"Then you understand why I'm here," she said. "We need to talk, but I don't wish to waste any more of this world's time."

"The white room?"

By way of an answer, she took Marduk's hands and the two of them disappeared.

Gwynn sighed. Adrastia may have revealed her greatest secret-her ident.i.ty-but she hid so many more.

He wandered through the labyrinth of books and tables. Most of the t.i.tles were in languages he couldn't read-not that he had any real desire. Most likely none of these books held the secrets he needed to protect his family from whatever storm approached.

Behind the counter, he found a rickety wooden chair. He waited twenty minutes before Adrastia and Marduk popped back into existence. Adrastia released Marduk's hand, searching the room for Gwynn's whereabouts. He offered her a single wave.

"Were we gone long?" she asked.

"Not too long. Is everything all right?"

She exchanged a glance with Marduk, who gave a resigned nod of agreement.

"Yes. I think Marduk understands his role."

"Well, that's handy," Gwynn said. "Because I'm not too sure what mine is."

Marduk approached the counter and placed his hands flat on its surface.

"Your role is pretty simple," he said. "Though I doubt you will think so when I say you might die."

11.

Flight

Fuyuko smashed the rear window out of the SUV and sprayed a layer of ice across the road behind them.

For good measure, she willed the ice into spikes, piercing the tires of their pursuers.

Her hand turned a dangerous shade of pale blue. She closed her eyes and took a long breath, pushing away the Veil just for a moment.

I can't keep this up alone.

The others were Anunnaki, but not near her level of ability or control.

Or maybe I just don't trust them.

It could've been she just didn't want to lose any more of them. If someone had to jump out of a speeding SUV to defend them, it was going to be her.

"Up front," Toms said from the driver's seat. "They've blocked the road with a transport truck."

"They'll have gunmen. Get ready to fire," Fuyuko said.

Dammit. I've been too focused on guarding our rear.

"Holy s.h.i.t!"

Fuyuko leaned forward to see better out the front window.

From the front SUV, a black whip snaked out, snapping the blockade truck in half. With a few quick snaps, it smashed the halves aside, clearing a path.

Gunfire erupted from the front SUV as they pa.s.sed through the wreckage.

"Fire," Fuyuko said.

The SUV filled with the rat-a-tat of machine-gun fire.

As they cleared the gap, Fuyuko tore into the Veil and filled the s.p.a.ce with a wall of ice.

She dialed Marks' phone.

"Yes, sir?" he answered.

"Marks, is everyone all right up there?"

"A few sc.r.a.pes and a bullet wound-but it's minor and already being healed. I nearly shot our prisoner when I felt him tearing the Veil. I'm kind of glad I hesitated."

"Me too. Can I speak with him?"

Shuffling sounds came through the phone and a m.u.f.fled, "She wants to speak to you."

"Fuyuko?" came Jason's voice from the other end.

"I just wanted to say...thank you."

"Yeah, well, just remember to put in a good word with your boss."

"I can't promise that'll do any good," she said.

"Did it do some good with you?" he asked.

She swallowed hard.

"Maybe."

A lengthy silence was interrupted by the sounds of smashing gla.s.s and tearing metal. Screams came through the receiver before the line went dead.

A garbage truck had barrelled out from a side street and rammed into the side of the front SUV, smashing it over and slamming it against a building.

Toms cranked the wheel to the left, trying to clear the wreckage. The right side of their SUV screeched as it sc.r.a.ped the rear of the garbage truck. A pop came from the rear as a tire exploded. Toms fought the wheel.

The SUV rolled three times, finally coming to rest on its roof.

Fuyuko coughed, sending stabbing pains through her chest. A metal shard protruded from her lower left side. She pulled on the Veil, pushing the energy to the wound. When she felt its warmth pooling, she pulled the metal free with a gasp. Her skin itched where it stretched to close the gash and knit together.

"Is everyone ok?" she asked.

There were a few groans, so not everyone was dead, but the lack of definitive answers meant there were enough serious injuries. If they couldn't heal themselves fast enough, they'd be picked off by the security forces.

She moved to the girl closest to her. The girl's head was turned at an unnatural angle and her eyes were open and empty.

Her name had been Tamara. Like most of the team, she'd been an orphan-a soul lost in a system become more chaotic and neglectful after the Cataclysm. But Tamara had considered herself one of the lucky ones. Two years after the Pantheon took "stewardship" of the world, they'd discovered the side effect Fuyuko's father's formula had on non-Anunnaki-that it could awaken latent powers. Those empowered by the formula were allowed to serve in Quetzalcoatl's army. The orphan was given a home, three meals, training, and a purpose. She'd just celebrated her twenty-first birthday two weeks ago.

