Ley wrapped Eli in a quick hug when he reached her position. “That was stupid. Brave, but stupid.”

  “Had to be done.” Eli ruffled Nox’s ears and visually checked him for injuries. He seemed fine, even a bit excited. “Retreat?”

  “Not for now. Hold out as long as we can. Call went out a few minutes ago. Jess, you’re needed back at the ramps.”

  “On my way.”

  “Thanks, mate.” Eli grasped the mechanic’s forearm and held his friend’s eyes.

  “Anytime, guys. Good fortune.” Jess broke the grasp and took a swig from his canteen.

  Slapping Jess on the shoulder, Eli returned his focus to Ley. “Sitrep of gates?”

  “North, east and west exits are blocked with heavy fighting and rubble. Marshals are taking the children through the south gates.”

  “Gladstone?”

  “Only option.”

  “Feels like a trap,” Jade said.

  “Just what I was thinking,” Ley said. “What about the Mocker route?”

  Nodding in agreement, Eli activated his long-range radio. “Miller for Furillo.”

  White noise squelched, then the chief’s voice sounded, tinny and barely audible. “Copy.”

  “Old Patty with you?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Only the south exit is open. Tell Old Patty to use the Mocker route.”

  “What? Okay. Understood.” Furillo ended the call with a click.

  A new barrage of artillery fire slammed into the northern part of the city as the battle intensified in that sector.

  “Orders?” Colter said, reloading his rifle.

  “Command said to hold fast. Hold them off while the citizens withdraw,” Ley said.

  “Copy that.”

  The group dispersed and took up the same positions as at Foveaux Bridge, Colter and Jade on the left flank, Eli, Nox and Ley on the right. The machine guns here were of a smaller calibre, but they would slow the enemy’s advance, and that was all that mattered.

  The mercs were more careful now, sending sentries and drones in huge quantities to overwhelm the defenders. The robots sent scorching plasma bolts into the gun placements, melting the thin metal shielding and cooking the volunteers. The stench of burning flesh invaded Eli’s olfactory nerves as he whistled for Nox to heel. They fell back, firing at the drones while trying to avoid the deadly plasma.

  In less than a minute, Derwent Bridge had fallen. Eli cursed under his breath and retreated into the first defended building. Another Watcher unit had barricaded it with whatever scraps they could find.

  “Keep away from the windows,” Ley said. “And take out those bastard sentries.”

  “Ma’am,” the Watchers chorused.

  Eli replenished his ammo and used the brief respite to give Nox and himself a drink.

  Ley showed him her commpad, a map of the city on the screen. “I have an idea to stop their advancement.”

  “Cast it.”

  Ley flicked her fingers over the screen, activating the app. The screen projected onto the wall of the house. Colter and Jade hunkered down next to them.

  “What’s the plan?” Jade said.

  “We use our knowledge of the maze of streets to confuse them.” Ley jabbed her finger on the wall. “Use this Watcher unit to draw them deeper. Split and wait until they pass, then hit them up from behind.”

  “Good. Only thing is, those drones have thermal imaging. The mercs will have carbon dioxide detectors. Maybe, if we use the rebreathers…” Jade paused for a moment and scrolled through the commpad strapped to her wrist. “Sorry. I was checking the data I have on their suits. These are Thule tech, normally reserved for Rogue units. Highly advanced. They see in different spectrums. Heat. A kind of X-ray, and something that filters out ambient heat. I’ve seen footage of it at the agency. There is no hiding from them.”

  “Send that intel to me,” Ley said. “Time to call your father, Eli.”

  Groaning, Eli stared at the map. If they couldn’t flank the enemy, they had to at least draw them into a fairer fight. He shook his head at the next thought. It was so crazy, he tried to suppress it. But failed. It was the only way they could save everyone and get the children the time they needed.

  “All right. I’ll call him. But first, I need to run something by you guys.”

  CHAPTER 11

  “It’s so crazy, it might work,” Noah said. “I’ll get my engineers onto it. Work out the schematics. What’s your location?”

