"We have security forces clearing this wing, but until they're done you all have to stay here where it's safe," Kahlee continued. "You might be here all night, so try to get comfortable."

As she spoke, Jimenez glanced over at her with a curious look. The security captain wasn't buying the story, not completely. She knew her people weren't scouring the halls looking for an unauthorized intruder.

Kahlee considered pulling her aside and asking for her help in tracking down Grayson. But more armed guards in the cafeteria meant a better chance of keeping the children safe. And she was still clinging to the hope there might be some way to end this without further bloodshed. She was convinced some part of Grayson was still alive inside him; if she could get through to him, she could get him to surrender so they could try to help him. If Jimenez joined the hunt for Grayson, however, it would almost certainly end with either Jimenez's death or his.

"I have to go," Kahlee told her. "Make sure nobody leaves until I give you the all-clear."

It was obvious Jimenez wanted to say something, but she just bit her lip and nodded in acknowledgment.

"I better go with you," a voice behind her said, the manly timbre cracking on the last word.

Kahlee turned to find Nick standing there.

"I'm the strongest biotic at the school," he reminded her. "I can help you stop these kidnappers."

"I need you to stay here with Captain Jimenez," Kahlee told him. "Keeping the children safe is the most important thing."

"I'm not stupid," Nick told her. "You're just saying that so I won't feel bad you're leaving me behind."

"She's leaving me behind, too," Jimenez reminded him.

"Whatever," Nick replied, turning away from them and trudging off to disappear into the crowd.

"He has a point," Jimenez noted once he was gone. "Whatever's going on, you shouldn't be heading out there without backup."

"I'll manage," Kahlee assured her, slipping out the cafeteria door to avoid further argument.

A second later she heard Jimenez barking out orders.

"Come on, everyone. Don't all crowd around the doors. Find somewhere to sit and we'll bring drinks around to the tables."

Satisfied the cafeteria was in good hands, Kahlee set off at a brisk jog, heading in the direction of the data archives.

The station was on an Earth-standard day/night cycle, meaning the offices that Anderson passed were all dark. The overhead illumination in the halls had been dimmed to conserve energy while most of the people on board were sleeping.

On reaching the entrance to the Ascension wing, he'd studied the map long enough to commit it to memory. Then he began to make a slow, cautious trek toward the data archives.

Time was of the essence, but he knew carelessness and impatience had killed more soldiers than any other enemy. Even though his enviro-suit was equipped with kinetic barriers, he had no intention of walking into an ambush. He hugged the walls as he went, hiding in the shadows. He poked his head around every corner, warily scanning the halls for signs of the man he was hunting.

At one point he heard the sound of distant gunfire-three quick shots from a pistol-and he froze. It was impossible to tell exactly, but the sound seemed to have come from the direction he was heading. There were no further shots, so Anderson continued his methodical progress. Whatever encounter had triggered the shots was obviously over; there was no sense recklessly charging in now and possibly getting himself killed.

After several minutes he finally reached the hall leading to the main research lab where the data archives were stored. As he peeked around the corner, he saw something lying on the floor right in front of the lab's sealed door.

He ducked back quickly on instinct, then paused while his mind processed the memory of the image. It looked like a bundle of clothes, or maybe a blanket. He couldn't imagine how it had come to be there, but it didn't seem to pose any threat.

Creeping into the hall, he approached the lab's door with his shotgun at the ready. As he drew nearer he was able to confirm it was a blanket on the floor; he could see that it was stained with blood. An image of a child getting up in the night to wander the halls and stumbling across Grayson forced its way into his consciousness, and he struggled to push it aside.

He hit the panel on the wall and the door slid open with a soft whoosh. Anderson wheeled into the doorway, ready to fire. But what he saw in the lab didn't prompt him to pull the trigger. Three bodies lay on the floor, each shot once between the eyes-a clear explanation for the pistol fire he'd heard earlier.

The adrenaline was pumping through his system; his senses were hyperalert, and he could hear the sound of his own breath inside his helmet. Grayson had to be close. If he wasn't in the lab, there was only one other place he could be.

With the shotgun pressed tight against his shoulder, Anderson carefully approached the door at the back of the lab. It was closed, but the green light glowing on the nearby wall panel indicated it was unlocked. He pressed himself against the wall just beside the door, took a deep breath to steel himself, then hit the panel.

Grayson was standing inside the room only a few meters away from Anderson, intently focused on the display screens of the room's lone terminal. He was so absorbed in whatever he was looking at that he didn't even seem to notice the man now standing in the doorway with a shotgun aimed directly at him.

