“Who gave the order?” Lukas asked.
“Director Terrell,” answered the dispatcher.
Lukas’s steps slowed. He was trying to catch up to the other operatives, but he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d switched to audio-only so he could talk with Dispatch without interrupting the video feed that showed the real-time position of the other operatives converging on Rena and Dal’s location. He’d shrunk the display to minimize the amount of light emanating from his eyes so it wouldn’t be obvious to citizens on the street. Normally, he was more cautious with his communications, but this was a special circumstance.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, sir. Your mark’s threat level was elevated from observation to interrogation.”
“Because she showed up at the insertion point?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But no one else was there,” Lukas replied. “She didn’t meet with anyone.”
“Her presence was enough.”
Lukas clenched his jaw as he concentrated on the holographic display. Rena and Dal were still running—red spheres drifting through a three-dimensional diagram of the city, with the buildings rendered as semitransparent, blue rectangles. Behind them, four green spheres designated the operatives in pursuit.
“I need to speak with the director.”
“I’m sorry, sir. He’s not available at the moment.”
Rena and Dal suddenly came to a stop. But there was nothing on the display to indicate an obstacle.
The operatives were closing in.
Lukas picked up his pace from a jog to a sprint. If he couldn’t stop Rena’s apprehension, the least he could do was make sure she didn’t get hurt in the process. Whether or not she was a spy … he’d already gone back and forth on that question several times today. At first he was sure of it, then he doubted it when Rena didn’t go straight to the insertion point. He feared the worst when she eventually showed up there, but then the look on her face implied that she was lost. She recognized the operatives moving in, which is something an Outlier would do, but instead of turning on Lukas, she told him to run. She wanted to protect him.
None of it made any sense. So Lukas did the only thing that seemed clear. He ran. Ran to protect the one who had tried to protect him.
A rapid series of booming noises suddenly filled the air, turning his thoughts upside down once again.
Gunfire! They’re shooting at her!
But he remembered that operatives only use suppressed weapons to keep themselves as hidden from citizens as possible. That’s when he saw one of the green sphere’s on his display disappear. Every citizen’s implant also served as a tracking device, and it was powered by the flow of blood through the veins. It was no different for an operative, so if the signal was lost, it meant that the implant wasn’t receiving power.
“Shots fired,” Lukas told the dispatcher. “One operative down. Repeat. One operative down. Outliers engaging. Requesting backup. Immediately!”
o o o
The air shattered with the concussive booming of automatic gunfire. Above the booming, a series of sharper, piercing noises cut through—the high-pitched, cracking sound of bullets slamming into buildings and pavement around Rena. Then a cacophony of whistling and whirring sounds as the metal projectiles ricocheted in every direction.
Expecting pain, but surprised by the lack of it, Rena opened her eyes just in time to see one of her pursuers fall back against a building, his torso riddled with entry wounds. He had come around the corner after Rena and Dal but had met with a very different fate.
All was quiet again, and Rena finally understood what was happening. She and Dal were being rescued.
“Come on!” yelled one of the kneeling soldiers. His voice echoed through the alley.
The other soldier rose up and hurried toward them in a hunched posture, his carbine up and trained on the intersection where the pursuer had gone down.
Rena looked at Dal. “Get up,” she told him.
He was unresponsive and his face was pale.
She quickly searched him for entry wounds but found none. He wasn’t injured. He was terrified. Rena grabbed him by the shirt and heaved him up into a sitting position.
Just then, the soldier reached them. With one hand, he kept his weapon trained on the alley behind Rena. With the other, he dragged Dal to his feet. “MOVE!”
Dal’s body obeyed, but his mind was somewhere else. He was in shock.
Rena pushed Dal toward the sewer access, struggling against the weight of her friend as she tried to assist the soldier. The other man was still kneeling beside the hole in the alley, waving his arm in exaggerated motions. Dal was only a few strides away from safety when a coughing sound from behind made Rena flinch.
