Page 269 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

A gunshot punches concrete from the wall beside Kade’s head despite her telling them not to shoot.

‘Ogon’ tol’ko po protivniku! Tol’ko pri vizual’nom kontakte!’ Blaire commands again, and this time Kade feels and hears something new in her voice.

Layers of frequency that he recognises from his own rooftop attempts.

She’s using her Vox.

The Front keep coming, spreading across the stairs and upper walkway, weapons trained down upon them. