Inside City Hall, everything was chaos in the best way. Staff members rushed around with clipboards, caterers wheeled in carts of food, sound technicians adjusted microphones on the main stage. In all the controlled madness, two more maintenance workers barely registered.
Kyla's earpiece crackled softly. "Test. You hear me?" Josh's voice came through clear.
"Loud and clear," she whispered back, pretending to adjust her cap.
They'd studied the building plans, but actually being inside was different. The main level was all marble floors and high ceilings, with paintings of former mayors lining the walls. Very official, very intimidating. They needed to get to the basement, three levels down.
"Stairwell should be past the main hall, on the left," Josh said quietly, carrying the case with the modified fragment.
They walked with purpose, like they belonged there. A real maintenance worker passed them going the other way and nodded. Kyla nodded back, her heart pounding. They were actually doing this. Actually breaking into City Hall dressed as janitors to stop an alien invasion. If they survived this, it would make one hell of a story that they could never tell anyone.
The stairwell door was marked "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY." Josh tried the handle. Locked.
"Of course it's locked," Kyla muttered.
Josh pulled out the lockpick set he'd brought. "Keep watch."
Kyla positioned herself to block the view of Josh working on the lock while watching for anyone approaching. The hallway was temporarily empty, but that could change any second. Her palms were sweating inside her gloves.
"Come on, come on," Josh whispered to the lock.
Footsteps echoed from around the corner. Someone was coming.
"Josh—"
"Almost got it—"
The footsteps got louder. Kyla could see a shadow on the wall, getting closer.
Click.
"Got it!" Josh pushed the door open, and they slipped into the stairwell just as a security guard rounded the corner. The door closed quietly behind them, and they stood in the dim stairwell, breathing hard.
"Too close," Kyla said.
"Way too close." Josh started down the stairs. "Come on. We need to get to the bottom level before the ceremony starts."
The stairwell was concrete and utilitarian, nothing like the fancy marble upstairs. Their footsteps echoed as they descended, passing doors marked B1 and B2. They needed B3—the lowest level.
At the B3 door, Josh paused. "You ready?"
"Not even a little bit. Let's do this anyway."
The door opened into a hallway that looked like it belonged in a horror movie. Dim lighting, exposed pipes along the ceiling, that weird industrial smell of old buildings. It was much quieter down here, the sounds of the ceremony preparations above reduced to distant murmurs.
"According to the map, the main mechanical room should be at the end of this hallway," Kyla said, checking the diagram Sarah had given them on her phone.
They moved carefully, checking each room they passed. Storage closets, electrical rooms, a boiler that hummed loudly. No sign of the Messenger or his people yet, but they had to be here somewhere, setting up.
The hallway ended at a large metal door with a keypad lock. Through a small window in the door, Kyla could see a massive room beyond. And in the center of that room, she saw them.
The fragments.
All twelve of them, arranged in a perfect circle on the floor, already glowing with that eerie blue light. Around them, someone had drawn symbols in what looked like chalk—complex geometric patterns that hurt to look at too long. And standing near the fragments, checking his watch, was the Messenger.
He looked different than Kyla remembered from the house on Oakwood Drive. Older somehow, tired. But his eyes still had that cold, calculating look. Next to him stood Dr. Edmund Price, the old man, holding a laptop and looking nervous.
"There they are," Josh breathed.
"And there's our problem." Kyla pointed to two other men in the room, both large and carrying guns. Security. "We can't just walk in there."
"We need a distraction. Something to get them out of that room." Josh thought for a moment. "The fire alarm. If we pull it, everyone will have to evacuate, including them."
"But then City Hall security will flood the building. We'll never get back in."
"Not if we hide in one of these storage rooms and wait for them to clear out. They'll do a sweep, make sure everyone's gone, then focus on getting people out of the building upstairs. We'd have maybe ten minutes while they're dealing with the crowd."
It wasn't a great plan, but it was better than nothing. "Okay. Where's the nearest fire alarm?"
They backtracked down the hallway and found a fire alarm pull station near the stairwell. Josh looked at Kyla. "Once I pull this, things are going to get crazy fast. You good?"
"Good. Do it."
Josh pulled the alarm.
Immediately, sirens blared throughout the building. Flashing lights started strobing in the hallway. Above them, they could hear shouting and the sound of many feet moving.
"Storage room, now!" Kyla said.
