He squeezed the trigger. The left turret vanished in an explosion of fire and smoke.
“Fire.”
The right turret disintegrated.
He set the Lance to the side and rolled to his feet, sweeping it back up. Sliding it into the locker and jumping into the Yukon’s passenger seat took barely a second. Diana took off, the Yukon speeding down the mountain road, its lights off.
Behind them, a high-voltage searchlight swept the hillside. Woodward’s automated systems searching for them.
Diana took a turn at hair-raising speed. He was almost sure the SUV’s tires left the ground. The road was pitch-black. He couldn’t see shit. Augustine gripped the handle on the door.
The SUV rolled over something.
“Lights,” he squeezed out.
“No need. Trust me.”
The Yukon went airborne and landed with a clang. He saw Woodward’s estate looming in front of them, the two mangled turrets smoking on top of the towers.
Diana stood on the gas. The Yukon surged forward like a runaway battering ram.
The metal gate flashed before them. He didn’t even have a chance to brace for impact.
The SUV plowed into the gate. Metal screeched, and then they were through, speeding down the driveway.
A massive shape charged at them through the trees—a triceratops construct, illuminated by eerie blue magic from within.
Ahead, stainless-steel pillars emerged from the pavement, rising. Defensive bollards blocking access to the house.
Diana threw the wheel to the left.
The car turned, sliding into a skid. For a terrifying moment, they hurtled sideways, straight at the bollard barrier, so fast that his life had no chance to flash before his eyes.
The SUV screeched to a halt two feet from the pillars.
Diana shoved her door open. He jumped out from his side, carrying a duffel in his left hand and a cluster of Helios flash bombs in his right. They ran between the bollards and dashed to the front door. Behind them a tortured metal groan announced a construct smashing into the Yukon.
Augustine spun around. The pack of velociraptors was charging toward them at full speed, four of them, the magic powering them blazing brighter. Behind them, the mangled T-Rex struggled forward, dragging itself across the ground as pieces of its body slowly floated back toward it.
Augustine pulled the pins from the flash bombs, hurled them at the SUV, and sprinted to the door. Diana flew ahead of him.
The night turned white, illuminating the stairs, the double doors, and the armored shutters descending over the windows. The Helios explosions would burn for three seconds, their intense bursts of light designed to damage retinas and image sensors.
One.He snapped his magic like a whip, anchoring it to the two lupine shapes running back, toward the mangled front gate turning the wolves into Diana and his doppelgangers.
Two.He wrapped his power around himself and Diana, willing them to melt into the night.
Three.He bounded up the stairs to the front doors, pulling at the zipper on the duffel. Diana was already there.
Augustine chanced a quick glance over his shoulder. Two of the velociraptors had veered back, chasing after illusions of their doppelgangers. The triceratops had followed. The T-Rex washalfway up, and the two remaining velociraptors were sixty feet away.
He pulled his Angstadt Arms MDP-9 out, unfolding the stock in a fluid motion, and thrust it at her.
Diana ignored it. “The door, Augustine.”
He extracted the party crasher strip from the duffel, peeled the breacher tape off, and stuck it to the door.
The first construct leaped at Diana. She stepped out of the way and hacked at it with her tactical blade.
