I wave her over and press my hands to her ears. While I’m healing Walker, I look over at the clerk. “You should get out of here. Go outside very slowly, with your hands up. We’ll send out anyone else we come across.”

The clerk nods mutely, then begins taking baby steps towards the exit, his hands raised above his head.

Walker shakes off my hands as soon as her hearing is back. “What did he say?”

“He said we’re going up,” I reply, pointing to the elevator.

“Actually,” Nine says, “they’re coming down.”

The hotel’s one working elevator has begun to descend, the little lights above ticking off the floors. I light my Lumen, the whoosh of flames feeling good. Walker adjusts her grip on her pistol.

“Easy, guys,” Nine says. “I’ve got this.”

Nine picks up one of the leather sofas and holds it like a battering ram. Walker and I both step aside, giving him room. When the elevator dings and the doors slide apart, the four Mogadorians sent downstairs to reinforce the ones we’ve already dispatched are greeted by Nine screaming and shoving a sofa into them. One of them manages to get a burst of blaster fire off, but it sizzles harmlessly against the floor. The entire unit is pinned inside the elevator, the centermost Mog crushed outright behind Nine’s weight. Walker easily darts around Nine and picks the Mogs off with her handgun.

“That still doesn’t make up for the whole glove thing,” I tell Nine as he effortlessly tosses the sofa back into the lobby.

“Come on,” Nine complains, grinning. “It was an accident.”

“Are there any other alien gadgets I need to be aware of?” Walker asks as we pile into the elevator and hit the button for the top floor.

“Well, there’s this,” Nine replies, and pulls a string of three emerald-green stones out of his pocket. I remember that thing from before—when Nine throws it, the string creates a miniature vacuum, sucks up whatever’s close and then spits it violently back out. He must have taken it out of his Chest before turning over the rest of his Inheritance to Marina and Six.

“What does that do?” Walker asks.

“You’ll see,” I reply, looking at Nine. “You know there will be more waiting for us outside the elevator, right?”

“My thoughts exactly,” he replies, grinning.

I pull Walker close so that we’re pressed against the side of the elevator, right up against the buttons. Nine takes cover against the opposite wall, lazily swinging his string of stones like a bolo.

“You might need to hold on to me,” I tell Walker. “You’ve seen how Nine does with gadgets.”

“Hey,” Nine says, wounded. “This one I actually know how to work.”

Seconds later, the elevator doors open and a barrage of blaster fire hammers the elevator’s back wall, the Mogs up here adopting a strategy of shoot first and ask questions later. Without poking his head out of cover, Nine tosses the strand of stones outside the elevator.