The soldier pulling on Dal shuddered. The fabric of his jacket burst open, sending up puffs of insulation like flakes of snow in the Barrens. He stumbled backward, a surprised look on his face, before dropping to the pavement.
Automatic gunfire ripped through the air again, shattering the silence. The soldier by the sewer access was on his feet now, moving to one side and sending volleys of cover fire down the alley. “Get inside!” he yelled at Rena between bursts.
Rena shoved Dal forward. As they approached the hole, she looked down into the shadows and saw dirty hands reaching up.
“Come on, Rena! Hurry!” yelled the soldier inside, his face barely visible.
“Take him,” she said, shifting her weight to force Dal into the sewer before she realized the man had used her name.
Hands came up into the light, grabbing hold of Dal’s pants.
Another burst of gunfire filled the air as the soldier in the alley came away from the wall and moved between Rena and her pursuers. “Four, are you in position yet?” he asked into a wire sticking in front of his mouth.
There must have been another soldier nearby, but Rena couldn’t hear the response.
“I’ve got him occupied,” said the soldier, firing off another round.
Bullets slammed into the corner of the brick building at the end of the alley.
“Come on. Your turn!” yelled the soldier from below.
Rena glanced down at the hole. Dal’s head slipped into the shadows, and the dirty hands were reaching up again. Rena bent down and grabbed the lip of the sewer access. As she swung her legs over the side and lowered herself into the darkness, she felt the strong grasp of someone guiding her feet. Her head slipped through the hole, and the rotting stench of sewage hit her like a slap in the face.
“Let go,” said the man holding her feet.
Rena let go of the lip and splashed into ankle-deep water. The only light came from the hole above her head. It shone down in a stark column, revealing the undulating surface of the water and the arm and leg of the soldier who had helped her down. Everything else was black.
“Dal?” she asked, peering into the darkness.
A mumbled sound was the only response.
“The asset is secure,” said the man beside her, stepping into the light as he informed his teammates via the same old-fashioned communication device Rena had seen the other soldier using.
Through the hole above, the nearest gunfire ceased as a distant booming took over. A moment later, the column of light was partially obscured.
“Step aside,” the soldier ordered, pushing Rena out of the way as he stepped directly beneath the hole. He reached up and grabbed the legs of a limp body coming through it. “I’ve got him.”
The limp body fell. The soldier caught the heavy burden over his shoulder, his knees shaking from the effort.
Rena realized that the limp body was the soldier who’d been hit while attempting to pull Dal to safety. His back was covered in blood, and she couldn’t tell if he was dead or just badly injured.
The next soldier came through the opening unassisted, dropping into the water with a splash. “Four is still on the rooftop,” he said, removing the spent magazine from his carbine and ramming another one into place as he spoke. “Two more operatives came in from the north. He has them pinned down in the alley. I’ll circle behind and take them out. Then we’ll meet you at the rally point.”
“No delays,” said the other.
The soldier gave a quick nod before flipping some contraption down in front of his eyes. Then he stepped back and melded into the darkness, with only his splashing footsteps to signal his departure.
“OK,” said the remaining soldier, turning and shifting the weight of the man slung over his shoulder. “Ready?”
“You’re Outliers, aren’t you?” Rena asked, her eyes finally adjusting to the darkness. She could now see his outline even though he had stepped out of the light.
The man flipped something down over his eyes, and Rena heard a click, followed by an electronic whining sound. “If you have to ask, maybe you weren’t worth the effort.”
“Why are you helping us?”
“Time for questions later. Right now, grab your friend and let’s move.”
Rena turned to find Dal standing where he’d been left, looking down at the water. “Dal, we have to go.”
He lifted his head and began searching around him. Either he couldn’t see or he was still disoriented.
Rena grabbed him by the arm and pulled him through the water. If he was still in shock, at least he was compliant. With the sound of splashing footsteps to lead her, Rena followed the Outlier, moving away from the column of light and into total darkness.