Epic: Book 03 - Hero by Lee Stephen Page B

personnel.
    Thankfully, Scott could handle the technology. As soon as his ExTracker was on, he got three hits, all on the right side of the hall. Two in the corner, and one against the back wall. Two humans and a Bakma. According to his ExTracker, nothing was in the large room to his left. Don’t trust it. Look yourself.
    He made a hand signal to Nicolai, indicating to him to investigate the hits in the room on the right.
    Nicolai crossed to the right side of the hallway, nearing the door there.
    Holding up three fingers, Scott and Nicolai locked eyes. Three fingers became two, two became one, and then there were none. The two men burst through the doors simultaneously—Scott into the room on the left and Nicolai into the one on the right. Scott’s room was empty, as ExTracker had predicted.
    Across the hallway, gunfire erupted. Scott sprang to his feet and dashed after it. The exchange stopped before he arrived.
    Nicolai stood alone in the center of the room. Two dead Bakma were sprawled in the corner. The slayer’s shoulder armor was smoldering but intact. Crouched in the corner, behind the dead Bakma, two priests huddled together. The hostages. There had been four beings total in the room—not three as ExTracker had claimed. Thankfully, Nicolai was capable.
    Click.
    The sound came from the hall. Scott and Nicolai froze. It was a door opening stealthily—in a way not meant to be heard.
    On Scott’s motion sensor, a new target appeared down the hallway, just beyond the door to the room they occupied. It was identified as a Bakma.
    Scott signaled Nicolai to the room’s inner wall, the wall shared with the hallway. Nicolai pressed against it. Lowering to a crouch, Scott crept back until he’d placed himself at an angle to the door. The target crept closer.
    His mind churned. Nothing had been behind them in the hall. The room on the other side had been clear. This new target must have come from somewhere else. Possibly from the left-hand turn down the hallway.
    He heard a new sound—the delicate pad of footsteps on the carpet. Nicolai’s body was tense; he must have heard it as well. The Bakma was there, mere meters away, separated only by the wall. Scott was tempted to shoot through the wall, but he restrained himself.
    It could be another human if ExTracker’s wrong.
    Scott issued Nicolai another sign—the signal to fall back. Scott wanted this one himself. His hands remained gripped on his weapon as he eased against the wall that divided the room from the hallway. Nicolai fell back, training his weapon on the doorway. The priests remained in the corner.
    Scott drew a breath as he set down his rifle. He wasn’t going into this one guns blazing. He felt better at close range with a blade. Pulling out his combat knife, he waited a silent three-count. Then he moved.
    He dove straight out the doorway, rolling as plasma bolts fought to keep up. It was a Bakma indeed. Scott bent his knees and leapt straight into the alien. The Bakma fell backward as Scott collided against it.
    There was no hesitation. Scott jabbed his knife straight into the alien’s forehead. The Bakma warrior’s body shuddered with spasms.
    A new sound emerged from around the corner. Scott released the knife, still stuck in the alien, and ripped out his pistol. No sooner than he’d lifted it up, another Bakma burst into the hall. The alien had scarcely taken two steps before Scott’s firearm erupted, causing it to collapse to the floor.
    Instinctively Scott turned to his rear. He listened until he was satisfied nothing was there. Then he moved toward the left corner where the Bakma had come from. Instead of edging around it, he burst around it full speed, training his pistol down the next hallway. It was clear.

    Scott returned to the room Nicolai still guarded to retrieve his assault rifle. He watched the priests through his helmet’s interior view screen. The moonlight through the window made the horns of his fulcrum armor gleam. The priests