Bones has you covered in a telekinetic shield, Katie said into their minds to forestall any further panic.
“That doesn’t stop them fromshooting,” Liam snapped as he tried to get his front passenger side door to open.It took a couple of hard kicks, but he finally got it open and started to crawl out.“Get Nova to lob one of her specialties at the bloody bastards.”
“We’re supposed to be human, remember, Knight?”Jamie said.
“Sod that!I’m going to fry the fuckers!”
“I can see now how he’s related to the royal family,” Kyle said as he twisted around in the small space to feel underneath the seat.He came up with two handguns stashed away in hidden holsters and handed one to Jamie.“Gives a royal decree, expects everyone to bow to his obviously superior field expertise.”
“You get used to him,” Jamie grunted as he reached past Kyle to punch open the car door on that side.The force of his blow sent the door flying until it slammed into the invisible barrier of Trevor’s telekinetic shield.
“I hope not.One idiotic team captain is enough for me.”
“So I don’t think your spy made any friends when he was in Northern Ireland,” Liam said from his crouched position as they crawled out, weapons in hand.
Jamie rolled his eyes and knelt down next to the SUV to better grab the front passenger seat and wrench it backward, shielding his effort from any prying eyes with his body.The extra space enabled Donovan to twist free from behind the steering wheel and crawl out.
“Spies don’t make friends.”
Liam made an impatient grabbing motion at Jamie, taking a quick look between the wheels of the upside-down SUV.“Give me a gun.”
Kyle ducked back into the SUV and scrambled to get his hands on any other weapons stashed in the vehicle.He came up with one more handgun, which he passed to Jamie before lying down flat inside the vehicle, ignoring the glass and metal edges ripping up his skin and clothes in favor of taking a prone shooting position.
“Bones, I need a firing hole,” Kyle snapped over the comms.
Jamie crouched down and put his back to the SUV, keeping his focus behind them.He could see their second SUV in the opposite lane where they were, Annabelle having braked to a hard halt halfway into the intersection.The rest of Alpha Team was outside their vehicle and crouched behind it for cover, weapons in hand as they exchanged fire with the enemy.
Cars had been abandoned in the streets around them once the Reborn IRA members started firing, most people running for cover and safety, hoping to all hell a Splice chemical bomb wouldn’t be detonated.Jamie caught sight of several unmoving bodies and could hear someone sobbing for help.He spied a couple crouched out of the way behind a trash bin, the guy fumbling with what looked like a tablet while his girlfriend frantically tugged at his arm with a pleading look on her face.
“Viper, we need a blackout,” Jamie ordered.“Tank, give Reaper your eyes.”
“Copy that, Apollo,” Katie said.
It took less than thirty seconds for Katie to dig her portable EMP out of the SUV’s center console, set the radius, and prime the device.Jamie winced as his embedded nanotech comms went dead in his ears, along with the rest of the bioware in his body.The reset would take a minute, tops, before they came back online, helped along by the kinetic energy his body powered them with.
The half-mile radius Katie had set the EMP for wasn’t so lucky.
Lights cut out on the streets and buildings around them, plunging the area into darkness.London had some of the toughest aerial traffic laws in Europe—the megacity loathed flying vehicles—which meant the skies above were thankfully clear of any potentially deadly hazards raining down on them.In the distance, the lights of London glowed like a beacon of safety beyond the dark circle they stood in.
Jamie blinked rapidly, trying to adjust his vision to the sudden darkness.Behind him, he heard the distinctive sound of a 9mm handgun going off, Donovan’s voice a low rumble as he used the night-vision aspect of his sight power to spot for Kyle.Less than a minute later, the shooting stopped.
“Hostiles eliminated,” Kyle called out.
“Leave the vehicles.The UMG will handle cleanup.We’ll get a pickup somewhere else,” Liam said.
“Underground?”Jamie said as Kyle crawled backward out of the wrecked SUV.
“Like any proper Londoner will tell you, it’s the only way to travel.”
“Then lead the way.”
07
YOU MAKE ME A SINNER
The automated black taxi turned off the Mall and into restricted space located down a short side street.It braked to a stop in front of a security gate, the meter running down the minutes of the wait time.
Liam paid the fare and got out, waving off the soldiers in their winter coats and faux-bearskin hats on duty outside Clarence House.Jamie and Kyle climbed out after him and followed Liam through the security gate one of the soldiers opened for them.
