Kotire

And if we get hurt along the way…

The traps she laid throughout the facility might have been enough. The snares, while they lay dormant, wouldn’t be noticed by the new technician even if he walked over them. Kotire knew because she’d seen him on the cameras walking right over the devices she’d placed. But once activated, they might become ropes or storms of razors or springs loaded with powerful explosives. All this might have been enough to stop all the incoming Invictan squad, or at least to make them retreat and come back later with reinforcements. In that time, Kotire could have slipped out of the building, maybe even stolen a vehicle and made off for the mountains, and the pass beyond.

But it was better to finish this.

She fired her grenade, the satisfying thunk echoing through her bones, and then she dropped the launcher, raised her rifle, activated the traps on their proximity detectors, and vanished into the twisting hallways of the facility.

She kept the radio on her shoulder. If she were caught and captured, and the radio taken, it might prove a liability to the Valers – but the battle there was no doubt already in motion. Aleks was probably dead. Kotire was probably dead. Better to hold on to the one lifeline she had to the outside world, and to the one person she hadn’t pushed away, the one person she hadn’t ever been close enough to for her to force them into a corner from which they could only escape by betraying her.

In the distance she heard the screams of alarm as the death squad scattered. She didn’t know or care if any of them were caught in the blast. Her battle began the same, regardless – to walk the halls until either she was dead, or they were all quiet except for the endless humming of the machines all around her.