The Final Storm

31. A Bright Future

"Welcome. Why don't you come in?"

It had been a long, long time since Adaira had heard that tone of voice. Oh, she'd heard the voice often enough. But that tone? That superior, mocking tone? Not since a certain smarmy bastard had driven her and her family out of their ancestral home.

Yet she would never forget it. Nor would she forget to whom it belonged.

Glancing sideways at her brother and sister-in-law, Adaira saw on their faces that the same applied to them as well.

She raised a questioning eyebrow.

Her brother hesitated for just a second—then nodded and gestured for them to go ahead. Slowly, guns raised, they all approached the arched doorway.

The room beyond was cavernous and dark, like the belly of some giant beast. Yet, even in the dark, Adaira could make out the vague outlines of numerous big crates scattered throughout the room, covered with bright red danger warnings, just like the open door. Thinking about the reason for that, she shuddered—then almost fell on her face as she stumbled over something on the floor. Only by grabbing onto Captain Carter's arm did Adaira manage to stay on her feet. She glanced down...and saw an ominous black cable stretching across the stone floor. Glancing around, she noticed this was by no means the only one. They all led from the various large crates and up the set of stairs on the opposite side of the room. All to a single point.

Those aren't...those can't possibly be...?

She exchanged a glance with Captain Carter—and he nodded.

Adaira couldn't help but shudder again.

"Come," that familiar, mocking voice echoed out of the darkness ahead. "It is bad manners to keep your host waiting."

"It's also bad manners to blow up half a city and kill the rest by burning hundreds of thousands of people alive," Captain Carter responded in a far-too-chipper tone. "Just saying."

"Really?" The voice sounded amused. Amused. "Then you will have to excuse my bad manners just this once."

Adaira felt like she was about to vomit. So...it was true. This whole place was a death trap. Not just for them, but for everyone in the city above. After having been chased hither and thither by the city's inhabitants, she didn't exactly have the warmest feeling for them. But nobody deserved that.

Adaira felt queasy. So queasy, in fact, that she nearly missed him make his move. Only the flash of movement she caught out of the corner of her eye made her look over to the left in time to see that her brother was already ten steps ahead, his revolver aimed at a shadowy figure at the top of the stairs.

For once, she agreed whole-heartedly with his tendency to not waste time.

"Freeze!" he ordered, his gun aimed straight at the bastard's centre mass. Adaira was sure the only reason why he hadn't fired yet was that, in here, one badly aimed shot would mean death for all present, along with most of the city.

"Freeze? Why?" came that familiar mocking voice from the shadowy figure ahead. "Because I should be scared of your chilly voice? Not everyone is as pathetic as those minions you are so fond of ordering around."

The man rose from the crate he had been sitting on like a throne and stepped forward. Strands of golden hair glittered in the few beams of sunlight falling in through a metal grid far above. Adaira saw a familiar mouth curl in a disdainful smile.

Instinctively, her fists clenched.

"No." Not for a moment did her brother's gun waver. "It's because I have a gun aimed at your heart."