Page 40 of Call of the Fathoms (Deep Waters #4)

Forty

Alexia

T hey were all idiots, Alexia realized. Rich idiots who thought that the world was something they could manipulate and control. As she strode past the laundry room, ignoring an order from Harlow directly, she realized every single Original in this entire city was a fool. But they thought they were geniuses, and that’s where the problem began.

They had power, and they had it for a very long time. That power had given them the feeling that they were better than others, even though that simply wasn’t true. They thought that with power and money, their minds were better than everyone else’s. But all of these people had just been lucky. Lucky to get a few funds more than others, lucky that a business had done better than their competitor, or had been looked upon favorably by fate throughout all of their lives because they already had a leg up.

History would not look upon them kindly. As she walked through the halls toward the armory, Alexia knew she would be the first person to destroy all the reputation they had built for years. She would tell every story that would make them seem less a god and more the fragile beings they really were.

She would make sure everyone knew that they were incapable of brushing their own teeth without someone reminding them. She would tell stories about how often she had to clean up their messes, or how they cried often because someone had hurt their feelings. They were human, not gods, and hundreds of years of life hadn’t changed that.

A group of soldiers walked toward her, and she placed her hands behind her back to mimic their posture. Spine stiff and straight, she walked past them without another look, as though she belonged here.

And they did the same to her. Because everyone who worked for the Originals didn’t exist. They were drones in a hive. No thoughts, no feelings. If they started to exist, they were just replaced. Like they had already done to her.

She turned right down the hall and entered the armory. It was mostly deserted this time of day, considering all the guards were heading to the mess hall to get their food before training. Everything in this room was deadly, because it didn’t matter if they trained with live weapons. It wasn’t a big deal if someone like her died.

There were no windows on these walls, just racks full of guns. More and more of them until she got to the sword section. Then the blunt objects, like clubs and all the other items that would hurt if someone was hit with them. She took a deep breath and started gathering all the items she would need.

Striding to the back wall, she grabbed a stun gun and shoved it into the front of her pants. This was a good weapon for up close. Then she grabbed what looked like an assault rifle and slung it over her shoulder by the strap. It fired large energy balls that would clear a room out quickly, and that’s what she needed. Two more stun guns went into the back of her pants for when the others eventually ran out of power.

Good enough. This would get her started. She took her long braid and coiled it on top of her head, tying it in a knot so it wouldn’t get in her way.

A small tap at the door had her slicing her gaze toward it, only to see one of those little droid beads on the ground. They’d found the control room, which meant everything was ready.

She bent down to grab it and pressed it against the back of her ear.

“You hear me?” a voice came through. Mira’s, it sounded like.

“Loud and clear.”

“Ready?”

She swung the rifle into her arms and turned the safety off, feeling the familiar weight and heft of it. “Oh yeah, I’m ready.”

This hallway led toward a complicated network of halls that would lead her to the control room. But there were bound to be people who stood in her way. Too many people lived here, and every single one of them would see her, armed to the teeth, and they would try to stop her.

Good. She needed to let off some steam.

The first person who rounded the corner was one of the Originals. She thought his name might be Donatello, although she’d had little interactions with him. He always traveled with two guards, as he was a paranoid individual who went through more reborns than the average person. She took that rifle in her hands and blew a hole straight through his chest.

There was a stunned moment of silence as he looked down at the gaping wound that oozed blood and then staggered to the side. Considering he had a hole in his chest the size of a goblet of water, she had no idea how he was still standing.

One of his guards reached for a weapon and the other ran for Donatello. She shot the one who reached for his weapon first. The energy pulse hit the massive man straight in the forehead, and he went down hard enough to shake the floor. The other had already gathered the Original up in his arms, likely heading for the med bay where they would sacrifice another person to keep this ancient being alive.

“He should have died a long time ago,” she snarled at his retreating form as he made his way away from her down the hall. “Let him die.”

The guard hesitated for the briefest moment. He even looked over his shoulder at her and then heaved a long sigh. “I cannot let him do that. You know it as well as I.”

She shot him in the back, a killing shot that would make sure he didn’t feel too much pain before he went into the afterlife. It weighed heavily on her shoulders as she stepped over the first dead body, and then the other. She looked down at the Original’s face, seeing the man in the picture on that island. He had been so young, and still appeared so young now. He’d been nervous then too, though. She’d seen it in his eyes on the picture.

Nervous like he was now, with those wide eyes telling her he was terrified to die. But he wouldn’t die for too long. Soon enough, someone would find him. As long as there was the merest chance that electrical activity in his brain could continue, they could bring him back. She’d seen it happen herself.

Taking a stun gun out of her pocket, she leveled it on his head. “You should never have lived this long. Humans weren’t meant to survive hundreds of years. That is why we were given an expiration date. Look at what you and your people have done in all this time. Nothing of use, and everything just to satisfy your own needs without caring about anyone else.”

She shot him in the head so no one would be able to piece him back together. The first real death of an Original, at least that she knew about. He was dead and gone and no one was going to piece together those splattered bits of brain.

Unless they could do a brain transplant.

Fuck.

She hated this. But for good measure, she shot him six more times in the head until there was no way to even tell who he had once been, and where that head had gone. She knew for a fact that they had never successfully managed a full head transplant. She’d been there when they had tried, and she was quite certain this man in particular had been the one leading the charge on how to do that.

Finally, she ran through the halls, keeping out of the way of anyone else. She didn’t want to fight more people until she absolutely had to. Like in the control room.

Reaching that room, Alexia pressed herself against the wall and took a few deep, steadying breaths. She could do this. They had built her to kill, after all, and now that was exactly what she was doing.

