The two hostiles started to advance again, one of them shoving his neuro-jammer gun back in its holster. Sean was grateful for that. Even though it couldn’t kill, its blast was still harmful, whether someone was a metahuman or not. Sean got a good grip on Alexei, knowing they were safe so long as he kept them phased. Declan’s people seemed to recognize that fact, judging by the frustrated expressions on theirfaces.
In a split second, their tenuous situation—wounded, no solid exfil, covers burned—changed marginally for thebetter.
A figure darted out from a row of slot machines, her quick approach buried beneath the noise of a stampeding crowd. Madison flung herself on top of the bar counter before racing around the half-circle to dive off it at the closest target. She took the man down with a hard hit to the back and neck, slamming him to the floor before thrusting her arm in the direction of theotherman.
The sparking flare of her energy power erupted from her hand. The small projectile cut through the air and exploded against her target with devastating results. The man’s shout cut off when half his face was blown off, blood spattering across the carpet between them as hecollapsed.
Madison rose to her feet, her face a mask of restrained fury. “Status?”
“Wounded,” Alexei reluctantlyreplied.
“I’m fine,”Seansaid.
“Bones, we got injured,” she dutifully reported over comms they couldn’taccess.
“How’d youfindus?”
“Viper is piggy-backing on their security. She accessed a backdoor when we reported you used your warning codephrase.”
“I thought she was ordered not tohackit?”
“The director apparently changedhismind.”
“Right. Okay. We needtogo.”
“Icarus has the car outside.” Madison jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the wall instead of the lobby, eyes scanning the area for threats. “Headingthatway?”
“I phase you, you’ll lose comms,” Seanwarned.
She nodded, holding up a single finger in the age-old gesture ofwait. “Nova to Icarus, we’re coming through the wall, north of your position. Get ready for a pickup in twenty seconds. My comms are deadafterthis.”
Madison came around on Alexei’s other side. Sean solidified them long enough for Madison to take some of Alexei’s weight onto her slim shoulders. Concentrating, he pushed his phase field through both of them. Madison blinked in surprise, lifting her free hand toherear.
“Wow, that’s so weird. Everything justblankedout.”
They headed for the wall, hauling Alexei along between them. Running through tables and chairs, they short-circuited at least three dealer machines before passing through the wall like ghosts. Shaded sunlight made Sean blink rapidly as he quickly tried to adjust his vision. People filled the front of the casino, milling about in shock or hurrying to get off the property. Sirens roared in the distance, promising a police presence sooner rather thanlater.
“Over there,” Madison said, nodding in the direction of the casino’s frontdrive.
A black SUV had a clear route to them, everyone kept at bay by Trevor’s telekinesis that he’d tunneled through the crowd. Annabelle braked to a hard halt meters away, the side door already openingforthem.
They closed the distance in seconds, with Sean not caring about people seeing them phase through solid objects, not after Madison’s attack inside the casino. He hoped MDF hackers were already crawling through the casino’s security system and wiping them from the database. Considering the panic everyone was in, he hoped the public wrote off what they saw as a masshallucination.
Trevor helped Alexei into the far back seat while Sean scrambled into the middle one. Madison took the front passenger seat, drawing a gun from the glove compartment before the door was even shut. Annabelle drove forward, hands tight on thewheel.
“Bones! Make us a hole,” Annabelle called backtohim.
Trevor telekinetically parted the crowd around them as she drove forward, trying not to speed, because that would bring unwanted attention. When they finally reached South Las Vegas Boulevard did she pick up speed, peeling away from the messbehindthem.
10
Cold WarTransmission
“What happened?”Jamie demanded through the SUV’s communicationssystem.
Alexei felt calmer once he had his captain’s voice in his ears. It didn’t do anything to alleviate the fiery pain in his side, nor the migraine-level ache in his head that left him feeling sick to his stomach and weak in body. The neuro-jammer bolt had barely clipped him, but even that was enough to wreak havoc on his nervoussystem.
“Let me see,” Trevor said, batting his hand away from the towel he was holding against the bloody wound inhisside.
