Normally the elevator would take visitors to the museums on the next level, or the viewing area of the Zhou chambers, if they were open. Pass cards would allow officeholders to go up and down freely, so they could show the entire Zhou to prominent visitors.

Natalya didn’t push the button to call the elevator. Instead, she cranked open the doors with a splitter that had just a minute ago been the coffin’s lid.

While Natalya worked on the polished doors, Sisi removed the cover for the elevator’s buttons, cutting a wire and attaching it to her datasheet. By the time Natalya got the doors open, Sisi had sent the car to the basement level, signaling it to stay there.

Ptolemy had informed them that the building had a stout security system, with monitors on all the elevators and cameras everywhere. Of course, the falsified orders to inter Natalya’s body included the command to turn off all cameras in the Hall of Dishonor. There couldn’t be a record of a body that didn’t exist filling a coffin that didn’t need to be filled.

So long as they stayed in the Hall of Dishonor, their crack of corruption would protect them. But if they tried to use the elevator, a hundred eyes would be on them. That’s why they had to rocket up the elevator shaft.

The coffin concealed a toolbox of pieces. Co and Jasper disassembled the coffin while Natalya and Sisi worked, reassembling the pieces to form the shape of a small platform with four boosters beneath it. The rocket platform, taken from its hookup near Chimera’s airlock, was meant for quick acceleration in spacewalks, but could hypothetically work in atmosphere. Of course, Sisi had to tinker with it first.

Natalya attached the platform to the elevator cable. Sisi had modified the platform to be used in the elevator shaft, and to minimize noise, and double-checked the engines before joining Natalya, Co, and Jasper on the platform.

“Still say it would be easier just to shoot our way to Qin’s office,” Co said.

“That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Natalya replied with a smile. “Hit it, Sisi.”

Sisi activated the platform. Jasper once again had to put his hand over her mouth, her muffled screams heralding their takeoff. Puffs of spent propulsion filled the elevator shaft like a smokestack before dissipating into clear air as the platform rocketed upward.

When they reached the top, Sisi activated the locks and turned off the boosters.

“Oops,” Sisi said as they hung in brief suspended animation. They’d ceased accelerating and gravity had not quite grabbed hold of them. With another muffled scream from Sisi, the platform fell back down the elevator shaft.

They fell three floors before Sisi flipped the boosters back on. This time, when they reached the top, she successfully activated the brakes and the platform came to a halt, dangling and swaying ever so slightly at the top of the elevator shaft.

“Wrong button,” Sisi admitted with a chuckle.

“Jasper, cut off her hand,” Co said.

“No cutting off hands,” Natalya said, jamming her splitter into the elevator doors.

“Jasper said we could.”

“I inferred that it was hypothetically possible,” Jasper corrected.

“You guys must have had some morbid conversations while I was out,” Natalya said. With the splitter readied, she took a moment to look at her companions. “Alright, when I open this door, we’ll have about three minutes before they get wind of what’s happened. We cut the transmitter, get it back here, and down and out the door before anyone figures out the elevator doors aren’t just malfunctioning.”

The others nodded.

Natalya took a breath, and cranked the splitter.

The doors opened onto a polished, black-tiled floor with black curtained walls. There were no windows, just black curtains everywhere. It was impossible to tell what was behind them, if they were concealing something or just for decoration, but they lined the corridor all the way to the glass door of an office.

Stained wood lined the black glass like the handle of an onyx blade. A simple Q on the glass marked the entrance.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Co led the way with her massive gun strapped across her shoulders, bracing it in her robotic hand. Natalya followed, her carbine similar to the ones the real Zhou Guard carried. Sisi came behind, her welpro humming with the rocket platform held in front of her, while Jasper took the rear with his golden sword.

With a few attachments, the rocket platform served as a welding torch.

“The boosters’ energy is simply redirected onto a torch point that—” Sisi said.

Natalya interrupted her, saying, “Just get the door open.”

Sisi cut through the door like it was butter. When she finished, Co kicked the arched hole inward and leapt inside the office.

As Ptolemy had told them, the office was vacant. Qin was not supposed to be at the Zhou. Gold-speckled black tile glistened on the floor, with idle projector screens on the walls and a wall-sized window that looked down upon Prosperity. Close to the door, a holographic projector displayed a slowly turning image of Prosper, while a stout desk covered in gold-studded, black leather sat in the center in front of a black leather chair.

