“Has Viper been in contact with Knight?” Samaira asked.
He’s alive and hunkered down in a council estate stairwell. The Reborn IRA has people on the ground. We’re holding them back for now, but they have reinforcements coming,Katie said through a mental link.Have medical on standby.
Samaira’s mouth thinned into a flat, hard line.Understood.
“Peregrine to base, we have Splice bombs going off,” Abigail snarled over the comms. “Someone sound the sirens. How copy?”
Kyle shared a look with Jamie, knowing the death toll would be high if people panicked and tried to flee the area where the fight was happening.
“Base to Peregrine, we copy. Sirens are going off,” an agent responded.
Even through the sound of the jet engines, Kyle could hear the deep, eerie wailing of the ancient air raid sirens that had once been used to warn Londoners of an incoming attack in a long-ago world war. Nowadays, the sirens were used to warn citizens to shelter in place in the face of a Splice attack.
“Reaper, get ready to deploy,” their pilot said.
The jet banked hard before leveling out. Kyle didn’t unlock his harness until the rear doors opened with a hiss of hydraulics. The rooftop below wasn’t a long fall, and Kyle pitched himself out of the jet, activating the tech camouflage as he did so. He landed hard, body going loose to take the impact. The jet maneuvered down between the building at an intersection, shields sparking from heavy caliber bullets coming from the ground.
Kyle swung his sniper rifle around, running toward the edge of the roof. He looked to be on a council estate, though the surrounding buildings were a mix of commercial and residential. Not all windows were closed, and some had the faces of people peering out.
The air raid sirens echoed in the muggy night air, the sound growing louder before fading then returning to the same bone-shaking pitch. Kyle tuned it out, crouching by the edge of the roof and setting up his rifle with practiced hands in seconds. He shoved his tactical goggles on top of his hard helmet, then dragged the hood of his uniform down over his head. The magnetic snaps clicked together around his collarbones.
The fabric over his eyes was see-through, and he fit his right eye to the scope, staring through it at the street below. He could see Reborn IRA fighters standing frozen on the street and sidewalk, their stillness courtesy of telepathic control.
“Reaper to base. Enemy is in my sight. What are your orders, copy?” Kyle said over the general comms.
“We need some alive for questioning, Reaper,” Chapman ordered.
“Understood, sir.” Kyle moved the scope away from the frozen fighters, searching farther afield for any threats.
The jet had deposited the Royal Legion on the street before rising back into the air above the buildings. Kyle kept watch as the team fanned out. He didn’t see Abigail, but he figured the speedster was searching out Liam.
Gunfire ripped through the air, the sound at odds with the sirens still going off. Kyle moved his scope in quick motions, his keen eyes picking out the Reborn IRA threat taking up refuge in an apartment down the street. He shifted the scope into infrared after the flash of the muzzle happened again. He got the body placement before switching back to the default mode. The late afternoon light was more than enough to see by.
“Highlander, do you have a force field up?” Kyle asked.
“Affirmative,” Glenn replied.
Kyle adjusted the angle of his rifle and curled his finger over the trigger. Between one breath and the next, he pulled the trigger, taking out the threat. High-angled urban shooting wasn’t the easiest, but Kyle had provided overwatch support in worse environments. He picked off the threats farther out before they became a problem.
“Guys, we got company,” Kyle said, staring at the vehicles coming down the street at a fast speed. He aimed for one of the drivers, taking the man out in the first truck with a well-placed headshot. A second bullet killed the passenger, and the truck lost control, crashing into a line of parked cars on the side of the street.
“Those vehicles may be carrying Splice bombs,” Samaira warned.
“Did the buy already happen?” Tariq asked.
“Bennett could have provided them with some as a show of good faith the lab is still viable,” Jamie said.
Kyle took aim at another driver. “I hate that fucker.”
He took the woman out with another headshot before the vehicle slammed into an invisible barrier. Glenn stood in the street, one hand raised toward the convoy, his force field keeping them at bay.
“Threat contained,” Glenn said.
Kyle swept his scope away from the vehicles, getting eyes on the rest of the area, searching for threats. The Royal Legion and a couple other field teams had inundated the area with support. The UMG had sent enough metahumans to take out a battalion, so they should have been fine, but he was still primed for the worst to happen.
“I have Knight,” Abigail said over the comms, her voice tight. “He’s alive, but we’ll need a medevac.”
Relief coursed through Kyle, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the thought that something else was going to happen.
