Blood on the Marina

Shattered Glass

The thick glass cracked under my hands with a sharp, booming sound.

Spiderweb lines of white fracture shot across the transparent wall in every direction. The automated voice on the speaker stopped talking immediately. The steady mechanical hum in the room cut out, replaced by a loud, blaring alarm bell that flashed red overhead.

"Warning. Containment breach in sector nine," a synthetic female voice announced through the speakers. "Initiating total lockdown."

I did not care about their warnings or their alarms. I gripped the edges of the growing cracks and pulled with all the strength burning inside my muscles. The black blood surged through my veins, hot and heavy, making my hands feel as hard as iron.

Crash.

The entire front glass wall shattered outward, bursting into a thousand glittering pieces that rained down onto the metal floor outside. A wave of cold air rushed into the cell.

I stepped through the broken frame, shaking the loose shards of glass off my arms. The hallway outside was long, bright, and completely empty except for a row of closed metal doors. On the wall opposite my cell, the digital screen showing Yetunde was already flickering and turning black.

"Yetunde!" I shouted, running down the corridor.

I threw my weight against the metal door where she had been trapped moments ago. The door held fast, locked tight with a heavy electronic keypad. I did not waste time looking for a code. I raised my glowing right hand and drove my fist straight into the center of the steel panel.

Metal screeched as my fist punched right through the thick plate. Sparks flew in all directions, smelling of hot copper and burning wire. I tore my hand back, grabbing the edges of the ruined door and ripping it open with a loud wrench of metal.

I stepped into the room.

The chair in the center was empty. The ropes that had held Yetunde were cut clean, and a small, glowing green tablet lay abandoned on the floor near the leg of the chair.

My heart dropped. I looked around the empty room, my breath coming fast. "Yetunde?"

No one answered. The room was silent except for the blaring alarm bells echoing down the main hallway. I walked over and picked up the green tablet from the floor. A single line of text flashed across its bright screen: HEADING TO THE UPPER DECK. DO NOT FOLLOW.

Before I could figure out what the message meant, heavy footsteps pounded against the floor outside the room.

I turned around just as two guards in dark tactical uniforms rushed through the doorway. They wore heavy armor and held long stun rifles aimed straight at my chest.

"Stop right there! Hands behind your head!" the lead guard ordered, his voice harsh.

I did not stop. I did not put my hands up. The anger burning in my chest was too hot, too heavy. I pushed off the floor and charged straight at them before they could pull the triggers of their rifles.

The lead guard fired. A bolt of blue electrical energy shot out of his rifle barrel, hissing through the air right toward my face.

I ducked my head to the side, letting the electrical bolt graze past my shoulder. The heat of it burned through my shirt, stinging my skin, but I kept moving. I closed the distance in a second, slamming my shoulder directly into the guard's chest.

He flew backward, crashing hard into the metal wall and dropping his rifle to the floor with a loud clatter.

The second guard raised his weapon to fire, but before he could pull the trigger, a sharp blue flash of light cut across the room. A glowing spear blade sliced through the barrel of the guard's rifle, cutting the metal cleanly in half.

The guard gasped, staring down at the ruined weapon in disbelief.

Amina stepped past me from the doorway, her face cold and hard. Without missing a beat, she brought the butt of her spear down hard against the guard's helmet. The man slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Tari stepped into the room right behind her, wiping a speck of dust off his black jacket. He looked at me, then at the ruined door I had ripped open with my bare hands.

"I see you finally decided to let some of the power out," Tari said, a faint smile touching his lips. "Took you long enough."

I turned to Amina, holding up the green tablet. "Where is she? Someone took Yetunde out of this room before I got here."

Amina looked at the screen, her eyes narrowing as she read the message. She did not look surprised. She looked like someone who had expected this all along.

"She was never a simple watcher, Kelechi," Amina said quietly, stepping closer. "And she was never trapped here by accident. The people running this facility are not just scientists. They are part of the inner circle of the Lagos underground council. And your friend knows far more about them than she ever told you."

"That is a lie," I said, my voice rising. "I know Yetunde. She helped me survive."

"People do what they have to do to stay alive in this city," Amina replied, her voice steady and unyielding. "Just like you spent years cleaning up magic blood in a club basement while your real life was waiting for you down here."

She turned toward the open hallway, pointing her glowing spear toward a heavy set of double doors at the far end of the corridor.

"If you want answers, we go through those doors," Amina said. "That leads to the central elevator that goes straight up to the surface streets of Lagos. That is where they are taking her."

I looked at the green tablet in my hand, then down at my right arm where the dark blood was slowly fading back beneath my skin. I did not know who to trust anymore. Every person I thought I knew had a secret, every memory felt like a trick written by someone else's hand. But I knew one thing for sure. I was going to find out the truth, no matter who stood in my way.

"Let us move," I said, walking past Amina toward the heavy double doors.

We reached the doors together. Tari stepped up, placing his hand on the manual override panel, and forced the heavy steel plates apart with a loud groan of metal.

Beyond the doors was a massive elevator shaft that stretched up into the dark, towering high above the underground facility. But standing right in the center of the open platform, blocking our only way up, was a tall man in a clean white coat.

He held a small silver remote in his hand, and a calm, cruel smile rested on his face.

"I am glad you finally decided to wake up, Kelechi," the man said smoothly. "I have been waiting a very long time to see what happens when the vessel finally breaks."

Before any of us could take a step forward, the elevator doors behind the man slammed shut with a heavy crash, and the walls around us began to shift.