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New Albany, Midland Territory 2028
Two minutes six seconds. Raven Armistead shifted into
double-time, pounding down the stairs. The
last magnesium ribbon fuse had taken too long to light. She
should have left it. Now she needed to
make up the time, or she wouldn't clear the building before the
explosions set off the fire alarms.
She risked another glance at her digital chronometer. One minute
fifty-eight seconds. Less than two
minutes until the fuses ignited the blocks of thermite sitting in
puddles of water. Then superheated
metal droplets would spatter throughout the Inter-Continental
Police's data center. Even if half of the
fuses went out, the other half would spray enough molten aluminum
and iron to destroy all of the
computer files the ICP needed to start its roundup. If she'd done
everything correctly. She recalled
her father's warning, his dry voice reciting her list of past
failures, but she resisted the impulse to go
back and check. There wasn't time.
Her mission would succeed. It had to.
The Auric Rights League had run out of options. The Auric Rights
Bill coming up before the
Territorial Congress in a few weeks for a vote would do them no
good if the ICP tracked them
down and arrested them all first. The ICP interrogators would
force the Auric prisoners to admit
their powers were gifts of the devil, and there'd be no way to
save them. Marshall's violent solution
sickened her, but she'd do whatever had to be done to protect her
people. She wouldn't let the ICP
get them.
She passed the second floor. One minute forty-three seconds left.
Her heart pounded, but the
rhythm of her breathing never faltered. The strict regimen of
exercises and martial arts training her
father forced the team through had paid off. He'd been right to
insist on them. As always.
Brilliant green light flashed up the stairwell, blinding her, and
she grabbed for the banister. Her damp
palm slid across the cold steel until she found a secure grip.
Someone had crossed the aura trace she'd left across the
building's entrances, and the trail of
microscopic crystals reacted to the life force. But who? The
building was closed. Only a man in
excellent physical condition could cause such an intense flare of
color, so it wasn't the flabby security
guard returning. The intruder must be an ICP agent working
overtime.
Damn her luck. She glanced at her chronometer. One minute
thirty-two seconds. She had to get
down the stairs, across the lobby, outside, across the street,
and out of sight before the alarms
sounded. If the ICP caught her, they'd use her to uncover League
members. They'd force her father
to turn himself in. Or maybe he wouldn't ransom her, in which
case they'd probably kill her to make
an example out of her. She had to get clear.
She thundered down the stairs. First floor. Odds were the agent
wouldn't go anywhere near the data
center. The computers ran dark, unattended during nights and
weekends unless they signaled a
problem.
She stopped again, clutching the cold steel banister. Could one
of the computer programs have
failed, and an automatic call gone out to a service technician?
He might be heading toward the data
center now, unaware of the maelstrom of boiling metal that would
start in one minute twenty-four
seconds.
Her father's words burned in her ears. The success of the mission
must always come first. Now her
indecision supported his belief that she was inept. His first
choice, Marshall, would never think of
turning back. He'd follow her father's orders to the letter and
damn the consequences.
They'd leave the stranger to die. What was one life, compared to
the safety of their people? That's
what they'd do. But they weren't here. It was up to her to deal
with the stranger the way she thought
best. ICP agent or unlucky innocent, it didn't matter. Raven had
to go back.
She changed direction, pivoting with so much force that her braid
flew out and smacked the
concrete wall of the stairwell. Pushing her body to its limits,
she pelted up the stairs as fast as she
could.
Her breath came in gasps, searing her lungs. Every second
mattered. Surging up the stairs, she
pulled energy from her aura and hoped she'd have enough strength
left for a protective shield. She'd
never tried a double-shield before. If she miscalculated, she and
the stranger would both die. Her
father would be furious with her for ruining the mission.
She crashed through the door onto the fifth floor. The hallway
was empty, but the steady green of
the stranger's aura bled through the open doorway to the computer
center. He was already inside.
But he might not have reached the room with the explosives.
Slowing her pace only enough to keep from slamming into the
walls, she barreled into the empty
reception area. The man had already passed into the monitoring
room. She slid her stolen badge
through the reader and followed him.
Grabbing a quick breath, she cried out, "Stop right there or I'll
call security!"
The man, his clipped brown hair and khaki uniform marking him as
an ICP agent, halted in the act of
opening the door to the data center. He turned, the easy
camaraderie of his dimpled grin at odds
with the sudden tension in his body.
"I'm part of the ATS project. I've got authority to be here," he
said. "Who are you?"
She looked at her chronometer. Eight seconds. A stray spark could
set off the explosion at any
moment.
"Get away from that door!" Lowering her shoulder, she charged
him, sending them both to the
ground in a tangle of arms and legs. He struggled to break free
of her, but she hugged him tight and
rolled to the side, into the shadow of a hulking desk. His head
struck the back of the desk, and he
lay still.
Twisting around to study the glittering specks filling the air
around them, and shining with a light only
Auric eyes could see, she lifted her arm and sculpted the tiny
crystals into a wall of energy. Just in
time. Sizzling pieces of thermite explosive flew out the door,
melting holes through steel desks and
leaded-glass monitor screens.
She pressed close against the agent, the pulse in his neck
beating against her cheek. Fear overrode
her normal revulsion at being inside the field of another
person's aura and she molded herself to him,
wrapping one arm around his neck and twining her legs with his.
A tremor ripped through her, from her scalp all the way down to
her toes, as her aura tried to align
with his. Even at rest, his aura vibrated with power,
half-blinding her and setting her teeth on edge
with the tension. She didn't have the energy to resist him.
The energy crystals surrounding her altered their frequency,
stinging her with tiny shocks as her aura
slid into alignment. His aura shifted, too, making the agent arch
his back from the jolt. A low moan
escaped his lips. Their auras had aligned.
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