“Why would they trust me?”
“There is no time now. It is upon me. I leave you with a gift. Prepare your mind.”
A terrible pain struck him in the temple. Sullivan flinched and dropped the phone. The lights flickered and the tank of Power flashed. Then just as quickly as the pain had come, it was gone. He picked up the earpiece.
The line was silent for a time. Sullivan could hear his own pulse.
“Dark Ocean is the key. You are on your own now, Mr. Sullivan. Farewell.”
A horrible screeching noise came from the phone. Sullivan jerked it away from his ear.
Clipboard was running back and forth watching needles bounce and lights flash on the console. “The connection’s back, but there’s something-” A warning buzzer sounded. “Surge! We’ve got a surge. Oh no. Shut it down! Shut it down, now!” The lights flickered.
Pop.
Everyone in the room turned to look at the glass cube and the spider web of cracks spreading across its face. Pop. Poppoppop. The break grew wider. The Power contained inside licked the edges and tasted freedom.
POP.
“Run for your lives!” Clipboard screamed.
Knocking over the phone, Sullivan jumped from the table and followed the crowd toward the exit. An alarm Klaxon sounded. Red lights embedded in the ceiling began flashing. He had not noticed it before, but there was some sort of huge steel shield suspended over the door and it began to slide down on smooth hydraulics to seal the room.
He had been the closest to the cube and the furthest from safety. “Shit.” Sullivan sprinted for the rapidly shortening doorway. The others were going through, and the last few had to duck, but Hammer was waiting for him. “Hurry!” The blast door was closing behind her. She looked at it, then back at him, then went to her hands and knees and scurried through.
CRACK. Flakes of glass struck him in the back. The room shook. Sullivan had played a lot of baseball as a boy, and he slid like he was trying for home plate. He barely made it through on his side. The fat lip of descending steel nicked the side of his head. He rolled into the hallway, knocking down Hammer as the blast door sealed shut.
The red lights were flashing. Sullivan stood up, wincing at the bump on his forehead. “Will that hold?” Then he realized that was a dumb question, since all of the technical types who knew better were still running. He grabbed Hammer’s outstretched hand and pulled her up. “Come on!”
They had made it about twenty feet when the containment for the spirit phone failed. The release made a terrible WHUMP. The basement shook so hard that Sullivan and Hammer were knocked off their feet. Dust and concrete bits fell from the ceiling. The blast door had held, though it had been stretched and bowed like the edge of a steel bubble and the thick walls around it were cracked and steaming.
The alarm was still sounding. The lights in the hall were red as blood. Someone got on an intercom and told damage control teams to report to Room XIII and for everyone else to evacuate in an orderly fashion. Several scientists ran past screaming and crying. Hammer sat up and coughed. “Hope that isn’t coming out of my paycheck.”
Sullivan touched the cut on his scalp. It wasn’t too bad, nothing the Healing spell on his chest couldn’t handle. It would be just another beauty mark in no time. “I’d like to stay and shed a tear for your fancy phone, but I’ve got important business to attend to.”
Hammer stood up and cringed when she put weight on one leg. “Thanks for clipping me there, buddy. It was like getting run over by a car.”
“Sorry.” Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and he was a very big object. “I need to go. You heard what the Chairman said.”
“I didn’t understand any of it, but come on. The alarm has sounded so the second layer of security will lock this place down tight.”
Everyone else was ahead of them. He took one of Hammer’s arms and helped her walk. His clumsy slide had managed to twist her ankle. They went back the way they’d come in, past the doors marked with Roman numerals. After seeing the terrible thing that was behind one of the doors, it made him wonder what was behind the rest. Despite being an intensely curious man, he decided that he really didn’t want to know.. right this minute, anyway.
The red emergency lighting was dim, so he had to do a double take when something huge and misshapen clanked past in the intersection of hallways ahead. It was only visible for a second, but it had been a foot taller than Sullivan and twice as big around. He pulled Hammer to the side and took cover in the shadow of door IV. He squeezed her tight and watched. “Shhh. Demon.”
“That? It’s okay,” she reassured him. “That’s part of the second layer of security I was telling you about.”
He shook his head. “I don’t like Summoned. Especially a big one like that. I can’t believe you’d keep one of those things around.” The intersection seemed clear. “Greater demons are aggressive. Way too dangerous outside of a war zone. You better have a master Summoner babysitting it nonstop.”
Hammer chuckled. “Oh, Mr. Sullivan. That’s no demon. That’s a tele-automaton. EGE’s board just isn’t ready to unveil them to the public yet. They’re still working the bugs out. Come on. It won’t hurt us…” She looked up at him. “Seriously. Let go.”
Sullivan released her. “Sorry.”
“Thanks for trying to protect me from imaginary Summoned.” She stepped into the hallway and adjusted her dress. “But you’re rather rough with the ladies.”
“My last girlfriend was a Brute.” Sullivan grunted. He stepped out after her and froze. The four men that had been out of place at the spirit phone were heading their way. They had guns in their hands and the one in the lead was screwing something on to the end of his that could only be a sound muffler. They saw each other at the same time. They began running his way with murderous intent.
“You set me up,” Sullivan said to Hammer. “Should have known.”
“No wai-” Hammer began, but then she jumped back as a bullet struck the wall next to Sullivan. “Hell!” She ran the other way, but they weren’t shooting at her. The gunmen were aiming for him.
The door marked IV was heavy and solid, but so was Sullivan. He flared his Power, increased his mass, and slammed his shoulder into it. The lock failed and he crashed inside. It was another large space, but so cloaked in shadow that he couldn’t tell how big. There were only a few red emergency lights flashing above.
The floor was made of a metal grate. There were darker shapes on each side, tall units, shaped like standing coffins built to hold giants. They stretched into the distance. Pipes and cables stretched from the ceiling into the tops of the devices. He passed at least five of the things, before Sullivan ran to the side and took cover behind one of the units. He hid just as the feet of his pursuers hit the metal floor.
“Come on out, Heavy. We just want to talk.”
And sell me a bridge in Brooklyn. Sullivan stayed mum. He’d let them all come inside, then he’d Spike them through the roof. Light beams flickered back and forth. Some of them had hand torches. He crept around the cold metal edge and spotted the four silhouettes. They were confident, but he’d see how confident they’d be when up became down. Sullivan focused and Spiked hard.
Gravity didn’t change. He tried again. Nothing happened. Confused, Sullivan pulled back.
“You feel that?” one of the men asked.
“Yeah, I felt it.” Their leader raised his voice. “You trying to use magic on us, Sullivan? It won’t work. You might as well come out in the open and face us like a man. I want to get out of here before this place falls down on our heads.”
It was rather unnerving to have his magic not work on demand like it always had, but Jake Sullivan wasn’t the panicking type. He was, however, the analytical type. First he took inventory of the Power gathered in his chest. It was there, he could feel it, but it was like something was keeping him from using it. It was like a blindfold for his eyes or earplugs… Everything was where it should be, but muffled.
Concentrating, he felt the spells etched into his flesh. They were still alive with Power, but it was as if he couldn’t access them. The laceration on his head should have been tingling with Healing magic, but it wasn’t. Even his Grimnoir ring felt dead.
Interesting. Somehow these men were blocking his access to the Power. But that puzzle would have to wait. He had to get out alive first, which meant either taking out four armed men with just his hands or escaping. Smart