Up close, Anderson was shocked to see how invasive the Reaper cybernetics had become. Even through his visor it was clear the thing before him could no longer be considered a fellow human being. Despite this, Kahlee probably would have given him a chance to surrender. Anderson felt no such compulsion.

All this flashed through his head in the fraction of a second that it took for him to squeeze the trigger. He aimed at his target's center of mass to inflict maximum damage. At point-blank range the projectiles mushrooming out from the shotgun's barrel maintained a tight dispersal pattern; the blast took Grayson square in the side of his torso. The impact spun him around and sent him sprawling face-first onto the floor.

Without a combat suit or kinetic barriers to protect him, the damage to Grayson's internal organs was almost sure to be instantly lethal, but Anderson wasn't taking any chances. He stepped forward as he prepared to fire again, only to be suddenly lifted off his feet and tossed back through the open door to crash against the computer terminals in the lab. He fell in a crumpled heap to the floor, stunned but not seriously injured.

It took him a second to recover from the biotic attack, enough time for Grayson to rise to his feet. His right side had been reduced to hamburger; blood was oozing from a hundred tiny holes in his torn flesh. But somehow he was still going.

From his prone position Anderson fired again, taking aim at his enemy's head. Grayson dodged out of the way by throwing himself awkwardly to the floor. Then he scrambled back to his feet, yanking a pair of pistols from his belt.

He was still quick, but he didn't have the unfathomable speed Anderson had witnessed during the ambush at the warehouse on Omega. In the time it took him to get up and draw his weapons, Anderson was able to roll into cover behind the edge of the lab's massive computer console.

Grayson fired the pistols several times, keeping Anderson pinned down. And then Anderson was rocked again by another biotic attack. This time instead of a simple push to send him reeling, his enemy created a series of microscopic, rapidly shifting mass effect fields that completely surrounded him. They flickered in and out of existence, subtly warping the very fabric of the space-time continuum. The powerful push and pull of the opposing forces tore at his flesh, causing him to scream in pain.

It felt like he was being ripped apart at the subatomic level. Anderson knew if he didn't get out of the shifting fields, they'd cause all the cells in his body to hemorrhage and rupture.

Ignoring the pain, he popped up from behind cover and fired off several rounds with the shotgun. Grayson fired back with the pistols as he dove for cover. The kinetic barriers in Anderson's enviro-suit shielded him from the opposing fire, allowing him to fall back into the hall.

He backpedaled quickly, putting some space between himself and the door, then dropped to one knee and took aim at the opening, waiting for the enemy to emerge once more.

Grayson could feel his heart fluttering erratically. His lungs were drowning in blood from his wounds. He knew the only things keeping him alive were the cybernetic implants and the irresistible will of the Reapers.

He thought the wounds might cause their hold on him to slip, but if anything they were holding on even tighter. Try as he might, he could find no purchase in his efforts to wrest back control of his body. It was like grasping at thin air; there was nothing left for him to seize onto.

The Reapers knew their enemy was lurking just outside the door. Another well-placed hit from the shotgun and even the synthetic elements of their avatar might begin to fail. So rather than step out into the hall, they waited, gathering their strength for one last attack.

TWENTY-FIVE.

Nick couldn't get comfortable in his seat. He kept casting glances over at the cafeteria door, where Captain Jimenez stood watch.

He'd seen the gun in Miss Sanders's belt, but her fingers were all bandaged up. There was no way she'd be able to use it. What was she going to do if she ran into the kidnappers? She wasn't even biotic.

Focusing on the glass on the table in front of him, Nick briefly gathered his strength, then caused the glass to slide across the surface toward him. He caught it with his hand just as it was about to topple off the table's edge.

I could yank the guns right out of the kidnapper's hands. Send them flying back to smash against the wall. But they want me to sit here like I'm some kind of kid!

He glanced over at Yando, who was sitting beside him. The younger boy was staring at him with wide eyes.

"You're not supposed to do that," he whispered.

Nick knew he was referring to the trick with the glass. The instructors would have called it a "gratuitous display" of biotic ability, something that was frowned on in the Ascension Project. They didn't want kids to push themselves too far by experimenting on their own. But for Nick, moving a glass was easy. He'd been using biotics for years. He knew what he was capable of, even if nobody else believed in him.

"Hey, Yando," he said, getting a sudden flash of inspiration. "I need your help."

"With what?" The younger boy was suspicious. He was always worried about getting in trouble, but in the end Nick knew Yando would do whatever he told him to.

"I need you to go up to Captain Jimenez and tell her you've gotta use the bathroom."

