“Any last words?” I ask.
“How is this possible?” Guy asks, a look of utter shock and disbelief on his face.
“You fucked with the wrong family.”
I drag the weapon across his throat. Garrett stands and shoots one more arrow into Troy’s body just to make sure he’s dead. I wipe Guy’s blood off my blade, and use the jumpsuit to clean the blood spatter from the display. I sheathe my Kopis and begin calling up the various records. I have to look at the walls to see what I’m doing since the screen on the display itself is too small to read anything.
“What just happened?” Garrett asks, swinging his quiver and bow around his shoulders.
“You tell me, Garrett. You’re the Patrician leader, not me.”
“This is a Dracken building, Max. There’s no way the Patrician could’ve been able to arm us.”
“Yup, you’re right. So what does that mean?”
“It means, Garrett, that you need to trust us,” a voice booms inside our heads.
I know who it is before even looking at the picture off to the side.
“Once you make the transfer, Max, you should be able to loop back to Pentras Tower,” Hammond says.
“Transfer? What transfer?” Garrett asks, clearly confused.
“I’m moving the historical data from the Depository to the computers in Pentras Tower.”
“Why?”
“To preserve them. We need to destroy this building and everything in it,” I say.
“Transfer initiating,” the female voice chimes.
“Why?” Garrett asks. “No one cares what’s in this building except for Guy Larsen.”
“Because the Patrician have taken over Icarian,” Hammond says. “It is only a matter of time until they try and locate another successor to Max to obtain the information.”
“Has Lok managed to break through yet?” I ask Hammond.
“No. We have managed to keep him at bay, but it will not be long until he figures out the pattern.”
“Transfer is at fifty-percent,” the female voice announces.
“Will one of you please explain to me what the hell is going on?” Garrett yells.
“We will do that upon your return to Pentras Tower,” Hammond says.
“Transfer complete,” the woman says.
“Loop now, Max. The Patrician have learned about your treachery. You must get back to the safety of the Tower as quickly as possible,” Hammond says.
“What about the building?” I say.
“It is too late. You must leave now,” Hammond says, then vanishes.
I grab Garrett’s arm and loop us. I’ve never done this long of a projection before and I barely get us to the plaza when all hell breaks loose. Bombs rain down from above, hitting the dome and cracking it in a few places. I loop us quickly towards the building and into the lobby.
“We need to find Lok,” I say as I run towards the lift.
“He might still be on the twelfth floor,” Garrett says, almost crashing into me in his haste to get into the lift.
We reach the twelfth floor, but Lok isn’t anywhere to be found. His rucksack is sitting on the floor next to the work station, so he couldn’t have gone far. We check the forty-ninth and fiftieth floors, but they’re empty.
“You don’t suppose he could be on one of the sealed floors?” Garrett asks as we descend.
I hit the stop button when we’re just on the opposite side of floor seven. I take Garrett’s hand and loop us inside. The lights are on, which means someone is currently on the floor. I unsheathe the Kopis and hold it by my side as we step through the open security gate. The plasma table in the center is on, showing the Patrician bombing the dome. It’s begun to crack in more places, but the glass is still thick enough to keep any of the bombs from penetrating. For now.
“Hey,” Lok says, popping up from behind the same computer bank he was at earlier. “I wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon.”
“Change of plans,” Garrett says. He’s trying to sound normal, but the nervous shaking in his voice is giving him away.
“Um, ok.” Lok stands and that’s when I notice his bow and arrow are positioned in front of him, armed and ready to fire. “Where’s Troy?”
“Dead,” I say. “The Dracken killed him. We need to hurry and get moving on locating that technology the Patrician are looking for.”
Lok aims his bow at me. “You said that a little too fast, Max. Since the Patrician are currently trying to shell their way into the Dead Zone, I’m guessing something else happened. Are you going to tell me what it is, or do I have to shoot you first?”
“We don’t have time for this.”
I reach for Garrett’s weapon, but Lok fires before I get a chance to grab it. The arrow cuts through my back, exiting out my side. I collapse to the ground as Garrett fires his arrow at Lok, hitting him in the chest. I look down and am surprised by what I don’t see. Blood should be pouring out of me, but it’s not. I don’t even feel any pain. My collapse was pure reaction to what I thought my body would feel, not actually due to an injury.
“You’re not injured? How is that possible?” Garrett asks, kneeling next to me and examining the entry and exit holes in the jumpsuit.
I unzip the outfit, pull my arms out of the sleeve, and look at the suit. Not a mark on it.
“Is this the stuff what everyone has been looking for?” Garrett asks, touching the soft material.
I nod. “We have to destroy it,” I say, stripping the jumpsuit off and removing the necklace from the pocket. I put it around my throat and hope it doesn’t change my appearance. It doesn’t. I must need to instruct it like the suit.
“Destroy it? Are you kidding me? This would make us all impervious to harm. We could go anywhere, do anything.”
“That’s the Patrician in you talking. This technology is dangerous, it has to be destroyed.”
I head towards
