Page 265 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

Within seconds, the floor is dry. The room disappears into a thick blanket of pure, deafeningly silent white.

‘Hold your breath,’ Blaire whispers.

Kade takes a deep one. He can only see Lachlan beside him and Riley behind. It’s like they’re inside the core of a cloud. The mist closes over his eyes and presses wetly against his sealed lips, saturating him, and each molecule of it seems to vibrate.

Three immense distortions swell inside the white, warped pockets where the Somnex was released. The mist finds an edge, like rain blanketing a wonky bubble. It gathers around the gas, concentrating there. Rivulets form, moving like snakes, joining together.

The high note in his ear sharpens until Kade’s teeth ache.

Riley makes a sound of barely contained agony.

And then, in a split second, the mist contracts.

The mist spheres collapse.

Water hits the floor in a deafening crash, grey and strangely thick like slime. The canisters spit uselessly beneath the slimy containment, but each bubble is swallowed into the flood.

‘Breathe.’

The air is clear.

Kade’s face isn’t even wet anymore.

The whole thing took less than ten seconds.

‘What the actual fuck?’ Kade blurts out, but there’s no time because the first Reset appears, coming inside with his weapon raised.

Lachlan takes him out instantly with a burst of bullets to the face.

Two more emerge behind him.

Black tactical clothing, blank faces, black silicone cuffs around their wrists… but no guns, no weapons at all.

Kade tries to open fire, but there’s an unnatural degree of resistance against the trigger. He wonders if the mist jammed the mechanism when a fourth figure fills the doorway carrying something vast and rectangular.

At first, Kade thinks it’s a riot shield, but there’s no viewport.

Only a dull black surface crossed with copper coils and a bank of white lights igniting down one edge.

Lachlan yells, ‘Shed your metal!’

The shield screams.

Kade’s rifle tears sideways with enough force to wrench his shoulder. His sidearm snaps inside its holster. Magazines, buckles and blades wrench towards the doorway, every piece of steel in the apartment answering the same violent command. Various items from Blaire’s apartment fly towards it, and the field seems to be spreading.

Her cutlery goes flying.

Lachlan releases his rifle an instant before it can drag him off his feet. It throws itself across the room and strikes the shield hard enough to spark.

Riley isn’t fast enough.

His sling catches across his throat and drags him forward.

Kade grabs the back of his carrier, but his own sidearm rips free, taking the holster from his thigh. Lachlan ducks Riley’s head out of the sling just in time, although his neck is bleeding.

All their guns are flat against the shield, shuddering among cutlery, a metal picture frame and several other pieces of debris.

‘GET BACK!’ Lachlan shouts to be heard over the horrific din of the shield, but it cuts out a split second later. Three Resets advance from behind the shield carrying compact black batons. Kade still has Kestrel.