There was a pause. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“I’m joking.” I took a breath as I came to the end of the hallway. “Probably.”
“You cannot be serious—”
“I’m entering the dormitory and switching to silent,” I said, placing a small headset on my ear and clicking the volume lower. “Do what I’ve asked. I’ll contact you if I need anything, otherwise maintain radio silence.”
“But—”
“Radio silence begins now,” I said, cutting her off as I ran my key card over the scanner next to the door. It beeped and I placed my hand over the biometric scanner. It read my palm quickly, probably noting that my lifeline was getting shorter by the moment, and the door hissed open into the dormitory basement. The good news was that it wouldn’t open for anyone but me, and only while I was alive. The bad news was that whoever Century had sent, I doubt they knew or cared about that little detail.
I crept into the basement, my senses hyper alert and listening for any sound. There was plenty of it; scuffling of feet, gunfire from above, shouting. Either the extermination of my people was well underway or there was still a fight going on. The shouting led me to believe it was the latter, which meant I had a chance to tip the balance. Most of the metas who were here in the dorms weren’t much in the way of fighters and were low on the power scale. That meant that while they were stronger and faster than a human, they didn’t stand half the chance I did of being able to outmaneuver someone pointing a gun at me or being able to completely overwhelm a group of armed mercenaries with my superior speed and reflexes.
I pondered the fact that the force assaulting us was carrying guns. I’d run across some of that kind before, armed mercenaries whom Century had employed to take out smaller groups of metas a few at a time. I suspected that meant that we weren’t facing much in the way of metas this round, just men with guns. I kept my hand firmly on my submachine gun. Men with guns I could handle, so long as I was armed. Hell, I could handle metas, too, but this might actually be easier if I did it right.
I got to the nearest staircase and ascended. I knew where I was, and it was in a back hallway of the dormitory building. I opened the door to the corridor and didn’t hear any noise nearby. I dodged out with my weapon covering the corners, sweeping for enemies. I didn’t look in any direction that I wasn’t already pointing the gun, and I started to move forward, toward the main lobby. This had been the way to my room, and a line of windows to my left was shuttered closed, steel grey metal blocking any light from coming in from outside. The lamps flickered above, on emergency lighting, and red emergency lights flashed from boxes mounted every twenty or thirty feet at the sides of the hallway. In the distance I could see the entrance to the lobby and could hear gunfire coming in bursts.
I slipped along the wall, trying to make myself invisible, melting into the shadows where possible. I could see men advancing across the mouth of the hallway ahead, firing their weapons as they headed not toward the cafeteria but toward the long hallway opposite mine, the one where most of the metas we had on campus were staying. We’d kept almost everyone on one side of the building because it was easier to keep things regulated. I had worried at the time that it might make them more vulnerable, but I thought cloistering them together might also be more defensible. It appeared I had been right on both counts.
And of course the beauteous thing about it was that my enemies had left their backs totally exposed to a flanking attack by yours truly.
I stuck to the shadows, moving slowly, quietly, though the gunfire was deafening, echoing down the hall. The smell of discharged gunpowder hung thick and heavy in the air as I eased along through the red light, the faint clouds of smoke from so much weapons discharge casting a thin haze into the air. I kept on, trying to remain as quiet as possible even though I could probably have driven a truck down the hallway, honked the horn, and run right into their midst without them noticing until the treads were upon them.
I came to the mouth of the hallway, where it met the opening, and saw what I was up against. There were twenty or thirty of them, all spread throughout the lobby. They were totally focused on the hall, and gunfire was coming steadily from that direction, which made me wonder who on my team had guns and was resisting their advance. Whoever it was, they were doing a pretty good job of stymieing the mercs, holding them back from charging. They were all wearing Kevlar vests and tactical helmets, which had the potential to stop a bullet, though it was hardly a foregone conclusion. Shooting them would still hurt them, and although they were cushioned, I knew I could break bones through their padding and armor. For maximum effect, though, I really needed to get those helmets off.