“Wait.” I bit my lip, not wanting to ask, not wanting to know. “The command center. Do you mean the one on the first level or the second?”

“Down here. We were about to head upstairs when the power went out. We doubled back to security for lights. We haven’t seen or heard anyone else.”

I nodded, swallowing hard. “Don’t bother checking level one. Everyone in the command center is dead. My dad was alive, though. I left him in an office.”

“Cord is alive?” Hallam asked sharply.

How did they know my . . . of course. They worked for Omnistellar. I closed my eyes, exhausted. “Yeah. We were talking during the attack. He hit his head, and I couldn’t wake him up, so I went looking for help. Do you think . . . ?” I trailed off. It was their job to capture and imprison me. They were probably about to laugh in my face. My pride warred with the image of my father lying in a pool of his own blood until I whispered, “Do you think we could go get him?”

Priya and Hallam exchanged speaking looks. “I think we’re all on the same team,” Priya said at last. “For now.”

A burst of hope surged in my heart, so strong it almost hurt. “Then can you let the others go? The more of us, the better our chances. And . . . Reed can help Dad. Unless one of you is secretly a doctor, he might be the only one who can.”

She hesitated a moment, then turned. “Matt? You know them best. What do you think?”

My eyes locked with his, and suddenly he was once again the boy I’d known: tired, frightened, a little lost, but kind when it mattered. Then the hunter flickered back into place. “Keep your eye on Cage,” he said at last. “But . . . yeah. These things, they . . .” He swallowed hard. “We need all the help we can get.”

Priya nodded, accepting that. “All right. Then let’s—”

She never finished her sentence. As she turned toward the opposite end of the hall, a shriek pierced the corridor. Priya jerked her rifle up, but she was a fraction of a second too slow. The alien collided with her and tore her to the floor in a jumble of limbs and screams.

THIRTY-NINE

“PRIYA!” HALLAM SHOUTED, RAISING HIS massive gun.

“No!” Finn bellowed. “You’ll hit her!” He raised his own laser rifle and squeezed off a shot. It caught the alien in the shoulder, and the alien lurched aside with a screech.

Another scream answered nearby. More of them approached. I shrank against the wall. Without a weapon, I was worse than useless. Maybe with one too. I glanced at Matt out of the corner of my eye. Even now I didn’t think I could pull the trigger with him in my path.