Only it never arrived.
The ruins of the roof crashed against an invisible force field that covered the length of the station and everyone still desperately trying to escape at the exits. The sound of the impact was strange since it didn’t hit anything solid. Highlander’s energy force fields were all that kept everyone from being crushed to death, and Oliver hoped the other man’s power would hold.
Oliver didn’t take his eyes off the way their target had gone. The open area of the station in front of the ticketing gates was rapidly clearing, leaving those behind standing out in the open with minimal coverage.
To Oliver’s right, the Royal Legion squared off with a man and a woman who definitely weren’t human. And since Oliverwas, that was a fight he had no hope of contributing anything worthwhile to. Capturing Murphy, on the other hand, was a possibility he couldn’t ignore.
“Here we go,” Oliver muttered to himself as he ran for train Platforms 2 through 7 off to his left.
Two trains waited at the platforms, but he didn’t see any railway personnel anywhere. Oliver didn’t know if the trains were empty of passengers, but he hoped so. The only people Oliver cared about were the men running toward the train on Platform 7. He wasn’t the only one chasing after them. A few other UMG agents had spotted their attempted escape and started to give chase.
Oliver thought he had a chance at making it to the train, but between one stride and the next, he came to a sudden, hard stop that wasn’t his doing.
“What the hell?” he exclaimed, right before a strange, invisible force that pulled only at the metal he wore in the borrowed tactical gear and the gun in his hand picked him up, and then he was tossed through the air as if he weighed nothing. He crashed to a stop against one of the ticket gates that led to the platform.
The impact drove all the breath out of his lungs, dark spots eating away at the edge of his vision. Oliver slumped to the floor, his ears ringing, pain burning through every nerve in his body. He blinked dazedly up at the debris hanging in the air above and the midmorning sky peeking through clouds beyond the shattered roof. He tasted blood on his tongue, the ache in his chest a familiar warning of bruised or cracked ribs. He couldn’t tell through the throbbing agony eating away at his concentration.
He heard the crackle of electricity and thought it was his comms, but no voice came over the line. Oliver took a breath, then another, the careful inhalations telling him that if anything was broken, the bone hadn’t pierced his lungs.
I can work with that.
Grimacing, Oliver shoved himself to a sitting position. He shook his head, trying to clear it. His vision was a little blurry, but the hard helmet had ensured his skull hadn’t cracked open upon impact.
Oliver clawed his way to his feet, staggering to an upright position. He’d lost his gun when being flung through the air, or it’d been taken from him. Either way, it was gone, but the one holstered on his thigh was still secured. Oliver fumbled it out of its holster, thumbed off the safety, and shot out the control panel on the ticketing gate. The gate barriers folded back, and he stumbled through the gate at a run, eyes on the train whose engine had started up.
Oliver made it to the last car right as the train started to move, jerking a little as the maglev connection started up. He shot off the lock on the door and hauled himself into the train car, swearing as the motion pulled at his ribs. Pressing a hand to his side, Oliver headed toward the engine.
The train car was empty as he passed through it. Before opening the doors to the next car, Oliver cased the area as much as he could through the window. When he thought it was clear, he palmed open the door and slipped through, leading with his gun.
The train picked up speed in a way that Oliver didn’t like. Victoria Station was smack in the middle of London, surrounded by businesses and residential buildings. Trains were restricted to a lower speed within the Central Zone of London. He could tell whoever was at the controls was forcing the train to go faster than it would normally be allowed.
“Raven, what is your location?” Liam snapped over the line.
“On the train that just left,” Oliver replied, keeping his gaze focused on the next set of doors connecting the train cars. “Murphy is on the train.”
“There is a high risk of a Splice bomb being on that train.Get off.”
Oliver swallowed but didn’t stop moving. “I don’t think that’s an option, Knight.”
Movement in the next car ahead had Oliver sliding his finger from the trigger guard to the trigger itself. He lengthened his stride, trying to make it up to the open area next to the toilet that would provide better coverage than the seats. He managed to gain the position right before a flurry of bullets cut through the aisle he’d been running through. Oliver braced his feet against the floor as the train took a curve at an unsafe speed.
“I think they’re going to derail the train,” Oliver said.
“First responders have been put on notice,” Chapman said, cutting through Liam’s swearing.
That was all well and good for the people who would need them, but what Oliver needed was an escape that wouldn’t get him killed. The sound of the door sliding open had him crouching to a lower position before swinging his upper body around the scant protection he hid behind, pulling the trigger.
The man had been aiming at chest height, missing Oliver. Oliver’s bullets found their mark, hitting the man in the hip, thigh, and chest. The flak jacket he wore meant the bullet aiming at his heart never found its target, but the one in his leg did. The amount of blood gushing from the wound told Oliver it had hit the femoral artery, and the man went down with a painful grunt.
The train swayed dangerously on the track, causing Oliver to lose his footing. He crashed to the floor, sliding over to the other side of the train. Hitting the wall sent fresh agony cascading through his ribs, and he sucked in air past his teeth.
He still had his gun, while the other man had lost his. Oliver shoved himself up on his elbows, intent on making sure the man never got his weapon again, when a distant explosion thundered through the air. The train car bucked in a way it wasn’t supposed to, the sound of shredding metal and the distant reverberations of impact rattling through the frame of the train car.
Oliver lashed out with his arm, getting a hand on an armrest of the seat closest to him. He swung his legs around, kicking his feet up against the underside of the bench for support. He braced himself as the train car went halfway vertical before falling over on its side, skidding and bouncing over the ground as the train jumped the track.
The world spun in a sickening way as glass shattered and metal buckled all around him. Parts of the siding and roof crumpled and tore as the train car slammed through the safety wall and into one of the many buildings that lined the tracks in London.
Oliver lost his grip and was thrown about as broken pieces of the building they’d hit started to fall through the train. He tumbled into the open space near the doors, sliding over broken glass and twisted metal.
