“Go!” Bisch shoved me forward. “I will get him. Go!”
He turned back before I could argue, limping into the chaos, firing as he went.
I grabbed Will’s arm. “Move. Trust him.”
We ran.
The service corridor was ahead. I recognized the junction, the pipes along the ceiling, the cable runs.
We’d come this way.
We could get out this way.
If we lived long enough.
Guards kept coming.
I don’t know how many I killed. Three. Five. More. They came out of the red-lit darkness like demons.
I put them down and kept moving.
Will was flagging.
The Baroness wasn’t heavy, but carrying dead weight through a firefight would exhaust anyone. Isaw his arms trembling, saw his breath coming in ragged gasps.
“Almost there,” I told him. “Almost—”
A guard stepped into our path. He looked young and scared. His rifle came up too slow.
I shot him in the chest.
He fell, and I stepped over him. I didn’t let myself feel anything.
The service corridor opened before us. It stood dark and quiet, a tunnel back to the drainage channel and freedom. Behind us, the gunfire was fading. Either Bisch had dealt with the pursuit, or—
I didn’t finish the thought.
“Go,” I told Will. “I’ll cover.”
He disappeared into the darkness with the Baroness, while I crouched at the junction, weapon trained back the way we’d come, waiting.
Footsteps.
Uneven.
Bisch emerged from the red-lit chaos, a body over his shoulder.
“He breathes,” Bisch gasped. “Barely. We must hurry.”
I didn’t ask how he’d managed it, didn’t ask what it had cost. I just fell in beside him, and we moved into the service corridor, leaving the dead behind us.
The Shadow’s voice echoed down the passage, calm despite the carnage.
“Find them. Kill the men, but bring me the Baroness alive.”
We ran faster.
The drainage channel was ahead.
