Secret War: Warhammer 40,000 by Ben Agar (reading eggs books TXT) 📖

Hayden augmented? That was the only explanation I could contend. I had no idea, just how augmented was he? His eyes had to be if he was able to stare into that directly.

They must've been expensive as all hell because he looked so normal.

Then I realised something that almost made me let him go; what stopped the enemy from detecting this?

As if on cue, a loud noise further up the shaft caused me to look up to see the eighth-floor doors were being pried open.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I snarled. "Hayden, they know we're here! I'm gonna have to let you go!"

"Yeah! Okay! Just cover me! And try not to hit the damn rope!"

"I'll try!" I snapped as I unslung my autogun and took cover behind one of the steel pillars on the corner of the shaft.

"And kid!" Hayden said, still as calm as calm. "Just try to pin them, okay? If you kill or injure any and they fall down the shaft and onto the elevator..."

He let the rest hang.

I smiled despite the situation, both at the unintended pun and that he expected me to kill any in the first place.

I could hear more grunting and grinding as the door slowly opened.

After flicking my gun onto; 'full auto,' I braced myself for the inevitable deafening racket in the confined space then opened fire, spraying in bursts in the general direction of the door. The rounds panged off the metal walls and caused whoever was prying the door open to stop abruptly.

My smile turned into a grin, perhaps it'll be easier than I thought, but it only took a second for them to start prying the door open again.

I clenched my teeth and showered more shots up there, but that didn't seem to dissuade them as the door kept opening and opening.

"Hayden! Hurry!" I snapped while reloading. "I've only got one clip left after this one!"

"I'm going as fast as I can," said Hayden, still enviously calm. "This is delicate work, kid."

Now the door was almost entirely open; I could see the bastards were using an extra-long crowbar, allowing them to stay in cover as they pried it open. Smart friggers. My wild shooting was all that kept them popping out to take potshots.

Finally, the doors fully opened, and immediately one edged around the left corner and opened fire, causing me to slip into cover, but quickly I spun onto the other side, and my return hail forced him back. Right tilted out but was pushed back by another burst of mine, but I wasn't quick enough to stop left from shooting my way.

"Frig!" I snarled; they were cautious as they didn't know how many of us were down here, but I was sure they knew it was only me now and would throw that caution away soon; luckily though, they hadn't seemed to have noticed Hayden, yet.

I didn't wait for a lull in their fire; slipping to the right again; I opened up with a wide, sweeping burst that caused them both back behind their walls.

"Done!" said Hayden as he tossed away the part he'd cut from the hatch, and it landed neatly on the ledge. "And it looks like I was right! There's a wire connecting the hatch to something!

I flinched away from more withering fire and reloaded my last clip. "Can you cut it?"

"I don't know! Give me a minute!"

"We don't have a minute!" I roared. "We don't even have seconds; hurry it up!"

Hayden didn't say anything, just set to work.

I clenched my teeth and forced myself to glance around the pillar, seeing much to my relief, there were still only two in the doorway. We were lucky there wasn't an entire squad up there already, which interested me.

Just as I thought this, then came more creaking and grinding through the fire, and I looked to see they were starting to pry open the seventh-floor doors.

"Oh, frig! Frig! Frig!" I yelled as I blind fired around my pillar. "More coming, and I'm pinned down!"

"I can cut it!" said Hayden. "There's no secondary..."

"Enough with the exposition!" I screamed, leaning out despite the hail of bullets and forced the mercs into cover with another burst. "And just! Frigging! Do! It! I swear in the last five minutes, you've talked more than you have in the last five years!"

I was so preoccupied with the firefight that I barely saw Hayden reach in and cut the cord, then slide off the hatch.

Hayden yelled something at me, but I couldn't hear him over the din.

"What?" I said while shooting wildly at the seventh-floor door.

"I need some slack," said Hayden, "and a hand!"

"Oh, for frig's sake!"

"I need to get through this hatch, and I need to descend through it vertically!"

"You're a professional!" I snapped. "Do it your damn self!"

"Yeah, alright," he growled. "But if I fall and cause everything to explode and we all die, it's on your head, kid."

"It's alright!" I said. "I can live with that!"

I think Hayden laughed then, wasn't sure, and even now, I'm still not.

"Kid! Switch on your microbead! Channel fifty-six And give me some cover fire."

"Already on it!" I yelled and fired a brief burst up the shaft before being forced back.

In spite of all the shots exploding around, Hayden leaned into a vertical position and carefully zip-lined into the elevator.

I barely took notice as I slipped back into cover and quickly tuned my vox link.

"Kid? You there?" asked Hayden's voice over the link.

"Yeah!" I yelled, wincing as more rounds rained on my pillar.

"Well, kid," said Hayden. "Looks like I'm wrong; they did intend to blow the entire building. There's enough explosive in here to level an entire frigging block—a liquid explosive named Thisleain, rare, expensive, potent stuff. There's a gotta be half a ton here, shit. Insane."

"Can you disarm it?" I demanded as I blind fired back another salvo and glanced out to see the seventh-floor door was about halfway open.

"Yeah, think so, just gotta find the pressure plate," said Hayden.

"For frig's sake!" I snapped. "How in hell can you keep so frigging calm?"

