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.What fire it hadn’t been able to stop, the emergency personnel did.Now all that was left was to sift through the pieces and try to figure out what was what.An explosion of sparks from a live wire cascaded down over her from the ceiling and Taber quickly yanked her out of the way.Dread squeezed the air from her.No one could have survived this.The force of the blast had ripped the metal piping from the ceiling.It now dangled from weakened cables, dangerously close to the rescue personnel.She turned to see bodies or parts of bodies being brought out from what was left of the conference room.“The medics have only been here a short time.They wouldn’t have found everyone yet.” Taber ground out angrily.She felt his frustration.“I only see Briel security.Where the hell are my people?” Haylie moved to the computer panel in the hallway and hooked into the security grid.Thankfully, it hadn’t been damaged.“All security personnel, report to junction 43-B.This is not a drill.” The claxon immediately began to sound, creating another flurry of activity.Haylie didn’t wait.She shut down her emotions and waded into the carnage.Mentally, she went through the procedure manual, trying to think of only the basics.Look for anything that might resemble a bomb.A lot can be learned about the maker from examining the device.Look for a point of origin.Where the device was placed can give an indication of size.She turned back to the blast marks on the wall and tried to trace them back.Her vision blurred and she realized tears filled her eyes.She brushed them away and prayed no one noticed.Maybe he wasn’t in here.Squeezing her eyes shut, she prayed and prayed hard that he wasn’t.Eight disheveled human guards finally arrived, some of them still half dressed in EV suits.The oldest, a woman in her thirties, spoke.“Sorry, Chief.Ten of us were dispatched to a disturbance out at the mine.It turned out to be a false alarm, but it took us a while to get back.”Haylie’s temper flashed.Who the hell was messing with her crew? “And the others?”“They’ve just gotten off a double shift.”“They need to rest, then.With the Briel here, we should be able to handle things for now.” Haylie proceeded to give orders, spreading her people as thin as they could go.“Haylie!”Sara’s voice caught her attention.When her friend reached her, Haylie could see she was covered in soot and blood.“You’re not bleeding, are you?” Haylie asked in a flash.She couldn’t handle it if Sara had been hurt by this too.“No.This,” she indicated her stained suit, “isn’t mine.Are you okay?”Haylie felt her insides quiver, but she’d never let her concern outwardly show.“I’m fine, but Kamran is missing.”Sara’s hand flew to her mouth.“Oh, hon.I’m sorry.”“He’s not dead.I’d know if he was.But he’s hurt somewhere.”Sara gave her head a shake, “What do you mean?”“Later.Right now we need to find him.”“We will,” Sara said and gave Haylie a squeeze.Sara was called away by one of the doctors, leaving Haylie to search on her own.The scene was devastating, and Haylie knew there was little hope of finding anyone alive.The bodies pulled from the room were twisted and disfigured.She wouldn’t recognize Kamran’s body if he was in there.It wasn’t until she was halfway to the meeting room that she saw the adjoining hallway.The destruction carried down there as well, bits of the wall had fallen, blocking most of the hall.She was about to walk past, to deal with the mess a bit later when something that didn’t look quite right caught her attention.She squinted trying to force her eyes to adjust to the dim light.Suddenly she realized what she was seeing.A leg.“Medic!” she yelled as she bolted through the destruction.It took her a minute to climb over the heated beam that blocked her passage.Her hands burned as she leveraged herself over the hot metal.When she landed she was suddenly overwhelmed by what she saw [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]