Shad POV

The green glow came from an enormous lake. It was pale green, reminding me of ice and frost, and so still, it almost looked like a solid sheet of ice. In the center stood an island with a steel column on it.

"The lake itself is the portal," Veda said. "As soon as you touch that, you'll be out of the labyrinth. I can't see down there." She sounded frustrated. "I'm sorry, I think there were eight that got in ahead of you. Good luck."

I took a deep breath and set foot inside the lake. There was an intense shock of cold all through my body. A blinding blue-green light swallowed me up. I was tumbling in a whirlpool, spinning round and round, rushing water in my ears. I shouted, but nothing came to my ears.

Then, with a rush, it was all over. I stood in a golden antechamber. Three enormous thrones flanked me, each with a humanoid form sitting on them, 50 feet tall, at least. I didn't have time to look at the details.

The room was full of waist-high copper sarcophagi. From over one of them, a man, an earth man, popped his head out, took aim, and fired at me. I threw myself to the side, coming up behind another of the sarcophagi. As my team zoned in, I shouted warnings. "Get under cover!"

They hardly needed the warnings. Shots echoed all through the room. I poked my head out from around my sarcophagus and yanked it back as a bullet whizzed past my head.

"Who's out there?" I shouted. From the glimpse I had gotten, our enemies looked human, though there were plenty of aliens who looked more or less human, after all. "Can we talk?"

"Hold up," a voice rang out. I recognized that voice and ground my teeth. It was that damn Major Waters. "Well, Williams, I've been expecting you to poke your head out," Waters told me. "I see how this is shaping up. At last, you against me. Got you over a barrel here."

I sighed. "You have a way of turning up like a bad penny, don't you?”

“I asked you for your help and you turned me down," Waters said. "Told you all I wanted to do was go home. You wouldn't lift a finger. Now, look how the tables have turned. I've got the drop on you and your people. Stick your head up and you'll get shot."

Veda wasn't answering, so I sent a quick comms message to my team. "How many are there?"

Jones answered. He had the enhanced mini-map. "Eight of them. They're well positioned around the room and in cover. We need to get people flanking them."

"I'll keep Waters talking." I was starting to wish I hadn't used High Noon so recently. It wasn't off cooldown yet. I handed out some quick instructions, then lifted a hand over the edge of the coffin. "How about we settle this, Waters? Just you and me."

Waters laughed. "That's always how you get 'em, isn't it, Williams? No, I am not falling for your tricks.”

“But I think we can make a deal that benefits us both. You must know what I have here."

Waters hesitated. "Yeah, it's a bomb. Blows us all up. Reality Engine and all. You've decided if you can't have it, neither can they."

I laughed. Didn't have to fake it either. "Of course they'd tell you that. That’s not at all what we’re planning.”

I passed the key token over to Frank, who was crouched behind the sarcophagus to my right. He had the best shielding abilities of any of us and ought to be able to stay alive and hang on to the key for a critical minute or two.

I stood up, raising my empty hands. My gun was in my holster, but of course, Waters ought to know I could Quick Draw it and fire from anywhere. "Why don't we talk?" I invited.

As I watched my mini-map, my team was crawling their way into position, keeping low. The copper sarcophagi were offset from each other, providing a screen. Now that we knew where Waters' people were, we could move slowly and carefully.

Waters stood up too. He was standing behind a sarcophagus about halfway across the room. I took in the setting, the giant golden statues looking over the copper rectangles. Strands of light cascaded between the copper coffins in arches tall enough to duck under. I didn't know what they were, but I avoided disturbing any of them.

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"You know why we're here? We're here to end this whole business," I told Waters. "Reality engine exploits and mining, all the rest of it. That's what they're afraid of. They know that we have the means to do it. Kvaltash himself gave us the power." I activated my Bluff skill. My Charisma wasn’t what I’d like, but if Waters wasn’t expecting it, I might just be able to make him believe me.

Waters laughed. "I thought Kvaltash seemed like he was afraid of something. He hired us on, sent us after you in particular, said you'd be the one with the bomb and that you'd have some cock and bull story about it, but that we should retrieve it and take it to him no matter what. He offered me a job. Said once he's got the key put together, he'll be able to open any reality engine anywhere and straight into phase two, and he'll need someone skilled to help him take out fragments. Well, I know my way around a reality engine. Sounds like a pretty good gig if I can't retire to Earth."

