Invasion (The Alien Wars #1) (29 page)

“It looks pretty risky to me,” Jet said. “We’d have to grab onto that piece, pull ourselves up, leap onto that other one, and then jump once more until we reached the door.”

“Yes, but then we’d be fine,”
Logan
said. “I’d rather do that than walk to the other side of the building and climb up the other set of stairs.”

Muscles shook his head. “We can only see as far as that part of the staircase.” He pointed to the stairs that led to the next floor, just past the door. “For all we know the rest of the staircase might be damaged farther on.”

“It looks fine to me,”
Logan
said.

“That part, the one that’s still there, doesn’t seem too stable to me,” Baldy said. “More than half of it is broken away from the wall. Who knows when it will completely
break.
If that happens while one of us is on it …” Baldy fell silent.

Muscles glanced at his watch. “I wanted to attack at
eight forty
, but as long as we do it before nine, we’ll be fine. That being the case, I say we head for the other staircase. I’m not one for taking unnecessary risks.”

Xavier knew that he had to hide. He had been thinking of a much more elaborate plan, one which involved taking out the men, but with the lights now on, the men had the advantage.

Xavier rushed over to the nearest vehicle and pulled out his knife. He attempted to pry open the trunk. Fortunately, the blue sedan looked pretty old, and it didn’t take long before it opened.

After tossing his rifle inside, he glanced around. No one was yet in sight, but he could see by the red light that the nearby elevator was descending. Knowing that it could stop in the garage, he clambered into the trunk.

It was a tight fit, but he just managed to close the trunk. It was completely dark inside, but that didn’t matter. There was only one thing he needed to do right now and that was to think. And he didn’t need to be able to see to do that.

As he began to think of what to do next, he realized it’d be beneficial if he could hear if anyone came near, so he pried open the trunk just a little. A small stream of light flooded in. He listened, but apart from a faint noise that seemed far away, he couldn’t hear anything.

Glancing at his watch, he saw it was
eight twenty
. It was clear to him that unless the others had used the elevator to go all the way to the top, they wouldn’t be able to get there in time. But as long as they attacked before nine, which was when the main attack in the lobby was scheduled to happen, that would be fine. Peter troubled him the most. Would the men interrogate him? If so, would he tell them about the plan?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps. Peeking out through the crack in the trunk, he couldn’t see anyone.

The footsteps stopped. Xavier listened closely as he waited for anything that would indicate what the person was up to. But he heard nothing. No talking, no footsteps, nothing. Just silence.

~*~*~

Muscles had just caught sight of the fire escape door, the one that led to the other set of stairs, when it flew open from the other side.

Muscles and the others stopped in shock as three men, dressed in khakis and carrying
shotguns,
came through. The man in charge, a tall, muscular fellow, yelled out, “Hey! Who are you?”

“We could ask you the same question,” Muscles chuckled, prowling slowly toward the men.

“Huh?” one of the men said.

“Sanchez hired us to make sure these floors are safe in preparation for the big attack tonight,” Muscles said.

The man in charge of the two soldiers frowned. “If he hired you, why did he hire us to do the same exact thing?”

“Because he wants to be sure that it’s safe,”
Logan
added.

The man in charge quickly whispered to the other two soldiers.

“Get ready to fire,” Muscles whispered, glancing at the rest of his group.

As Muscles and company kept on advancing, the three men reached for their weapons. Before they could open fire, Muscles and
Logan
shot first.

Two of the soldiers fell in an instant, leaving just the tall man alive. He threw a smoke grenade at the group before turning and fleeing.

Muscles took cover. “Don’t let him reach the fire escape door!”

The group continued to shoot at the man, but he twisted and turned and avoided getting shot, until he collapsed to the ground, injured. Grenade smoke enveloped the area before
Logan
could get a fix on him.

“Damn!”
Logan
fired at the spot where he’d last seen the man. Moments later, he heard the noise of the fire door opening and closing and he realized he had gone through them.

“Do we go after him?” Jet asked.

“Of course.
If he warns Sanchez that we’re here, the whole plan will be sunk,” Muscles shouted. “Come on!” He led the charge through the smoke and through the fire escape door.

Standing next to the stairs, the group looked up and down, wondering which direction the soldier had gone. They then heard footsteps above them.

“This way!”
Muscles raced up the stairs, the others right behind him.

Muscles was
fast, but the soldier was just as fast. Just as it seemed as though Muscles had a line of sight to fire, the man would disappear around the corner.

After racing up a number of floors, Muscles stopped as he saw that the fire escape door was swinging to and fro. “Wait!”

The group hesitated as they tried to figure out where the man had gone, but they couldn’t hear anything.

