The communications channel dissolved into a continuous electrical hum, though the instrument screens remained lit.
"We've lost our link to the rear," Bossie said, quickly checking the parameter dials on the communicator at his waist. The readings were jumping wildly. "The interference source is nearby, and it's getting stronger."
"This is where Leah and the others lost contact completely. Our anti-electromagnetic interference equipment should let us keep going farther than they did."
Calista's heart continued to sink.
Leah's team had not only lost contact with the Command Center. Without anti-interference equipment, even their internal communications had failed completely. Their situation had been far worse.
Calista forced herself to remain calm and urgently scanned the surroundings.
There!
Beneath a relatively intact pipe on the left was a clear arrow painted in fluorescent paint. Beside it was a simple triangular symbol meaning "Danger."
The marker was fresh.
"There's a marker here! Move!" Calista ordered.
The team hurried through the corridor.
They soon found two more markers.
The first was roughly fifty meters from the previous one and directed them into a maintenance shaft that descended farther underground.
The second appeared at a junction less than thirty meters into the shaft, its arrow pointing toward an even narrower passage.
The gaps between the markers were clearly getting shorter.
"They were making decisions faster, or the environment was changing too quickly and they had to keep confirming their route," Maya whispered behind Calista, her weapon trained on the team's rear flank.
The ever-present crackling was no longer an occasional disruption. It had become a constant background noise. The lights on their electronic devices began flickering uncontrollably, and the smaller indicator lights flashed erratically.
At last, they reached the end of that section of corridor and found a blasted-open alloy door. The damage was fresh and had clearly been caused by Jonathan.
The space beyond was relatively open. It was almost as though crossing that threshold marked their entry into the same forbidden zone.
The moment Calista and the rest of the team passed through, the intermittent static from the Command Center vanished from their headsets.
Absolute silence replaced it.
The external signal indicator on their instrument panels went completely dark.
"External communications are completely down. Repeat, external communications are completely down," Calista recorded calmly.
Fortunately, the green indicator atop an old-fashioned black box at Bossie's waist was still glowing.
He quickly adjusted several knobs and pressed the transmit button. "Team communications test. Respond if you copy."
After a brief burst of static, Mikey's voice came clearly over the team channel from the rear of the formation.
"Mikey copies. Signal is clear."
The old anti-interference analog communications core was still working.
It sacrificed bandwidth and clarity in exchange for far greater resistance to electromagnetic pulses and complex interference. It could maintain team communications and keep several of Bossie's detection devices operational.
Its range was limited to the immediate squad, but in this dangerous place, it had become their only lifeline. It was also an advantage the Spearhead Task Force had not possessed.
Calista surveyed the area.
Besides the corridor they had entered through, three unmarked passages led into the darkness.
By the time Leah and the others reached this place, they had already lost guidance from the Command Center. Their internal communications had also failed, and even their electronic devices had stopped functioning.
How had they chosen which way to go?
"Check every exit for traces," Calista said, taking a deep breath. "Leah and the others must have left something behind. The task force couldn't have simply vanished here."
Everyone began carefully searching the area.
"Calista, there's a fork ahead. The marker points to the left passage, but the contamination readings in the right passage are abnormally high. I'm also picking up severe energy fluctuations."
The needle on Bossie's modified detector was jumping wildly.
Almost at the same moment, Honeywell clutched his head and let out a muffled groan. He pointed toward the right passage, his eyes filled with fear.
"We can't go that way! That's the dispersion zone around the main leak. It was where the yellow smoke was thickest back then. Now... there must be something even worse in there!"
Calista immediately gave the order. "Avoid the right side. Take the marked passage on the left. Stay quiet and move quickly."
The team swiftly turned into the left passage.
It was relatively narrow, with tall walls of auxiliary reactor piping on both sides, crowded with valves and gauges.
Their flashlight beams illuminated only a short stretch ahead.
Most of the team had already passed through when Mikey and Leon, covering the rear, were about to enter the passage.
A piercing screech suddenly erupted from deep within the right-hand corridor, making everyone's scalp crawl.
Several dark shapes burst from the edge of the darkness and lunged straight at the rear guard.
Almost instantly, every light and weapon swung toward the source of the sound.
Four Claw mutants!
This was the first time Calista had seen the revolting creatures with her own eyes. They were even more nauseating than the Wildfire mutants at the Sentinel Station.
Their heads had no facial features. The nerve agent that affected their nervous systems had apparently overstimulated the nerves and blood vessels in their brains, causing them to swell uncontrollably.
Each head had become a massive purplish-red tumor extending from the back of the neck to the crown, its surface riddled with honeycomb-like holes. A huge mouth split open beneath it.
The Black Fire mutants seemed to use the entire tumor to sense light and movement.
One arm on each creature had swollen into a crystalline, tentacle-like giant claw that dragged along the floor. The opposite limb was an ordinary walker arm, hanging uselessly at its side.
Their asymmetrical bodies created a nightmarish sense of wrongness.
"Enemy attack! Rear guard!" Calista shouted, her voice echoing through the passage.
Mikey and Leon reacted immediately.
The chemical plant was packed with pipes and reactors, making destructive heavy weapons such as rocket launchers far too dangerous to use. Both the Spearhead Task Force and the Rescue Team had entered carrying only conventional weapons.
The instant Mikey heard the screech, he hurled a stun grenade at the charging shapes. Then he and Leon stood back-to-back and opened fire.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"Boom!"
The gunfire and the detonation of the stun grenade were deafening in the confined space.
A blinding flash filled the corridor. The blast overwhelmed the sensory holes in the tumors of the two leading Claw mutants, rupturing nearly half of them and spraying disgusting slime everywhere.
The two creatures were instantly blinded. They crashed into the pipes and were torn apart by the barrage that followed.
The other two were far more cunning.
They darted through the shadows along the walls, avoiding the frontal fire and charging straight toward Honeywell in the middle of the formation.
"Watch the flank!"
Maya reacted quickly, yanking the momentarily dazed Honeywell behind her while sweeping her submachine gun toward the side.
Bullets struck the wall and sent sparks flying, forcing one Black Fire mutant to retreat.
The other had already reached Honeywell.
Its enormous mouth snapped toward the seam in the protective suit around his neck.
At the last possible moment, Calista charged forward. She planted a foot against a nearby pipe and used it to launch herself into the air, drawing the machete from her waist with her right hand.
The blade flashed.
Its tip drove with perfect accuracy through the mutant's wide-open mouth and pierced straight through the purplish-red tumor.
The creature's charge stopped abruptly.
Calista landed and twisted her wrist, flinging the corpse into the wall. She swiftly avoided the stream of corrosive fluid that spilled out as she withdrew her machete, while simultaneously drawing her pistol with her left hand.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two precise shots blew apart the tumor on the head of the mutant Maya had driven back just as it prepared to attack again.
The entire exchange unfolded in a matter of seconds.
Every member of the team stared in astonishment, especially Maya, Mikey, Leon, and Honeywell, who were seeing Calista fight at full strength for the first time. Their blood surged with excitement.