Paper and Fire (The Great Library #2)(76)
Santi removed the Codex from his belt and—to Jess’s surprise—dropped it on the ground before he took a sealed, padded bottle from his pack and said, “Leave your Codices here. Stand back.”
Jess hadn’t thought of it, but Santi was right, of course; the Codex that was so familiar a tool to him could be used against them. It could be tracked, couldn’t it? The Archivist would have Obscurists on it in moments. Morgan had already dropped hers, and so had Wolfe. Jess put his down on the floor, obscurely careful about it, and watched as Glain did the same. It took Khalila and Dario far longer to decide to let go of this last tangible symbol of the Library; Khalila put hers down reverently, as if it might break, and whispered something that sounded to him like a prayer as she pressed her fingertips to the cover.
Then Santi opened the bottle and poured the thick greenish contents over the stack of books. They flared up into a brilliant pyre, and Jess pulled Thomas and Morgan back from the billowing toxic smoke. We’re Burners, Jess thought, stricken. Now we’re Burners.
Through the hanging pall of smoke, as he started to cough, he saw Santi take out two more bottles and pour them over the Gorgon face of the metal plate. This time it didn’t burn; it bubbled as it distorted the Gorgon’s snarl into a slack-mouthed scream, and then hissed and melted it away altogether. The plate was thick, but the chemicals would do the job . . . if they had time.
Jess heard sounds from the hallway. He moved toward the opening, and what started as distant running footsteps rapidly came closer. They were still in the other corridor, fast approaching the sharp corner. He exchanged a look with Glain, and without a word spoken, they moved to take up positions. He was, by common consent, the better shot, and before anyone appeared at the intersection, let loose a short burst of lethal projectile fire that chewed head-high holes in the old stonework. An explicit warning to the troops around the corner. In the next second, before the echoes died, he switched the weapon back to a stun setting—enough to put someone down, he hoped, if he scored a good shot. From his angle, he’d get the first pick of targets, and Glain would clean up.
The first man to the corner was Blue Squad leader Rollison. Troll threw himself into the opening with fearless disregard for his own safety, maybe hoping that Jess would hesitate to fire, but Jess didn’t: he planted his shot precisely on target, into the armor just above Troll’s stomach. It would, he vividly remembered, knock the wind right out of a man.
Troll dropped like a suit of empty clothes, mouth open as he gagged for air. Glain got the next soldier to appear, Jess the third. The rest hesitated and dragged their injured comrades back to cover.
“We’re through,” Santi said from behind them. “Glain, get down to the next level. Go. Now.”
“I’d rather hold this position, sir.”
“I need you to be sure our escape route’s secure. Take Wolfe with you and don’t let him resist.”
Before either of them could protest, Santi walked right past them into the opening. Into the hallway. Glain hesitated, then—as she would, being Glain—followed orders, grabbing Wolfe and pushing him toward the open dark hole in the floor.
Jess took in a deep breath and focused on Santi, who was putting his own life on the line to buy time. He raised his weapon to provide what cover he could, though if anyone on the other end decided to rain fire, Santi wouldn’t survive.
Captain Santi strode halfway down the hall and called out, “Zara?”
There was a short silence, and then Santi’s lieutenant—the green-eyed woman—stepped around to face him, with her gun pointed squarely at his chest. “Sir,” she said. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You know what I’m doing. You saw the cells. Don’t tell me you agree with what they do here. What we do here. The Library is us. We allow this to happen, Zara.”
“Whether I agree with it or not, I can’t let you take prisoners out of custody! There are ways we can make protests. Channels for—”
“Do you really think that the people who made this place care about protests or channels or laws? Come here and look, Zara. Look at what they do.”
The woman didn’t answer. She stared at Santi for a long moment, and Jess couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Not at all.
Then she said, “Nic, please. Don’t make me do this. We can make a story that you were forced into helping them. I don’t know, but we’ll make something work. You can’t throw away your career. Your life! I know this is—it looks bad. But it can be fixed. It will be fixed!”
“It won’t,” he told her. “I’m sorry. They’d never believe I didn’t know what I was doing. And I did know. I went into this knowing full well how it would go.” Santi’s voice was gentle but firm. “Zara, I’m not asking you to join me. I’m just asking you to come with me and look. If you don’t agree once you’ve seen what is in this room, then shoot.”
She blinked slowly, looking at him, then at the troops surely queued up behind her, just around the corner. “I’m going with him,” she said. “Give me one minute. If I don’t return, shoot to kill. Is that understood? They may be wearing Scholar’s robes, but they are traitors to the Library. No mercy.”
“Sir.” The echoing voices sounded dark and sure. Wolfe and Glain were already gone, as was Morgan. Dario and Khalila were helping Thomas through the opening and struggling with his weight. He dropped out of sight. Dario quickly gestured at Khalila to follow, and she let him take her hands and lower her down. With one last glance at Jess—Almost an apology, Jess thought—Dario jumped through and disappeared.