Waddell kept the door shut. That was the first good thing anyone did in five minutes. Jade leaned against the wall near the stairwell and listened to the fake response team breathe on the other side. Three people.
Maybe four. The fourth was too quiet. The Reaper thread behind her left eye recoiled from all of them.
"Federal response team," the voice repeated. "Open up."
Waddell looked at Jade. She shook her head. Kieran shifted behind him, gold light wrapped around both hands now. Tyree moved the injured boy off the table and guided him behind the flour sacks with the other children.
The basent had learned quickly. Fear made good students when the teacher carried a hook.
"Badge number?" Waddell called.
A pause. Tiny. Wrong.
"This is a classified deploynt."
Waddell glanced at Jade again. She mouthed, no. He nodded and lifted the pistol toward the door.
"Classified people still have badge numbers. Try again."
The thing outside sighed. The sound was too close to relief.
"Sergeant Waddell, you are delaying dical evacuation."
Waddell's face changed. Not much. Enough for Jade to see the hit. It knew his rank. It knew his na. It knew how tired he was. That made it dangerous in a very human way.
"dical evacuation can wait until you say who sent you," Waddell said.
"You know who sent us."
"I know who pretends."
The door handle turned. It should not have. Kieran's gold lines snapped tight across the seams, and the tal scread like sobody had dragged a nail down its spine. The handle stopped. Kieran smiled without warmth.
"Try harder."
Jade pointed to the pantry door. Tyree understood. He moved the children first. Then the wounded who could stand. No speeches. No panic. Hand signals only, because Tyree was better with frightened people than he admitted. Jade wrote that down in her head.
If they lived, she would tell him. Maybe. The fake responder outside spoke again, softer.
"Jade Fujiwara. You are infected with a death-class mark. We can remove it before it spreads."
Every adult in the basent looked at her. That was the danger of useful lies. Truth mattered less than fit. The lie already matched the fear in the room. Jade pushed off the wall. Her right side vanished for half a step.
Kieran caught her sleeve and let go before Jade had to ask. Good. Learning was happening all over the room.
"Who told you my na?" Jade called.
"A friend."
"I have terrible friends."
"This one has feathers."
The beacon stones in the nested pans clicked against each other. Waddell's pistol dipped toward them. Jade lifted a hand.
"Do not shoot cookware."
"That sentence was not on my training list."
"Add it."
The stones clicked again. Five white chips sewn from dead creature flesh, each one dull until Jade looked at it with the left eye. Then thin red lines appeared inside them, all pointing at the stairwell door. Wrong.
The pull ran past the door. Through it. Down. Jade stared until pain watered her vision. The lines skipped the fake responders and drove through the concrete under them, through soil, sewer, street, and whatever impossible fold connected Earth to the lower lane.
Ty was below. And falling.
"Jade," Kieran said.
"I see it."
"See what?"
"A bad idea with bones."
Kieran made a sound that was almost a laugh.
"That is not specific."
"It is for Ty."
The door banged once. This ti the whole fra bent inward. Waddell fired through the upper corner. The shot punched a hole through the tal and into whatever stood outside. Sothing wet splashed the stairwell wall. No scream.
Bad sign.
"Tyree," Waddell said.
"Moving them."
"Move faster."
Jade crossed to the pans. The stones pulled at the Reaper thread like hooks in cloth. She hated them. She needed them. The whole day had beco choosing between tools that wanted to own her and tools that wanted to eat everyone else first.
She picked up the smallest stone with two fingers. Cold ran up her wrist. The dead by the milk coolers twitched.
"Nas," Jade snapped.
Waddell understood.
"Aaron Pike."
"Stays down."
"Janice Bell."
"Stays down."
He read the list while she held the stone. The fake responders hit the door again. Kieran's gold seal cracked. The fourth presence outside finally moved. Jade felt it before she heard it.
A hand touched the other side of the door, and all the red lines inside the beacon stone bent toward that hand. Waddell saw her face.
"What?"
"Back up."
"Jade."
"Back up now."
He moved. Kieran moved with him. The door opened inward without breaking. No explosion. No scream. No cinematic blast of power. It simply opened because sothing on the other side had convinced the lock it had always been invited.
The first fake responder stepped in. He wore a federal jacket and no face. Smooth skin covered everything from brow to chin. A white badge hung on his chest, blank except for one stamped symbol. A broken crown.
Behind him stood two more faceless responders. The fourth presence stayed hidden around the stairwell bend. Jade lifted the beacon stone. The faceless responder tilted his head. When he spoke, the voice ca from the badge.
"Protection detail."
Waddell raised his gun.
"Protection for who?"
"Jade Fujiwara. Civilians if convenient."
"Who sent you?"
The badge crackled. A voice like velvet over a knife answered from the stairwell.
"Soone with better timing than your governnt."
Jade's stomach turned. She knew that voice. Erebos stayed outside the basent. His borrowed team carried him in. Kieran's gold fire flared. Tyree ca back from the pantry doorway with both fists lit. The children behind him went silent.
Jade looked at the beacon stone. The red line inside it split in two. One line pointed down to Ty. The other pointed through the faceless responder's chest. Jade closed her hand around the stone.
"Everybody hold."
Waddell stared at her.
"You cannot be serious."
"I am not sure they are here to kill us."
"That is your bar?"
"Today? Yes."
The badge spoke again.
"Lower lane breach expanding. Shelter collapse probable in nine minutes."
Jade felt the floor tremble. Far below, sothing knocked three tis. This ti everyone in the basent heard it. The faceless responder turned its blank head toward the floor.
"Bone party has entered wrong office."
Jade's fingers tightened until the beacon stone cut her palm.
"Of course he has."
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