Incursion

Chapter 18: Rout

The following morning before our next operation, I stepped out of my quarters after having breakfast and a shower, intending to find either Genel or Knight to ask a few more questions about tonight.

As I was closing my door, I caught someone turning onto the hallway with the elevator lobby. He was fully dressed to go outside – jacket and cap and all – and was just turning onto the connected corridor that I was fairly certain he didn’t see me.

Knight.

Where was he going? The op wasn’t supposed to commence until late this afternoon, but it was hardly even seven o’clock. Had I missed something?

When he disappeared from view, I briskly walked over to where he vanished, intending to catch up to him and ask about the next op. When I got to the intersection of the hallway, though, he was nowhere to be seen.

Where did he go?

Judging from how he was dressed, I wagered he was heading outside of Haven. For what? Surely not the op yet. It was still dawn.

For some reason, I felt a pressing curiosity to find out what he was up to. I returned to my room to pull on my parka, hat, and boots, then headed back out to take the elevator up to the hangar.

When I emerged from the elevator and into the hangar, I immediately noticed that the bulkhead doors at the top of the vehicle ramp were wide open.

I couldn’t quite understand why, but seeing those doors standing open and feeling the cold winter air seeping into the hangar stirred some anxiety in me. I broke into a jog, passing the helicopter and the rows of trucks, and climbed the ramp.

I popped my head out of the bulkhead threshold, ready to scan the immediate surroundings outside the bunker for Knight, but I didn’t have to look far or wide for the Shadow leader.

Since it was January and just before seven in the morning, it was still quite dark outside. The skies had cleared since last night’s snowfall, and it wasn’t as quite as cold now. The last hundreds of stars left over from the previous evening bathed the area in a soft, bluish light. A gentle winter breeze swept over the area, causing my hair to flow to one side such that I had to hold it away from my face.

Knight was standing less than fifty metres from the mouth of the ramp, straight ahead of me. He was motionless, his back turned to me and his head tilted up toward the sky. Though he was dressed appropriately for the weather, he wasn’t carrying his backpack or any weapon that I could see.

I breathed a sigh of relief the moment I saw him. After the relief though, came the curiosity. Why was he out here so early? To get some fresh air?

I kept still, staring at his back for a minute. I watched him for a while as he just stood there, looking up at the early morning sky. It was truly remarkable how motionless he could be.

Eventually, I felt a sense of chagrin for staring at him from this distance for that long. If he was just out for some fresh air, then I didn’t have to be anxious.

Does he do this often?

I shook my head, telling myself it was none of my business why he came up here. He could be an astronomy buff for all I knew.

I stood there for another couple of seconds, then turned back toward the hangar, taking two steps back down into the depths before hesitating.

I glanced back at the Shadow leader, whose position hardly changed. For some reason, something about the way he just stood there was a little lonely.

Maybe I should check if he’s okay. If I turn out to be a bother, I’ll just apologize and that’ll be that.

Nodding to myself to solidify my intentions, I spun back around and tentatively began approaching him slowly. My boots crunched audibly against the snow with each step I took.

Strangely, even though I knew my footsteps were well telegraphed, Knight remained still even as I now stood right beside him. I shook the fleeting worry that he had frozen to death standing up – that was just ludicrous.

Peering up at his eyes, I was surprised to see the softness in them as they took in the lights in the sky. I had gotten used to them looking like those of a dead fish, so this change left me speechless for a moment.

He seemed to be lost in thought. He had to be, if he wasn’t reacting to my presence.

I took a breath and gathered the courage to speak finally. “Knight?”

His head turned to look down at me. From his expression, I practically confirmed that his mind was away until just now.

“Christina?” To my dismay, that vulnerable look in his eyes was almost immediately overridden by the familiar curtain of ambiguity again. “What are you doing here?”

“I was… I was just checking why you were out here.”

He didn’t reply to that, instead looking up at the sky again.

“Are you okay here?” I asked him.

His head bobbed slightly, though he kept silent.

Quickly taking the hint that he didn’t want company, I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry. You probably wanted to be alone. Just… when you come back inside, I have some questions about the next op.”

I took a step backward, about to turn to leave, but then Knight suddenly spoke to me quietly.

“You’re not wrong, but you don’t need to leave.”

I froze in mid-step, then looked up at his face again. He was giving me the side eye.

“It’s cold, though,” he went on, “So if you want, you can go.”

“It’s actually not that cold.” I shoved my clenched hands into the pockets of my parka and looked up at the stars, not knowing what else to say to him.

We were silent for a minute while we gazed at the stars. I wasn’t normally awkward in silence, but with him the lack of conversation felt a bit too overpowering personally.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” I glanced up at him.

“What do you mean?”

“The stars.”

He gave a small grunt.

