A gun went off, leaving a smoking hole in the floor by my feet. I snatched my legs in and scrambled back. Shade jumped in front of me, his arms spread out.
“Frank!” Still in the doorway on lookout, Caeryssa ducked as two Red Beams flew in, buzzing over her head. From a crouch, she pivoted and tracked one with her shots. She sent the first drone spinning into the far wall. Frank blew the second one from the air just as it shot back at him with a stun blast. He dove behind a table.
Damn it! Red Beams were a plague. More would come.
The guy struggling with Jax let off another shot. The free-standing console next to me toppled over, a big crack in the top. Electronics bled out like innards. Sparks flew in my face. I lunged away as an electrical fire broke out.
The goon fired again, and I dragged Shade behind a chair with me. Shots banged. Stuffing flew out. I flinched and kept down. I couldn’t shoot back without endangering Jax.
Jax roared like the unhinged beast he was and moved his arm into a crushing hold around the guy’s neck. He jerked the man to the side, trying to get me out of the line of fire just as the soldier let off a string of crazy shots. The big monitors on the control-room wall shattered and went dark. Jax clamped down hard and shook the man with a snarl. The goon dropped his gun and ripped at Jax’s arm, his air cut off. Jax was immovable, a stone wall with death carved into the lines of his face. His scar whitened. His muscles bulged. He squeezed.
I sprang out from behind the chair. “Jax, no!” He went into terrible depressions when he killed someone with his bare hands. It triggered something that firing shots didn’t, even if the outcome was the same.
Jax’s eyes met mine, feral. I held his gaze. Easy, partner.
He shot at you! Jax’s silent scream nearly deafened me, low and hollow and wild.
I stood there, unharmed. Not a spot of blood on me. Not a bruise. I’m fine. I’m here. Let’s take another step—together. Like we always do.
After a long, fraught beat, his grip loosened, and he eased his choke hold enough for the man to breathe.
Jax’s eyes dulled to brown again instead of burning, but I didn’t move. I kept his focus on me until Frank dove forward and picked up the tiny can of sleeper spray I’d dropped.
“Jax!” Frank shouted, his arm outstretched. He pressed. Jax held his breath, closed his eyes, and shoved the guy straight into the oncoming vapor. The goon fell while Caeryssa reached out and jerked Jax back, hauling him away from the fast-acting mist. Jax’s back hit the wall of windows, and she crashed into his chest. They got their balance and sprang toward the doorway. The rest of us followed without a backward glance.
“Red Beam!” Caeryssa warned, swinging right with her gun to cover us as we flew out the door to the left. The security drone zinged back and forth to avoid her shots, ordering us to surrender in a robotic voice. The machine scanned her while it armed itself.
“Caeryssa Clare Owens. Wanted. Halt.”
“Not today,” she muttered, letting the Red Beam get closer and level out.
I swung around, starting back. “Ryssa!”
“Go!” she shouted and shot. The Red Beam exploded a millisecond after firing off a crimson ray that crackled with volts.
“Ah! Shit!” Caeryssa stumbled against the wall. Her right leg gave out, and she dropped.
Jax hurried back and scooped her up. “I’ve got you,” he said. “Breathe through it.”
“Stupid stun blaster.” She winced, clinging to his neck. “Twenty minutes before my leg works.”
I cursed. I knew from experience that hurt like hell, and now Jax was going to have to climb about sixty-five levels with a woman on his back.
Strike that. We’d never make it to the food holds unless our luck turned fast.
As if reading my mind, Shade said, “We gotta do something else.”
I nodded. “Merrick, fly in now. We’re going to need you.”
“You, too, Asher,” Frank said.
Both confirmed over the coms. “Everyone all right?” Asher asked.
“If by all right, you mean alive, then yes,” I said.
Someone blew out an audible breath. In my gut, I knew it was Gabe.
“Our time just got cut way down.” Frank pocketed the sleeper spray as we sped down the corridor. “Goons’ll be here any second.”
They’d flood the level, but they had to organize and get down here first. We’d be dealing with more Red Beams before that. “Go right!” I cried.
We skidded around the corner, our boots squeaking loudly. Shade and I ran fastest and ended up in front. Another Red Beam zoomed in from ahead. I got ready to duck, but Shade slowed, took aim, and shot it before it got too close.
We leaped over the debris, parts of the drone still whirring and clicking, its crimson eye wide open and searching for us. Frank kicked it hard as he passed, punting it into the wall. It stopped chirping.
I glanced back. Pretty soon, actual people would catch up, and they’d be a lot more dangerous than security drones.
“Come on!” I yelled over my shoulder. Jax was slower than usual because of Caeryssa’s weight, and Frank was hanging back to cover them.
“How far, Tess?” Shade asked, his alert gaze scanning for threats both ahead and behind.
“Haven’t you ever been on a DWALSH?” I asked between panting breaths.
“I’ve never been in the basement of one looking for the spine exit with the Dark Watch about to attack!”
Yeah. Fair point.
“I delivered…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “I didn’t hang around memorizing the layout.”
No, that was just me, a kid whose only playground was Starbase 12, the original Dark Watch alphabet-level security hub, with all the others modeled after it to the letter—literally. Uncle Nate had written up treasure hunts that encouraged me to search the station from top to bottom for my reward, usually a book. We’d crawled all over that place.
He’d been preparing me from the beginning, hadn’t he? Memorizing the security hub floor plans, flying Dark Watch 12 from his lap, giving me banned books on the sly, idealizing his and Mom’s birth Sector of 17 in my head until the rebel bastion felt more like home to me than Sector 12 ever did. He’d been giving me the tools I needed to escape Simon Novalight. To fight him. Uncle Nate had shoved me straight into the arms of the resistance via Starway 8.
My chest started to ache in a way that had nothing to do with bolting down the hallway, each breath more labored than the last. Why did he leave us? Just stop showing up in the months before Mom died? And why did he try to capture me on Starway 8 and then threaten people that I love? He wanted to protect me. I knew that.