Page 65 of When Monsters Fight
I touched my hot cheeks. “I just don’t get it. What is her real problem?”
“Whatever it is, I hope she reconsiders,” Bastian said. “We could do with the numbers.”
“I know,” Gabriel said. “But just in case she doesn’t, let’s plan with the numbers we have. I’ll get the watchers down into the eastern sector, you print out the schematics for the hub, and we can get to work on our extraction plan.”
It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 33
The east sector of the base was huge, clearly designed to accommodate celestial-sized beings. The chairs had low backs to account for wings, and everything was larger to fit the celestial frames.
Gabriel had done this. He’d made sure his troops had somewhere to go if need be. The base went into the ground for several floors, and this sector was no different. Our watchers and reapers barely filled the space, highlighting how ill-equipped we were to go up against the Dominion and their vast army.
But what choice did we have?
“Here and here,” Bastian said, pointing at spots on a schematic my brain struggled to make sense of. “Entry points that will probably be overlooked by security.”
“Is that a sewer pipe?” Kabiel asked.
“Yes, about a quarter mile away from the hub. I pulled maps of the area off the database they have here. This pipe links to the hub. I doubt they even realize it.”
“Okay, so we enter via thesewers?” Bee asked.
“Yes,” Bastian said. “This here is where they’ll be holding her.”
“How do you know that?” Kabiel asked.
Gabriel placed his hands on the table and leaned in to study the plans better. “Because this is where all the power is being funneled to.”
Bastian grinned across at him. “Exactly. It means that there’ll be heavy security around it. Locked doors, scanners, sentinels, the works.”
“Only authorized personnel will be able to get through,” Gabriel said.
“We’ll kill them all,” Kabiel said.
“A lovely sentiment,” Gabriel replied, “but the aim is to get to the hub undetected if possible.”
I stared at the schematic, noting the many corridors and the huge chamber in the center. “How do we do that? How do we make sure we’re not detected?”
“By creating a diversion,” Gabriel said.
“Yes. Here, on the outside of the hub,” Bastian replied. “We draw the celestials toward the attack. We hit them with such force that they’re forced to push the majority of their resources toward the activity.”
“We still have the problem of locked doors and scanners,” Kabiel pointed out.
“I have a solution to that,” Bastian said. “I can disable their systems. This room here is where the operating system of the hub is.”
“Are you sure?” Gabriel asked.
“These lines here, and these boxes indicate the flow of power. Electrical lines and something else…Some other power source which leads to this structure on top of the building…”
“What is it?” Bee asked.
“I…I’m not sure. But it’s built to hold this power…whatever it is.”
“If you cut off the power in the operations room, will it cut off power to that thing?”
“Not sure. I’d have to take a closer look once I’m inside.”
