Chapter 388: Taking The Golden Nugget Hotel [4]

"Stay focused," Lucy warned. I tightened my grip on the Beretta and gave a quick nod.

Sydney did the same beside me, all the amusement gone from her face now.

Then Lucy eased forward and pushed the stairwell door open just enough to look through the narrow gap.

The corridor beyond was brighter than any of the other floors we had crossed, and that alone said enough.

Zakthar had probably installed the battery for them already, or at least enough of it to power selected parts of the hotel. They were obviously controlling where the electricity went to avoid wasting it. Even with how much energy Kunta said the Nexon Battery held, there was still no reason for Callighan’s men to light up every floor when they weren’t even using most of them.

But this floor?

This one was lit.

And clean too.

Too clean.

The carpet looked recently brushed, the walls had none of the grime and abandoned feel the lower floors carried, and the lights overhead were bright enough to make the whole corridor feel wrong after everything else we had moved through. It was the kind of brightness that made you instantly feel exposed.

I leaned a little, trying to look past Lucy into the hall, but before I could see much, she planted a hand flat against my chest and pushed me back. Then she let the door ease shut again without a sound.

"What?" I whispered.

"I heard voices," she said just as quietly. "At least three."

"As expected," Sydney muttered. "They wouldn’t leave Zakthar alone."

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the closed door.

"But them still being up here despite all the chaos outside pretty much proves he’s there, right?"

"Likely," Lucy said with a short nod. "When I was in charge, I always kept men posted over him too. We had walkies, so they would already know something is happening below."

"Then why are they still here?" I asked. "If they know the fight started, why haven’t they moved him out yet?"

Lucy glanced toward the door again before answering.

"They’re probably waiting for the right moment. And they may not even know anyone on our side is aware Zakthar is here. Some of Callighan’s men probably still think the attack is only about the hotel itself, or the state marina, or Callighan."

"So they’re waiting," I said quietly. "Watching the situation first, then maybe trying to move him once they see an opening."

"Perhaps," Lucy replied.

She opened the door a second time, even more carefully than before, barely enough to give herself a line of sight.

She stayed like that for a few seconds, listening, watching.

Then she closed it again.

"One of them just went through the door leading to the hall near the terrace level," she said. "That door is shut now. There are still two in the corridor standing guard."

Sydney shifted her weight.

"Then assuming Zakthar is inside that hall beside the terrace floor—"

"He’s there," Lucy cut in, low and certain. "They are positioned exactly the way I used to place them when I was running this part."

That made me exhale slowly through my nose.

So this was it.

"Am I being too hopeful if I say maybe it’s only those three?" I asked.

Lucy looked at me for a second.

"I don’t know," she said. "Usually when I was in charge, I only kept four watching him. Two inside the hall, close to his room. Two outside in the corridor, like now. He wasn’t considered that dangerous by himself."

Which made sense.

Zakthar was still just one Starakian with no real power in the direct sense, at least not the kind Callighan’s men feared in a fight. And from what I had seen, he had already been playing along enough that they probably didn’t expect a sudden escape attempt from him anyway.

So yeah, I wanted to believe they hadn’t overdone the security.

I looked at Lucy.

"Can you take both of them down?"

The corner of her mouth shifted just slightly.

"Who do you think I am?"

That got a faint smile out of me despite the tension.

Lucy let her rifle hang against her back by its strap, freeing both hands. Then she reached to the pocket near her chest and pulled out a handgun. It looked close enough to my Beretta to register as the same family, though I knew it was a different model. Smooth, dark, well-kept.

From another pocket she took a silencer and screwed it onto the barrel with careful movements, never rushing, never fumbling.

Sydney and I stayed quiet and out of her way.

Once the silencer was fixed in place, Lucy checked the grip, raised the weapon with both hands, and shifted her stance slightly toward the door.

Then she moved.

She kicked the door open hard enough for it to smash wide without slamming back on her, stepped through immediately, and fired twice before the men outside could fully turn.

The suppressed shots came out sharp and ugly, still loud in the enclosed floor but nothing like a full crack from an unsilenced handgun.

I only caught fragments of the movement. One guard starting to turn with his rifle low. The second barely moving his head before Lucy’s rounds hit. The first bullet snapped one man’s face back. The second punched into the other before he could even raise his weapon properly.

Both dropped almost at once.

