The Last Bastion of the Living (The Last Bastion #1)(98)

“Nothing. We can’t reach him since he took shelter in the basement,” Dwayne answered.

Maria briefly touched his image on her console. Despite the weariness about his eyes, his calm strength emanated outward, soothing her fears. She had been surprised when he had personally logged on to coordinate with her, but the sight of Commandant Pierce and Mr. Petersen lingering in the background had spoken volumes. The operation must be considered a high priority to have the Constabulary and SWD upper echelon working together.

The jostling of the carrier drew Maria’s attention to the front window. She could see several thick masses of Inferi Scourge slowly rousing as they approached. Cormier was fast to redirect the carrier path so they wouldn’t be cut off by the creatures.

“It’s getting tricky out here, Castellan.” Maria did another scan of their position. Several of the stagnant Inferi Scourge masses were beginning to move in their direction.

“The tiltrotor is en route. You’re right on schedule,” Dwayne assured her.

“Any chance of air support?” Maria lifted an eyebrow at him.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

His feed cut off and Maria grumbled under her breath in Spanish. She hated it when politics became entangled in the matters of the Constabulary. It was worse now that they were in the field and desperately needed some assistance. They were so close to finally being done with this mission, but it was becoming even more harrowing the closer they got to completion.

“We got some Scrags in pursuit. May I fry them, sir?” Holms voice asked in Maria’s ear bud.

“Transmit what you got. Let me look,” Maria answered.

Immediately the feed from Holm’s helmet began to play on her screen. The ravaged faces of the Inferi Scourge gave her chills. Their wide, distended mouths and crazed milky eyes would forever haunt her nightmares. Even over the gentle roar of the carrier’s engines and the chatter behind her, she could hear their howls.

“Fry ‘em,” Maria answered.

Immediately the feed was filled with white hot flames. With satisfaction, Maria watched the creatures enveloped in the inferno dropping away, setting others in their horde on fire. The thrashing fiery bodies fell behind.

“That was beast,” Mikado said from behind her.

Maria grinned and kept an eye on the screen. The carrier was barreling toward the rendezvous point and sweeping past stirring masses of Scourge. She felt a trickle of sweat slide down her brow and she wiped it away with annoyance. A second later, her eyes widened as she looked down at her gloved hand.

“Denman,” she whispered urgently.

He glanced over at her and she pointed to the beads of sweat on her brow. With a gasp, he grabbed his med-pad and rushed to her side. Maria forced herself to focus on the mission at hand and not the steady, slow thumps within her chest. When they had started, she wasn’t sure, but she could feel her heart sluggishly pumping in her chest.

Dwayne’s feed came back to life. “We can give you limited air support and it looks like you’re going to need it. You burned out the ones that were in pursuit, but there is a mass of several thousand heading to cut you off. I’m redirecting you toward a new rendezvous spot.”

“Yes, sir,” Maria said and shared the information with Cormier.

“It’s getting crazy ahead,” Cormier called out.

“Just follow the route the Castellan sent us,” Maria answered. Out of the corner of her eye, Denman looked stoic, but she could see that his hand was trembling. She pressed a palm to her neck and felt moist flesh and a slow, steady throb of a pulse. On impulse, she positioned her own feed on her screen and studied her face. Her eyes were vivid and dark again. The murkiness was gone.

“This is incredible,” Denman whispered as he finished his scan and studied the readings.

“I don’t have time for this right now,” Maria said in hushed tones.

Denman leaned toward her, his exhaled breath tickling her ear. “You’re alive, Vanguard.”

Fear pierced her freshly-beating heart. If she was alive again, then that meant she was probably in more danger than anyone else on the squad. She swallowed hard and stared into Denman’s eyes.

“Is there a problem?” Dwayne’s voice asked.

Maria returned her attention to the screen before her. The commandant was hovering over Dwayne’s shoulder. “A minor problem that has been resolved, sir.” She gestured to Denman to return to his work station.

Reluctantly, the medic did as he was ordered.

There was no time to contemplate what was happening within the cells of her body. She was on a mission to save Chief Omondi and his squad and that had to be her priority. Lowering her hand out of view of the camera, she flipped on her armor’s cooling system. She was relieved when it activated. The Boon armor was not standard issue. They had been stripped of some of the systems unnecessary to the Boon.

“That Scrag horde is moving in fast, sir,” Cormier said worriedly.

“I’m watching them. Maintain top speed and we should bypass them.”

“Aircraft is almost to the rendezvous spot,” Dwayne said in the corner of her screen. “It has pulled off a good chunk of Scrags from the wall.”

Maria watched the fresh information fill her screen and then swore. “It’s going to make our loop around difficult with them coming in from that angle.”