“Is that—” Skye asked, and Mitzi pulled up short, turning back to the stairs, angry at herself for losing focus. There was a dark shape ahead, and she pulled her flamethrower nozzle out of the holder, feeling the tenseness return to her muscles.

The shape wasn’t moving, though, and Mitzi crept forward, prepared to pull the trigger at the slightest motion. She sighed when she got close enough to see what it was: boulders, slabs of cement, and crushed bricks piled up, blocking their path.

Damn, our demolition experiment earlier came farther down the stairwell than I expected.

Mitzi replaced her flamethrower nozzle and began poking around the edge of the pile, looking for a way through. She hated the idea of having to return to the passageways, especially when they were so close to their destination, but the rubble was heaped nearly to the roof. She swore.

“Can we climb over it?” Skye asked.

“I can’t see a space wide enough.”

“Get out of my way, damn it,” Mir said, shoving through them. “What’s the point of having super suits if we don’t use them?”

She clambered up the pile, slipped as part of it shifted under her, then regained her balance. Mitzi realised what she was going to do and, with a final glance at the passageway behind them, beckoned for Skye and Eoin to follow.

Mir had her hands planted on one of the top slabs of concrete, and Mitzi came up beside her, mimicking the pose. The remaining two team members quickly joined her. Together, they put their heads down and strained against the massive weight. The rubble underneath Mitzi’s feet shifted, but she pushed forward, leaning her weight into the task, praying that the suits would be strong enough.

With a grating, grinding noise, the slab shifted under their hands, raining dirt and dust down on them. They moved forward, not giving it any slack to roll backwards, pressing it up the stairwell, until they had created a gap wide enough to fit through.

“Go, go!” Mitzi said, and her team scurried through the opening. As Mitzi followed them, the slab started moving again, unable to resist gravity as it slid back into place. Mitzi squeezed through the gap as it closed, then stepped back, staring at the wall of rubble.

They were back on solid ground, at the top of the stairwell. To her left was the hallway that would take them to the reactor. To the right was the destruction that had once been the stairwell to the first floor.

“Franc?” Mitzi asked. “We’re on the right level, but the stairwell’s blocked again.”

“Don’t worry about me.” He sounded breathless, and she could still hear the steady rhythm of his feet. “I’m miles from that stairwell, anyway. Nic can direct me up a different one.”

“Good luck,” Mitzi said, then she turned to the hallway ahead of them. “Okay, Nic, where to?”

“Straight ahead for twenty-five meters, and you should see glass doors to your right. Go through those.”