"Don't know," he said. "Always been this way."

"Well, hurry the hell up!"

Hayden didn't reply.

I snarled in frustration and leaned out to shoot once more; I was in mid barrage when my gun clicked dry.

"Shit!" I roared. "I'm outta ammo!"

Then a thought hit me; surely they'd have noticed Hayden and his cord by now; why hadn't they cut it or shot it, unless the mercs knew...

"Interesting," I muttered under my breath. How would they know that? Sorry, more importantly, why would they know that?

"I've found it," said Hayden. "I've found the pressure plate."

"Okay! Good!"

"Attelus, Hayden," said another voice over the vox; it was Castella. "We're at the shaft; we're heading up!"

"What?" I cried. "The bomb hasn't been diffused yet!"

"We know! We'll be careful! But you're out of ammo, and once the bombs been diffused..."

She let it hang, and I knew exactly what she meant; we were only alive because of the bomb, once that was out of the picture, once Hayden pulled himself out of there...

"Ahh, I see," said Hayden, knocking me from my reverie. "Good thing we took all the precautions; this has to be one of the most sensitive plates I've ever seen. This place would've blown if the elevator moved even slightly. I'd say it'd only take seventy to eighty kilos of pressure from outside the elevator. No more than a few grams inside!"

"I'm shooting the hook shot!" said Castella. "We'll be up there in a few minutes!"

I snarled a curse, dropped my autogun and drew my pistol for all the good it'd do me.

"We don't have that long!" I roared.

"Attelus! You need to calm down!" said Castella. "Shouting and screaming at me isn't going to help you!"

I sighed, then fired a flurry and was about to apologise when another thought hit me.

"Hayden!" I yelled into the vox. "Once you disarm the bomb, do not, and I mean, do not climb out of there!"

"Why? No, wait, I understand," he said. "Good thinking, kid. I've found the connection from the pressure plate to the explosive. Gotta say it's masterfully crafted. Simple to make but complex to disarm, give me a minute."

I groaned, then the shooting suddenly grew in intensity, making me flinch and cover my ears. I didn't need to look to know the seventh-floor doors to realise they'd finally fully opened.

Clenching my teeth, I pulled out my mirror and raised it, seeing only four more were on the seventh floor, two kneeling, two standing. Luck seemed to be on my side for once that there wasn't more.

"Damn it! Now I'm well and truly pinned! Hurry it, Castella!" I cried. "There's six now! Two on the eighth, four on the seventh!"

"We're going as fast as we can!" she snapped back.

"Hayden?"

"Attelus, there's more than one connection, ten in fact," said Hayden. "I have to trace each one to their source to see which are fake and which aren't. It's going to take some time."

I sighed and pressed my face into my hand. This was getting better and better.

I flinched in fright as a bright beam of light suddenly erupted up the shaft, engulfing one of the mercs on the seventh floor, instantly vaporising him from the waist upward and threw his corpse back.

The remaining mercs screamed out, scared curses and very quickly got into cover.

"Whoa!" I yelled. "Nice shot!"

Castella's laughter filtered down the link. "Unlike you, I don't neglect my time at the shooting range!"

"Ha! Ha! Frigging ha!" I said. "Is it joke at Attelus' expense day because he's only an above-average shot, is it? Anyway, if you're such a good shot, why didn't you shoot that damn assassin on my back then?"

"I couldn't risk hitting my dear, dear friend Attelus and lose the opportunity to take part in a joke at his expense day, could I?" she said. "Besides, I wanted to take the opportunity to test my skill against a bona fide death cult assassin."

Another beam of plasma suddenly shot up the shaft, forcing the mercs back again.

"Attelus! I've only got a few shots left! Help me here!"

"Got you!" I yelled and tilted out, waiting for the mercs to appear. One did within a second or so, and he was forced back by my roughly shot rounds.

"You're frigging brave bastards, aren't you!" I shouted as I fired to pin one of the remaining mercs on the seventh floor.

"I've located all the wire sources," said Hayden. "All of them aren't fake. From where I can reach, they're very close together, only about an inch, and I see now if I even disturb one slightly while cutting another, it'll set this whole thing off. Ingenious, bloody ingenious."

"Well, shit!" I snarled while reloading. "And cutting them won't set it off?"

"No! No!" corrected Hayden, sounding almost bemused. "The cords need to be taut; once they lose their tautness, they're harmless. I can cut them without worry, just as long as I don't knock them in the process!"

"Well! Stop telling and start doing!" I yelled, flinching as another plasma beam evaporated the torso of a second merc, whose severed head flew into the shaft and began spinning through the air, falling straight toward the elevator.

Instinct took me over with a cry, and in the blink of an eye, I'd holstered my pistol, slipped out of cover and jumped, reaching out to catch it.

And I did, almost, my heart sank as I only succeeded in brushing it with the tips of my fingers, which was enough to knock it off course, sending it clanging hard against the top of the elevator. Bouncing away and down the side of the shaft. It'd hit less than an inch from going into the open hatch if I hadn't knocked it off course...

"Heads up!" I cried a millisecond before I smashed against the wall, hard enough to knock the wind out of me and to send me bouncing back into free fall! Straight toward the top of the elevator!

I screamed out and, with desperate hands, clutched out for the cord. Which I