Before they could decide whether to engage or slip past, gunfire rang out from behind them, bullets slamming into Jessica’s back and throwing her forward. Cassidy turned, catching her as she stumbled, her coat absorbing the killing force but no doubt leaving her in pain. He dragged her sideways out of the line of fire as Garrett countered the attack with a burst of fire, sending the agents back behind cover.

  “Garrett, behind you,” Cassidy said without looking, knowing the other pair of agents they had spotted would be charging his position. He raised his needlegun, keeping his attention on the first pair of attackers. They would leave their cover when the other two sent word, popping out to catch Garrett while his back was turned.

  Cassidy was waiting, firing a pair of needles at their helmets. He didn’t get any satisfaction out of watching the needles puncture their visors and detonate, dropping them both.

  Behind him, Garrett jumped out at the two incoming agents, slamming the first in the helmet with the butt of his rifle and then ducking low and scooping up the second to throw him hard into the nearest container. The first tried to recover, only to be rewarded with two rounds through his knees.

  “Jess, you with me?” Cassidy asked, still clutching her against his chest.

  She looked up at him. He could see the pain in her eyes. “My guardian angel. Still...”

  Cassidy ignored the remark, pulling her back to her feet. “If I were a guardian angel, they wouldn’t have shot you. We need to move.”

  “Here,” Garrett said, returning to them holding the night vision goggles of the two men he had disabled. They looked more like thick sunglasses supported by a bulletproof elastic strap, the glass hardened against gunfire but light enough to wear comfortably. He passed one to Cassidy and kept the other. “This way, he said as he pulled the goggles onto his head and motioned them forward. Cassidy pulled the goggles over his eyes, the warehouse dimming slightly as the embedded AI adjusted the camera-filtered display to even out the ambient light.

  In the distance, the elevator hummed as it started to descend. At the same time, Cassidy heard the door to the warehouse opening again.

  “Reinforcements,” he said. “Wherever we’re headed, we need to get there asap.”

  “We’re close,” Garrett replied. “Jessica, is it set?”

  “Almost,” she replied, returning to whatever she was doing on her ClearPhone. “Just don’t let them shoot me again.”

  “I’ve got your back,” Cassidy said, putting his back against hers and watching their rear.

  Garrett led them two more stacks over, and then down one of the rows. Cassidy could hear the agents moving around, searching for them. He also heard the elevator reach the ground floor. And something else. A light buzzing.

  “Drones,” he said. “Heads up.”

  “Copy,” Garrett replied, turning in a quick three-sixty. He completed one rotation and then continued another forty degrees before aiming up and squeezing off a pair of rounds. He hit a drone Cassidy hadn’t even seen, sending it crashing into one of the containers. He pivoted and fired again, taking out a second, his Sliver helping him locate and target the machines.

  “We’re made,” Cassidy said. There was no way the drones hadn’t transmitted their position.

  “We’re active,” Jessica said. Immediately, the machinery in the warehouse sprang to life, including the vertical conveyors designed to bring the containers up to the hangar.

  Beltway, Cassidy realized. He should have guessed.

  They ran toward the belt, which consisted of evenly spaced forked platforms that folded flat as they passed around the bottom of the belt and opened fully as they emerged from the floor. Passing one of the rows, gunfire lashed out behind them, peppering the containers behind Cassidy. He returned fire, staying just ahead of the ambush and blasting the containers to set off enough small detonations to keep the agents honest.

  Reaching the belt, Garrett jumped onto the first fork and pulled Jessica up with him. Cassidy, right behind them, aimed for the other fork.

  Someone hit him from the side before he made it, sending him careening into the wall. He hit it with his shoulder, rolling off to face the agent who sprang at him from out of nowhere.

  “Cass!” Jessica shouted, unable to help as the belt continued to cycle, pulling them up and away from him.