Muscles couldn’t decide if he should go up the stairs or search the floor that he was on. There wasn’t any time to waste, so he quickly decided to split up. “Logan and I will search this floor, while you two keep on going up the stairs. We’ll meet up on the eightieth floor.”

The two groups departed without delay. As Jet and Baldy clattered up the stairs,
Logan
followed Muscles through the door and into the hallway.

“Do you think he came this way?”
Logan
asked,
a firm grip on his pistol.

Muscles nodded. “Yes. It would make much more sense to catch an elevator to the eighty-first floor than running up the stairs. Besides, he couldn’t outpace us running up the steps, so even if he could make it to the party room, we’d be right behind him, which wouldn’t be much use.”

Muscles paused as they reached a turning point in the hallway. “The service elevators are this way and the main elevator shaft is this way. Let’s split up. Once you’ve cleared the area, head toward the other fire escape door.”

The two split up, with
Logan
heading for the main elevator shaft. He didn’t know how far back they were from the soldier, which was the most concerning thing. It would only take a minute or two to call for an elevator and get on one. Once that happened, their plan would be useless.

He ran to the elevator shaft. His footsteps echoed against the floor, making a loud noise, but this couldn’t be helped. He rounded the corner and came into full view of the line of elevators. He skidded to a stop as he caught sight of the soldier waiting anxiously by the last one.

The soldier raised his shotgun and a slug spat out.
Logan
ducked and hid behind the corner, narrowly avoiding it. He peered around the corner and saw the soldier pushing down hard on the elevator button.

He realized that as soon as the doors opened, it’d be too late to catch him. He had to take him out now.
Logan
reloaded his pistol. Then, taking a deep breath, he hurried around the corner.

The soldier got hit in the arm and the shotgun clattered to the floor as bullets from
Logan
’s pistol hit their target. With a curse, the soldier reached into his pocket and pulled out another smoke grenade. He flung it toward
Logan
before turning and running down the hallway.

Logan
hurried forward and picked up the shotgun, only to chuck it down again. It was empty. Not sure if the man had another weapon on him, he slowly advanced through the smoke.

As the smoke parted, he saw that there was no one. Careful not to make too much noise,
Logan
advanced past the numerous offices that were deserted.

The hallway curved around until it rejoined with the main one, and as
Logan
reached that, he decided what to do. Before he could make up his mind, he heard footsteps behind him.

He whipped his pistol around and waited for the person to round the corner. With his finger on the trigger, he waited, only to sigh with relief as Muscles appeared.

“I heard the shots and came running. Did you get him?” Muscles asked.

Logan
shook his head. “No, but I injured him. He threw a grenade in my direction and headed off into the smoke. I wasn’t sure if he was hiding in one of the offices or if he doubled back, but if you haven’t seen him—”

“No, I haven’t. I’d say he headed for the other set of stairs. Come on, we may be too late.” Muscles hurried past
Logan
and the two of them ran down the hallway.

They had just caught sight of the fire escape door, when they heard bullets smacking into the plaster walls.

“What the …”
Logan
sprinted past Muscles and reached the door just as an explosion wrapped them in a black cloud of choking dust and sharp debris. The force blew the door apart, pushing
Logan
down onto the ground. Muscles helped
Logan
to his feet.

“What was that?”
Logan
asked.

“Don’t know.” Muscles glanced around furtively. Hearing footsteps above them,
he
and Logan positioned themselves by the corner.

The two parties saw each other at the same time and both relaxed and lowered their weapons. It was Jet. “Where did he go?”

Logan
frowned. “Where did who go?”

“The man.
I chased him down the staircase. We exchanged shots before he fled and set off some kind of big ass bomb.” Jet glanced around at the debris. “This is it.”

Logan
glanced at Muscles. “He must’ve continued down the stairs.”

Muscles nodded. “Let’s see.”

The three hurried down the stairs. As they reached the next level, they paused next to the fire escape door.

“Did he continue down or not?” Muscles said.

“I’ll check, you continue.” Jet rushed off.

The two continued down, still not hearing anything. The next fire escape door was partially open.

“He must’ve gone in here,” Muscles said, peering through the door.

“Maybe.
I’ll keep on going just in case.” As Muscles disappeared,
Logan
continued down. He reached the next floor and paused. Should he keep on going or was it just a waste of time? What if the man was already in the elevator?

Listening, he heard something.
Just a slight noise.
Almost like a pebble rolling down a step.
Logan
frowned and glanced down the stairs. The floor below was covered in debris. He had forgotten about the explosion and how a person wouldn’t be able to continue past the damaged stairwell unless they jumped.