Lucy kept the handgun up another second, checking the angle beyond them, then lowered it slightly and looked back at us.

She gave a short nod.

Sydney and I moved in behind her at once.

The corridor was even brighter from the inside than it had looked through the door. Both guards were down exactly where they had stood, shot cleanly and fast, blood already spreading across the carpet under them. One had collapsed on his side with his walkie slipping from his hand. The other had fallen backward near the wall, his rifle still strapped across his chest like he’d never gotten the chance to use it.

Lucy stepped over the first body and angled her handgun toward the closed door at the far end leading toward the hall beside the terrace floor.

I raised my Beretta and followed her.

Sydney came up on my other side, eyes fixed ahead.

Then the three of us started moving toward the door where Zakthar could be.

"Did the third guy inside hear that?" Sydney whispered as we moved up behind Lucy.

"I don’t think so," Lucy replied.

She didn’t walk up to the door directly. Instead, she slid to the side of it and pressed herself against the short stretch of wall beside the frame, listening first, one hand steady on the pistol, the other hovering near the door. Then, without wasting another second, she kicked it open and swung around fast into the room, her eyes already moving before the door had even finished crashing inward.

"Hey, what the— Lucy?!"

The man inside barely got her name out.

Lucy shot him immediately.

The suppressed crack sounded ugly and tight in the enclosed space, and the guard dropped where he stood without getting another word out. She stayed aimed on him for a second longer, confirming he was done, then gave the smallest tilt of her head for us to come in.

Sydney and I moved after her at once.

The room beyond was exactly what Lucy had described before, some kind of entertainment hall built for rich people who had once wanted to waste time in comfort. It was big, much bigger than I expected, with polished tables spread through the space, expensive chairs, a bar along one side, and broad windows farther in that probably opened toward the terrace side during the hotel’s better days. Even now, despite the world ending and Callighan turning the place into a fortress, there were still traces of money all over it. The carpets were thick. The walls had decorative wood panels. Half the lights here were working too, bright enough to leave barely any shadow at all.

Lucy barely spared any of it a glance.

"Here," she said, already moving. "He should be in the private room at the far end."

We followed her quickly through the hall.

Thankfully, nobody else appeared.

No second guard stepping out from behind the bar. No one rising from the corners. No sudden voices from another room. Just the dead man behind us and the empty hall ahead.

That should have made me relax.

Instead it only made me aware of how hard my pulse was hitting.

Still, as we crossed the room, part of me started thinking maybe I had worried for nothing. Maybe this really had been it. Three guards, a locked room, Zakthar at the end of it, and then we got him out.

Lucy stopped in front of the far door and stepped aside.

She looked at me and gave a short nod, leaving it to me.

I drew in a deep breath, reached for the knob, and turned it slowly before pushing the door open.

The room inside was fairly large too, more private lounge than prison cell, though it had obviously been turned into a holding space. There was a table near the middle, two chairs, shelves along one wall, and a lamp throwing a pale wash over everything. At the far end, someone sat with his back to me.

I saw the green hair first.

Then the slight pause in his hands.

He turned.

Gray-toned skin. Narrow face. Alien eyes. Familiar enough at once that my mouth opened before I even thought about it.

"Zakthar..." I muttered.

It was definitely him.

At the sound of my surprised voice, a small smile touched his mouth.

"Callighan did warn me that some people might eventually come after me," he said. His voice was calm, almost curious. "Are you with Gaspar, or with the Boardwalk side?"

"Neither," I said, stepping over the threshold. "But I’m here for you."

The second my foot fully crossed into the room, my whole body locked.

It felt like something invisible crawled under my skin all at once, cold and sharp and wrong, spreading from the base of my spine through my arms, my throat, my skull. My muscles went numb so fast they stopped feeling like mine. A high, violent ringing tore through my ears, not like gunfire, not like an explosion, but something worse. Something thinner and more invasive. My knees hit the floor before I even realized I was falling.

Starakian.

It was eerily familiar to the antenna but less powerful if I had to say but still very perturbing especially this close.

My eyes snapped up toward Zakthar through the dizziness.

He looked genuinely surprised.

"Another Symbiote Host..."

"Ryan!" Sydney shouted, panic breaking through her voice as she started forward.

I forced my hand up at once, stopping her before she crossed the doorway too.

"Release him," Lucy said coldly as she stepped inside with her pistol raised straight at Zakthar’s head.