“You know,” I went on, still looking at him as his eyes stayed on the sky. “A lot of those guys are already… well, dead. Burned out. Just took this long for their light to reach us. Sad when you think about it, but still beautiful in a way. Don’t you think so?”

Knight didn’t comment on that, either. I blushed a little at his lack of a reaction to my lame science trivia. He was probably thinking something along the lines of “yeah, no shit”.

Maybe I really should just leave.

Something more rational – call it common sense or just the general atmosphere – told me that. Yet I stayed. It had been a week ago now since we had ambushed that convoy. I remembered that back then, he was the one who came up to me to make conversation. That memory was probably what kept me from walking away from embarrassment now.

It was funny what a mere seven or so days could do to change a person’s perception of someone else. I used to be content interacting with him out of pure necessity. But I think it was just because I was afraid of him back then. To be fair, he wasn’t the easiest to be friendly with.

“Is there something on your mind?” Knight asked me suddenly, doing the side eye again.

“Huh?”

“You came out here for a reason.”

“Just the questions about the next op.”

“Which are?”

“Well… see…”

He turned his face slightly to me with a patient look in his eyes. I opened my mouth but stupidly enough, I’d conveniently forgotten exactly what I was going to ask.

“Umm… I…”

“You didn’t come out here to ask questions about today, did you?”

“I did. I just… lost my train of thought.”

“Genel didn’t put you up to this, did she?”

I blinked, thankful for my genuine confusion. “Put me up to what?”

Knight surreptitiously scrutinized me, as if to search out a lie. After a few seconds, he shook his head with an air of something like slight embarrassment.

“Nothing. Never mind.”

That brought silence between us for another minute or two. I spent that time looking up at the stars again with him, occasionally stealing glances up at his face. It was during one of those glances that he fully turned his neck to glance at me.

More heat rose up my neck and settled just beneath the skin of my face. That I was glad it was dark enough to hide colours somehow only made it worse.

I cleared my throat. “So… Knight.”

His eyes held mine in place.

“Have you contacted your family since all this began?” I asked, both curious and looking for something to fill the silence.

For a moment, he seemed not to understand the question. Either that, or he thought I had finally overstepped my boundaries.

A thought occurred to me just then. Had he recently lost his family because of this war?

“Sorry,” I said hurriedly, “That’s really not my business.”

“I haven’t seen my family in years.”

I nearly jumped when he actually volunteered information about his personal life.

“Oh. Why not, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“They weren’t much family to begin with.”

“Oh. All right. So you don’t miss them?”

“No.”

The promptness of the answer demanded my belief. Still… if he didn’t have family, who did he have?

“Girlfriend?” I blurted out before I could stop to screen the thought.

He gave me a subtly irked look. It was interesting how most of the changes – if they were at all detectable – in his expression couldn’t be inferred from any of his facial features except for his eyes. It was as if they occasionally softened or hardened, squinted or widened depending on the situation. The changes were slight, but once you’d spent enough time around him you began to notice.

“Err… boyfriend?” I said sheepishly, scratching the back of my toque.

Now he looked at me as if I had a few screws loose.

“Do I look like the kind to have a girlfriend?” he asked coldly.

Okay, so he’s straight. Admittedly, his question could be answered either way. Knowing what I knew about him, I could understand if holding a steady relationship was difficult. But then I remembered Josh. If Josh could do it, why not Knight?

Still. If he just smiled more, I had to admit he might be passably easy on the eyes. That was one thing I’d never seen him do.

“Umm… no.”

He gave a tiny nod, evidently confirming I wasn’t an idiot. Despite his reactions, I couldn’t deny that talking to him like this was a bit amusing. Who knew?

“What about you?” he asked after a pause.

“What about me?”

He appeared to shift his balance on his legs. “Girlfriend?”

I raised my eyebrows at him in shock. He caught my incredulous stare and looked away, opting to gaze at the stars again.

“That was a joke,” he said.

I understood that he was joking, but what astounded me was that he cracked an attempt at humour at all.

I couldn’t help myself; I burst out laughing.

Knight gave me the side eye once more, probably thinking I really was crazy, or even childish. Still, I was surprised to realize that I didn’t care. As my stomach began to hurt almost like my healing ribs, I fought to swallow my laughter and stifle my growing wheezes.

“No, I don’t have a boyfriend,” I elaborated once I had stopped laughing, feeling a few tears in my eyes from the moment. “I’ve been too busy with work to look for one.”

He nodded, showing me he understood that. Maybe that was his reason for his situation, too.

“What about family?” he asked next.

“You mean my parents? They’re… well, they’re gone.”

“Any brothers or sisters?”

This sobered me up instantly. “Brother. He was… older.”

