Taboo Online

The gap beside the blast door widened as the cutting crews worked through the wall around its second hinge.

Silver-gray light spilled through the opening and washed across the ceramic braces, turning every edge of the reinforced landing pale. Suppression plates continued absorbing the black current crawling through the prepared brands around the door, but the strain had begun to show in several of them.

Beyond the barrier, the branded leader remained inside the central harness.

The figure on the other side of the passage had moved closer.

Luke could no longer see much of the pale towers behind it. Its narrow body filled too much of the unstable opening, while the branching shapes rising from its head vanished beyond the edges of the gate. One long arm remained extended toward Earth.

"Upper hinge clear," a technician reported.

Red Hound raised one hand. "Pull it."

The insulated braces tightened.

Metal screamed against concrete as the blast door shifted several inches farther from the wall. For a moment, the opening looked wide enough for the assault team to enter.

Then black brands flashed across the chamber floor.

Luke saw the branded leader’s shoulder tighten at the same instant Truth Behind Motion answered.

His marked hand pressed harder against the central frame.

"Floor!" Luke shouted. "He’s sending it toward the door."

Red Hound stepped back without hesitation.

A line of black light raced beneath the opening and struck the exposed edge of the blast door. The steel lurched sideways hard enough to rip one ceramic brace from its mounting.

The cutting crew scattered.

Thalen caught one technician by the rear of his armor and dragged him clear before the falling metal crushed his leg. A moment later, the door slammed against the floor, its upper edge remaining tilted against the damaged wall.

The opening was narrower now, but it was still usable.

Red Hound peered through it.

The branded leader smiled.

"You are learning."

Red Hound drew the ceramic cutter from his belt and turned toward Thalen.

The Rootkeeper stepped beside him.

They did not need Lauren or the Heartroot for this part. Red Hound gave three of the field signals Thalen had drilled repeatedly.

Advance.

Capture.

Alive.

Thalen answered with a single nod.

Behind the second barrier, Luke leaned forward in the field chair.

"You’re going through that?"

Red Hound glanced back at him. "You have a better opening?"

"No."

"Then keep your eyes on him."

Luke looked at his right arm. It remained secured against his chest, with the ceramic sleeve enclosing his wrist and most of his forearm. His fingers were still unreliable, and Shaw had prohibited every combat skill except Truth Behind Motion.

For once, Luke did not need a spear to be useful.

"I’m watching."

Red Hound and Thalen slipped through the gap. Two Bureau responders followed with ceramic shields held close to their bodies, since there was not enough room inside the chamber to spread them into a proper formation.

The branded leader remained inside the harness.

He did not seem bothered by that disadvantage.

His unmarked hand shifted slightly inside its restraint.

Truth Behind Motion caught the intent before the surrounding machinery reacted.

"Right wall!"

A black conduit tore out of its mounting and swung toward Thalen at head height.

Red Hound converted Luke’s warning into the practiced danger signal and pointed toward the threat.

Thalen ducked immediately. The conduit passed over him and struck the concrete hard enough to bury its metal end in the wall.

The leader shifted one knee.

"Floor beside Red Hound!"

A branded plate buckled upward.

Red Hound stepped off it a fraction before the steel snapped vertical beneath his boot.

He did not waste time looking back.

"Keep calling them."

Luke focused harder on the man inside the harness.

Until now, the branded leader had watched Red Hound and Thalen. His gaze finally moved past them and settled on the reinforced landing.

On Luke.

"You learned to read people."

Luke held his stare. "You’re making it easy."

The leader’s fingers flexed.

Truth Behind Motion answered again.

"Left side!"

Red Hound immediately repeated the warning through the practiced signal.

Thalen moved before a prepared brace completed its swing. It tore free from the machinery, swept through the space where his ribs had been, and smashed into one of the empty Ashline sockets.

The responder behind him raised a ceramic shield in time to catch the fragments.

Luke breathed slowly and kept his attention on the leader.

Truth Behind Motion was not straining his damaged arm, but maintaining this level of focus still took effort. The advantage was that the sequence had become clear. Luke did not need to understand the brands or predict what every piece of machinery could do.

He only needed to watch the living man controlling them.

"He’s running the room through himself," Lauren said beside him.

The lead analyst answered through the operation channel. "That matches our readings. The outer frame is already destroyed. Every active route left in the chamber begins at one of the contacts on his harness."

A schematic appeared on the display beside Luke.

Three points remained bright.

The first was the leader’s marked palm against the central frame. The second followed the brace crossing his ribs, and the third sat behind his spine.

"Those are the only remaining connections between the primary anchor and the receiving frame," the analyst said.

Lauren tilted her covered face toward the speaker. "So if they sever all three, the Earth side loses its anchor?"

"Yes, but the far side is becoming the problem."

Another alarm sounded.

The silver-gray light inside the gate thickened.

The tall figure beyond it pressed one hand against the boundary.

This time, the passage held its shape around the contact for several seconds instead of continuing to fold inward.

Lauren became still.

Luke felt the change in her through their weakened partner resonance before she spoke.

"When we moved the Heartroot, Luke held the source while I gave the bridge somewhere to arrive."

The lead analyst turned toward her.

Lauren continued more carefully. "The branded leader has been forcing this open from one side. If that thing is deliberately responding from the other..."

The analyst understood before she finished.

"It may be providing a destination response."

Red Hound heard them through his earpiece. "Can that stabilize the gate?"

"No," the analyst said. "The Ashline units are gone, and the outer frame has already been destroyed. Nothing we’re seeing can produce a permanent aperture."

"But it can keep this one open longer."

"Potentially, yes."

The branded leader had heard enough of the exchange to know they understood.

His mouth curved faintly.

"Your bridge taught us enough."

Luke stared at him, but Red Hound did not give the man another opportunity to turn the moment into a conversation.

"Break the contacts."