He shifted his attention to her.

"They told me you were gone," he said. "Captured, even. I suppose you simply changed sides. Can you answer me now if you are with Gaspar or another group maybe?"

"I said release him," Lucy repeated, more sharply this time, thumbing back the hammer and sighting on him without hesitation.

Zakthar didn’t look disturbed by that. If anything, the faint smile returned.

"My life was in danger," he said. "And for the help I gave Callighan, he allowed me some bodyguards."

"We killed them," Sydney snapped from the doorway, glaring at him.

"Not them," Zakthar replied.

Something cold went down my spine so suddenly it cut through even the ringing in my head.

I turned left.

Beyond Lucy, just past her shoulder, a lean shape rushed out of the blind side of the room at a speed that made my stomach drop. It moved too fast, so fast my brain registered it before my body did and still couldn’t make my limbs answer in time.

There was no way I was getting Time Freeze off fast enough in this state and in this place completely diminishing my Symbiotic powers.

No way either I was reaching for the Beretta, aiming, firing, and stopping that thing before it hit her.

So I did the only thing I could.

I lunged forward, grabbed Lucy, and yanked her into me hard, turning my body around her just as the Hybrid reached us.

Something tore across my back.

The pain hit instantly, hot, deep, savage enough that my vision flashed white, and then I was airborne. The blow sent me through the side wall in a shower of broken plaster and splintered wood. I crashed out into the main hall, hit the ground hard, rolled across torn carpet and debris, and barely managed to keep hold of Lucy before we both slammed to a stop.

I let go of her immediately and pushed myself up onto one knee, breathing raggedly.

My vision blurred for a second.

At first I thought I was hallucinating from the Starakian perturbation still crawling through my system.

Then I saw Sydney.

The Hybrid was bigger than the lean one I had caught in that first rush. Broad, malformed, and too fast for something that size, with one huge hand wrapped around Sydney’s throat, lifting her clear off the ground while her legs kicked uselessly under her. Her hands clawed at his wrist. Her face was already darkening, the strain showing in the desperate jerks of her body.

He was going to snap her neck.

My eyes widened.

No.

I shoved myself forward, trying to run, but I knew instantly I wasn’t going to make it in time. My body was still half numb, my back was on fire, and the distance was wrong.

Damn it.

My mind jumped to the only answer left.

I triggered Time Freeze and grabbed Lucy’s arm beside me.

The world locked.

Everything stopped at once, the air, the falling dust, the Hybrid’s motion, Sydney’s struggle held in place like a picture about to break. We had ten seconds.

"Lucy!" I shook her arm hard.

She blinked, still dazed. She had hit her forehead when we went through the wall and there was dust in her hair, blood just starting near her temple.

"Lucy! Please!"

"W—what?" She asked, disoriented, her eyes darting around at the frozen world.

"Shoot his hand," I shouted, pointing straight at Sydney. "The one holding her throat!"

Lucy looked where I pointed and her eyes widened, but thankfully she didn’t waste even one second asking about the frozen time around us. She understood the only part that mattered.

She reached back, dragged the rifle off its sling, planted her feet, and aimed.

Four seconds.

Three.

The shot cracked through the frozen air.

Her round took the Hybrid’s wrist clean enough that the hand separated from the arm.

A perfect aim, something I wouldn’t have dared with Sydney’s life in the line but I had to trust in Lucy and it worked.

Sydney’s body dropped.

Please work.

I threw my left arm out.

After a moment a creeping heaviness hit me and I gritted my teeth.

Dark green symbiotic membrane burst from it in a snapping surge, stretching fast across the gap, wrapping around Sydney and the severed hand still clamped at her throat. I pulled with everything I had left, dragging her toward me just as the last second collapsed and Time Freeze shattered.

The world slammed back into motion.

The Hybrid lurched. Blood sprayed. Sydney tore free and flew across the space into me. I caught her awkwardly against my chest and nearly lost balance with the force of it.

"Sydney!" I said, dropping with her to my knees. Panic ripped right through me now. "Sydney, look at me! Look at me!"

Her eyes fluttered open for a moment.

Then she coughed blood onto my chest.

"Thank God," I breathed, biting down so hard on my lip I tasted blood too.

I pulled her into me and held her close while lifting my head toward the two Hybrids again, my whole back screaming and the Beretta already coming up in my shaking hand.