Mikey’s face popped up in my mind again. The image of him filled me with both warmth and cold longing. He’d been gone for a few years now, but sometimes it felt like I’d just lost him yesterday. Other times it felt like he’d been gone half my life. I didn’t know which feeling was indicative of me moving on.

Knight was fully looking at me now. “I’m sorry.”

Hearing condolences from him reminded me of how much I missed Mikey. Missing my brother in turn made me wonder if I had any right to. All of a sudden, it felt like something was clenching my heart tightly.

Knight graciously allowed a respectful pause between us while I tried to push the thoughts away before he spoke again.

“Anyone else?”

“No. They were all the family I had.”

“I see.”

The two of us became silent again. I couldn’t tell what was on his mind, but mine was on Mikey still.

After several seconds, he cleared his throat discreetly. “If it helps, Genel already thinks of you as family.”

I looked up at him. “She does?”

“She’s always seen this team as one. And Josh, he— Well, you’ve seen him.”

I’d never really thought I was looking for family. My last team, Glacier, was competent but we were strictly professional. What I had with them in the nearly three years I’d been with them was nothing compared to what I had now with Shadow Team in just the past couple of weeks. Genel and Josh both felt like friends from the moment I got to Haven. I thought it would be harder to trust anyone this much after everything that’s happened, but I trusted them. And…

I let myself gaze at this man who was looking back with that stoic expression.

He had rough edges to be sure, and he wasn’t the most open of books. But despite that, I was glad he was with me. I was glad he had my back. That was already more than what I could say about plenty of other people I’d known.

“Thank you, Knight,” I said without really thinking.

“Don’t thank me. Thank Genel and Josh.”

"Why not?"

“No reason. I just… want to keep things professional.”

“You and Genel. That was professional?”

He closed his eyes for a second, looking almost embarrassed, but not for himself. “Genel is… special. Let’s leave it at that.”

Special?

“It’s just that sometimes you two fight like siblings… or a couple.” I braved to tease him a little.

“Ignore those. She’s borderline neurotic.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“She seems especially hung up on you, though.”

Knight inhaled sharply and exhaled forcefully. “We’re not siblings or a couple, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

He paused a second before adding, “Don’t misunderstand, Angel.”

That was probably Knight-speak for “you’ve crossed the line and I must politely ask you to take several steps back”. Rather than be disappointed, I turned my head away to hide a smile.

“Okay,” I replied.

He finally moved from his spot, walking back toward the mouth of the vehicle ramp. As I turned to follow him, he glanced over his shoulder at me.

“We’re linking up with the 41 CBGs and CWO King at 1600. Be ready to leave at 1530.”

Without waiting for my answer, he went on ahead of me back into the hangar.

“Roger that,” I murmured, trying to stifle my little smile as I followed him back down.





As dusk began to fall, the door to Rhodes’ makeshift quarters opened abruptly, making him whirl in his seat as he was reading up on the reports compiled by the other teams in the other Canadian cities. He was midway through one detailing an unidentified hostile force engaging a group of US Army soldiers out on a scouting trip in Surrey, British Columbia when Heimdall walked into the room.

“Sir.” Heimdall stopped near the door, clasping his hands behind his back.

“Heimdall,” Rhodes said with some annoyance, “I expect you to knock next time.”

The man surprisingly humoured Rhodes with an apologetic yet stiff little bow of his head.

“I apologize, sir. I merely wished to inform you that I have finished sweeping the hospital the rebels hit.

‘Rebels’ was a bit of an understatement in Rhodes’ opinion, but he chose to forego semantics. “What did you find?”

“Among the standard five-five-six casings littering the third floor and a few other places on site, I also found plenty of twelve gauge slugs. I did some research on our recent reports and the database and found that the Canadian Army, Navy, and Air Force do not typically carry shotguns as standard issue weaponry.”

Rhodes sighed. “Yes, it’s already established that your targets are not Canadian military, Heimdall. If our troublemakers were the enemy military, the US Army would suffice to neutralize them and you wouldn’t be here.”

“You mentioned capturing some of these anomalies, sir.”

“I captured four,” Rhodes clarified for him, “Interrogated all of them, but more thoroughly so the last. Unfortunately, none of them revealed any information about who they were or who they worked for.”

Heimdall nodded minutely. “Is there anything else of note about the rebels you questioned, sir? Uniforms, perhaps? Did they have any emblems or insignias? Tattoos? Communications equipment?”

Rhodes hesitated before reaching into his coat and taking out the dead smartphone that one of his recent captures was wearing on their wrist. He held it up for Heimdall’s perusal.

“The four were wearing one of these each on their forearms. Unfortunately, none of them were functioning by the time the wearers were incapacitated.”

Heimdall approached Rhodes and bent slightly to inspect the device. After a couple of seconds, he straightened up.

