Paladin 2: Chapter 10

For a couple of seconds that felt like an eternity, Kira tumbled headfirst down into darkness. Then her instincts kicked in and she shoved her hands out to either side. Her palms slammed into the steel sides of the duct, breaking her fall. The jolt almost made her drop the blaster she’d swiped, but she hung onto the thing.

The pain where the blaster shots struck were screaming for her attention, but she couldn't spare any, not for the moment. For all she knew, this air duct spanned the entire height of the building. This floor was a few hundred feet in the air. At that height even her nanites wouldn't be able to repair the mess she made at the bottom.

Slowly and carefully, Kara tucked her knees down toward her chest. She pivoted until her head was back upright and she was able to take some of the pressure off her palms by bracing her bare feet against the sides of the chute.

Something had obviously gone horribly wrong. There was no way those people were security guards, which meant security in the building was compromised. Someone was there who wasn't supposed to be, and everyone present was in a great deal of trouble. Including Jace. Kira's top priority had to be to rescue him, but first, she had to make sure that she was safe.

There was a banging sound from somewhere high above her. A pistol appeared in the hole she'd just dove through. A moment later, the face of one of the men who attacked her showed there, too.

"Hey! I think I still see her!" the man called out.

She couldn't see the other two, but she heard one of them reply, "Then shoot her, idiot!"

It was time to move. Kara glanced around, but saw no immediate escape routes. She released her hold on the sides of the duct and fell just as the man above opened fire. Blaster shots rained down, scorching the steel exactly where she'd been a moment before. As she fell, Kara heard the man above swearing and yelling that he'd missed her, which made her grin. Sitting still just made her a target. It was far better to be on the move.

She let herself drop another ten meters before slowing her fall with her feet again. Kira wanted to slow down, not stop. She was looking for something in particular.

There! A horizontal duct, breaking away from this one at a right angle. Kira grabbed the lip of the duct as she fell past the junction point, then pulled herself up and inside it. She wasn't sure exactly where in the building she was, didn't know what the hell was going on, and she’d been shot, but at least she was out of immediate danger.

She paused there to check on her injuries. The shoulder shot was relatively minor. It had missed the swimsuit entirely and scorched the skin, but her bones were heavily reinforced, and they’d stopped the burn from penetrating any deeper. It hurt like hell, but the damage was all surface tissue. Her nanites would heal that in short order.

The shot to her abdomen was a lot worse. The blaster had burned clear through her skin and torn up the muscles beneath. Kira pulled the swimsuit away from the wound so she could see it better, and was surprised to find a thick, black layer coating the wound. That was new. She didn’t recall seeing that, last time she’d been shot. It had to be the nanites forming some sort of protective barrier over the injury. They were acting like a temporary skin.

She’d been pretty out of it after getting shot on the enemy spaceship, rescuing Tristan’s crewman. Those injuries had been worse than these, but Tristan’s people had given her medical care after, while she’d been out cold. If her nanites had tried to seal those wounds off, too, she wouldn’t have known it.

It was interesting and helpful. Always a good combination. With no med kit, she’d been worried she’d have to manufacture some sort of makeshift dressing, but it seemed like she had it built in, instead.

Kira gave herself a brief breather, letting her aching body begin the healing process. But she couldn’t stay there forever. The enemy might think she’d died falling down the air shaft, but Jace needed her help. Before she could save him, she needed to know more about what was going on.

Crawling through the duct gave her some of the answers she needed. There were regularly spaced vents running out from the air system. As she passed each one, Kira peered out into the space. Mostly, all she saw were darkened, empty rooms. Most of the building staff weren't on site. The only people who had been in the building were those present for the celebrations taking place. It was all security, caterers, and a few officials. The day to day government staff were at home.

But the hallways were all still well lit, which meant she was able to spot the sign announcing what floor she was on that hung directly above the elevators. She was on the seventeenth floor. Jace was on the forty-second. Getting to him wasn't going to be easy.

Kara tried to remember everything she could about the building, but it wasn't much. She hadn't even known the pool existed until Tristan showed it to her. Information like what floor the main security office was on and where she might be able to find armories would have been incredibly useful to have, but she had no idea. She was going to have to play this whole thing by ear until she could get a better source of intelligence.

