IF THIS DOESN’T WORK, we’re all as good as dead.

A plume of fire bursts a little too close, and I instinctively flinch. No second chances. I will myself forward, my legs shaking, nearly refusing to carry me farther across the creaking suspension platform. My lungs burn from smoke and exertion.

One of the elite’s strike ships whines overhead, driving an atmospheric pressure change that makes my eardrums throb. Its massive engines rotate, and the gunship turns to face us. Its giant electrical weapon crackles.

“Keep moving.” I scream to my comrades. Mos forges ahead, slamming the Creed from our path. “Get across the bridge. We have to make it to the cargo pad.”

A rocket-propelled grenade screams overhead, slamming into the tail rotors of the Creed gunship, which then spirals past us and crashes into the mines in a mass of flaming wreckage.

I shoulder my weapon and fire the last beanbag—it knocks a charging Musul to the ground. No more rounds. I sling the weapon down onto the icy platform as we make it to the other side.

Mos screams and drops his weapon. “Mila, I’m hit!” A plasma burn blackens his right side.

“I’m here. Get behind me.” Mos’s goggles slide over my eyes, my hands clamping down on his weapon. Rising up, I crank the laser’s exposure wide open—exactly what Denni said not to do. The giant laser fires from my hip, and the beam sears across the last remaining lines of the Creed, setting the rubbery flesh of their faces on fire. Pivoting, I swing the beam across a mob of Musuls. They howl, cover their blistered faces and ruined eyes, and throw their own smoking bodies to the ground.

My flesh tingles. I feel sick. But better blind than dead.

Denni screams behind us.

She’s still on the bridge, trapped with a few others. They’re quickly swarmed by Rippers. Denni calls out, but I’m too far away. Her eyes flash wide as a Ripper’s blades pierce her body.

“Denni!”

With eyes full of fear, she locks her gaze onto mine—and detonates her satchel.

The air is knocked from my lungs. My ears ring as I’m thrown to the platform’s floor. Smoke and debris hang in the air like confetti. Nothing of the bridge, or Denni, remains.

Denni used the explosives. We can’t destroy the rocket. We’re all going to die.

The rocket’s rumbling grows louder. From here, I can see everything. It isn’t a rocket, at least not like I imagined. A huge central cylinder with a massive nose cone is flanked by two thinner ones. A separate vessel that looks like a huge black-and-white old-world airplane sits on the back of the central tube. A walkway leads to the side of the monstrous metallic bird. Ladders branch off to various doors in its side. Far below, a white laser beam streaks from deep within the pit, directly against the bottom of the largest cylinder. Glowing green plasma fills the old quarry.

Two pairs of arms yank me to my feet. It’s Faruq and Ghofaun.

“Hurry, Mila. You have to go,” Ghofaun yells.

“Denni just—” I cough.

Ghofaun grabs my shoulders. “I know. Mila, look at me. You have to get in the ship before it takes off.”

“You’re crazy.”

Ghofaun points to a square hatch in the side of the vessel. “In there. We have to move, now.”

“Inside it?”

“Yes. Mila, you must stop the Leader.”

“But I won’t know what to do. Where’s Demitri?” I shout over the sounds of the rocket and gusts of snow.

“If he doesn’t show, you’ll have to leave without him. The mission is more important,” Ghofaun yells back. “You have to go. We will protect you as best we can. Faruq.”

Faruq nods and ushers me along the walkway.

Ghofaun spins like a dancer and kicks into a mob of knife-wielding Musuls approaching us from one of the bridges on the opposite side of the platform. Faruq jerks my arm and drags me backward across the metallic causeway toward the nearest hatch.

“Logosian.” A faint voice makes its way over the din.

The wind stings my face and blurs my vision. But in the chaos, a man appears on the platform: Kapka. He stands, pointing an old Soviet RPG launcher at us.

“You filthy kafir.” He holds up a single finger, the big weapon balanced over his shoulder. “Your way of life is dead, your enclave lies in ruins, and yet, you still live. I should have broken your spirit when I had the chance. You won’t escape this time.”

Faruq stands between the maddened gangster and me. “I stole her out from under you. If you want to have a problem, have it with me.”

“What is your name, traitor?”

“You don’t remember me?” Faruq moves toward Kapka. “My mother was worthy of your attention, until she fell ill. Then you cast her and her bastard children out.”

Kapka narrows his gaze. “Faruq? You simple idiot, get out of my way. This Logosian is mine.”

“Never.” Faruq takes another step. I grab his arm.

He glances over his shoulder, his stare resolute. “I have to go. I have to do this.”

“No, don’t.”

“We don’t have a choice.” Faruq pushes my hand away. “Get in the rocket, Mila. Finish this. Do it for all of us.” He turns back to Kapka. “You murdered my father. We all have endured enough of you.”

Kapka breaks into a wicked smile. “Oh no, boy. You have not even begun to know pain, to feel the weight of my boot on your spine—but you will. For this insult, I’ll track down that wretched sister of yours and choke the life out of her with my own two hands.”

“You would do that to your own daughter?” Faruq shakes with the words.

“I’ll do it to anyone who gets in my way.” Kapka spits. He raises the weapon and pulls the trigger.

The RPG doesn’t fire.

Faruq sprints toward him. I move to run with him, but I’m seized from behind and pulled, flailing, away toward the hatch. “No. I have to help him.”

“Mila. We have to go.” It’s Demitri. “We’ll be incinerated. The rocket is taking off.”

I struggle fruitlessly against his superior strength. He snatches open the sealed door to the hatch and pulls me inside.

I scramble for the door. “No!”

The rocket shakes. Time slows, every painful second dragged out. Demitri’s arms snake around me, and he pulls the door shut. My arms outstretched, my body writhing, I can only watch through the closing gap. Faruq fights with Kapka over the malfunctioning RPG. It fires against the platform with a deafening boom. Everything flashes white.