She didn’t want to think about her little team growing smaller.

“I have another number to try, though,” Nic said. “Six-six-one-eight. That’s from one of the specialists with clearance to the reactor.”

Mitzi tried it. The light turned red and beeped. She swore.

“Didn’t work?”

“Nope.”

“Okay…” Nic sounded stressed. “It looks like someone put the room into lockdown during the invasion. That means—left, left, take the left! What the hell, Adam?—Sorry, Mitz. That means it can only be opened with a commanding officer key card, not just a code.”

Feeling sick, Mitzi raised a hand to rub at the bridge of her nose but only managed to bang the front of the helmet. “Okay. Where do we find one of those key cards?”

“Uh…”

“Nic?”

“They’re normally worn around the necks of the commanding officers.”

Mitzi turned, very slowly, to look back up the hallway they’d come from. She could picture the pile of bodies, limbs askew, faces distorted, and bathed in their dried blood. She saw herself climbing the pile, pulling aside bodies, digging through the rotting flesh, searching for the small piece of plastic that was her ticket into the next room.

It was too much. Her limbs were shaking again. She tried to breathe deeply, but her throat was tight and raw. She could only draw a thin gasp. She glanced at her companions. They were watching her, waiting for her instructions, concerned frowns barely visible under the helmets. I can’t ask them to do this. They’re barely more than children, and they’ve already seen far too much today. It’s got to be me. What did Franc say, way back in the ship? ‘We’ve all got to make sacrifices.’ This will be my sacrifice.

Mitzi took a faltering step down the passageway. A drop of sweat ran down her forehead and onto her cheek.

“Captain?” Skye asked, and Mitzi gave her a tight smile.

“Stay here while I look for a key card.”

She took another step forward as her three-person team bunched back into the corner of the hallway. She could feel their stares on her back. Her feet felt as if they were made of lead, but she forced herself to take a third step.

Then a loud bang made Mitzi jump. The suit overcompensated, sending her reeling into the wall, and she twisted quickly to face the figure behind her.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

Franc, suitless and panting, stood inside the control room. He’d beat his fist against the window to attract their attention.

“What the hell?” Mitzi approached him, but he’d already turned and jogged around the corner, to where the doors hid him from view. There was silence for a second then a beep, and the doors drew apart.

“Franc!” Mitzi cried. She went to hug him, remembered the suit would crush the reedy man, and settled for patting his shoulder instead. “What happened to you?”

He looked delighted with himself; his face flushed with success as he grinned at them in turn. “I was jumped by a Cymic. I think you heard that part. I was able to kill it, but it damaged the suit too badly to function, and I had to get out of it. I couldn’t even bring any of the weapons. It’s been pretty hairy. I kept thinking I could hear things just around the corner. I had no idea which direction to go or how to find you, but then I stumbled through a hole in the wall into this room, and I knew it must be close to the reactor.”