FFF - Ch71

Living in Annette’s strange vault hasn’t made any of them soft. Disheveled but ready, they rush to the weapons closet, going straight for the carbines. Jane slaps a magazine in and tucks another into her waistband. Curio doesn’t handle firearms with the same expertise as Jane and Shell, but it’s clear that she can operate one.

“I have to conserve power. And we have to minimize damage,” Annette is saying over the PA. “I don’t want to draw attention to the speakers on the cameras.” Of course; the cameras are her eyes and ears. If this visitor wrecks them, Annette will be blind. “Get rid of this thing and make the complex secure. I can reward you.” Annette sounds almost dangerous.

Jane frowns and looks up as she tucks a Glock into her waistband as well.

Should an AI sound ****?

“I’ll leave the lights on,” Annette is saying, and they all flinch at the distant crash.

The metal floor shudders slightly underfoot and the lights flicker.

“We have to split up,” Shell says, going to the doorway and peering out. “Watch your targets.”

“Right.” As always, Curio seems perfectly calm.

Shell pauses and pulls Jane close, whispering in her ear. “If a camera or two caught a bullet, that wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

Jane thinks it would be better to focus on survival for the moment, but she nods all the same.

“Stay on comms,” Curio says, putting on her earpiece and connecting it to her radio. With that, she uses two fingers to tug back her charging lever to chamber a round and heads out. They’re dressed but barefoot, so at least they can move quietly.

Jane hurries with her carbine at her shoulder, placing one foot in front of the other carefully to minimize noise. This is no way to mount an effective defense; the radios hardly work down here, and Annette can’t speak to them. Annette could call out tactically important information, but she won’t risk enemies taking out her precious cameras.

Jane doesn’t even know where the breach is. There are several possible entrances, plenty of doors that she has ceased to think of as doors because they’ve been locked down. That crash came from the east end of the facility, but that’s not helpful.

Jane looks down as the floor shudders again. She turns slowly, staring at the metal grating. She touches her ear.

“They’re underneath us. The sublevel,” she says quietly. She waits a moment for acknowledgment. There’s nothing. Her eyes narrow; the radio sounds strange. Something’s definitely wrong with it. Are the others already out of range? There’s not much range down here.

But she’s never heard this high-pitched whine before. Something weird is going on.

Jane hurries to the end of the hall and kneels, holding up her carbine in one hand as she frees the metal handle from the trapdoor access and hauls it open.

It’s dark down there.