by Lee Stephen
“We’ve got to fall back,” Scott said, stepping backward then turning to run. Becan and William were right there with him. “Ess, status?”
There were several bursts of static before the scout answered, “We can’t make it up the ladder to get to the roof—one of the Falcons is too seriously injured. We’ve got to exit through the back door into the alleys.”
The alleys? Wasn’t that where Rashid and company were trying to hold off an EDEN advance? “Faraj, you get that?”
“Da, captain,” the fulcrum answered. “We are holding this position. It will not be a problem.”
Scott blew out a breath in relief. Antipov had left nothing to chance in sending Scott an extraction team that was truly elite. “Jay, get down and rendezvous with them.”
“Sir, I think I can do more from up—”
“We don’t have time for you to do more!” Scott said. “Get down or you’re staying behind!”
Sliding against the corner of the safe house’s back door, Esther leaned around and fired a shot into the cluster of EDEN operatives farther down the alley. Just outside the door and out of her view, Rashid, Rodion, and Feliks continued to suppress. Moments later, the rest of her party appeared behind her.
The team was sandwiched in. Ahead of them was the back alley. Behind them, EDEN was moving in on the slayers at the front of the building, forcing all of the Nightmen inside into a full tactical retreat. Her brown eyes searching the halls for Jayden, she called to the Texan through the comm. “Jay, where the hell are you?”
“I’m comin’! Don’t wait up for me.”
“As if I’m not going to wait up for you!”
New bursts of gunfire emerged from outside the back door and off to the right, past Rashid and his slayers. Flinching back against the wall, Esther readied herself to defend. Moments later, she saw there was no need. “We thought you guys might need a hand!” Scott said through the comm. Esther closed her eyes and exhaled.
“Press forward and push them back,” said Rashid to his slayers, who emerged from their cover to dash farther ahead to new cover in the alley. The EDEN advance was forced to a halt. Seconds later, Scott, Becan, and William appeared where the Nightmen had previously been.
Lilan’s gaze locked onto the black curves and golden, spiked collar of Scott’s armor. He was caught in momentary awe. The grizzled veteran had no words.
Scott backed up to the doorway, signaling for Esther to maneuver herself and her followers behind him. “The Pariah’s coming down in the street behind us! Get everyone there now.”
Turning to the Falcons, Esther motioned them forward. “You heard the man—go!”
The moment Scott saw Lilan, he too fell into a brief trance. It was like looking at a ghost. “Colonel,” he said plainly.
“Remington,” Lilan replied as he signaled for Donald, Tom, and Javon—who was still carrying Catalina—to move on. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“I feel like I need to explain some things!” Scott shouted over the gunfire from the Nightmen, Becan, and William.
The colonel spat out, “Son, at this moment, that’s the best lookin’ piece of armor I’ve seen in my whole life.”
“Good to hear it, sir.” As he saw Donald trot past, he punched the demolitionist on the shoulder. “Good to see you again, buddy!”
“I hear you, man!” Donald said.
Just as the last of the Falcons was running past him for the Pariah’s pickup point, Scott caught sight of someone else: a blond-haired, helmetless slayer. He looked like a kid. “What the?” Before he could say anything further, the young man was gone, following the Falcons toward the Pariah. Scott turned to Esther and stared.
“Don’t ask,” the scout said.
I’ll just add it to the list of things I don’t know. “Go get Jay—we’re getting out of this city.”
Without needing another word, Esther dashed back inside.
The Pariah touched down right outside the adjacent alleyway that had taken Scott to Esther’s position. With its nose-mounted cannon pointed at the corner ahead—the very one that Scott, Becan, and William had been holding earlier—the transport waited and watched for EDEN’s presence.
As soon as the rear bay door was down, David rushed outside to meet Lilan. “Good to see you, sir!”
“Same to you, Jurgen!” the colonel said as he and his troops rushed into the troop bay. The moment they caught sight of Centurion and Ju`bajai, the Falcons collectively froze.
“Pay no mind to our guests!” David said. “We collect aliens.” On the floor, in the middle of it all, Flopper barked merrily. “And dogs.”
From the co-pilot’s seat, Tiffany looked back into the troop bay. “Cat!”
Blinking, Catalina craned her neck to see over the bustling bay. “Tiff!”
“Reunions everywhere!” said Boris. “This is such a happy time.”
Bullets zinged past Esther as she ran down the hallway, some exploding into the walls around her as flakes of plaster hit her in the face, sticking to her eyelashes and hair as she tried her best to continue looking ahead. The Nightmen had been pushed back to the precipice of the hallway as the firefight entered the safe house. She could see EDEN’s forces through the smoke and debris, the bursts of orange E-35 assault rifle fire reflecting off the silver and blue of the soldiers’ armor as they pressed inward.
Finally reaching the door that led to the dungeon-esque maintenance hall, she flung it open just in time to see Jayden reaching his hand out to grab it from the inside. “Let’s go, Jay—move!” the scout shouted as bullets peppered the open door, which was now partially concealing them in the hallway. “The Pariah’s in the hallway!”
Jayden blinked as he ran past. “In the what?”