  “Sector Five. South of Derwent Bridge. Enemy is holding while they check it. We blew the last one with them on it.”

  “Copy that. Let them cross and start drawing them in.”

  “Wilco.”

  “Hold them for as long as possible. If we give the marshals another two hours, we might get everyone out.”

  “Lucas and Faith. Mum?”

  “They’re safe. Faith and your mum are evacuating the children. Fourth Battalion is hemmed in but holding at the climate control plant.”

  “Okay.”

  “Two hours, Eli.”

  Noah disconnected before Eli had a chance to wish him luck. Relations with his father had improved since the Zapata incident, but he still felt like he was behind the eight ball. Like he had so much to catch up on.

  Handing the radio headset back to the operator, he returned to his unit. Ley and Colter glanced at him with hope.

  “He’s going to talk to the engineers. He likes the idea. He ordered us to try to fight them off for another two hours,” Eli said.

  “Good,” Ley said. “They’re on the move again.”

  “Wait,” Colter said. He wiggled the device. “I have a way to disrupt the sentries and drones. Maybe the mercs too.”

  “That the scrambler?” Jade asked.

  “Aye.”

  “Won’t work on the mercs.”

  “Maybe it will. I mean, Jeanette Sousa built it for returning to the surface. Surely, it’s plausible that it can disrupt?”

  “No time to wonder. Try it! Here they come,” Ley warned.

  Seconds later, the first rattle of rifle fire chugged out. Bullets pecked at the concrete and brickwork of the buildings on both sides of the narrow street. Colter ran to the radio operator and plugged the device into the broadcast unit.

  Eli shouldered his rifle and peeked out the barricaded window. Three sentries in a V-formation moved up the street. Their oblong heads, fitted out with what looked like red glowing eyes, scanned the structures. When they found something, a bolt of plasma exploded from their stout appendages. The plasma would punch a fist-sized hole through the building and melted whatever was in there. Eli calmed his racing heart and hoped.

  The drones hovered behind the sentries, using the robots as cover. And a hundred metres back were the soldiers and mercs, their EV suits sleek and black, with a red stripe. The sight sent shivers of fear tingling up Eli’s spine again. It looked like an execution squad. As he watched, he noticed the soldiers scanning every face of the fallen citizens. A merc shook his head and moved to the next.

  “They’re looking for someone,” Eli said.

  “Huh?” Ley swivelled her scope. “What the hell?”

  “Friends or family?”

  “For us,” Jade said. “Wey and Zapata are tying up loose ends. Us.”

  Eli didn’t want to agree with the Echo agent, but the more he saw, he had to. Zapata had dropped him and Jade off a cliff because they knew about the journal. Was all this death and destruction because of them? Rising panic began to tighten his chest.

  Ley grabbed his wrist and stared at him. “It’s not your fault.”

  “They’re here because of us.”

  “He planned on drowning everyone, remember?”

  Eli sucked in a breath, but nothing came. His chest constricted.

  “Oi,” Ley said. “Tell me three things you see.”

  “You. Nox. A painting of ballet dancers on the wall.”

  “Good. Now, three things you hear.”

  Eli had to focus. His hearing seemed to have abandoned him. “A faucet dripping. Panting. A radio humming.”

  “Yes. And name three body parts.”

  “Hands. Shoulders. Knees.”

  “And toes.” Ley smiled. “Better?”

  “Much. Thank you.”

  “Good. Now focus. Two hours. We hold for two hours.”

  The centring trick always worked on Eli. Whenever his mind raced or he thought a panic attack was coming, he went through the questions. It was always better if Ley asked them. It took his mind off his racing thoughts long enough to forget about the panic.

  Bringing the scope back to his eyes, he checked the sentries. They were now only twenty metres away.

  When they got to ten, they went haywire like they were being controlled by a child. Their arms and heads whirred around, then stopped.

  “It’s working,” Colter said. “Range sucks.”

  “Fuck yeah.” Eli lined up the red glowing eyes and squeezed the trigger. His bullet punched through, disabling the robot. The trailing drones simply fell out of the air and crashed onto the concrete roadway, useless.

