Stay back! she sent. For your own safety!
But they would not obey.
Rhea raced past the remaining drones, which were strung out in a line before her. She was well aware of the sound of her echoing footfalls, and those of the Wardenites behind her.
She reached the widening portion of the passageway and slowed down. She drew the pistol and switched to a crouch.
She released a single LIDAR burst and dropped immediately to the stone floor. She activated her Ban’Shar, holding them above her as a shield.
The cavern around her filled out. It was huge, the arched ceiling reaching well over her head, and extending far into the distance.
The LIDAR burst would have revealed her position, and the Ban’Shar, with its blue glow, definitely did. She expected a plasma bolt or laser attack to come her way, but nothing transpired.
Jairlin and the others arrived and crowded around her.
Are you all right? Jairlin sent.
Get behind me, idiots! she transmitted. She switched to a crouch and repositioned the translucent plasma disks to protect the Wardenites.
They all dropped.
Will, Horatio, and the other two Wardenites arrived, and similarly dropped to the cave floor. Rhea kept the Ban’Shar placed squarely between them and the rest of the cavern.
What’s the deal? Will asked. Are we under attack?
Not yet, Rhea sent.
The drones had remained in the passageway behind. She glanced at her overhead map and was just about to tell Will to send them forward when their dots winked out.
Did anyone else just notice that we lost all the drones? Will asked.
We’ve got someone behind us, Rhea replied. With me!
Feeling exposed, she backed away toward the closest wall. The others followed, staying behind her.
When she reached the wall, they crowded against it, and Rhea stood in front of them. The glow from her Ban’Shar created a pool of blue light on the cave floor around her.
Will, Horatio, watch the entrance.
She switched to full LIDAR, since her position was known to the enemy anyway, and she didn’t want someone sneaking into the cavern unnoticed. She surveyed her surroundings, as generated by that LIDAR, and noted the random passageways that branched off on the left and right. She was in some kind of central hub in the tunnel system.
She heard muted footfalls coming from somewhere ahead. It was hard to determine the position, since the footsteps echoed from the walls. She ran her gaze across the different passageways, searching for the source.
“You’ve come, Warden,” a woman’s voice said. “I must admit, I didn’t believe you would. I thought you’d send your followers to do your dirty work.”
“Surprising, isn’t it?” Rhea said. “Not everyone is cast from the same cowardly die as yourself. If I’m going to kill someone, I do it myself, rather than hiring someone else.”
“I suppose so, given your profession,” the woman said over the continuing footsteps. “Your memories are coming back, then?”
Rhea ignored the question and asked one of her own. “You’re Veil?”
Bright lamps turned on in the ceiling, negating the need for any further LIDAR transmissions. She kept the system active anyway: those lights might be designed to lull her into complacency, shutting off when she least expected it. She wouldn’t let them blind her, not even for a second.
The footfalls increased in volume and humanoid figures began arriving from every last one of the branching passageways, including the tunnel Rhea and the others had arrived from. They crowded into the room, spreading out along the walls. They wore dark gray fatigues, with thick cloaks draping their shoulders, and large, round AR goggles shielding their eyes. Long, unkept hair reached past their disheveled beards. They all carried plasma rifles, which were pointed in the general direction of the group.
“Black Hands,” Will hissed.
Rhea kept her Ban’Shar ignited and at the ready.
Behind her, the Wardenites shifted, no doubt aiming their own rifles past her Ban’Shar toward the newcomers.
A figure appeared on a balcony she hadn’t noticed overhead—this balcony blended in quite well with the cavern wall. The figure was garbed in a black robe whose plate-like protrusions hinted at a robotically augmented form underneath. That garment left only the face visible, and the lamp light glinted off the chiseled features of a human female, features that were far too beautiful to be natural. Likely a cyborg.
“Veil?” Rhea asked.
The robed woman smiled. “That is one of my names. Damascus. Resolutus. Scourge of the North. These are all mine. And soon I will add another set of titles to that list: Warden Killer. Defeater of the Dagger.”
“I was expecting a man,” Rhea commented offhandedly. The nonchalance was an act, of course: she was thinking furiously, trying to come up with a way to reach her foe. This body’s most powerful jump would only bring her halfway to the balcony. What she wouldn’t give for the lighter gravity of Ganymede right now.
Even if she managed to climb the wall and reach Veil before the crime lord could flee, she’d be abandoning her friends to the Black Hands. Something she could never do.
The only other option was to order her men to open fire at the woman. Unfortunately, Veil would probably retreat deeper into the balcony before any of them could let off a shot. Meanwhile, the Black Hands would unleash everything they had at Rhea and her companions.
With some reluctance, Rhea admitted to herself that there was nothing she could do for the time being. She would simply have to wait for a better moment to strike.
“Most expect a man when they come to find me,” Veil agreed. “Imagine their surprise when they meet their deaths at the hands of a woman.”
A scraping noise drew Rhea’s attention upward. A large, multi-barreled plasma turret deployed from the rock ceiling.
“Get down!” Rhea flung her left plasma disk upward and crouched.
Will, Horatio and the Wardenites ducked.
She kept the rightmost disk angled in front of her, so that when the Black Hands opened fire a moment later, she was ready.
The