“Sir, permission to borrow the device?”

Rhodes stopped himself from pulling the device back on impulse. “Why?”

“I cannot make any guarantees, but I would like to disassemble it to see if there are any components inside that I can salvage for information.”

“Disassemble it? Wait, you know this technology?”

The soldier nodded again. “It looks like any regular smartphone, although if they were being worn by the rebels they must be special somehow. I am confident I can find something in its parts that can shed light on some answers. Hardware is one of my areas of expertise.”

Rhodes had considered having the devices taken apart in the hopes of yielding clues as to what the enemy was up to, but not being an expert in the intricacies of hardware, he would have needed to send the devices to the technicians at Northstar headquarters to analyze the gear. That would take several days on average to complete – time he didn’t feel he had.

After some thought, he relented and passed the device to Heimdall, who slipped it into the pocket of his pants.

“If you find anything, I want to be the first to know about it. Understand? You let me know first, and I will be the one to inform HQ.”

“Understood.”

“Good.”

“Is there anything else you require of me before I retire to my quarters, sir?

Rhodes’ impulse was to dismiss the strange soldier right away, but he thought of something he could ask Heimdall that Lancer would find slightly suspicious.

“Heimdall,” he said tentatively.

“Yes, sir?”

“Are you aware of others? Like yourself, I mean to say.”

The man blinked once but otherwise stayed stony-faced. “I am afraid I do not understand, sir.”

“Do you know any other graduates from the LATCHKEY program?”

The soldier appeared to ponder the question for a couple of seconds before answering. “Negative, sir. I was trained entirely separate from any others.”

“But you know there are other subjects?”

“I was told that there were.”

“But you’ve never met them? Or knew how many there are?”

Heimdall turned his head from side to side. “Negative, sir. I know only that there are others. Who they are and where they may be was never shared with me.”

“All right. I see. That will be all, then—”

The radio in Rhodes’ coat pocket suddenly started to blare an urgent male voice.

“All units on this frequency! Outpost zero-three-one is under attack! Enemy force size currently unknown! Send backup now, over!”

Rhodes rose to his feet with hardly a conscious thought.

Not this time, Christina.

Heimdall appraised Rhodes with a patient gaze. “Sir, will you be responding to this?”

“That’s an affirmative. I want you with me, Heimdall. We need to stop them from making off with more civilians.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rhodes walked past the soldier but stopped just short of exiting the room to glance at him over one shoulder.

“Are we clear on my instructions regarding the girl?”

Rhodes had provided the other man with all of Christina Valentine’s old personnel files for Heimdall’s reference. The last thing he wanted was for the girl to catch a fatal round.

Heimdall nodded slightly. “Yes, sir. Incapacitate and apprehend target Christina Valentine.”

“Good. Ignore all other hostiles if necessary. Just secure her alive.”

Heimdall’s lip twitched nearly imperceptibly. Rhodes knew these instructions ran counter to what the soldier was ordered to do by HQ, but Rhodes couldn’t care less about official orders.

“Do you understand?” Rhodes demanded, hardening his tone. “Christina Valentine is the priority. Once she’s secured, you’re free to complete your other tasks.”

If he was displeased or in vehement disagreement of that directive, Heimdall didn’t show it. Maintaining that expressionless face, he merely nodded curtly.

“Affirmative, sir.”





We arrived at the rec centre shortly before 1600 in two of our Light Utility Vehicles. Since this op was going to be more brazen than the last, the plan was for two armed vehicles to take up security during the drive back to the rec centre. Burke and his men would be in charge of handling the transport trucks, while the CSOR operatives under Chief Warrant Officer King would be providing them with support and close cover.

Knight parked our LUV in front of the building while Josh parked his and Genel’s next to ours. The Shadow leader unfastened his seat belt and spoke to the team over the team channel.

“I’ll head in and get everyone else,” he said. “I won’t be long.”

He stepped out of the vehicle and entered the building through the front door. When he had gone, Genel left the second vehicle and made her way to my side door. I rolled down my window.

“All right?” she said tersely.

“Yeah.”

Genel absently put her wrists on the door, partly through the window of my door, staring after where Knight had gone.

“I haven’t forgotten, Genel,” I told her sagely.

She glanced at me with an equally serious expression. I grabbed on to her gloved hand and squeezed.

“I’ll take care of him,” I said solemnly. “Besides, Josh will be with us, too. We’ll be okay.”

Genel took a deep breath, then smiled faintly and squeezed back. “Thanks.”

The plan was going to be similar to the last operation’s. We’d be splitting into three teams: diversionary, rescue, and extraction. The extraction team was made up of Sergeant Burke, Corporal Ingridson, and Private Emmerich from last time. They would be holding off at a safe distance from the hospital until given the green light by the prisoner rescue team. Upon receiving the signal, they would move in to secure the nearest exit for the prisoner rescue team.

