of its own. The Kelbrids stopped, puzzled and wondering how much damage was about to be done. When the ceiling panels started to crack above our heads, dropping and squirting water like a sprinkler system all around us, they began to understand.

The Kelbrids had weapons, and they were keen to use them. They garbled their orders to us and lifted the barrels, enraged at our crime. They were downstream, and the rushing water crashed over their ankles. Another panel came down from the ceiling, and the downfall increased two-fold. Then three, then four. The whole ceiling was about to collapse, and it could be just a matter of seconds.

Hit the water! Jake bellowed, and I couldn't think of anything better to do. I aimed my laser and fired at the water that crashed down to them. Three beams hitting the water created a horrendous burst of steam that filled the tunnel like a thick, thrashing curtain. The Kelbrids squealed and barked, coated in the heated air.

Go! somebody shouted, but the force of a wave took my feet from me and sent me tumbling through the cloud and the shambling Kelbrid security. The ceiling came down behind us with a deafening crash, and the river guided us right back into the base.