“And you’re a bigger idiot than I thought if you buy that,” I said flatly, then started spinning my lie. “We stole his key from him. We're here to wake them up." I gestured around. I wasn't really sure if I meant the sarcophagi or the giant statues or both. Gambler hadn't been entirely forthcoming on what exact form these sleepers would take. “They’re a Progenitor failsafe, and they wake up if I activate this key. They aren’t going to like what the Galactics have been up to at all.”

Waters' eyes went wide. “Kvaltash is right! You are going to blow us all up!You're mad! And just so you know, he’s been monitoring this whole conversation.”

“Perfect! I was thinking I’d have to call him ourselves,” I said cheerfully. "So, Patriarch, want to come and talk it out like reasonable people before we set off a bomb that might bring down this whole place all on our heads?”

I’d timed it just about perfectly. There was a muffled noise off to one side. Waters’s eyes went wide. “I knew it!” He whirled just as Tall Smith rose up behind him, wielding a knife. Smith stabbed.

I had my gun in my hand, fired off a Trick Shot and caught Waters straight through the head as Smith's knife took him in the chest a second time. Waters collapsed in a gurgling heap. The rest of my team sprang, taking out half of Waters' people at once, and then it was chaos as the concealed enemy fired on us.

A bullet whizzed past my head, putting a hole in the brim of my hat. I fired back and heard a cry of pain and outrage as my own shot turned corners in order to hit the man crouched behind a sarcophagus. Mitch was down. I heard him moaning. Lara, somewhere behind me, was crying out in pain.

The last man popped up from behind a sarcophagus, took a shot at me, and ducked down again. I sprang over two rows of coffins to land right in front of him, and I emptied a Barrage right into his face. He went down. I spun about, looking for another enemy, but they were gone. I took a deep breath as Annie went to Lara's aid.

"All accounted for?"

"We're all here," Frank said. “Mitch needs help when you get a chance, Annie.”

My team stood up. We drew together and swept the room to make sure there were no more enemies. There weren't.

Frank gave me the key token. "I hope you know what you're doing with this," he said. "I'm not sure I liked the stuff you were spouting to Waters. How much of it was made up?"

"Not as much as I'd like," I told him. I half-held the key and then sent a message. "Gambler, you there?" I got no reply. "Grandpa?" I sent messages out frantically. Sage, Colin, Juana, anyone I could think of. No one was answering. We were cut off, or they were all gone, which was too terrible to think about.

Somehow the Galactics must have cut us off from our communications. I took a deep breath. "I wanted to call in a consult before I used this," I told my team. "I don’t know what these Sleepers are supposed to do, but there’s a chance they’ll take one look and pull the plug on this whole engine.”

Frank nodded. “Like an absentee landlord showing up and find rats hiding in the walls, though. That's when they call in the exterminators."

"We're not rats," Lara said. She was pale and shaking but looked determined. "I don't know what all this is about, but we followed you this far in, Shad. You make the call."

I looked at the ball in my hand, hesitated, raised it, and felt incredibly foolish. I had no idea how to activate it. There was no button. I turned it over in my hands, looking for something.

"Open sesame," I tried. "Activate." It didn't respond.

Frank snorted. "Did you forget to get instructions on how to use it?"

"I..."

And then Kvaltash appeared in the room with us, holding his own key. “Wait!” he shouted. “Don’t wake them! We can still work this out.”

I let out a long sigh and lowered my own token. “Nice of you to drop by, Patriarch.”

“Williams,” he acknowledge, staring me down. “You don’t understand what you’re doing here. Just hear me out before you do anything.. I don’t know who’s behind all this, but my church can pay you more than they can, I swear.”

I cocked my head to one side. “Wait, what do you think it going on?”

“I’ve nearly assembled the Key. That will change everything about reality engine exploits. Clearly, that’s enough of a threat to someone that they’re willing to condemn us all if it stops me, but I know you, Williams. You don’t want to die. I can offer you a chance. Who’s your backer? Proxima? I’ve been suspicious how well they’re managing with these so-called rogues.”

So Kvaltash had no idea what was really going on. I grinned. “I’m here on behalf of the engine itself, Kvaltash. Not Proxima or any of your galactics, but a fragment by the name of Gambler."

As I spoke his name, the ball in my hand glowed. It rose up out of my hands. I let it go. It unwrapped itself like a puzzle box, pieces pulling back, reconfiguring themselves into a cube.

"Communication re-established," Gambler's voice said in my ear. "Well done, Captain Williams."