The prisoner rescue team included Genel and the three special ops soldiers. They would be inserting through the main south entrance just after the diversionary team and fight their way to the prisoners’ location. Once the prisoners were freed, they would be led by the team to where the extraction team would be waiting.

Lastly, the diversionary team was comprised of Knight, Josh, and me. Our job would be to kick off the assault and divert as much attention away from the other two teams. We would be inserting via the north entrance ahead of everyone else.

Genel didn’t have as much of a complaint with this plan as the previous one, because Josh and I would be right there with Knight, but all the same I assured her I would do my best to look after our leader.

Josh stepped out of the second LUV and stepped beside Genel. “We’ve got this, Genel. We’ve got his back this time.”

“I know. I just wish I was with you guys instead.”

“I get that,” I said to her, “But we need you to help the SF team bypass any electronic security measures on the way to wherever the prisoners are being kept.”

She sighed, nodding almost dismissively. “I know. God, you three really should get better at what I typically do sometime.”

Josh thumped Genel on the shoulder. “Sorry about that, Mom. We’ll do our homework eventually.”

Genel laughed a bit nervously. “You should.”

Just then, the front door opened. Knight came out, followed by King, Jacobs, and Reid.

“Archer, these are CWO Angela King, Warrant Officer Caleb Jacobs, and Sergeant Ethan Reid. Special Forces,” Knight briskly introduced our marksman to her temporary group. “And this is Archer. She’ll get you past the locks and other security measures.”

Genel shook each CSOR operative’s right hands. “Hi. Glad to meet you.”

King gave her a polite nod. “Likewise, Archer. Good to have ya.”

Knight pointed a thumb at me. “This is Angel, my second-in-command.”

King lifted her hand to give me a small wave, which I returned. “Hey.”

“Hello.”

“We all ready?” Knight asked us Shadows.

“Yeah,” I replied.

King made her way to the driver’s seat of the second vehicle while her two fellow soldiers piled into the back seat. She strapped herself in and stuck her elbow out the window to call out to Genel.

“Right. Come on, Archer. Let’s rock it.”

Genel glanced at King over her shoulder. “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

She turned back to me, giving me a wordless stare before letting go of my hand. I watched her go around the second LUV to get into the front passenger seat while Knight and Josh piled into he LUV I was in.

The two transport trucks being driven by Burke and his soldiers appeared near the intersection of Copperstone Street and Copperstone Cove behind us, waiting.

Knight tinkered with his TACPAD for a moment to open up a modified channel connecting all three teams for this op. “Okay, we all know our roles. Watch yourselves. Anything happens, let everyone else know. This needs to happen fast, before reinforcements come knocking. Good luck, everyone.”

“Roger that, Knight,” Burke replied over the channel.

“Got it, Grim Reaper,” King said, her confidence audible through the link.

“Understood,” Genel responded, her voice already settling into that calmer sniper tone.

Knight released the safety brake and backed our LUV out of the parking space. He switched gears and drove the truck down Copperstone Street.

In the rearview mirror, their headlights glowing in the fading light, I saw the two transport trucks move up in formation to follow us. I couldn’t see the second LUV from here, but I knew they were close behind.

I glanced at the side of Knight’s face. His expression wasn’t any different from usual. He was in his own element, and right now that was reassuring.

We’ll get this done.





“Keep me covered,” Knight murmured over the comms.

“Copy,” I murmured back, keeping my aim on the two enemy soldiers posted on the northern entrance.

“Covering,” Josh added beside me on the other end of the car we were using for cover.

I watched as a shadow rose silently from the shrubs to the right of the doors, then creeped behind the sentry on the right. Knight kicked at the back of the soldier’s leg to destabilize him, then wrapped his right arm around the enemy’s neck. The stunned soldier dropped his M4, the sound of the weapon hitting the pavement alerting the second sentry, who turned his attention to his colleague. Before he could fire his weapon, Knight used a lightning-quick draw to fire his suppressed pistol while holding the first guard as a human shield. The Shadow leader fired twice, downing the alerted guard with a headshot.

As soon as his shots made their mark, Knight hauled his catch back into the shadows of the foliage, the two disappearing from view.

“Standby,” he said amidst some grunts and curses in the background.

“Copy. Hurry it up, boss,” Josh responded.

Josh and I kept watch over the entrance, observing about half a dozen US Army personnel within line of sight chattering by the front desk, not far from the doors. After a while, one of them abruptly began pointing in the direction of the doors, clearly at the body of the second sentry that Knight had left in plain sight under the lights outside the doors. He and two others raised their rifles and began to approach the doors.

“Heads up Knight. They’ve noticed the body. They’re coming out,” I reported, curling my finger through the trigger guard.

