“You were taking too long.” Lena studied the map. Her bark skin strained against her shirt and jeans, and had torn several small holes at the knees and elbows. Her swords were tucked through her belt. Ridges of oak shadowed her eyes. “I’ll meet you back here.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s something I have to do, love. We’ll make better time if we split up. I’ll call you if I find the sirens.” She adjusted her ring, but its magic had been damaged from its proximity to the guards and their badges. I reached to try to repair it, but she simply shook her head and ducked out the door.

“Huh.” Deb leaned against the wall and folded her arms. “When did she develop an independent streak?”

I ignored her and crouched beside the only guard who remained conscious. Her badge reached out to interfere with my magic, giving me a shimmering, ghostly appearance. I removed her weapons and slid them to the far side of the room. “A group of sirens was brought here earlier today. What happened to them?”

“I’d tell him, hon.” Deb smiled. Her yellowed teeth and taut skin gave the impression of a living skull.

“I saw something about them on the books,” the woman said warily. “They showed up before my shift.”

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know! All detainees are chipped, then sent through decontamination and cataloging. We haven’t gotten any orders about new residents.”

“Prisoners,” said Deb. “That’s the word you want. Or ‘victims,’ if you prefer.”

“Deb, would you please ask her to take a seat at the computer and pull up everything she can find about the sirens?”

“I can’t.” The guard pointed to the map. Many of the lights had turned red, and a larger light on the bottom left blinked red. “Command knows you’re here. They’ll have locked the terminals by now. Probably the doors too. You’re trapped in here.”

Deb tested the door. It didn’t budge.

I dragged the desk away from the wall. These weren’t computers, just dummy terminals whose cables led out of the room, presumably to a server somewhere. I climbed over the desk and studied one of the cables more closely.

“What is it?” asked Deb.

Each cable was as thick as my little finger. From the stiffness, they probably had a layer of metal shielding beneath the black outer coating. I yanked one from its socket. There was a spark of electricity and magic. “I’m not a network tech, but this is weird.”

“We don’t have a lot of time, hon.”

“Hold on.” I tightened my jaw and called Talulah. “I need help hacking a computer system at an illegal secret prison, and I don’t have much time.”

“I’m off-site. Hold on.” I heard her whispering to someone. Music swelled in the background, followed by explosions.

“What was that?”