Calista carefully examined the ground in front of the blast-proof door.
Her sharp eyes picked out several sets of footprints, all of them pointing through the doorway.
Three spent shell casings lay scattered nearby. Above the control panel beside the blast-proof door was a large chemical neutralizer detonator.
It was three times the size of a standard model, and its casing bore obvious signs of welding and reinforcement. It was clearly the "heavy-duty" device modified by the base engineers accompanying Leah's squad.
At the moment, however, every status light on the detonator was dark.
A thick power cable ran from the main unit, but something extremely sharp had severed it cleanly about an arm's length from the connector. The cut was perfectly smooth.
The cable hung limply, its severed end only a step away from the connector.
All the clues instantly came together in Calista's mind.
After a brutal battle, the Spearhead Task Force had broken through the blockade on the lower levels and reached the top floor. There, they had discovered that the upper platform was a monster lair.
They had tried to install and activate a large dose of neutralizing agent to cleanse the area, but the Predators guarding the nest had detected them and destroyed the cable.
After briefly driving the Predators back, the task force had been forced to abandon the activation attempt and retreat behind the blast-proof door.
The Predators outside had not tried to force their way in. Instead, they had chosen to surround the door and wait.
Calista breathed a sigh of relief. At least this proved that neither the Claw mutants nor the Predators could break through the door. Otherwise, they would have been absurdly powerful.
Once she had pieced together the general situation, she quietly climbed back down the maintenance ladder into the service compartment. As the others gathered around, Calista quickly explained what she had found on the upper platform.
"Leah and the others went through the door. They're still alive, but we don't know what condition they're in. We have to get inside."
"How?" Maya felt her scalp prickle at the thought of seven Predators. "There are too many of them. We can't kill them all at once, and the moment we take down one, the rest will swarm us."
They had only seven people capable of fighting. Honeywell was practically there to make up the numbers. In a real battle, getting away safely would already be an accomplishment for him.
Fight them one-on-one?
That would be suicide.
Calista shook her head. "A frontal charge will get us killed. Even if we manage to take them down, the noise will draw the entire nest, maybe even the other Predators from the lower levels."
She folded her arms and thought it over, but no good solution came to mind.
Honeywell swallowed nervously and pointed toward the far edge of the platform, away from the blast-proof door.
A circular duct opening roughly a meter wide was barely visible there, with half of a shattered grate hanging from its rim.
"Commander, th-that's one of the factory's abandoned main ventilation ducts. It leads directly to the core cooling system on the level below.
"The opening is wide, and the inside is complicated, with a lot of branching passages. If we can make enough noise in there to attract them, maybe we can draw their attention away."
"A diversion," Jenson said succinctly. "But we'll need to calculate it carefully. Too little noise won't draw them away. Too much might attract even more Predators."
"And even if we lure them off, someone still has to get over there and restart that detonator," Bossie said with a frown.
"The cable needs to be reconnected, and I may have to run a brief power test. That will take time, and I'll need a safe working environment.
"Once it's activated, the large-scale release of the neutralizing agent should severely disrupt mutants that rely on pheromones and specialized senses. That will give us the best possible window to reach the door."
"Then there's the door itself," Maya said, staring at the massive blast-proof door.
"If Leah and the others kept moving deeper inside, they may have locked or jammed it from within to stop the Predators from following them.
"We won't be able to open it quickly by conventional means. We'll need explosives.
"But the timing has to be exact. We must detonate them after the neutralizing agent takes effect, when the Predators are at their most disoriented. We also can't damage the door so badly that it won't close again. Once we're inside, we may still need it to hold off anything chasing us."
One mistake at any stage would ruin the entire operation. Worse, it could leave them trapped between enemies on both sides.
Calista listened to her teammates, her gaze moving slowly across their faces. After a moment of silence, a plan took shape in her mind.
"Honeywell, take Mikey and Leon and create the diversion. Use every explosive the team has left, along with..."
She looked at Bossie.
"Give them the remaining parts from that scrapped detector as well.
"See whether you can rig it with a delayed trigger to produce continuous signal interference.
"Once everything is in place, don't stick around to fight. Return immediately by the same route and wait at the shaft entrance. Be ready to cover our retreat or respond if anything goes wrong."
"Understood!"
Honeywell drew a deep breath. Mikey and Leon gave him firm pats on the back, then the three of them quietly began counting and dividing the team's remaining explosives.
They had already used all their stun grenades, and there was not much of anything else left.
"Bossie, Jenson, and Ethan, you're together," Calista continued, pointing toward a section of steel framework jutting out above the shaft.
"Jenson, Ethan, you'll provide cover throughout the operation. Take that high ground and eliminate any lone Predator that gets close to Bossie or tries to return to the blast-proof door.
"Bossie, you'll repair the detonator. Work quickly. Once the cable is connected, don't activate it immediately. Wait for my signal."
"Understood!"
Jenson was already adjusting his sniper rifle. Ethan chambered a round, while Bossie checked his tools.
"Maya, you're with me. We'll handle the final breach.
"Once the chemical neutralizer takes effect, we'll rush through the confusion and plant the breaching charges. We need to destroy the locking mechanism while doing as little damage to the door itself as possible.
"You'll cover me and deal with anything that gets too close."
"Yes!"
"Everyone, listen carefully," Calista said. "When the neutralizing agent is released in large quantities, it may briefly affect your senses even through your masks.
"You may experience dizziness, nausea, or disorientation. Be ready for it and keep yourselves steady.
"Our priority is to get through that door and rendezvous with the task force, not to wipe out every Predator.
"If the diversion fails, or if we're exposed while repairing the neutralizer system, the explosion set by Honeywell's group will become the final retreat signal. Everyone will abandon the mission immediately and fall back to the shaft. Do not stay and fight.
"Is that clear?"
"Clear!"
The plan was set. All that remained was to carry it out.
Bossie knelt on one knee, with the core components salvaged from the damaged detector spread out before him.
There was a blackened circuit board with some of its circuitry still intact, several high-capacity capacitors, a miniature signal generator, and a tangle of thin wires.
He worked quickly, carefully wiring the components to the core triggering module of a small thermobaric charge.
Finally, he bound the entire device together with electrical tape and zip ties, forming a makeshift package about the size of a fist.
"Done!" Bossie said, admiring his work with satisfaction. "The electromagnetic pulse will set off the charge. It won't be very powerful, but it should create a muffled blast and a shockwave deep inside the duct.
"Too bad Ancheta or Jonathan isn't here. Either of them could have built something better. The problem is... how do we trigger it remotely?"
Jenson frowned. "Could you give me a physical trigger point? How hard would something have to hit it?"
Bossie paused, then immediately understood what he meant.
"I left an exposed copper contact on top of the device. It's connected to the most sensitive bridge circuit.
"If a metal object strikes it fast enough, like a bullet, it will discharge the capacitors and trigger both the pulse and the explosion."
Jenson nodded confidently. "Then there's no problem."
"Okay!"
Bossie handed the device to Mikey.
With Honeywell leading the way, Mikey and Leon silently slipped out through the maintenance hatch. Keeping close to the edge, they crept toward the abandoned ventilation duct.
Calista, Maya, Bossie, Jenson, and Ethan remained where they were, holding their breath as they waited for Honeywell and the others to make their move.