Page 78 of When Monsters Fight
It doesn’t take long to bypass the lock. I take a deep breath, shut out the terror, and shove open the doors.
The room is bathed in red light, darker than the corridor. I move fast toward the back room and into a space filled with machines and huge cylindrical cannisters marked with the radioactive symbol. A network of pipes connects them all, and suddenly it all makes sense.
This is their fuel.
This place is powered by radioactive material.
I need to shut it down.
My head swims as I park my ass at the control panel and work on accessing the system. It doesn’t take long. The system is basic.
My stomach aches, and a wave of nausea washes over me. I start going through the shutdown protocols one by one. There are so many. Layers and layers. The fuel powers everything. This intricate, lethal machine is one huge bomb waiting to be detonated.
And maybe that’s exactly what it is. Maybe this is their insurance policy against us. Bile shoots up my throat, and I swallow it down, blinking against the sharp pain in my head.
A tremor fills my body, and I grit my teeth and continue hitting keys until the last piston has been shut down.
The alarms die, and silence allows me to hear the rush of blood in my head.
It’s done.
I’m done.
I tug the radio from my pocket, fighting the tremor in my limbs, and depress the button.
Chapter 42
RUE
Something was wrong. Something bad. “It’s been too long. Something must have gone wrong.”
“It’s fine,” Gabriel said. “Bastian will radio us any?—”
The alarm stopped, leaving us in heavy silence, which was broken a moment later by static followed by Bastian’s voice. “All clear. Over.”
Gabriel lifted the radio to his lips. “Great work, Bastian. Now get to the sewers. Over.”
“Will do. Over.”
My scalp pricked. He sounded odd. I grabbed the radio off Gabriel and pushed the button. “Bastian? Are you okay? Over.”
“I’m fine. Go. Save Lucifer. I’ll see you soon. I love you. Over.”
But my gut was telling me something was off. “Bastian? Are you hurt? Bastian, where’s Bee? Over.”
Static followed and then silence.
“Something’s not right. We have to go find him.”
“There’s no time,” Gabriel said. “Rue, we have to save Lucifer.”
“You sense it too. You know something is off.”
He gripped my shoulders. “We have a mission. People are depending on us. Rue, the decoy team won’t last forever.”
Every atom of my being wanted to break away from him and run toward the security room, to Bastian.
“Shem died for this, and Bastian…” Gabriel inhaled through his nose, his expression stoic. “If somethinghashappened, you need to make his sacrifice worthwhile.”