“Roger. Angel, Goliath – you are weapons free.”

I waited until the doors had slid open and the three soldiers were outside before I let loose a burst from my Vector that took down the first of the party investigating the body. Josh fired his assault rifle to take out a second target. I switched to the third soldier and took him down as well before he could get rush back inside the hospital.

Even from fifty metres away, I could see a flurry of activity rapidly forming inside the lobby. Several other soldiers popped out from a hallway to the right of the lobby and began digging in behind the information desk, support pillars, and other furniture.

“Goliath, cover me. I’m moving up to those doors with Knight,” I told the Shadow next to me.

“Got you covered. Move up.”

I rose from a crouch just as Josh’s rifle rattled in full auto, peppering the entrance and punching through the glass. I sprinted around the cover and made a break for the entrance. Within seconds, I was on the other side of the doors from Knight, who was now on the comms again.

“Knight to Archer and King. Prisoners are in the ER, south side. Engage at your discretion. We’ll take as much of the heat as we can, but you’d best hurry.”

“Roger your last, Reaper,” King replied immediately. “We’re beginning our assault.”

“Be careful,” Genel added.

Knight unclipped a frag grenade from his belt and found my eyes. He jerked his head at the lobby.

“Angel, covering fire,” he commanded.

“Copy. On your go!”

“Go!”

I peeked from cover and unloaded my entire magazine through the shattered glass doors to suppress the enemies in the lobby while Knight primed his grenade and lobbed it. Right before I ducked back behind cover to reload, I saw Knight’s frag bounce off the wall behind the information desk and land out of sight on the other side of it. Several panicked voices cried out, calling the grenade’s presence. A booming, concussive blast reverberated through the northern wall of the hospital, making my ears ring a little but otherwise leaving me unscathed.

“I’ve got point,” Knight told us. “Angel, with me. Goliath, move up and provide rear security.”

“Got it. Moving up to cover our six.”

“I’m right behind you, Knight.” I finished reloading and waited for Knight to burst from cover and enter the lobby. I followed right behind him, immediately snapping my weapon to the left to neutralize two hostiles on the floor who were recovering from the shock wave of Knight’s grenade. Behind me, Knight’s G36C barked in controlled bursts as he took care of the survivors on the other side of the lobby. Within the next ten seconds, I had taken out another two hostiles that had popped out to fire at us from the men’s washroom on my side of the lobby.

Knight’s assault rifle eventually stopped barking. A second later, he called out, “Lobby’s clear!”

I turned around to face him, reloading my submachine gun again. His grenade had taken out four enemy soldiers who were taking cover behind the now destroyed information desk. Four additional corpses lay to the right side of the desk, brought down by Knight’s rounds.

I had just finished swapping mags when I heard some angry shouts coming from down the far end of the J-shaped corridor behind the wall of the information desk. I took cover behind a vending machine while Knight dove behind the opposite corner of the mouth of the hallway.

“We’re pushing into Laboratory Services,” Knight informed me and Josh, reloading his own weapon as footsteps rapidly approached us from down the corridor. “Stay close, both of you.”

I nodded, then jerked away from the corner instinctively as bullets tore at it. The voices of maybe three or four soldiers shouted to others within their group to either advance, or call out our positions. They were currently at the bend of the hallway, about thirty or so metres from where we were.

I removed one flash grenade from my belt. Knight looked down at my hand, then back up at my face. He nodded without a word, then dropped to a crouch and peeked out with his gun at the ready. He let loose in full auto in the direction of the advancing hostiles.

I primed the flashbang and popped out of cover while Knight was laying down suppressing fire. I took quick but careful aim, then tossed the grenade as hard as I could at the bend of the J-shaped hallway, where most of the incoming soldiers were. Ducking back into cover after my throw, I waited for the sound of my grenade going off before I peered back out to return fire.

One soldier had fallen on his stomach just past the bend, clearly suffering from disorientation brought about by my flashbang. I quickly placed the reticle of my holographic sight on the top of his helmet and fired. My burst landed on the helmet, the combined momentum of the bullets allowing the latter rounds to punch through the protective gear.

A deep and distinct thumping noise erupted from somewhere to my right, followed by another explosion breaking out at the bend of the hallway ahead. I retreated back behind cover in time to see Knight ejecting a spend 40 mm grenade casing from his smoking M203 mounted to the underside of his assault rifle’s barrel. He then proceeded to swap to a fresh magazine.

The hallway ahead was now abruptly quiet. I peeked around the corner and found a couple enemy soldiers who had been propelled forward by the blast crawling toward us, their faces and uniforms coated in their blood. One of them was missing a leg, leaving a trail of gore from his stump.