  “Wait!” Cassidy snapped, grabbing his badge from his pocket before the agent could hit him again. “Detective Jeffrey Hall. Special Investigations, damn it. I’m with you, asshole.” The agent froze, confused by Cassidy’s reaction. “Embedded, you moron. You’re the set up. We’re supposed to get away.”

  “I need to call this in,” the agent said.

  “And do what? Tell your CO you nearly blew the whole operation? I’m getting on the belt.” Cassidy started toward the next set of forks without waiting for a response. He stepped onto them and began to rise as the two agents he had held back with his cover fire took aim. The one he had browbeaten waved at them to hold their fire.

  Cassidy had to clench his teeth to keep from laughing out loud. Damn rookie. He was going to catch a ton of shit for his screw-up, but it was better than ending up with a needle between his eyes.

  Halfway there. They just needed to deal with the units in the hangar and they would be home free.

  And he would officially be participating in a war he still knew absolutely nothing about. This wasn’t the way he had thought the mission would go.

  Not at all.

  Chapter 36

  The UDF agents knew Cassidy, Garrett and Jessica were on the beltway. Splitting their forces between bolstering the downed units on the ground floor and covering the lorries in the hangar made it difficult for them to get into position to stop their ascent. By the time Cassidy arrived on the upper level—a handful of seconds behind Garrett and Jessica—the former UDF Marine had already engaged with the agents, laying down cover fire from behind one of the containers. Cassidy used the diversion to run over to Garrett’s defensive position, slipping behind him as bullets pinged against the metal crate.

  “I was worried we lost you,” Jessica said, clearly relieved to see Cassidy.

  ”I’m not easy to lose. Now what?”

  “The hangar is divided into segments where the shipping containers are stacked for loading onto lorries,” Jessica explained while Garrett continued holding back the opposition. “We can use those stacks as cover while we make our way forward. The closer we can get to the exit before the roto arrives, the better.”

  “What’s the ETA?”

  “Three minutes.”

  “That’s a long time, and the lights are due to go out any second.”

  “I’m not sure they’ll cut the power now. They need the elevators to get their units back up here.”

  Cassidy smiled and tapped on his night vision goggles. “Is that so?”

  “I don’t have goggles. If I turn the power off, I won’t be able to see anything,” Jessica said.

  “I’ll trade you for the ten agents coming back up in the elevator,” Cassidy replied. “Garrett, we’re going dark.”

  “Copy,” Garrett said.

  “Good point.” She tapped on her ClearPhone and the maintenance lights again went out. The beltway shut down. Cassidy couldn’t see or hear the elevator, but he was certain it had stopped moving too.

  It took a few seconds for the goggles to recalibrate, for both them and the UDF agents in the hangar. Jessica used the pause to check on the incoming roto. “Still on track,” she said. “If I had known Leiana was going to screw us, I wouldn’t have sent the other one home.”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Cassidy replied.

  He went to the corner of the container and leaned out enough to see the layout of the hangar ahead of them. Nearly a dozen independent stacks spread evenly across the otherwise open space. A dozen more automated flatbed rotos waited nearby to load the stacks and carry them to hubs across the city. The lorries were mandated to operate on a very strict schedule in order to prevent the added congestion thousands of them in the sky at one time would create. Cassidy didn’t know what Dikon’s schedule was, but the rotos clearly weren’t going to lift off anytime soon or the bots scattered around the floor would have already finished packing them.

  He didn’t spot any of the UDF agents during his quick look and ducked back before they had a chance to take any potshots at him. The three of them stood behind the container, pressed against the side with Cassidy in the middle.

  “So,” Cassidy said. “Who is Mason Garrett?”

  It was the question Jessica suggested he start with. One she implied would explain a lot in not as many words.

  “You want to do this now?” Jessica asked.

  “I want one straight answer,” Cassidy replied. “Who the hell are you, Garrett?”

  Garrett looked at Jessica, who nodded. A few bullets came in at them, ostensibly to keep them pinned down. They weren’t pinned. Cassidy was pretty sure he could get through the UDF, especially with Garrett’s help.

