Absolute Zero (The Shadow Wars Book 4) by S. A. Lusher Read Free Book Online Page A

anything, any small hint, that might tip him off to the true nature of the facility.
    For a long moment, there was nothing. He heard the hum of power, the nearly inaudible clacking of Trevor's fingers on a keyboard, the subtle sounds of the others shifting, breathing, murmuring occasionally.
    Then he heard something new.
    Beneath or perhaps behind it all, he thought he could hear a slow, steady, incredibly deep thumping sound. Trent's frown intensified and he pushed his exterior speakers to their maximum capacity, zeroing his senses in on the thudding. It was familiar, extremely familiar, and then he had it. He realized he couldn't figure it out at first because the answer was so glaringly obvious. It was a sound everyone heard in the subtle background of their own lives.
    But it couldn't be.
    It sounded like the beating of a gigantic heart.
    “Shit!”
    Trent barely managed not to shout in pain and surprise. He dialed his external speakers back down to regular level, waiting for the pain in his ears to subside. It was Trevor who had let out the angry curse. It seemed out of character for him, as though curse words rarely left his lips. Sergio and Sharpe crossed the lobby.
    “What is it?” Sergio asked.
    “The whole facility is on lockdown and power is almost totally gone. We've got maybe two hours left before everything goes offline and this place starts turning into a deep freeze. Reports showed a pretty bad ice storm coming in. It's going to be negative one hundred outside pretty soon. We need power and we need to kill the lockdown,” Trevor explained.
    “So how do we do that?” Sergio murmured.
    Trent and Drake were staring intently at the corporate trio. Trent saw that the other three mercenaries were paying close attention as well.
    “We might as well tell everyone,” Trevor said. “It's not a secret or anything.”
    Sergio seemed to consider it for a moment, then sighed heavily. “Gather round.” He waved everyone over.
    The five mercenaries converged on the desk. Sergio stared at them in silent contemplation for a long moment, then nodded to Trevor.
    “The facility is divided up into different buildings. Each building is connected with a tram tunnel.” He held up an infopad, showing a very basic map. The first four buildings were spread out in a diamond shape. They were in the bottom of the diamond, near the bottom of the screen. The next four buildings were situated in a straight line extending away from the top of the diamond. They were all connected with black lines.
    Trent realized it resembled an upside-down kite.
    “This building here,” Trevor said, indicating the first in the row of structures that Trent came to think of as the 'string' tied on to the end of the 'kite'. “This is where we need to go. Unfortunately, the facility is locked down. In order to lift the lockdown, we need to manually terminate the order in three separate terminals. Here, here and here.”
    He indicated the three other buildings that made up the 'kite'.
    “What's in those buildings?” Gideon asked.
    Trevor looked uncertainly at Sergio, who nodded.
    “The building we're in houses the hangars and processing. The building to the left houses living quarters for the staff. The building to the right is storage. The building dead ahead of us is where the power plant, water filtration and other basic utilities are housed. After we hit all three terminals, we'll need to gather in the next building, the command center, to lift the final portion of the lockdown,” Trevor explained.
    “And then? What's beyond that?” Drake asked.
    “None of your concern,” Sergio replied. “Come on, let's get to the tram station.”
    “You don't want to hunt around for survivors? Maybe find someone who made it and could tell us what went down?” Trevor asked, standing.
    “We're not here for survivors,” Sergio replied.
    They left the lobby.
    As one, the group went through the left-hand exit and came to a lengthy corridor that