  “Fire!” Ley shouted.

  The Watchers hiding in the house sent a deadly fusillade towards the mercs and soldiers. Like before, the bullets glanced off their armour.

  “Keep going!” Ley said.

  Eli stopped firing and switched up his aim. He shot out the windows above the mercs and rained glass down on them, causing the soldiers to duck for cover. Perhaps it is human instinct to avoid something falling onto oneself. No matter that they had seemingly impenetrable amour. Instinct born from thousands of years of evolution takes over.

  That gave Eli another idea. “Jade. With me.” Nox started to follow, but Eli snapped his fingers for him to stay with Ley. The Alsatian appeared confused. “Sorry, boy. Ley needs you.”

  Nox let out a sharp, short bark and stood beside Ley.

  The Echo followed Eli up the stairs. Upstairs, he grabbed dark wooden drawers. “Out the window.”

  “Going mediaeval, huh?”

  “Something like that.”

  With the old-world furniture teetering on the edge of the windowsill, Eli waited until the mercs were underneath. His idea had formed when he recalled what Jade had said earlier — about the suits and their users. With so much technology, one often relied on it too much. An elderly lode hunter had told him something similar once. “The new generation rely too much on their gadgets and instruments. Sometimes you have to use your instincts instead.” Wise words, and they applied now. The mercs were watching for their heat signatures and not taking any notice of anything else.

  He gestured to Jade with a flick of his chin and released the heavy drawers. They tumbled once, then slammed onto the heads of two mercs, knocking them to the ground. Eli risked a peek and saw that they weren’t moving. As he pulled back into the room, the concrete next to his head exploded into a shower of cement splinters, coating his face and arms. Jade yanked him out of the line of fire and shoved him to the floor. Rounds tore into the room, pockmarking the walls with pint glass-sized holes. With the bullets whizzing overhead, Eli and Jade slithered from the room on their elbows and knees and onto the landing.

  “That was smart,” Ley said. “Civilian volunteers are copying.”

  As if to confirm her words, Eli heard as various objects crashed to the ground outside. “Sitrep?”

  “Not good. Another two squads just showed up.”

  “Fall back to position three?”

  “Going outside is suicide.”

  “Then we go through the roof.”

  Ley groaned over the comms, but she, Colter and Nox joined him and Jade on the second-floor landing. A couple of minutes later, they were in the roof cavity and moving as quickly as they could over the musty, cobwebbed rafters. At the end of the house row, the group descended and took up defensive positions on the ground floor. The merc squad was about seventy metres up the road, advancing methodically, cutting down any resident that hadn’t withdrawn yet. The force was split into the three squads. One held the centre while the two on either side cleared the houses. Eli heard a high-pitched scream and turned his attention to an apartment three doors down. Sentries had started a fire in the house and the sprinklers weren’t coming on. At a second-floor window, a soot-covered face peered out. The fear in the little girl’s eyes sent a spear of horror through Eli.

  “Fuck,” Eli muttered. “Civilians. Ley, with me.” He whistled for Nox to heel and cracked open the door. Placing his rebreather over his face, he stared at the growing conflagration. Ley placed her right hand on his shoulder, signalling her readiness.

  The little girl screamed again as the windows above her exploded from the fire’s heat. Smoke belched out as glass showered the road. Using the fire as a distraction, Eli sprinted from their position, focused on the doorway to the apartment. He pushed every other thought out of his head. He couldn’t be worried about being cut down. Or Nox. Or Ley.

  Dropping his shoulder, he charged the door. It broke open with a dull crunch. The smoke was the first thing that hit him, then the heat. Eli realised his stupidity. By opening the door, he had introduced a new source of oxygen to the starved fire: backdraft. Ley shoved Eli and Nox to the floor, using her body to shield theirs. No sudden explosion came. Just a sucking sensation as the new, fresh air was drawn by the fire upstairs. Eli scanned the stairs and saw why the girl was trapped. Part of the second-floor wall had collapsed, blocking it. Nox ran ahead and started to claw at the rubble. Ley whistled to get his attention. She unhooked her crossbow and attached a grappling hook to the loaded bolt. While the stairs were blocked, the concrete debris hadn’t taken out the railing. Ley fired the grappling hook into the wall on the third floor and tugged the trailing rope to make sure it was secure. Then, using her impressive upper body strength, she ascended. Nox whimpered as Eli grabbed the rope.

