Page 30 of Inferno

“Lieutenant.” I looked at Martin. “Once Mist creates a hole, we have to get across the yard while avoiding the spotlights. So that means your men have to follow close and doexactlywhat I do. Screw this up, and the whole compound will be on us in a heartbeat.”

Martin nodded. “I understand.”

“All right, Mist.” I handed a pair of bolt cutters to the girl. “It’s all you.”

She took the tool and, without hesitation, slipped across the open space to the fence. I held my breath as the spotlights swept closer, until the girl darted back again, just avoiding the edge of the light, and beckoned to us with a hand.

“Wes? Security cameras?”

“One above the front door and a few in the halls. Taking care of them now.”

“All right. I’m going in. Riley out.”

I crept forward, getting as close as I could without venturing into spotlight territory, then waiting until they swept around once more. As soon as they glided past, I moved, scurrying up to the fence, sliding through the hole Mist had made and hurrying across the yard while trying to stay as low and quiet as I could. The soldiers followed at my heels, moving in perfect unison, and we swept across the open ground in total darkness.

Mist was crouched by the front door as we exited the yard. A security camera hovered over the frame, winking at us ominously, but I trusted that Wes had either temporarily blacked it out or put it on a playback loop. The Basilisk gave me a grim look as I joined her.

“Door is electronically locked. Let’s hope you grabbed the right key.”

Without answering, I pulled the key card I’d taken from the tower guard and slid it through the slot, which beeped and turned green a second later. After yanking open the door, we slipped through the frame and closed it behind us.

I wasn’t quite sure what I’d expected when I was finally inside the facility. Perhaps rows of prison cells or individual locked rooms. Certainly not what looked to be a comfortable lobby, with sofas surrounding coffee tables, a Ping-Pong table in the corner and a television on the wall. Iwasexpecting the lone security guard inside the entrance, who blinked at us in shock for a half second too long; obviouslyhewas not expecting a group of armed strangers to come waltzing through the front door. I lunged forward and silenced him, then dragged him behind one of the sofas.

“Now what?” Mist asked as I straightened.

I glanced at Martin. “Secure the perimeter,” I told him. “Make sure there aren’t more guards wandering around, and if there are, take them out quietly. Mist and I are going to find the breeders. I’ll let you know when we’ve located them.” I narrowed my eyes. “It goes without saying, but don’t let any of them see you until I’ve explained the situation. I don’t want a bunch of armed soldiers of St. George surprising them in their sleep. Then this will be less a rescue mission and more a ‘get out before everything burns to the ground’ mission.”

Martin nodded briskly. “I’ll await your signal,” he said, and gestured for the soldiers to move out. They filed out of the lobby, into the dark corridors beyond, and disappeared.

“Riley.” Wes’s voice echoed over the com again. I crouched behind the sofa with the unconscious guard, Mist kneeling beside me, and tied his hands behind his back. “I’ve got a camera feed on the second floor of the place. Looks like there’s a bunch of individual dorm rooms up top. I’d say that’s where they’re keeping the breeders, mate—the not-pregnant ones, anyway.”

“Got it.” I gagged the unconscious human, then carried him to a nearby closet and stuffed him inside. “On our way now.”

“So, how are we going to do this exactly?” Mist wanted to know as we crept up the stairs. “Go to each individual room, one by one, and explain what we’re doing to every dragon on the floor? That will take forever, even if we knew how many dragons are in this place, which we don’t. We don’t have that much time.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And what happens if some of them don’t want to leave? What if they mistake what we’re doing here and sound the alarm?”

“Mist,” I growled as we reached the top of the stairs. “You’re not really helping with the devil’s advocate stuff.”

“Just want to be sure that there is an actual plan in place,” she countered as we continued down a short hall and rounded a corner. A dimly lit hall stretched away before us, with numbered doors lining the walls like apartments. “And this whole daring rescue in the middle of one of Talon’s biggest operations isn’t relying solely on luck and your gut intuition.”

“Ihavea plan—”

The soft click of a door interrupted us. Instantly, we melted back around the corner, pressing our backs to the wall, as one of the doors opened and something shuffled into the hallway.

Peeking around the corner, I set my jaw. It was a dragon, all right. A hatchling, probably in her late teens, her dark hair cropped short. She wore an oversize T-shirt that hung to her knees, and from where I stood, I could see the glint of a metal anklet above her left foot. Most likely a tracking device. My blood boiled at the thought of these dragons being held prisoner, living their whole lives on this island, simply because they didn’t meet Talon’s expectations. Worse, being forced to produce offspring so that Talon and the Elder Wyrm could expand their reach and become even more powerful, all under the pretense of “saving our race from extinction.”

I clenched a fist. No more. That ended tonight. I might not be dealing a crushing blow to the organization anymore; now that they had their monstrous vessel army, they could simply clone mindless slaves, instead of brainwashing them from the beginning. But the dragons here, at least, would not spend another day in Talon’s crushing grip. We didn’t know what was coming; hell, maybe we wouldalldie soon. But, for me, anyway, better to die free than live as a slave. I hoped these dragons felt the same.

The girl stepped forward, bare feet making almost no sound on the carpet. I waited until she was almost to the corner before I lunged out, clamping a hand around her mouth and pushing her back into the wall.

She stiffened, eyes going wide, as I put a finger to my lips. “I’m not here to hurt you,” I whispered, hoping the kid wouldn’t freak out. I suspected the non-pregnant breeders were regularly dosed with Dractylpromazine to prevent Shifting, but I didn’t want to deal with a hysterical teenager, either. “My name is Cobalt, and I’ve come to get you out.”

If possible, the girl’s eyes got even bigger. I took that as a good sign and hurried on. “We’re leaving,” I told her. “All of us. I have a boat waiting outside that will take you and everyone else off this island. You’ll never have to work for Talon again. I’m getting all of you out tonight, but we have to be quick and quiet about it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The girl nodded against my hand.

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