“Rescue Team to Diversionary,” CWO King’s voice raised us on the radio. In the background, I could hear the rattle of automatic weapons and the snap of single fire firearms mingling. She shouted a little to be heard over the noise. “Come in, Grim Reaper!”

“Knight copies,” Knight replied, standing up. “King, what’s your status?”

“We’re pushing deeper into the ER. Got just about six or seven hostiles between us and the heart of the department. Resistance has been rather light. If the civvies are here, we’ll be making contact in a minute.”

“Roger that. Keep at it. We’ll keep being a nuisance. Update the extraction team.”

“Copy. Out!”

Knight turned to Josh. “All right, we’re moving on. Goliath, you secure this lobby. Angel and I will push on. If we run into heavy resistance, I want this fallback route open.”

Josh nodded, standing up from cover and hefting his Stoner rifle over one shoulder. “Sure. No one in or out unless it’s you two.”

Knight nodded back, then glanced at me. “Come on, Angel.”

I followed Knight down the hallway we had just cleared, passing about eight to ten fallen soldiers taken out by the 40 mm grenade round. Knight placed one shot each into the back of the heads of the two crippled soldiers as we walked by.

We turned left at the bend, eastbound toward Peter Lougheed Centre’s Laboratory Services department. The journey to our destination was punctuated with sporadic encounters with fortunately small groups of enemy soldiers. Knight and I dispatched them together without significant difficulty, and after three minutes into our advance from the north entrance, we arrived at Laboratory Services.

The spacious waiting room was empty as best as I could tell. Just as we had confirmed the area was clear, King got on the comms again.

“King to Grim Reaper. We’ve reached the civilians. There’s about forty here. Rough estimate. We’ll be able to get everyone on the trucks, no problem. We’re moving them now.”

Before Knight could respond, a different voice cut through the channel.

“Burke to all friendlies! I’ve got a visual on an enemy VTOL vacating the area. They were dropping ropes just seconds ago. Suspect backup headed your way!”

“US Army VTOL?” Knight demanded.

“Negative,” Burke said urgently. “Unidentified aircraft.”

“Where are you now, Sergeant?”

“Securing the south entrance to the ER as per King’s request. We’ll hold here as long as we can.”

“King, get a move on. Northstar are here,” Knight told the leader of the CSOR team. “You need to get out now. Take the prisoners and exfil now.”

“Are you—”

“Don’t start! Angel and I will backtrack to our entry point and evac on our own with Goliath. Don’t worry about us!”

“King!” Warrant Officer Jacobs cut into our conversation. “We’ve got enemy chatter on enemy comms saying more US Army are inbound from downtown! We need to go – they’ll be on us in less than ten mikes.”

“Ah shit,” King cursed, then raised her voice. “Come on people, let’s move! Let’s go, come on! Hustle! We’re here to get you out!”

She lowered her voice again to near conversation levels. “Okay, Grim Reaper. We’ll be off in two mikes. Suggest you start exfil, too.”

“Copy that. Don’t wait around for us. As soon as you’re loaded up, get away from the site as fast as you can. Make sure you don’t pick up any tails.”

“Roger that. See you when we get back. Out.”

Knight switched to Shadow Team’s private channel. “Goliath, Angel and I are on our way out. Get to the LUV and meet us at the entrance. This is going to be a fast exfil.”

“Gotcha, boss. Don’t take your time!”

Knight stepped up to me. “Let’s go.”

Just as we were turning to backtrack the way we came, I heard the door behind us swing open. Knight and I glanced in that direction.

A behemoth of a man – roughly Josh’s size – with ebony skin came stomping through the double doors about thirty metres away with a rifle raised. He was wearing olive drab fatigues, but what instantly clued me in to his identity was his face, which displayed brutish, murderous intent.

Yansen.

I began to bring my weapon to bear, but Yansen was already firing at us. Knight shoved me away from him, causing me to crash on my right shoulder while he dove left out of Yansen’s line of fire.

I quickly got to my feet, sliding into cover behind some of the waiting room benches, while Knight crawled behind a couple of overturned folding tables to my left.

I popped up from cover a little and sent a burst Yansen’s way. He ducked into a room on the left, leaving my rounds to hit the doors he had come through.

I glanced at Knight, who was in the process of peering up from his own cover to get a bead on Yansen down the length of the waiting area. He clearly didn’t notice someone else coming at him in a bull rush from the hallway to his left.

“Knight! Nine o’clock!” I shouted to him frantically, aiming my gun in that direction, hoping to stop the enemy who was fast approaching him, but I wasn’t quick enough.

Knight just had enough time to turn left before a second soldier in the same olive drab fatigues rammed into him, knocking him to the floor. Knight’s G36C went clattering out of his reach.