“He needs more color in here,” Sisi noted.

“I don’t think he’s concerned about ambiance,” Natalya replied. She looked out the eighty-storey tall window and saw the glistening Zhou compound, along with the low buildings around it. The smog-laden, skyscraper-decked city of Prosperity loomed beyond. Jutting out from the window’s base, just out of view, was the yellow-painted universal transmitter.

Given to Duke-level officials and the Zhou Chairman, the universal transmitter was a way to bypass security concerns, but only the Chairman’s could be used on any planet. Locked inside was a single, highly unstable isotope of carbon that had no electrons. It took great expense and expertise to create, and allowed a tremendous amount of security when transmissions were broadcast through this isotope. Even if someone were able to break the normal codes, which Ptolemy had, the missing isotope would change the signal ever-so-slightly into uselessness.

That’s why they needed the transmitter, and why Sisi cut through Qin’s glass window to get it.

Air gusted through the cracks as Sisi moved her torch across the window, the smell of artificial pollen tricking the senses into thinking a pleasant forest grew below. Natalya wiped the sweat out of her eyes, counting her breaths as she scanned the window for threats.

“One minute,” Natalya said.

“Captain,” Co said. “Just to be sure, I can only shoot if needed, right?”

“Right.”

“What about Qin?”

Natalya turned just in time to spot the round face, blue eyes, and sickening smile of the man in the black silk shirt at the door. Golden buttons ran up the center of his silk jacket and ended in a high, shining collar.

“Natalya. To what do I owe this visit?” Qin asked.

Before Natalya could open her mouth, Co shot the man.

Natalya was about to do the same, but the blast simply dissipated around an invisible shield.

“This is a weak assassination, Natalya,” Qin said, his smile never wavering. “And your terrorist bunch looks to have expanded.”

“And you’re an idiot for coming here alone. Keep cutting, Sisi,” Natalya said as the glass fell away. Sisi stepped onto the window ledge and started cutting the transmitter as the wind blew her braided hair about.

Jasper stood beside Natalya and Co, facing the shielded Qin.

“Fascinating technology, isn’t it? Not quite as advanced as your friend Pul, but it suits my needs. And I’d hate to have the implants he has,” Qin said, referring to the shield emitter he wore on his wrist like a buckler.

“What do you want, Qin?” Natalya asked, hoping that the more the man talked, the more time Sisi would have to cut the transmitter.

“You want to destroy a planet, Natalya? A second one?” Qin made several tsk noises with a click of his tongue.

“Yeah. I had Co put a neutron bomb in the planet’s core. Better find something to hold onto.”

“Humorous, but unlikely. You and I both know you’re going after the planet-destroying space station.” Qin clapped his hands together and stepped into the room. “Now, I am a man of peace. I want what you want, and this station will allow us to achieve both our goals. It can be reached much more easily if you simply give it to me. I’d hate for its existence to become known, and thus compromised.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Natalya countered.

“Show me where it is, and we can work together. Don’t, and I will find it. And you’ll earn that spot in the tomb I’ve built for you.”

At first, Natalya wanted to laugh at the too-proud Zhou Chairman, but she recalled what Ptolemy had said about his space station. It was a Prosper-forming accelerator. Could it be used to decimate, rather than create, an atmosphere? If so, it really could destroy a planet.

“You know it then,” Qin said, reading Natalya’s face. “Tell me where he’s hiding it. I’m assuming it’s still near Farbind, but the Prophets are keeping my ships from searching for it. This gives you a unique opportunity to save lives, including your own. Including that little girl you found on Teal.”

“Dana’s alive?” Natalya asked.

“I’m afraid Pul insisted. He also insisted he be allowed to kill the one who turned him into a monster. That’s you, by the way.”

“That’s not true!”

“Of course it is. Your understanding of truth is just different from what truth really is. Tell me where the station is, and I can change that truth. Or, I can signal for—”

Co fired a grenade and blasted Qin backward.

Natalya raised an eyebrow at Co.

“He talked too much,” Co explained.

“Fool!” Qin shouted from where he’d landed in the hallway. His shield emitter had absorbed the explosion, but the shockwave had knocked him off his feet.

Co opened fire before Qin could stand, but Pul emerged from outside the office to step in front of the blasts, deflecting them with his shielded hands. He’d been waiting in the hall, like a dog on a leash, and leapt to his master’s defense.

“Kill them!” Qin commanded, and Pul charged through the storm of blasts.