Page 48 of Legion

Hacked the fire alarm and disabled the cameras—nice job, Wes. Hopefully that will be enough of a distraction for us to sneak out unnoticed.I glanced at my companions and jerked my head at the door. “Time to go! Let’s get out of here.”

We ran, leaving the room and sprinting down the hallway to the elevators. The alarm was still blaring nonstop, and if I knew Wes, he’d probably called the fire department, too. Mist reached the doors at the end of the hall first and growled a curse.

“Elevators are down. We’ll have to take the stairs. This way!”

We followed her up the stairwell, our pounding footsteps echoing up the shaft as we climbed. Three flights later, we burst onto the ground floor and gazed around warily. From what I had pieced together, this was a private office campus, with buildings up top to act as a front, hiding the very secret, high-tech laboratories beneath. This floor was dark and empty, though the alarm still blared through the corridors, making my ears ring. It looked like most of the employees had already fled the building.

Abruptly, the fire alarm ceased, and silence throbbed in my ears.

“That’s not good,” Mist whispered, and started down a corridor that cut through various offices. No one appeared at the end of the hall, no footsteps echoed in pursuit, but my skin crawled in the sudden, disturbing stillness. “Come on,” she beckoned. “We’ll go through the loading dock where the trucks make the deliveries. No point in risking the main doors.”

Everything was quiet as we slipped through the offices, following Mist down several hallways until she opened a door that led into what looked like a storage space. The floors were cement, and boxes of varying size were stacked along the walls and in neat aisles down the center.

“Almost there,” I heard Mist say under her breath. As if she, too, was counting the steps to freedom. We trailed her along a wall of boxes, rounded the corner and froze.

A thin man stood before a line of guards, their assault rifles pointed in our direction. More than a dozen cold, silvery eyes stared at us across the cement floor as the row of vessels took aim, their faces blank. Behind them and the smiling form of Luther the Basilisk, the doors of the loading dock beckoned, tantalizingly close. But they might as well have been a million miles away.

“Well, well,” Luther said, his sibilant voice oozing with triumph. “And what have we here? Miss Anderson, haven’t you been the sneaky, sneaky agent. Going rogue? Helping Cobalt escape? I wouldn’t have expected it of you.”

Footsteps shuffled behind us, and another line of vessels stepped from behind a tower of boxes and hemmed us in. Luther’s smile was cold as he stared at me. “You thought I wouldn’t guess what was happening when the fire alarm sounded?” he asked. “When the security systems were abruptly jammed? I asked myself...if you—oranyBasilisk,” he added, looking at Mist, “were to stage some kind of daring, miraculous escape, where would you most likely go? It was a gamble, between here and the sewer tunnels, but...” He raised his hands, as if to embrace us. “Here you are.”

Dammit.I shot a desperate look around the room, wondering if there was a way out of this. If there was, I didn’t see it. The soldier had his gun drawn, but by the grim look on his face, he knew he was going to die, as well.

“Miss Hill,” Luther said, his gaze shifting to Ember. “If you would kindly step away now. I would not want for you to accidentally come under fire. We will be returning to the Elder Wyrm presently, right after we destroy the traitors.”

Ember bared her teeth at him. “You want them, you’ll have to kill me, too.”

“Don’t be foolish, girl.” The Basilisk frowned. “They’re going to die one way or another, and you will be taken back to the Elder Wyrm where you belong. No need to make this harder on yourself.”

Ember stood her ground, though I saw her hands tremble before they clenched at her sides. My throat ached for her. The rest of us would die quickly, but she would be taken away, her memories extracted and probably destroyed. So that the ancient leader of Talon could achieve immortality.

The Elder Wyrm’s vessel.My stomach dropped, and I closed my eyes, realizing how we could get out of this. It was a gamble, and Ember might hate me—hell, she might kick my ass later—but there was nothing else I could think of.

I’m sorry, Firebrand,I thought, pulling out my pistol.I hope you can forgive me for this.

“Very well,” Luther said when Ember didn’t move. “Then I suppose we will do this the hard way. Vessels,” he ordered, his voice reverberating through the walls. “Kill them. All except Ember Hill. Destroy the rest and bring her to me.”

I surged up, snaked one arm around Ember’s waist from behind and pressed the muzzle of my gun below her chin.

She stiffened, and so did the Basilisk, his dark eyes widening as he realized what was happening. “Stop!” he called sharply, and the vessels froze, their gun barrels pointed right at us. Panting, I glared at Luther over Ember’s shoulder, trying to calm the fear sweeping through me. I could feel Ember’s taut body against mine, the tension and shock lining her muscles, and hoped she would not try to struggle or throw me off.Trust me, Ember,I thought, willing her to understand.I’m trying to save us all. Don’t explode on me.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Luther,” I said, locking eyes with the Basilisk. “You’re going to let us go. You’re going to let me and everyone else walk out of here, unmolested, or—” I prodded Ember’s jaw with the barrel of the pistol “—you can kiss the Elder Wyrm’s daughter goodbye.”

Luther stared at me, his expression stony, and my heart pounded. I had to play this just right. For all his creepiness, Luther wasn’t stupid. If he called my bluff, we were done. The only reason this insane gambit might work was that I knew the one thing that terrified Luther, terrified all of us. The Elder Wyrm. I had to make him believe I wasn’t bluffing. I wasn’t Riley; I was Cobalt, the criminal leader of the rogue underground, and I had no issues sacrificing another dragon if it meant saving my own hide.

“You really expect me to believe that?” The Basilisk gave an oily smile, making my stomach drop. “You really expect me to stand here and believe that you would shoot one of your friends in cold blood, to save yourself? No, agent.” He shook his head. “The Cobalt I’ve seen, the Cobalt I have studied over the years, is not that ruthless.”

“Yeah?” Ignoring my fear, I flashed the Basilisk the meanest, nastiest smirk I was capable of and shoved the gun farther into Ember’s skin. She gasped, tensing in my arms, and Luther’s eyes narrowed. “Can you really afford to take that gamble?” I asked, holding his gaze. “What would happen if the daughter of the Elder Wyrm is killed while you were trying to prevent our escape? It certainly wouldn’t just be your job on the line.”

Luther didn’t answer, but I caught the flicker of raw fear that went through his eyes, and knew I had struck a chord. The rest of my party hadn’t moved. I could see the soldier in my peripheral vision; he had lowered his gun, but he still watched me with a hard look, one hand clenched at his side. I couldn’t see Mist; I just knew she was somewhere behind us, watching this morbid drama play out.

I kept my attention on the Basilisk, knowing he was wavering. “If you think I’m bluffing, you’re sadly mistaken,” I lied, and gestured to the vessels surrounding us. “I know when I’m beat. And the way I see it, I’m already dead. But you know what I have no problem with? Taking you down with me. And hey...” My thumb reached up and pulled back the hammer with an ominous, metallic click. “If I have to die, I’d rather give her a clean death, right now, then let the Elder Wyrm win. But it’s your move, Luther. What’s it gonna be?”

Luther glared at me, fear and hate warring in his eyes. But after a long moment, his shoulders slumped and he stepped away, barking an order to the clones. The vessels straightened, lowering their guns in perfect unison, and the Basilisk jerked his head at the door.

“Go,” he snarled. “But this isn’t over. There is nowhere in the world you can hide. Nowhere for you and your little underground of traitors to be safe. We will find you, and we will purge your stain from the face of the earth. You’re only delaying the inevitable.”

I would’ve said something snarky, but at the moment I was too relieved. Still keeping my arms around Ember, and the gun pressed below her chin, I jerked my head at the rest of them, and we began walking toward the metal doors.

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