I trained my Vector on the tangle of limbs as Knight and the other soldier began to grapple with each other like a pair of ferocious tigers. As much as I wanted to quickly neutralize the threat that had my team leader on the floor, I was unable to fire for fear that I’d hit Knight by mistake.

I began to move toward the two men thrashing on the floor, intending to at least pull the enemy away and give Knight a window of opportunity, but before I could take more than one step toward them, I was knocked sideways. My cheek smashed against the cold marble floor. I felt the impact of my fall before I felt my right arm burning and unable to move.

My gun was no longer in my hands. I tried to reach for where it fell a metre away from where I was with my one good arm, but a searing pain just beneath my right armpit made me cry out in pain, rendering me barely mobile. It felt like my entire right side was on fire. I was barely aware of myself bleeding from the upper arm and right side.

“ANGEL!” Knight yelled out to me, turning his head from where he was about three metres away. The soldier on top of him used this moment of distraction to drive a fist into Knight’s jaw.

Knight let out a low, gruff growl and managed to surprise his attacker with a left uppercut to the adversary’s own jaw. That gave the Shadow leader enough of a window to push the other man off him with a kick and scramble to his feet.

I lay there helplessly, unable to do anything but watch as Knight moved in my direction, trying to reach me. He was forced back, however, when the Northstar soldier who’d charged him took a horizontal swipe at him with a knife.

Knight backpedaled a little, narrowly avoiding two more consecutive swipes. He drew his pistol from his left holster with a quick motion and wasted no time unloading his sidearm at his opponent.

Knight was the most agile agent I’d ever met, but for once, he wasn’t quite fast enough.

As if predicting his exact movements, the Northstar soldier jerked to the side, effectively dodging Knight’s rounds well before Knight had pulled his trigger. Knight adjusted his aim, but by then the other man was already within melee range.

The mercenary ducked under Knight’s outstretched arms with speed that I’d never quite seen from a human before. I fleetingly recalled how fast Knight moved when he came for me at the Stampede, but even that was slower than the way this mercenary moved.

The Northstar soldier brought the heel of his free palm up from between Knight’s arms and sent it crashing into Knight’s chin from below. Knight gave a grunt, his head snapping back so hard I was nearly certain he’d caught whiplash. Stunned, he dropped his pistol too and staggered backward a couple steps.

The extra two seconds he was dazed was more than enough time for the enemy to swing that knife in an arc and bury the blade in Knight’s chest.

“No…!” I tried to scream, but the debilitating pain in my side prevented me from raising my voice much.

The Northstar merc grabbed the now-ungainly Knight by the throat and shoved my team leader against the nearest wall. Pinning Knight to the wall with one arm, the soldier punched Knight in the stomach once, making Knight double over with a hoarse cry. A second punch connected with his face with enough force that Knight’s head rebounded forward off the wall behind him. At this point, Knight’s whole body went limp and the merc let him go. I watched in horror as the Shadow leader crumpled to the floor and fell on his back.

Mustering the remnants of my fading strength, I inched along the floor to reach for my fallen Vector, but just as my left hand scraped the grip of my submachine gun, someone’s boot kicked the weapon away from my reach.

I groaned weakly, turning my head to see who was standing over me. A hooded man was smiling down at me unpleasantly.

“Hello, Christina,” Rhodes said to me in that discomforting, silky voice.

“Knight, what’s the holdup?” Josh was shouting over the comms. I barely registered that he was yelling, but somehow his voice sounded far away. “Where are you two? Come in, Knight! Angel? Does either of you copy?!”

I lifted my good arm, managing to tap my earpiece and whisper two words:

“Knight… down…”

I wasn’t sure if Josh heard that. I could only hope he’d caught my voice as Rhodes pulled my arm away and yanked the earpiece out of my ear. He tossed it aside and motioned toward someone out of my field of vision.

“Yansen, pick her up,” he ordered, sounding suddenly displeased. “We’ll get her stabilized on the VTOL. I said I wanted her alive!”

I vaguely heard Yansen complain about something from some distance away, though I missed his words.

“Heimdall,” Rhodes said next, his voice rapidly becoming foggier to my ears. “Intercept the transport trucks. Don’t let them leave the site.”

There was something like a “yes, sir” and the floor shook a bit under my head as someone out of sight took off somewhere in a sprint.

Seconds later, I felt someone lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder, granting me a heads-down view of his back.

Yansen. He’s the only one here who could do that…

As I felt myself being hauled away as if I were nothing but a towel, I lifted my head a little from Yansen’s back to find Knight, who wasn’t moving where he had fallen. He became smaller and smaller as Yansen carried me off to who knew where. We eventually passed some double doors, leaving the Laboratory Services waiting room behind.

I couldn’t see Knight anymore.

Genel’s trusting gaze flashed in my mind as she squeezed my hand.

I’m sorry, Genel.