To Be A Warrior

Chapter 63: Die Rise Part 2

"That's six kilometers, Five," Sam says. "Talyon and her Marshals are heading up the building. The governors' guards are trying to stop them, but they're not even slowing them down."

I hear gunshots below me, but I don't bother looking over the railing of the stairway to see what's happening below.

"And yeah, there's a gun fight on the stairs. I guess it's a good thing I told you to keep climbing since if you hadn't..."

"I would have been caught in the crossfire," I finish with a grimace. "Have you told Talyon about the governors yet? How they're all..."

"No. Nicole tried to patch her in, but she can't get through. She's probably too focused on the governors' guards. We'll need to figure out what she knows though, and who she could have been taking orders from if the governors have all been dead for months. I don't understand what's happened here, but our only answers are on that dictaphone. Switch it on while you run, and I'll work on finding you a safe way out."

I pull the dictaphone from my pocket and switch it on with a click. The first thing I hear is a ragged cough.

"This is Priya McGregor," A woman says. "Chief Engineer of the New Oban Project. These are my last words. God, I'm recording them on a dictaphone."

My heart breaks as she starts crying.

"It was... it was Marshal Talyon. She's gone power mad. She asked for a meeting with the board, said she needed more authority, more power to protect the city. She said that the outbreak we had six years ago may have been contained, but the filth and stench of the crime than ran rampant here still needed fixing, and only she could do it." She coughs. "Miles, the CEO, he laughed her out of the room. We all did...

"She must have poisoned the coffee. I only drank a sip. I can already feel it. My heart is beating so fast. So fast. I've managed to lock down the top of the building, to keep her out of the control system on the rooftop. If she gets up there, she'll have absolute control over New Oban. The gates, the power system, our missiles, even the weapons on our other marshals.

"My parents are dead. I haven't got anyone close to me. The New Oban Project's been my whole life." Priya lets out a bitter laugh. "I can't get a message out of the building anyway. Talyon saw to that. But I've activated Jericho Protocol. The building's locked down, the tower guards have the final order to secure against all intruders."

Her coughing gets worse. "Whoever is listening to this, you can't let Talyon take over. My access code is 607868. Get into the control system. Use it to lock her out. If she gets control, she'll destroy everything we've built here. My life's work. Please."

Click.

I climb on autopilot, my mind reeling at what's just been said. All this time it was her. These governors had everything on lockdown because of her...

And I just helped her by taking down the security system.

"I can't believe it," Halima scoffs. "It was Talyon all this time. She's been pretending she's been getting orders from the board when she knew they were dead. She killed them! She's the one who kidnapped Amala. She's been lying to us from the start."

"Yeah, and I doubt Talyon's going to think Five just left and didn't try to look into the boardroom, meaning she knows that Five knows they're dead," Nicole inputs. "She's going to try to tie up loose ends. We've got to get Callista out of there."

Sam huffs. "Don't you think I'm trying? Callista, all your exits are blocked except one. You're gonna have to cross over to the west tower, the one with all the zombies. Yeah, sorry. You'll cross over using the hallway system, which should be on this floor that you're coming up one, climb up it, and then cross over on the gantry higher up to get to the control room before Talyon does."