his wrist bound display as they proceeded toward the control room and Tiet's holding chamber. They had designed the chamber to be impregnable and Wynn himself had been the candidate to test it out. He had never supposed they might actually imprison a Barudii inside of it.
When the last of the Horva soldiers had exited the assembly hall and the door had closed again, another door opened and a lone symbyte-controlled Vorn soldier entered the room. He briefly examined the transgate portal before him and then he reached to a small pack on his back and flipped the arming switch on the fusion bomb he carried, then he ran through the portal.
Within the transgate chamber at Nagon-Toth, a group of special commandos caught the target coming through the portal. The symbyte soldier could only make it a few feet within the chamber before he was cut down by the Horva. But it was enough.
The fusion bomb detonated as they continued to fire on the symbyte soldier. They never felt a thing.
Back within the assembly hall of the detention center, the transgate portal flashed then disappeared.
Wynn and Grod's team continued on toward the control room and encountered minimal resistance getting in. The chamber was completely sealed so that no one could see inside. On the control panel a video feed showed Tiet inside sitting on the floor within a containment field able to dampen the exerted neural energy of his Barudii kinesis.
Wynn punched in his own access code; it was denied as expected. Without further delay he concentrated on the physical controls to the chamber door and began to manipulate them mentally. In moments the locking mechanism gave way. He located the power conduits feeding into the wall of the chamber that controlled the containment field and sliced his blade through them.
Grod opened the chamber door as the field went down around Tiet. He was already up on his feet heading for the door when he spotted Grod. As he joined them in the control room, Wynn tossed him a pair of kemsticks.
'What took you so long?' he asked with a grin on his face.
'Sorry, I got caught up in a game of tag with the military,' replied Wynn slyly. 'I think the creature that was in control of the Baruk is responsible for all of this.'
'Absolutely. Estall, or what used to be Estall, confronted me in the chamber. They set me up for murder to get a clear shot at Kale; they want to use his power for themselves.'
'They've already been by your home; I saw the Whiplash gunning toward the outskirts of the city.'
'It had to be Kale. I can track the ship's location,' he said as he made his way to a control panel keyboard.
'You'd better hurry, the symbytes will no doubt have realized we are here by now,' said Grod as he scanned the video displays monitoring the different hallways and rooms in the detention center. He couldn't spot anyone on the monitors; no one at all.
'I don't think it's a coincidence that these monitors are showing no one in the building but us. They've got to be nearby waiting to ambush us.'
'I've got it; the Whiplash is currently in an area of the wilds.'
'The boys' campsite?' asked Grod.
'I think that's a good guess. Let's go.'
The group began to make their way cautiously back to the transgate portal. Several of the commando leaders took up the point position on the way back. At each open doorway they flashed three fingers skyward to signal a clear room or hall.
'I don't like this,' said Grod over again. 'It's a trap.'
'Yeah, but all we have to do is get to the portal and it won't matter,' said Wynn as they continued through the corridors.
Finally they reached the main assembly hall door and watched it open. The point man's fingers once again went skyward then he paused and looked at the other soldier next to him in disbelief then back to Grod.
'Sir, the portal is gone!' he whispered harshly.
'What!?'
Grod, Wynn and Tiet ran to the doorway and peered in. The portal was simply not there; no Symbytes, no nothing.
'Grod, could they have blocked the portal somehow; jammed the transmission?' asked Tiet.
'I don't think so, but I'm not sure.'
Then a sound rang overhead, like a speaker coming on somewhere.
'Hello, General Grod, I assume you have Tiet with you and perhaps even the clever Wynn Gareth? No matter, this is not a social call.'
'It's that thing that's taken over Estall,' said Tiet.
'You may have noticed that your escape route back to Nagon-Toth is missing. That is, Nagon-Toth is missing now. And in a few seconds you will join them. Where can you run when your world goes boom?'
'A bomb!' said Wynn and Tiet looking at each other.
'We'll never get out of here in time,' said one of the soldiers.
'The chamber where they kept Tiet, is it strong enough?' asked Grod quickly.
'Only one way to find out.'
LUCIN was still speaking through the voice of Estall, but they were too busy running to listen. On board his transport he watched the monitor and the group of soldiers that were running back out of the room. He reached for the control panel and keyed in a code for the device he had left in the detention center. It wasn't as powerful as what was sent through the portal to take out Nagon-Toth, but it would be sufficient to destroy the detention center. He pressed the button to detonate. The monitor went blank as he looked out the window at the jungle terrain of the wilds passing below. That's one problem solved; now to find the boy.
WHEN the door to the detention chamber opened again, the control room beyond was gone; only fire remained. As the team looked out of their hold, they could see that most of the building's superstructure had been blown away by the bomb that had been planted, but they were still alive.
They emerged quickly and found a trail through the rubble and fiery debris. As they came beyond the building's perimeter it became apparent that the buildings around were damaged from the blast as well. Several of them looked structurally unsound.
They reformed their group as screams came to their ears. People were being attacked; maybe hundreds of them. The blast site was clear of people all around, but when the team rounded the corner of a nearby building they could see hundreds of people being stunned and attacked by thousands upon thousands of the symbyte- controlled citizens.
They stayed in the shadows watching as mobs of the creatures that had formerly been normal people ravaged through the streets attacking any non-symbyte they could find. Once they had someone, their hands burst into spiny tentacles that were plunged down the throats of their victims, delivering the seed of the creature into its host. Tiet, Wynn and Grod watched in horror as the victims were left on the ground gasping, only to rise again within minutes under the control of the beast within.
'There are too many to fight,' said Grod.
'He's right,' said Tiet, 'We've got to withdraw. We need a ship to get to the wilds and help Mirah and the boys.'
'Are you sure Mirah is with them?' asked Grod.
'I just sense it. They're safe for the moment, but Kale must know he's being followed.'
'We could probably make it to the West Quarter Hangar without to much trouble,' suggested Wynn.
'Wait…look,' said one of the team members.
When they looked behind their position they could see a young Castillian girl, probably no more than four years old, staring at them with a blank expression on her face from an alley way. She looked like she had been through a rough time and her clothes were tattered and torn with several blood stains visible.
'Come here, little girl,' said one of the team members.
The little girl waited until a large group of symbytes were coming down the alley behind her.
'Come on, hurry!' shouted the team member again to the little girl.