They ducked into a nearby janitor's closet, squeezing between shelves of cleaning supplies and a mop bucket. Through the crack in the door, they watched as the Messenger and his men came rushing out of the mechanical room, looking annoyed but not panicked.
"False alarm, most likely," the Messenger said to his security. "But check it out. Make sure no one's down here who shouldn't be. I'll stay with the fragments."
Damn. He wasn't leaving.
The two security men split up, searching the basement level. One headed toward the stairwell, the other started checking rooms on the opposite end of the hall. They were going to find Josh and Kyla any second now.
"New plan," Josh whispered. "When security guy checks this room, we take him down. Quietly."
"Then what?"
"Then we improvise."
The footsteps got closer. The security man was checking each room methodically, opening doors and shining a flashlight inside. Three rooms away. Two rooms. One room.
Kyla's hand moved to her gun, but Josh shook his head. Too loud. He picked up a mop instead, positioning himself behind the door.
The door swung open. A flashlight beam cut through the darkness.
Josh moved fast, bringing the mop handle down on the back of the security man's head. The man grunted and stumbled, but didn't go down. He spun around, reaching for his gun.
Kyla lunged forward, grabbing his gun hand while Josh hit him again. This time the man crumpled, unconscious.
"Nice teamwork," Josh panted.
"Thanks. Now what?"
They dragged the unconscious man fully into the closet and took his gun and radio. Through the radio, they heard the other security man checking in.
"North section clear. You got anything?"
Josh grabbed the radio before Kyla could stop him. He cleared his throat and tried to sound gruff. "South section clear. Must've been a false alarm like the boss said."
"Copy that. Heading back to the main room."
Josh and Kyla looked at each other. That had actually worked.
"You're a terrible impersonator," Kyla whispered.
"Hey, he bought it."
They waited another minute, then carefully opened the door. The hallway was empty. The fire alarm was still blaring, but it would probably be shut off soon once security confirmed it was false.
"We've got maybe five minutes before they realize their guy is missing," Josh said. "We need to move now."
The mechanical room door was still unlocked. Through the window, they could see the Messenger and Dr. Price with their backs turned, focused on the laptop. The other security man was standing guard by the fragments, but he was looking at his phone, probably bored.
"Okay, here's what we do," Josh whispered. "We go in fast and hard. You take the security guy, I'll handle the Messenger. We get them secured, then we set up the modified fragment before—"
The fire alarm cut off mid-blare, leaving sudden silence.
And then, from inside the room, the Messenger's phone rang. He answered it, listened for a moment, then his head snapped toward the door. Toward them.
"We have intruders," he said coldly. "Find them. Now."
"He knows we're here!" Kyla said.
"Plan B!" Josh threw open the door, and they rushed in.
The security man reached for his weapon, but Kyla was faster. She tackled him, and they went down hard. His gun skittered across the floor.
Josh ran at the Messenger, the case with the modified fragment clutched in one hand. But Dr. Price stepped between them, hands raised.
"Please!" the old man said. "You don't understand what you're doing! This is the greatest scientific discovery in human history!"
"Get out of my way!" Josh tried to push past him, but Price grabbed his arm with surprising strength.
Kyla was wrestling with the security man, both of them fighting for control. He was bigger and stronger, but she was faster. She managed to get her knee into his stomach, making him gasp and loosen his grip. She scrambled away, grabbing his dropped gun.
"Nobody move!" she shouted, aiming the weapon.
Everyone froze.
The Messenger slowly turned to face her, his hands raised but his expression calm. Too calm. "Officer Martinez. I had a feeling you'd show up."
"Step away from the fragments," Kyla ordered, trying to keep her hands steady. She'd never actually pointed a gun at someone before. All her training said she should be calm, controlled. But her heart was racing and her palms were sweaty.
"Or what? You'll shoot me in a room full of incredibly powerful dimensional artifacts?" The Messenger smiled. "I don't think so. One stray bullet could hit a fragment, and we'd all be vaporized."
He had a point. Kyla's finger moved away from the trigger slightly.
That's when everything went wrong.
Dr. Price, still holding Josh's arm, suddenly yanked him sideways. Josh stumbled, the case flying from his hands. It hit the floor hard and popped open, the modified fragment rolling out.
It rolled directly toward the circle of twelve fragments.
"No!" Sarah's warning echoed in Kyla's mind—don't let it touch the others before you're ready, the reaction would be immediate and unpredictable.
Josh dove for the fragment, but the Messenger was faster. He kicked it away, and it rolled further toward the circle.
