The Last Mission of the Living (The Last Bastion #2)(71)

“There was no hope.” Franklin pushed one of the bodies over with her foot, then squatted to gaze at the desiccated face. “It was either a bullet or starvation.”

“Shouldn’t they have gone with the others to The Bastion during the evacuation?” Carter, another SWD soldier, asked. He was a wide-set man with heavy features, pale blue eyes, tan skin, and short dark hair.

“There wasn’t enough room,” Lindsey answered. “Some volunteered to stay behind once it was determined that there weren’t enough aircraft in the area to evacuate everyone. There was mass panic when Beta City fell. It happened so suddenly. They never saw the attack coming.”

“So all of these people are the heroes.” Hobbes’ voice filled with admiration.

“The very best of us,” Lindsey said, glancing at Torran across the room.

“Clear on this side, Vanguard Rooney,” Chief Defender Solomon’s voice said through the comm.

“Progressing toward objective,” Lindsey responded, and signaled her group to continue forward.

As the squad advanced, Lindsey focused on the far end to the darkened recessed area where the control room was. There was a lot of concern about this particular spot. It was the only part of the room that the portable wireless generator was too weak to reach with its wave.

“What if they’re in there?” Hobbes asked. “Waiting?”

“Well, there’s one way to find out,” Lindsey said, then struck the storage unit beside her. The clank resonated through the room. “Let’s give them a wakeup call.”

“Vanguard?” the chief defender’s voice queried.

“They’re attracted to sound and movement,” Lindsey answered, then hit the unit again.

The dark space before them remained quiet.

“Light,” Lindsey ordered.

Hobbes pulled a small flashlight from his belt and shone it at the spot she pointed to. One of the other things she disliked about the modified weapons was since they were covered with the same material as the stealth suits, the lights had been removed along with the long-range scopes. The beam barely penetrated the murk, but it appeared that the control area was empty.

Advancing, Lindsey could hear the rest of the squad calling out that their section of the vast storage room was clear.

“Corpse on the floor,” she said, indicating the pair of boots hidden behind a workstation.

Hobbes and Franklin scooted past her, moving into position to charge into the enclosed area. The door was open, which Lindsey hoped was a good sign. With well-practiced ease, Hobbes and Franklin slipped into the control room with Lindsey right behind them. The space was narrow, cramped and devoid of life. Two bodies were on the floor and were long dead.

“Nothing to shoot,” Franklin grunted.

“We’re clear,” Lindsey said, relief in her voice. Relaxing her shoulders, she returned to the main floor.

“We’ve got a schedule to keep. Get to work,” the chief defender ordered.

The Sci-Tech team immediately started their scans of each storage unit as Dr. Curran observed their progress. Lindsey caught the doctor briefly glancing her way with one of her inscrutable expressions. Deciding to ignore the woman altogether, Lindsey directed her gaze at the barricaded doors. The heavy-duty loaders were squat vehicles with long metallic limbs that ended in claws. The arms enabled the driver to pack the vehicle with heavy cargo and cart the products to loading areas. The loaders in front the interior entrances to the storage area had the arms extended and the claws set against the doors.

Torran stepped to her side and gestured toward the loaders. “Why barricade the doors?”

Lindsey studied the barricade before answering. “Interior doors don’t have the high security locks reserved for the outside doors. If the reports of a Scrag outbreak inside the building are true, they had to do what they could to keep them closed.”

“We need those to load the cargo transports,” he said. “Which means moving them away from the doors.”

“And Scrags are still in the building...” Lindsey took a deep breath. “Shit.”

Torran gestured to an entrance across the room. “I checked the doors on the other side. The locks didn’t activate. The only thing keeping the doors closed are the loaders. Can the remote generator get the door locks to work?”

Scrutinizing the four doors that were blocked off and the distance between them, Lindsey shook her head. “It’s too low powered. The wave is keeping the lights on, but it doesn’t have that much juice. The auto-locks should have flipped on before the power went out.”

“But what if they were sabotaged?” Torran raised his eyes.

Lindsey followed his gaze to the area above the storage containers. Scorch marks decorated the ceiling where power junctions had been blown out. “This is bad.”

“Dr. Curran, what’s the status on the storage units?” Torran asked, opening up the comm to the doctor and including Lindsey.

“Only a third are viable,” Dr. Curran answered.

“Why only a third?” Torran asked, his brown eyes meeting Lindsey’s.

“Sabotage took out quite a few of the units.”

Lindsey sighed. She should have known things were going a little too well.





Chapter 21