They just had never thought they wouldn’t be able to control her. Taking another deep breath, she turned her head to look at the control room.

“Mira?” she asked quietly.

“Still here. I heard gun shots.”

“You’re about to hear a lot more. There’s fifteen people in the control room at all times. I will clear it out and start opening what I can until the alarm blares. Then I need to get out of here, and I’ll start opening the other doors that are manual overrides. Send them in now.”

“Now?” She could hear clicking, like Mira was trying to type at the same time as talking to her. “The shield is still up, though.”

“It won’t be for long.”

A ghost of longing shivered down her spine. Fortis would rush into this room with her, all teeth and claws. He would have loved to have seen this moment where she would destroy all the people who had haunted both of them for such a long time.

He deserved to know that she had done the right thing. And beyond that, he deserved to know that she had made them bleed for him.

Baring her teeth in a very undine-like snarl, she slapped the button to open the automatic door and ran into the room, guns blazing. She knew this room well. There were six massive monitors, all lined up in three neat rows. There would be two people at each of them, and that was twelve accounted for. The other three would be stationed on her right and left, and then directly ahead of her. Though the one ahead would be looking out at the water, because the guard liked to watch the lights and the fish.

As expected, there were fifteen people all at their stations making sure the city ran like a well-oiled machine. She shot the nearest two at their desks, watching as they slumped over the control panels. But that was all the time she would get to make it easy.

The two on each side of her were already holding guns. Shots flew, and one of the massive monitors was caught in the crossfire. She dove for cover, taking out another one of the scientists at the monitors as she fell onto her side and hit the floor.

Sparks flew over her head, landing on her shoulders and in her hair. She smelled singed flesh where it was already burning through her skin, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t matter.

Glancing over the top of the monitor, she watched as one of the guards tried to get three scientists to head to the door while he opened fire on her. She didn’t care if she got shot, though. She wasn’t trying to hide. Alexia shot all three of them until one of the guard’s blasts caught her in the shoulder.

Dead. The arm went limp. He’d cut right through the tendon in her biceps and the rifle dropped onto the floor.

That wasn’t good. She really needed to use that more. She’d only killed six of them so far.

Breath shuddering in her lungs, she reached for the stun gun at her waist. More manual work, but at least they would drop.

The guards were trained to protect. So they’d ushered the other six scientists into a group at the back of the room, thinking they could keep them all safe with covering fire.

They couldn’t.

She stood and headed right for them. The stun gun made quick work of the remaining scientists, and she happened to catch one of the guards unaware as well.

But then pain bloomed in her chest. Wincing, she looked down at the red spreading through the blazer. Not good. Not good at all.

She had a job to do, a job to finish, and she would do it. With a harsh yell, she threw the stun gun at the head of one guard and spun for the other who had shot her. They assumed she was out, but she still had another stun gun in the back of her waistband, and she pulled that out quickly. One blast. Right in the head.

Spinning, it felt like the world slowed as she took her next shot. An answering shot rang out, and she jerked back as it struck her in the chest a second time.

They stared at each other, both breathing hard. She could feel her heart sluggishly complaining about the lack of blood. But then the guard staggered to his side, dropped onto his knees, and then fell to the floor.

Swallowing hard, she shuffled to the nearest console. “Computer, activation code xi rho tau.”

“Original Harlow access granted.”

Perfect.

She got to work. Tapping the screen, she left bloody fingerprints smeared across the glowing green as she dropped the shield first. Sparks flew down from the ceiling and a wire dropped through a damaged panel that crackled with white hot electricity.

“Shield’s down,” she said to Mira. “Send them in.”

“They’re already going. Which door?”

She opened three of them before the room went red. “Two in alpha quadrant and one on the eastern side.”

“You sound hurt.”

“Doesn’t matter.” She hit one more release, but her access had already been revoked. All those bloody fingerprints would give her away too easily. They’d know exactly where she had opened the gates .

Stepping back, she fired her gun and shattered the computer screen. Smoke billowed out of this one, and then flames burst to life. Soon enough, water would rain down from the ceiling to protect what little was left.

“Alexia, if you’re hurt, we need to abort the plan.” Mira almost sounded frantic. “This won’t work if you die.”

“I’m hard to kill,” she hissed. She grabbed two of the guards’ rifles as she limped out of the room. Turning, she fired at the door control and watched as it left a black hole in the wall. It would buy them some time before anyone could get into the room. “I don’t have to survive for this to work. I just have to get enough doors open.”

“Alexia—”

“Thank you, Mira. Your opinion has been noted. I will be working counterclockwise from here. All the gates I can manually open, will be open.”

And then she dropped the earpiece on the ground. The little droid rolled away from her, slipping underneath the damaged door to hack into the mainframe and do whatever it was the droids could do. Maybe they would open more doors, but some of them had to be opened manually.

The acrid bite of smoke filled her nose as she headed toward the first manual lock. Two guards careened around the corridor, but she shot them before they even realized what had happened.

She left a smear of blood on the floor behind her, but she reached the first hatch. It was a manual lever, and she needed to use her entire body weight to turn it. But it finally gave, and with a deep breath, she opened the hatch.

A gilled head appeared through it almost instantly. It was the yellow finned one. Maketes. She knew his name. She just... her mind was wandering.

He gave her a feral grin. “You look worse for wear.”

“Just get in here and kill some people, will you?”

“Sure.”

He crawled into the hall and flared all his spines wide. The deadly spikes gleamed in the white overhead lights. “Stay alive, Alexia,” he said.

“I’ll do my best.”

With her bloody hand on the wall, she started her process toward the next hatch, listening to the wet slaps of a hundred undines entering the only home she had ever known to bathe it in blood.