“In the street! I meant the sodding street. Go, go, go!” Aiming backward blindly, she fired her last remaining bullets toward the front of the building.
“Esther, where the—” Scott was cut off as Esther and Jayden emerged from the back of the safe house. The scout, drenched within seconds of reentering the freezing deluge, glared at him without words. “Okay, just go!” He got on the comm. “Faraj, fall back! The Pariah’s waiting.”
“Acknowledged.”
The order to retreat couldn’t have come at a better time. EDEN was steadily being reinforced, and despite Rashid and his slayers’ ability to hold the advance off until this point, their being overrun was inevitable. Much as was the case in Cairo, the numbers they were up against were too stacked to overcome. Rashid, Rodion, and Feliks backpedaled behind cover to Scott, at which point the three Nightmen made their turn down the adjacent alley. Scott, Becan, and William were right there with them.
Literally shoving Jayden inside the Pariah, Esther looked back at the alley from where Scott and company were coming, then behind the transport to the street farther back, where a police car, its sirens blaring, skidded to a sideways stop. Whipping her head back to the troop bay, she signaled to David. “Dave, weapon!”
The former NYPD officer, blocked in by the Falcons and Pyotr Alkaev, hurled his assault rifle in Esther’s direction. The scout dashed forward to catch it, flipped it around until it was properly in her hands, then knelt down and took aim at the car just as the police officers were opening the door. Finger laying down on the trigger, the Briton opened fire. With every burst from the muzzle of her E-35, her pearl necklace danced wildly around her neck. The pair of officers took shelter behind the car as it was riddled, its lights shattering and its frame shuddering with bullet impacts.
Scott was running with reckless abandon toward the street, the sound of approaching EDEN operatives growing louder with every second. The injury to his thigh might as well have not been one at all. The American fulcrum’s adrenaline was in complete control.
Then came the boom.
Not ten meters in front of Scott, the interior of the alleyway exploded. Scott and his comrades skidded to a halt to avoid getting pelted as bricks and debris flew in every direction. Coughing and
staggering back, Scott waved his hands to clear away smoke and dust.
“The hell was that?” asked William behind him.
Back in the street, Esther whipped her head in the alley’s direction, the scout’s eyes widening in horror as the corner of the building by the alleyway collapsed, a plume of smoke barreling toward the street. She shielded her eyes as she was enveloped in dust.
Behind her, the occupants of the troop bay goose-necked to see the explosion. Police fire erupted again from down the street, bullets peppering the Pariah as those inside shrunk back again. “Esther,” said David, “get in!”
Nearly slipping as she turned to run, Esther charged up the ramp amid a flurry of gunfire, flipping her wet hair out of her face as she hit the bay door button to block the onslaught of bullets. Mouth open while she grasped the door frame for support and gasped for air, she wiped her face and yelled into her comm. “Scott, are you all right?”
“Not in about ten seconds!” Scott answered as he tried to squint through the dust. “What just happened?” Behind him, the tatter of gunfire emerged. Diving behind a dumpster and pipes, Scott, William, Becan, Rashid, and his two slayers returned fire.
“That must’ve been a grenade or a rocket blast!” said Esther. “That whole building is about to come down!”
Terrific. Leaning out from cover, Scott fired into the cluster of operatives. At the very least, there was enough of a cloud of dust and debris in the alley to obscure them. Checking behind him, Scott confirmed what he’d already feared: there was a mound of rubble between them and the street. They weren’t going anywhere. “Change of plans! We’re going through!”
“Through wha’?” asked Becan, shooting a wide-eyed look to Scott and pointing where EDEN’s gunfire was coming from. “Through them?”
The yes was implied. Comming the Pariah again, Scott yelled to Travis. “Get off the ground! We’re going to try and fight our way out of here. If we don’t make it, head to Northern Forge!”
Esther’s voice cut through. “We are not leaving you, Scott!”
“We’re not the mission. You’ve got the Falcons and Centurion. If you can’t get us, get them out of here!” A bullet dinged against one of his shoulder guards. Scott stumbled backward then retreated for cover. “Never a vecking break,” he said off the comm.
Hitting the vertical thrusters, Travis raised the Pariah off the ground. From ahead, behind, and the side, EDEN forces were firing relentlessly, their bullets smashing against the cursed transport from almost every direction. “Hold on, everyone,” the pilot said through the speakers.
Esther popped her head into the cockpit. “Master key! Give me your wrists.”
“Thank God,” said Travis. As he maneuvered the stick with his left hand, he held out his right for Esther to free it. The scout twisted the key, and the handcuffs fell from his wrist. Tiffany snatched them in the second that followed, unlatching her own cuff and slinging them down with the key still in place. Esther ducked back into the troop bay.
“Two contacts!” Tiffany said, her hazel eyes shifting to the radar. Groaning, she looked at Travis and said, “Superwolves.”
The pilot cursed under his breath. Pointing the ship’s nose toward the north, he hit the forward thrusters. “We’ve got two Superwolves inbound.”
“Do they see us?” David asked.
“I don’t know. We don’t have a transponder, so…I don’t know.”
Tiffany said, “If we can get out of the city fast enough to get to ground level, we can slip by without them noticing. Maybe.”
