The first shot hit metal just past him.
The second one hit flesh. But not his.
"You fucking asshole," a man shouted.
Another shot fired just as Gideon flattened his back against the substation. He peered around the corner. One of his attackers lay flat on his back, motionless.
More shots fired. This time in rapid succession and again, not in his direction.
"You’re gonna die, bitch." One of the men rose, weapon aimed, back to Gideon, and marched toward the furthest shadow.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
"Come out you coward," the man yelled.
A single shot rang out from behind the building. The bullet hit the man’s shoulder. He jerked and then fired another round as if it were nothing.
Gideon had done a tour, but he’d never killed anyone. He inched further out from behind the substation and raised his weapon. Shooting a man in the back seemed unfair. But whoever this man was shooting at had saved Gideon’s life.
Gideon held his breath. He narrowed one eye, took aim, and fired.
The man grunted and twisted his body as the bullet tore through his lower left side of his back.
Not exactly where Gideon was aiming, but this wasn’t his strong suit.
The gunman turned and actually smiled as blood dripped from his mouth. "You’re going to pay for that."
Pop!
Gideon inched back as the man jerked to a stop, eyes wide, and then fell forward, face down, with a thud.
"Jesus," Gideon muttered.
A figure raced from behind the building. A woman carrying a weapon. She kicked the gun from the man on the ground, reached down, and pressed her fingers against his neck.
Gideon held his weapon steady. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked as he tried to decide whether she'd just saved his life or whether she was simply the last one standing.
"We’ll talk about that after we get out of here." She pointed towards the sky.
He didn’t shift his gaze, but in the distance, he could hear the faint roar of a chopper.
"We need to go, now." She stood there, showing her palms, rifle slung over her shoulder.
"I’m not going anywhere with you."
Two months he'd been out here alone. Pulling nodes. Sleeping in the dirt. Telling himself that dismantling the system one piece at a time was justice. But the man lying face down in the gravel had taken three bullets and smiled through every one of them. Gideon's solo war of yanking hardware and tossing bad data would never be enough. Not against that. Not against whatever had turned a human body into something that didn't flinch when it bled.
This woman had just put that man down. And Gideon couldn't even hit where he'd aimed.
"Gideon—"
"How do you know my name."
"Darwin Oswald sent me."
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Gideon's grip tightened on the weapon. Two months of anger—at Finch, at Hyperion, at the man who'd stood in a hallway and let security walk Gideon to the elevator without saying a word. He'd aimed every ugly thought he had at Darwin since that day. Built an entire story around it. The mentor who abandoned him. The friend who chose silence.
But Darwin had sent someone. Sent her armed and trained and ready to fight the kind of men Gideon didn't fully understand yet. That wasn't the move of a man who'd thrown Gideon away. That was the move of a man who'd been fighting a different war and needed him back.