  “Jessie wasn’t the only kid at the Hell Motel,” Garrett said. “You met someone else there. You—”

  Cassidy put up his hand, cutting him off. He turned and stared at Garrett’s face.

  He had always known it was possible for memories like that to resurface, but the nature of his work meant he never came across the same people twice. Everyone he interacted with was either killed or sent back into the population, and with nearly two hundred million people living in the city, the odds of getting close to a prior contact and having them know who he was to create a trigger were astronomically slim.

  He didn’t know if Garrett had triggered his or Hall’s memory of the event. Either way, Cassidy recognized him almost instantly. “Benjamin?” he said, an image of the little boy flashing through his mind.

  “Good to meet you again, Cass,” Garrett replied.

  “We can reminisce after we get out of here alive,” Jessica said. “But I think you can start putting things together.”

  Cassidy stared at Benjamin for a few more seconds, remembering how the little boy had asked to come with him, and how he had promised if he found a family he would try to find Jessica so she could have a family too.

  Little kids said a lot of things in the moment that they forgot about later. Had Ben actually followed through?

  More gunfire hit the container near the back corner, close enough to Garrett that he jerked back. “They’re trying to flank us,” he said.

  “We need to move,” Cassidy replied. “ETA on the roto?”

  “One minute,” Jessica said.

  “Garrett, get to the next row. I’ll cover you.”

  “Copy,” Garrett replied.

  “Jess, keep your hand on my shoulder so you don’t get left behind.” He waited until he felt the pressure of her hand. “Now!” he said, leaning out from cover and unleashing a dozen needles at the agents on the other side of the hangar. In the rush, he didn’t have time to worry about harming the agents.

  Garrett charged out, firing as he ran. He made it to his position, paused to reload his rifle and then laid down cover fire for Cassidy and Jessica as they ran from one stack of containers to the next, making it to Garrett unharmed.

  “Garrett, pull your goggles.” Cassidy had already lifted his off. “Jess, can you get the lights up again?”

  “Easy as flipping a switch.” He could hear the amusement in her voice.

  “That’s cold, Cassidy,” Garrett said, pulling his goggles off.

  “I want to get out of here alive. How about you?”

  “Oh, I’m with you, Cass,” he said.

  “We’ll split up. Garrett, you go right. Jess, follow me to the left. Ready?”

  “Ready,” Garrett said.

  “Now!”

  Jessica tapped on her phone. The maintenance lights flashed back on, once more blinding the agents in the warehouse. The instant light made it hard for Cassidy to see too, but he managed well enough to get to the next group of containers, Jessica right behind him. Coming around the corner, he found a pair of agents there, squinting to see as they spun their weapons on him. He lunged at them, their reactions so slow he easily pushed the first agent’s gun aside and shot the second man in the chest, the needle punching right through his armor.

  Cassidy turned on the first agent, delivering a series of punches before yanking the rifle out of the man’s hands and pushing his helmet off with his foot. Then he cracked him in the temple with the butt of the rifle, knocking him out cold.

  Damn it, he didn’t like killing the agents. But what choice did he have?

  He looked across the hangar to Garrett, who flashed a thumbs up. He had cleared an agent from his position too. Then he put the goggles back on.

  Cassidy followed suit. “Jess, wait here until the roto arrives.”

  “Be careful, Cass.”

  “If I’m an angel, nothing can happen to me.”

  ‘Yeah, right.” She turned the lights out again.

  Cassidy and Garrett rounded their containers, trying to move forward. Heavy gunfire greeted them, the UDF forces becoming more desperate to stop them.

  Garrett flashed hand signals across to Cassidy, giving him a count and general positions. Six agents remained between them and the front of the hanger, half of them bunched behind one stack, the others more spread out. The hangar doors had started to close when Jessica turned the power back on, frozen halfway when she turned it off again.