Fuyuko gently pressed the girl's eyelids closed.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

One more failure. Another life to mourn.

The others were still alive, and thankfully, conscious enough to use the Veil to heal themselves.

Fuyuko pulled herself free from the wreck, brushing shards of gla.s.s from her clothes and flesh.

She expected a gun battle to be raging between the occupants of the garbage truck and the front SUV, but for a moment, a coc.o.o.n of silence had enveloped them. She ran to the front SUV but stopped as a distant whup-whup-whup disturbed the quiet.

She returned to her original SUV. The first sustained a harder hit, but crushed between the garbage truck and building, it was a less open target than her SUV lying in the middle of the road. The sound in the distance could only be attack choppers. They'd proven to be too successful at dealing with land attacks. Anubis' forces were resorting to other less manageable tactics.

Fuyuko summoned her spear from the Veil and carved the side off the SUV.

"Come on," she said, "you've got to get out. We have inbound choppers. Move!"

Toms was still belted in, hanging upside down in the front seat. He looked at her with the barest of comprehensions. The other two, a man named Carlos and a girl named Sylvia, scrambled free from the wreck. Fuyuko went in, using her combat knife to cut Toms free, and dragged him out.

"Make for the garbage truck. We need to check if anyone is still alive."

She took one last, brief, look at Tamara's body.

I'm sorry. I can't even take you with us to see you get a proper burial.

Fuyuko put Toms' left arm around her shoulder and put her own around his waist. She half dragged, half carried, him toward the garbage truck.

The sound of the choppers was getting closer. They weren't stealth enabled-a bad sign. If they didn't care about stealth, it meant they had enough armor and weapons to protect themselves.

"Come on, Toms," she said. "Hurry up and pull yourself together. I can't be dragging you around all day."

"I'm sorry, sir." His breath came in short pants. "Just give me another two minutes."

"You have one...if we're lucky."

She propped him against the wall near the lead SUV and approached the driver's cab of the garbage truck.

The driver had been in such a rush to disable the vehicle, he hadn't buckled his seat belt and now hung half out the shattered windshield.

He was obviously dead, but Fuyuko put a round in his head just to be sure.

I could try the ignition, but I'm pretty sure the engine is shot. No sense wasting time on it.

She tore the door off its hinges and reached the gear shift, sliding it into neutral.

"Help me push it back," she said to the others.

They tore into the Veil and gave the truck a shove, pushing it back ten feet from the crushed SUV.

"Everything's crushed too tight," Jason said from within. "You're going to have to cut us out."

If they were crushed that tight, she'd never be able to cut through any part of the car without endangering the people inside.

"Stay as far away from the roof as you can," she said.

Fuyuko pressed her right hand against the roof of the car and focused as much energy from the Veil as she dared. After a minute, she stepped back and slammed her fist into the now frozen roof-it shattered like gla.s.s.

Bodies tumbled out. Some moaning as their wounds were too serious to have healed yet-Marks was beyond any hope, his head opened, spilling its contents.

When Fuyuko had been dispatched to Egypt, she had three platoons of twelve members each. Her original thirty-six now numbered nine-and that included the addition of Jason.

Helicopter blades chopped the air just above their heads, going past them and then turning to bring their forward guns around.

Jason dashed past her, static visibly arcing on his skin as he violently tore into the Veil. He leaped into the air, landing on a ledge three storeys above and then pushed himself further. His whip snapped forward, rigid like a lance, piercing the window of the first chopper, impaling the pilot within. The whip went slack, momentum swinging him below the spinning blades toward the second helicopter.

They were so close, Fuyuko could hear the whir as the forward gun spat a hail of bullets at Jason. He twisted in the air, his whip a blur of motion, batting aside bullets and propelling him further toward the helicopter.

The first copter, it's pilot dead and slumped against the stick, careened to the right and slammed into a high-rise. Gla.s.s and chunks of concrete rained down on the street below, sending Fuyuko and her troops dashing for cover.

Jason straightened his body and dove through the front window of the helicopter. It swayed side to side, a series of small pops and flashes of light visible. Two minutes pa.s.sed before the chopper lowered at a controlled rate to the street. The side door opened. Jason threw a few bodies out and motioned to Fuyuko and the others to get aboard.

"Can we trust him?" Toms asked.

"Seeing as he could've mowed us down with that thing's guns instead of picking us up-yeah, I'd say we're ok for now."

Some limped, others leaned on their teammates and made their way to the waiting chopper.

Jason helped them up. When the last person was aboard, he closed the door and hopped into the pilot seat. The helicopter swayed as it lifted upward.