Page 76 of Lovesick Titan

Dom chuckled and pushed on ahead of them. In all fairness, shewastwo months older than Mal. Mal still gave Lucy a dirty look for the remark but let her bring up the rear. He wished it was worth the risk to wear his goggles—and Dom her welder’s mask—but he’d already done that once and underestimated Ludgate; he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

The problem, though, was that he had no way of knowing how close or far the cold field extended once he turned it on.

Priestly guided them through the hallways to the door into the main morgue. Once again, they found the door locked and Lucy made quick work of it, but when they pushed inside, there was nothing but the flicker of emergency lights.

“They’re not here,” Mal said, willing himself to stay calm. “Where to next, Hephaestus?”

“The blueprints aren’t much help, since they’ve likely repurposed most of the rooms. You’ll want to check them all. Head back out into the hallway and take the first right.”

Mal and the others worked like a flawless stealth unit, having committed crimes together for years, able to predict each other’s movements and keep every corner covered without using words. They still wasted several minutes checking various hallways and additional rooms, most of which were locked when they tried them. They were on borrowed time no matter what happened next.

“I can’t get this one,” Lucy said, attempting to unlock the final room but retracting her vines in defeat. “The lock’s busted.”

“That door leads to the largest area besides the main room,” Priestly said. “Has a bathroom attached, complete with showers.”

Mal pushed Lucy aside, thinking that at any moment Danny might appear and catch them. “Helios,” he said once he’d confirmed the door wouldn’t budge, “fry it.”

Dom raised her hand with a grin.

“Wait,” Lucy hissed. “You’re forgetting to use your brain, idiot. Relax.” Pushing Mal out of the way as he’d done to her, she rapped her knuckles on the door. “Anyone in there?”

Mal stiffened, because a broken lock did not mean it was safe to announce their presence.

A silent moment passed, but when Lucy backed away and Dom readied to burn the door to cinders, a voice called back.

“Who’s there?”

“Andre?” Lucy flew back to the door. “It’s Lucy. You alive in there?”

“Gaia?” Vaughn rejoiced. “You are agoddess, no joke. Prometheus and Helios with you?”

“With bells on,” Mal said. “Open up.”

“We can’t. Danny did something to the door.”

“Move back!” Mal called louder, then shooed Lucy away so he could blast it with his ice. He reared back with a kick once it was frosted over, but whatever the door was made of, it was more reinforced than he expected. He turned to Dom.

With a nod as if to say ‘about damn time’, she took aim and burned every inch Mal’s ice had touched, further destabilizing the integrity. When she stepped forward and gave an impressive kick to rival Mal’s, it gave way with a cascade of smoking dust.

Lucy dove through ahead of Mal, and he followed with Dom right behind them. The room they discovered was a mess, with blankets and dishes strewn about, as if those inside had been there…well, all day and last night.

Everyone they’d hoped to find—Grant Senior, his adopted daughter and son, Vaughn and Rivers—were accounted for. They looked tired and haggard, and Rivers had an arm in a sling like it had been sprained or broken.

Mal scanned the room with a hush and a finger to his lips like he’d done with Captain Shan. There were several surfaces Ludgate could use as a window.

There. No computer or laptop, but a tablet rested on the counter. Mal went to it, found the USB port, and plugged in the flash drive. Every surface that had been glossy and reflective turned matte.

“Hey!” Vaughn said in accusation, untangling from Lucy’s embrace.

“What happened?” Mal demanded. Grant stood back with his children, Vaughn remained by Lucy, and Rivers sat in a chair cradling her injured arm. “Scratch that,” he shook his head, “there isn’t time. Have you seen Ludgate since Danny…changed?”

“No.” Grant frowned. “But we know he’s behind this.”

“That’s why Danny turned off the Miasma Maker,” Vaughn said, gesturing to the frosted surfaces. “Has to be. But we haven’t seen the guy. Only Danny. It’s like some Jekyll and Hyde trick. We’ve been trying to figure out some way out of here, but every time we come close, Danny appears. His lightning jumps kind of make it easy to be everywhere at once. And everything we’ve come up with so far to get one over on him might seriously hurt him.”

“Tell me you have a plan,” Grant’s daughter said—Stella. Mal had seen her before, he realized, at the shelter in his neighborhood, but he didn’t have time to dwell.

Twenty minutes had come and gone. They had to move. “This,” Mal indicated the flash drive, “only works on one room at a time. Your Miasma Maker—it can affect the whole morgue?”

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