I found the lifeboat bay and then I found a steel panel locked with a keypad. I yanked at the handle, but it didn’t budge, so I jammed the knife into the seam and pried it open. The panel groaned but gave way eventually. I stabbed the release with the point of the blade.
The mechanical arm twitched.
Then locked again.
“Manual override required,” a voice said through the speaker.
“Override this,” I growled, and kicked the panel as hard as I could.
Suddenly, there were footsteps behind me.
I spun just in time to see two guards sprinting down the catwalk. One raised his rifle.
I dove behind the lifeboat housing as the first shot rang out.
Metal sparked. Another shot. Too close.
I popped up, knife in hand, and flung it like a dart. It caught the trigger-happy guard in the shoulder. He screamed and then staggered. The second fired again. I dropped like a lead weight. The bullet pinged off the wall behind me.
Then a new sound.
Distant.
Whining.
A drone.
The guards heard it too. One of them turned, but he was too late.
The drone swooped down the length of the catwalk, silent and fast. A dart hissed through the air and embedded in the standing guard’s neck. He went down hard and started twitching.
The other turned to run. I didn’t let him. I tackled him from behind, slamming his head into the metal railing until he stopped moving.
The drone hovered. Waiting.
Then its camera blinked red, once.
Almost like it was sending me a signal. And then it hit me.
They were coming. My Markovs were coming for me.
I stood, yanked my knife from the body of the first guard, and wiped the blood off on his sleeve. My hands still shook a little, but I didn’t have time for guilt.
Somewhere below deck, an alarm wailed, a long, mechanical scream that echoed through the hull and vibrated up through the soles of my boots. The ship was awake now, angry and groaning as it lurched forward into open water.
I turned my face toward the city, watching as it grew smaller and smaller. The wind tore through my hair, carrying the faint echo of a helicopter somewhere beyond the darkness.
For that insane moment, I thought it might be them. Roman. Dmitri. Lev.
Then the deck vibrated under my feet and the sound changed—heavier, faster,closer.
Searchlights cut through the night.
Fuck. Not them.
The Revenant insignia flashed across the hull of a smaller pursuit ship as it came into view. Two spotlights pinned theOrion Dawnlike a hunted beast.
“Shit.”