Time seemed to slow down. Kyla saw the modified fragment rolling, glowing with its strange pulsing light. She saw the twelve fragments in their circle, humming with power. She saw Josh scrambling across the floor, the Messenger reaching into his jacket for something, Dr. Price backing away with fear on his face.
The modified fragment touched the edge of the circle.
Light exploded through the room.
Not the blue light of the fragments, but white—pure and blinding. Kyla threw her arm up to shield her eyes, feeling a wave of pressure wash over her like standing too close to a speaker at a concert.
When she could see again, everything had changed.
The twelve fragments were glowing brighter than ever, and the air above them was rippling like heat waves on asphalt. But instead of just rippling, it was tearing. A line of absolute darkness appeared in the air, then widened, edges crackling with blue energy.
The portal. It was opening.
And it was hours too early.
"What did you do?" the Messenger screamed at them. "It's not time! The alignment isn't complete!"
But the portal didn't care about schedules. It kept growing, now the size of a door, then the size of a car. Through the darkness, Kyla could see that other place—the purple landscape, the strange dark sky. And she could see shapes moving toward the opening.
The invasion was starting.
"Josh!" Kyla shouted over the roaring sound the portal was making. "The modified fragment! We have to—"
But the modified fragment was now inside the circle, touching two of the other fragments. All three were glowing wildly, their light strobing and pulsing. The reaction Sarah had warned them about was happening, just not the way they'd planned.
Josh crawled toward the fragments, but the Messenger grabbed him, pulling him back. "You'll destroy everything!"
"That's the idea!" Josh broke free and lunged forward again.
The portal grew larger. Now Kyla could see details of the creatures on the other side—massive things, definitely not human, with too many limbs and eyes that reflected the blue light. One of them reached toward the opening, testing it.
A clawed appendage pushed through into their world.
Kyla acted on instinct. She ran forward, grabbed the modified fragment from where it lay between the others, and hurled it directly into the center of the portal.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then everything happened at once.
The modified fragment exploded with light—not violently, but like a supernova in slow motion, waves of white energy radiating out. Where the energy touched the portal's edges, the darkness began to crack like glass. The twelve fragments on the floor started vibrating, their humming rising to a shriek.
The creature that had reached through the portal screamed—a sound that made Kyla's bones hurt—and yanked its appendage back. The portal shuddered, its edges fragmenting into smaller tears that flickered and died.
"No!" The Messenger ran toward the fragments, trying to stop whatever was happening. But Dr. Price grabbed him, holding him back.
"Edmund, what are you doing?" the Messenger shouted.
"What I should have done years ago," the old man said quietly. "I'm sorry. I was wrong."
The portal collapsed inward with a sound like thunder, the darkness folding in on itself. The twelve fragments on the floor cracked, one by one, their blue light dying. In seconds, they went from glowing artifacts to just rocks, dull and lifeless.
The modified fragment in the center of where the portal had been was gone completely—not broken, just gone, like it had never existed.
Silence fell over the room.
Everyone stood frozen, breathing hard, trying to understand what had just happened.
The invasion was over before it began.
They'd done it. They'd actually done it.
Kyla felt her knees go weak with relief. She sat down hard on the floor, the gun falling from her numb fingers. "We did it," she said, her voice shaking. "Josh, we did it."
Josh was sitting on the floor too, looking stunned. Then he started laughing—not funny laughter, but the kind that comes from surviving something impossible. "We saved the world. We actually saved the world."
The Messenger stood among the dead fragments, his face pale with shock and rage. "You've ruined everything. Years of work, decades of planning—"
"Yeah, we're real sorry about that," Josh said, not sounding sorry at all.
Above them, they could hear footsteps—lots of them. City Hall security was coming to investigate the disturbance.
"We need to go," Kyla said, struggling to her feet. "Now."
But the door burst open before they could move. Four security guards rushed in, guns drawn, with Sergeant Chen right behind them.
Chen took in the scene—the two officers in maintenance uniforms, the Messenger, Dr. Price, the unconscious security man Kyla had fought, and the circle of dead fragments on the floor.
"Reeves. Martinez." Chen's voice was dangerously calm. "Would someone like to explain to me what the hell is going on down here?"
Kyla and Josh looked at each other. How did you explain inter dimensional invasions and magical fragments and secret conspiracies?
"It's kind of a long story, sir," Josh said.
Chen's eye twitched. "Then you better start talking. Now."
End of Chapter 10