“I love a plan with a good maybe,” said David.
* * *
Scott blinked as the word from Travis came through. Superwolves? You’ve got to be kidding me! Again, bullets ricocheted around him, and again, he leaned out to fire a round of suppression. There was no way they were going to get through EDEN. There had to be another way. As the others in his party continued the firefight, Scott looked around for an alternative. There was a back door to the building that formed the other half of the alley, but it was between them and the EDEN oppressors. It was their only option. Leaning around to fire another shot, he shouted at William. “Fire your hand cannon!” He was almost surprised when the demolitionist complied without objection. Popping up from behind the dumpster, William fired not one, but three consecutive blasts in the direction of EDEN’s forces. As the smoky streaks whizzed their way, they scattered in all directions. The rounds exploded on impact, lighting up the far end of the alleyway with orange plumes. Scott signaled to the door. “Through there, through there! Move now!”
The six men fired their pistols and assault rifles as they ran for the door. Rashid, Rodion, and Feliks hit the door first, followed by Becan and William. Scott bolted inside and slammed the door shut, grabbing a magazine from his belt to reload.
“Almost looked like yeh bleedin’ enjoyed tha’,” said Becan to William.
Reloading his hand cannon as he ran through the building, the demolitionist answered, “Payback.”
The building they were running through was some sort of apartment complex. As the men ran onward, they met a flood of inhabitants, all bee-lining for the exit amid the explosion in the building next to them. It was a veritable logjam—but it would help them. As long as they were in the middle of the crowd, they could slip through the building without attracting the fire of EDEN. Glancing behind him, Scott caught sight of the pursuing operatives opening the door and charging inside. Though dozens of residents were between Scott and the operatives, he could see them plainly pointing ahead at Scott in his armor. Scott’s focus returned to his comrades. “Keep running!”
* * *
“Can you see them?” David asked, grabbing hold of the cockpit archway as the Pariah swept low through the streets.
Travis pointed to their display. “They’re moving through this building here!” They’re going to come out on the other side, but I can’t land there. Too many vehicles on the ground. They’ve got to get to some kind of a clearing or a rooftop.” The pilot swallowed and shook his head. “We may not be able to get them.”
Poking her head in from the troop bay, Esther said, “We’ll leave them over my dead body.”
“That arrangement is easier than anybody realizes.” Gripping the stick tighter as the Pariah neared a corner, Travis said, “Everyone, hold on!”
* * *
Scott was pushing apartment residents out of his way, gaining ground gradually through the moving pack of evacuees. EDEN was steadily growing closer behind him. Catching up to the other five men with him just as they reached the door exiting out onto the street, Scott patched through to Travis in the Pariah. “We’re coming out! Are you nearby?”
“Yes, but we can’t land! There’s too much on the street there.”
The Pariah appeared as the pilot was talking, veering around the corner of the building nearest to the four-lane street it had just been parked on. Beneath it, the pulsing lights of police vehicles flashed through the storm.
Travis continued. “Can you make it to one of these rooftops? Check the building at our right, right now!”
Running down the street with the others, Scott inspected the indicated building. Though a decent trek from where they were now, it could be reached. “We’re on our way!” Closing the channel, he looked behind him for pursuers. EDEN was exiting the building with the crowd. A fleeting glance later, they pointed to Scott again. Leaping on top of a car and getting height over the citizens around him, one of the soldiers aimed his assault rifle and fired. Scott stumbled and ducked as bullets hit the vehicles nearby. “Come on, man!” Avoiding friendly fire on the residents of Krasnoyarsk was apparently not high on EDEN’s priority list. Behind the EDEN operatives and running full speed, the police force that had had the Pariah pinned down was nearing.
“Contacts ahead!” Rashid shouted. Scott looked where the Turkish fulcrum was indicating, where another cluster of EDEN soldiers emerged from a side street. There was no hesitation from him or h
is slayers—all three men opened fire on EDEN immediately. Within seconds, two of the approaching soldiers fell. The others dispersed around the cars in the street.
“Becan!” Catching up with the Irishman, Scott pointed at the building to their immediate right. It wasn’t the one Travis had identified, but it was the best option they were going to get. “Head there!” He looked at William to make sure the demolitionist got the message, too. After firing a round of explosive suppression fire with his hand cannon, William followed Becan’s lead for the building. Scott’s focus shifted to the three Nightmen. “Guys,” he said through the comm, “we’re heading into the building across the street.” The Nightmen acknowledged, abandoning their firefight with the new EDEN arrivals and following Scott’s lead.
Like the building they had just exited, Scott and company found themselves in another apartment complex. Though it still had its fair share of onlookers amid the commotion taking place outside, at the very least it was devoid of a full-fledged evacuation. Running behind the rest of the team, Scott kept a constant watch of his backside. EDEN and police forces would be coming in at any minute.
All of a sudden, the procession of operatives in front of Scott slammed to a halt—he collided into Rashid, nearly knocking the Turk over. “What’s going on?” he asked, dropping to a knee and aiming his weapon at the doorway they’d just come through.
“Waitin’ for the elevator!” Becan pressed against the side of the hall as he joined Scott from behind.
