The interior of the mill's brick chimney was a circular chamber of old brick and iron support rings. In the center, a large metal dome hummed with a dark, pulsing light—the Dadar Node.
Suspended from the ceiling, five feet over the dome, was Rhea. She was bound in dark-matter chains, her head hanging low, her breathing shallow. Her skin was covered in frost, the black light from the node slowly draining her energy.
"Rhea!" Vikram yelled.
"Stop," a voice whispered from the darkness above.
A tall figure clad in an elite dark-fiber suit dropped from the brick wall, landing on top of the metal dome. It was a Vow Wraith, his mask glowing with bright gold lines.
"The girl is the anchor for this node," the Wraith said. "If you touch the chains, her remaining energy will discharge into the core. She will turn to glass."
"Rahul, look at the console!" Vikram yelled, stepping onto the metal walkway.
The Wraith lunged, his hand forming a long, solid sword of compressed shadow. The cold wind of the blade froze the metal railing as he swung.
Vikram willed his Prana to ignite, his knuckles glowing with a bright blue light. He stepped inside the Wraith's guard, throwing a rapid combination of punches. The Wraith was fast, blocking with his shadow sword, but Vikram's Prana-empowered blows crackled with high voltage, leaving scorch marks on the Wraith's suit.
"Rohan, throw the flare!" Vikram shouted.
Rohan threw a halogen flare directly at the dome.
The bright white light filled the chimney. The Wraith's shadow sword dissolved, and he screamed, covering his eyes. Vikram drove a hard right cross into the Wraith's chin, the electrical shock throwing him off the dome and onto the concrete floor below.
"I've got the controls!" Rahul shouted, his fingers typing on the console. "I'm reversing the polarity of the node!"
The black light inside the dome went out, the hum dying down.
The dark-matter chains around Rhea dissolved, and she fell. Rohan caught her, wrapping his leather jacket around her shivering body. "Rhea, wake up."
Rhea blinked, her breathing returning to a normal rhythm. "Vikram... the Vow... they didn't just want the nodes. They have a tracking device on my neck. It's feeding our coordinates directly to the Gateway..."
She stopped, pointing to a small metal collar around her neck, lining with silver wires.
Vikram knelt by her side. He saw a small terminal flashing on the collar, indicating an active transmission.
"We have to get to the Gateway," Vikram said, looking at his friends. "Rhea, can you block the signal?"
"Only for ten minutes," she whispered.
"Then we have ten minutes," Vikram said, his jaw set. "Let's go. We're ending this tonight."