Fortunately, the air ducts went almost everywhere on the floor. There was even a vent into the landing for the main stairwell. Once she found that, Kira kicked open the vent and let herself down onto the landing. She paused, listening as hard as she could. Had anyone heard the sound of the vent hitting the floor? If they had, they'd be moving to check the noise out. But even after waiting a full minute, no one had shown up.

Up or down? That was the question of the day. If someone had attacked the building, they must have come in from the ground floor, or close to it. The lower levels would be the first ones any attacker had to lock down, if they wanted to take this place and hold it. Kara's gut said that heading down would lead her right into the teeth of whoever these enemies were. Going up would likely bring her further away from most of their force, and also had the advantage of bringing her closer to Jace. He was in danger, and she was the only one she trusted to get him out of it.

Getting eyes on her friend had to be the first step. Once she'd made certain he was in no immediate danger, then she could begin working on a plan to get both of them out of there. She started up the stairs, bare feet slapping almost silently against the hard concrete.

Kira's hand went to the holes in her swimsuit as she jogged upward. The skin where the blaster shots impacted was painful and raw to the touch, but it was beginning to heal. Her nanites were doing their job, knitting torn and skin back together and replacing scorched cells with fresh ones. It still hurt like hell, and she’d need to baby the injuries for a while, but she’d recover.

Even injured, Kira’s augmented stamina let her climb the stairs at high speed. Getting up to the forty-second floor was the easy part. It was everything after that she was more worried about. Her biggest fear was for Jace’s safety. The man meant more to her than he probably realized. He’d found her alone and dying in the desert and brought her home with him, cared for her until she’d recovered, then welcomed her into his family and home. He was a rare man.

And now he was stuck in a building with people who were obviously up to no good. What precisely they were here to accomplish, Kira didn’t know. Yet. Discovering that would be step two.

There was another entrance to the air shafts at the landing of the forty-second floor, same as the one she’d used to get into the stairwell in the first place. She ripped the panel free from the wall, wincing as it made a screeching sound while she pulled. Then she hauled herself upward into the space beyond.

The ducts were tight spaces, but she was thin enough to pass without too much difficulty. The bigger issue was navigating the maze of ventilation shafts that ran through the floor. There were a lot of them, and she only had a vague idea which direction to go. It took time, but eventually Kira heard voices from somewhere ahead. She crawled in that direction.

Soon she reached the source of the noise, a vent opening over the large banquet hall where the award ceremony was supposed to have been held. The guests were already present, but they weren’t alone. There were a bunch of men with guns there, too, most of them keeping their weapons lightly trained on the prisoners.

Kira searched the crowd and spotted Jace right away. He seemed to be all right. Maybe a little red-faced, and he certainly looked worried, but he wasn’t in any immediate danger. That was step one. If they’d harmed Jace, then all bets were off, as far as she was concerned. She’d tear them all to pieces. But unfortunately, they had him under guard. Getting him out was not going to be easy.

The best bet would likely be to whittle down their numbers some before trying to make her move. That wouldn’t be easy, either, but it would be simpler than a direct assault. These attackers had military hardware, both weapons and armor. Taking them down wasn’t going to be risk-free, even with her skills.

Before she started work on that, Kira settled in to listen for a bit. She had no idea what these people were after. Why attack the city center? Sure, the building was important to the city’s government, but she didn’t know of anything in this place worth stealing. Were they terrorists, then? Out to make political points via violence?

That felt likely, which made them even more dangerous. Thieves were easier to handle than terrorists because greed was an easier motive to manage. Greedy people gave up when their lives were in danger, but terrorists were just as apt to keep fighting to the death because in their eyes, even if they went down swinging it was for a greater purpose.

Kira stayed as still and silent as she could, listening carefully. There was a man among the attackers who wore an expensive suit. That had to be their leader, based on his clothes and the way the other men acted around him. He was the one to watch, then. He was who she had to pay attention to, if she wanted to learn why they were here.

As she watched, the suited man stalked closer to the frightened prisoners, and began to speak.