Free Alien Arcana (Starship's Mage Book 4) by Glynn Stewart Page B

than Damien but easily beyond his ability to carry. With a sad sigh, he wrapped gentle bands of power around the body and lifted it up after him as he climbed up the debris into the ruins of the surface portion of the Strangers’ base.
    “Corei, do you read me?” he said, opening a channel to his surviving Secret Service agent. “Are you and Dr. Kael all right?”
    “We’re okay, but the tunnel you went through collapsed. Where are you?!”
    Damien glanced around him. Despite the base being abandoned for centuries; the local plant life was only now beginning to break through the sealed concrete. There weren’t many exterior structures there, but there had been garages and even what looked like had been the site for a set of surface-to-space missiles. The immense domes rose all around him and blocked his view of the prefabricated models of the base camp.
    “I’m on the surface,” he told his bodyguard. “Take Dr. Kael back to the base. I’ll coordinate with Lieutenant Romanov’s people to get back inside myself.”
    “Sir, we’re responsible for your safety!”
    “Corei…” Damien sighed. “I need you to make sure Malcolm and Connor’s bodies are retrieved and prepared for return to Mars. Romanov is capable of seeing to my security, and you can’t do it on your own. Besides, the assassin is dead. While I suspect our problems are far from over, I don’t think there are any other immediate threats here.”
    “Understood, sir. I’ll see you at the base camp.”
    Shaking his head, Damien flipped channels to bring up the Marine commander.
    “Lieutenant Romanov, this is Montgomery.”
    “Sir, we registered explosions and gunfire,” the Combat Mage replied. “I have a fire team strapping on exosuits. What do you need?”
    “I’ve been separated from the Secret Service agents and I’m on the surface,” Damien told him, pausing for a moment to consider before continuing. “I need you and those exosuited Marines to rendezvous with me on the surface. Kurosawa’s killer attacked me. She’s dead now, but I’m not willing to assume we’re all safe just yet. Put your people on high alert.”
    “White is outside with a team right now,” Romanov replied. “I can have her meet you immediately.”
    “I’m not that worried,” Damien said dryly. “Leave her and her team to their work. I’ll see you when you’re out, Lieutenant.”
    “Yes, sir.”
     
    #
     
    Denis Romanov had not expected to find out that someone had attempted to kill the principal while the Hand was in an abandoned alien base accessible only through a single tunnel linked to a prefabricated base camp full of scientists .
    Given that one of those scientists had murdered another one, he supposed it should have been a possibility, but when the principal was a Hand, you tended to assume that most attacks were going to be…grander than an assassin in the dark.
    “Keep loading up,” he ordered the team with him. They were halfway into their exosuit armor, but their commander wasn’t joining them in the heavy gear. Working magic through the heavy powered armor was possible but annoyingly difficult. He’d be going out in a breather and light body armor, which had been much easier to put on.
    “I’m going out to rendezvous with the Hand,” he told the Corporal leading the team. “Follow as soon as you’re ready.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Leaving the squad behind him, Romanov entered the airlock. The inner door slid shut behind him…and then the lights cut out and the air exchangers stopped.
    “What the hell?” he asked aloud, tapping at the controls. “Team Charlie, check in—the airlock just shut down. Is the facility secure?”
    There was a pause.
    “Yes, sir,” the Corporal replied calmly. “I’ve got red flashing on the airlock, but that’s it. Lights and air are on in here.”
    Denis considered for several seconds. The only reason to block the airlock, in his mind, was to stop the Marines getting out to join Montgomery. He