  Cassidy sent signals back to Garrett. They needed to make their move and take their chances.

  He counted down with his fingers. When his hand closed into a fist, he and Garrett charged the defensive line.

  Gunfire echoed in the darkness, bullets whipping past Cassidy’s head, striking his coat and threatening to cut him down. He returned fire with the needlegun, peppering the three agents grouped near one of the lorries. He wasn’t really aiming, just trying to get them to stop shooting back. He hit one agent in the knee, putting him down, clutching his blown out joint. The other one took a glancing hit to his upper arm. Unfortunately it wasn’t his dominant arm. The needle graze did no more than make him lose a step, with little change in the bullets coming at Cassidy.

  Across from him, Garrett fired controlled bursts, using his Sliver to improve his aim. Cassidy didn’t worry about him. He concentrated on staying alive, diving behind a container and pressing his back against it. He stayed down for a few seconds, avoiding the agent’s fire, only leaning around the corner of the container when bullets quit coming at him. The agent had moved out from behind cover and was crossing the hangar, trying to get into a better position.

  Cassidy jumped to his feet, getting a bead on the agent. He was about to shoot when a drone swooped into the hangar, its gun turned on Cassidy, and opened fire. He barely got back behind cover, holding position as round after round chewed at the container while the drone swung overhead. He pivoted and aimed his needlegun skyward as it crossed over the top of the containers, rotating to train its weapon on him.

  Bright lights suddenly washed over the drone, the sound of spinners drawing closer. The roto Jessica had called smashed into the drone, hitting it hard enough to send it careening into the containers at the back of the hangar. It crashed into a container, flipped over onto the floor and began to smoke.

  The roto slowed, turned and dropped roughly to the hangar floor, its doors sliding open. Cassidy didn’t hesitate, charging toward it with his gun pointed to the front of the hangar. Garrett appeared a moment later, sprinting to it from the other side. They reached the vehicle only seconds apart, Jessica right behind them.

  Cassidy dropped into the pilot’s seat. Jessica ducked into the back and Garrett took the other front. He started shooting as one of the remaining agents attempted to re-engage, forcing him back behind cover.

  Cassidy hit the accelerator, staying close to the floor as they gained velocity before pulling up. He ripped off his night vision goggles as they blew through the hangar doors and out into the open.

  There were no lights around the warehouse, only a mass of dark vehicles surrounding it from the ground and a larger transport floating overhead. No doubt they saw their stolen roto emerge from the warehouse, but they didn’t give chase. They weren’t desperate enough to shoot a roto out of the sky and risk having the debris crash down on the civilian population.

  Instead, Cassidy swung the roto northeast, heading back toward the city center uncontested. While they had escaped, Cassidy knew he hadn’t gotten away from anything.

  He had only managed to sink deeper into the mire.

  Chapter 37

  Cassidy touched the roto down on a rooftop pad less than a minute later, eager to be rid of the vehicle before the UDF nor the Police could catch up to them. As soon as they departed the craft, Jessica used her ClearPhone to send it darting north across the city in hopes of drawing the agents away.

  The trio walked toward the elevator together. Cassidy had Leiana’s pack slung over his shoulder while Garrett carried a matching bag on his back. Cassidy had only got a quick glimpse into Garrett’s bag when he opened it to put his rifle inside. He had spotted additional magazines for both the rifle and a handgun the former Marine had yet to produce in the open, as well as four additional ClearPhones and three smaller cases, the contents unknown. On top of that, Garrett carried at least two changes of clothes for both himself and Jessica.

  Cassidy had no idea what was in the bag he carried, though he assumed the loadout was similar. Most importantly, they couldn’t pass through any kind of security with the packs. Not that they should need to.

  “We need to make ourselves scarce,” Garrett said as they walked to the elevator. A small line had formed outside, and they stopped at the back of it to wait their turn. Cassidy didn’t really want to wait, but it would do more harm than good to cut the line and create a scene.