take one step towards the lake.
Brocke headed over to where Hemak was waiting, still shaking like a leaf.
"After what we just saw, I suggest you choose your next words very carefully," the guardian snarled, his voice so dark even Cora winced. "Is there anything else?"
Hemak almost jumped out of his skin, trying to back away even with his broken leg.
"The organ wing..." he whispered. "I think there are some people still there, but most of them were taken away."
Cora's heart dropped as her blood turned to ice. Brocke roared.
" Survivors ?" he bellowed at Hemak so viciously the man fell back, trying to crawl away from the guardian. "Are you telling me there might be survivors and you mention this now ?"
Cora already had her transmitter in her hand and spoke into it urgently.
"To all Militant units," she said. "Back-up requested urgently at the Ruval Factory south of Eborat. Possible survivors of the half-breed abductions. We need all units to search the complex here now ."
Brocke grabbed Hemak by the collar of the warrior's armor, growling to him:
"You better hope we find them alive or I will gift you an eternity to regret you led us to the dead first."
They took off running, leaving a very stunned and shaken Tomeh to guard Hemak, but the supervisor's feelings weren't among Cora's priorities right then.
Her horribly lively imagination was working overtime again. Cora had no doubt their arrival at the factory had been noted by any men Condor might still have had there. She could only hope Brocke had dealt with them all, but she didn't have the luxury of that.
Everything she'd learned about Condor told Cora that if there was anyone still alive in the factory when Brocke got there, they wouldn't live very much longer.
Luckily Brocke seemed to know where they had to go. Cora was thankful for that, because to her the gigantic complex looked like a maze.
They made it back to the speeder as fast as she could possibly run and for once, Cora jumped on the bike with no hesitation. It took off, engine roaring and she had to cling to Brocke hard enough to break her nails, but it didn't matter.
Even with the bike zipping through the halls, it took them almost two minutes to reach the wing Hemak had mentioned. Brocke jumped off the speeder and Cora rushed in after him, pulling her gun free from the holster. They rushed through the halls, but the only ones they saw were a few scared workers.
When someone opened fire upon them, Brocke pushed Cora out of the way and headed straight-on into the melee. She stayed behind, not wanting to get in the guardian's way in combat, but Cora managed to pick off a few a few enemies too as Brocke's swords cut their path through the corridors.
As soon as Cora heard the first scream, horrified instead of in pain, her heart leaped in joy. It was an unnatural reaction, but until there was someone who could scream, it meant they were alive.
It seemed there hadn't been many of Condor's men there as Hemak had said. Brocke dealt with all of them as efficiently and quickly as he could and finally they burst into a lab where they found the survivors.
“Thank the Gods,” she whispered, taking in the sight of the survivors, chained and locked up.
Cora could barely speak out of the mind-blowing relief that overwhelmed her as they untied the victims and unlocked the cages they were kept in. The half-breeds stumbled out, talking all over each other and it was all Cora could do to note it all down for her program later.
She swallowed her disgust when they revealed Condor had been planning to use them as involuntary organ donors for his warriors. Apparently they weren’t worth keeping alive, yet their organs were still good enough for Condor.
Overhead, she could hear the first Militant fighters arrive, but Cora refused to leave until the entire complex had been searched.
As Brocke and the Militant looked through every corner of the factory, Cora heard out the testimonies of the survivors. Most of them