"The bathroom's right over there," Yando said, pointing to the rear of the cafeteria.

"I know. Just tell her you gotta go, but you're scared. Tell her she has to come with you."

"She's a girl! She can't come into the boys' washroom!"

Nick gave an exasperated sigh.

"She's a security guard. She can go wherever she wants. Let me finish."

"Sorry," Yando muttered.

"Go inside the bathroom and count to ten. Then start crying and screaming like you're freaking out."

"What? No way! Everyone will make fun of me for being a baby!"

"I won't let them," Nick assured him. "You know I've got your back."

It was true; Nick had been watching out for Yando ever since he got here. But the younger boy still wasn't entirely convinced.

"Come on, buddy. I need you to do this. It's important."

"Why? What are you going to do?"

"I can't tell you," Nick said. "That way, if I get caught you won't get in trouble."

Yando thought about it, shaking his head slowly back and forth. But when he spoke, he didn't say no.

"Okay. I'll go tell her."

"Attaboy," Nick told him. "I knew I could count on you."

Nick turned in his seat to watch the action as Yando got up and crossed the cafeteria to speak with Captain Jimenez.

He was too far away to hear them talking, but he could see Yando shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, just like he had to pee and was fighting to hold it in.

For a minute he thought Captain Jimenez was going to refuse or maybe send him with someone else. Then she took a quick glance around and took Yando's hand, leading him off to the restroom.

Careful not to move too quickly, Nick got up and made his way over to the door. Nobody paid him any attention. The younger kids were half asleep in their seats. The older ones were sitting in tight little groups, excitedly discussing the evening's strange events. The instructors and security guards were distributing food and drinks to the kids and trying to act like they knew what was going on.

He stood off to one side, trying to appear inconspicuous. And then he heard a high-pitched wailing coming from the rear of the cafeteria as Yando delivered on his promise.

As everyone turned to see what was happening, Nick opened the cafeteria door and slipped out into the hall, quietly closing the door behind him. He knew Yando wouldn't rat him out, and with so many kids to worry about he didn't think anyone would even notice he was gone.

Impressed with himself for carrying out such a brilliant plan, he realized there was one fatal flaw: now that he was free to go after Kahlee, he had no idea where she'd gone.

He hesitated, trying to figure out what to do next. Going back to the cafeteria wasn't an option, not after he'd worked so hard to get out. So he headed down the hall back toward the dorms, hoping he'd figure something out or simply get lucky and stumble across either Miss Sanders or the kidnappers.

Kai Leng had never been to the Grissom Academy. Fortunately, the school was designed to accommodate unaccompanied visits from parents of the students. The walls were marked with maps showing the general layout to help visitors unfamiliar with the station find their way around.

It was easy enough to guess that Grayson had gone to the Ascension wing, given the history of his daughter. Using the maps, Kai Leng was able to find his way there without any real difficulties.

The halls were completely deserted; not even a security patrol crossed his path. Kai Leng considered that a stroke of bad luck-if he had run into some guards he would have been able to arm himself with some kind of weapon. As it was, he had nothing to go on at the moment but his training.

When he reached the Grissom Academy's entrance, he briefly studied the map on the wall. There was no way to be certain, but his instincts told him Grayson would be heading for the large area marked Restricted Area.

He wound his way through the halls, but before he reached his destination he heard a young man's voice coming from behind him.

"Don't move unless you want to find yourself thrown through a wall."

Kai Leng stopped and turned to face the unexpected threat. A young teenager with dark, messy hair was standing in the hall.

"I'm a biotic," the kid warned. "I can bounce you around like a basketball!"

His words were defiant, but it was clear to see he was terrified.

Kai Leng had no doubt he could close the distance between them before his opponent could gather himself and unleash a biotic power. But violence wasn't always the best solution.

"You're one of Kahlee's students," he said.

"You know Miss Sanders?" the boy replied, a look of uncertainty coming over his face.

"I came here with her. We're working together."

The kid let out a deep breath and relaxed. "Sorry. I thought you were one of the kidnappers."

Kai Leng wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about, but it was easy enough to play along.

"If I was a kidnapper, wouldn't I have some kind of weapon on me?"

The kid shrugged. "Maybe you don't need one. You look like sort of a badass."

"This badass is on your side," he assured the young man. "I need to find Kahlee. Do you know where she went?"

The kid shook his head. "She had security take us all into the cafeteria, then she ran off. But I snuck out to help. I'm the strongest biotic in the school."

"I don't doubt it," Kai Leng said with a nod. "What's your name?"

"Nick. Nick Donahue."