  “Stay. Good boy.”

  Nox whimpered again but sat on his haunches.

  The heat of the fire caused sweat to pour from his pores, on top of that from the battle. His muscles screamed for rest. But he couldn’t. Not yet. Not for another few hours. Not until all the citizens of Lincoln were safe.

  The smoke was thick, but their rebreathers did their job. Ley located the girl in seconds and wrapped her in a bear hug. As she held the child to her chest, Eli strapped a spare rebreather over her small head. The girl nodded she was okay, and Ley gave her a thumbs-up. As the trio made their way back to the rope, the opposite wall exploded inwards, throwing them backwards like they were mosquitos in a hurricane.

  Eli felt the air in his lungs blast out as his body slammed into sheetrock before smacking to the floor. He tried rolling over, scrambling to get up. For some reason, his limbs disobeyed his commands.

  “Stay down,” Ley said over the comms.

  Eli shook his head, trying to clear the fuzziness. It took him several moments to understand why he couldn’t move: Ley and the child had landed on top of him. The young girl was safe between them.

  “What the hell?” Eli said. “Colter, can you see what fired on us?”

  “Bloody mercs, who else?”

  “Position, smart ass.”

  “Why didn’t you say that? Rooftop. Your ten o’clock.”

  “Give us some covering fire.”

  “Coming up…”

  Colter’s words were cut off by another explosion. A grenade or something hit the stairwell, blowing a huge section of the stairs into splinters. Eli managed to extricate himself from Ley and the girl. Signalling them to stay put, he shimmied to the railing and peered over. Nox had moved into the room next to the stairs and lay on the floor cowering, his ears flat.

  Eli whistled to him. “Go to Colter.”

  Nox yelped a sharp bark.

  “Go. Good boy.”

  The Alsatian yelped again, then disappeared.

  Satisfied that his furry best friend was safe, Eli focused on getting Ley and the girl out of the building without the mercs sending them to the afterlife in thousands of pieces. His gaze fell on a small door, built for access to an old heating system.

  When Lincoln had been built, the constructors had utilised the available resources. One of those was the abundance of geothermal activity. In the early days, it was used for bathing, laundry and hot tubs. Washing mining equipment. Everything. After myriad disasters, the council banned its use, capped off the vents and switched over to the Thule-introduced cold fusion. Lincoln residents were resourceful, so the precious metal pipes were removed and repurposed. As a result, the older houses had cavities in their walls, leading into their basements.

  Eli weighed up the pros and cons. The mercs would see their heat signatures, but if they moved quickly, they would be in the relative safety of the basement before the mercs realised it. Then what? He couldn’t think about that. If they stayed in this apartment much longer, they would be nothing more than crispy bones and charred flesh.

  “Ley. The old pipes.”

  “Understood. On three?”

  “On three.”

  Eli yanked the door open. As he held up his hand to begin the countdown, the ground-floor door exploded off its hinges. Mercs burst in and swept the space. Eli was spotted, and a merc swung his rifle up.

  “Go!” Eli fired blindly over the railing as large-calibre rounds took out hunks of the old timber next to his rolling body. Ley dangled her legs into the cavity, still cradling the small girl. She glanced back at Eli, then dropped out of view. Eli kept rolling, then dived head-first through the door.

  Gravity took over and he plummeted. Flinging his arms out, Eli slowed his descent enough that, when he hit the bottom, the air wasn’t knocked from his lungs again. Ley pulled him from the empty boiler space and pointed to the sewage pipes.

  He nodded and thumbed his comms. “Eli for Colter.”

  “You guys okay?”

  “For now. Is Nox with you?”

  “He’s good. What now?”

  “Fall back to position four.”