Klara blasted through the door behind the speed boosted squad. By the time she entered the control room, the two bays for the operators were empty. She turned to see Yeger face off against an Alchemist soldier nearly as big as he was. The fight blurred as they clashed, and Yeger’s howl accompanied the grunts and cries from the rest of the fight.

  Then he blurred and pivoted, twisting in an almost graceful way as he threw the meaty soldier at the window.

  Klara’s jaw dropped behind her half-mask. How the depths had he done that? He’d completely negated the man’s weight and strength, using it instead against him.

  The rest of the fight was over in a moment.

  Speed extract annihilated combat time.

  Nika hurried to the signal bay closest to the door. Klara noted a splatter of blood on her face and half-mask as she slid into the seat. Her own? Or the soldier who lay dead a few feet away?

  Yeger walked over. “Learn fast, Nika. Signals incoming from both ends.”

  “Why the depths didn’t you wait, then?” Klara demanded.

  “They started after I stepped off the roof,” Yeger said, shrugging then sucking in a sharp breath and wincing as he glanced at his shoulder and the blood staining his white coat.

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  Klara hurried to Nika’s side. “What do you need us to do?”

  “Find the cursed code book!” Nika said as she rifled through sheets of paper scattered over the bench in front of the panel of control levers.

  Klara joined in the frantic search. Every few seconds she glanced out the window at the towers above. Tower by tower the signal grew closer. Taking around a minute to transmit, then move to the next tower. One tower left now. “We have sixty seconds to find that book,” Klara said.

  “Found it!” Adamov called from the opposite signal bay.

  Klara sighed with relief. Though they weren’t safe yet, Adamov still had to find the right code.

  Adamov opened the book and flicked through, muttering to himself as he glanced out the window and down the mountain at the signal moving towards her.

  The signal from above reached the tower before them, and Nika started furiously scribbling on a pad, copying the message flashing from above, her movements boosted by speed.

  “Adamov…” Nika said, panic tinging her voice as she wrote another pattern and the flashes above stopped.

  “I know!”

  With the tension and panic in the room, Klara almost swore reflex was going to trigger.

  “A,” Adamov began at last, “G, 8, 4, S, T, 9.”

  Nika slammed the corresponding shutters, punching out the code.

  “Wait!” Adamov yelled. “It’s a five, not an S.”

  Nika swore. “Too late now.” She finished the code and sent the message.

  Klara slumped against the wall nearest window. They’d either succeeded, or alerted the Alchemists that something was awry in the tower.

  Through the open door of the control room, Klara heard a grunt and a table scrapping across concrete. Frowning, she pushed off from the window and hurried down in time to see Mikhail hurled across the room like a rag doll.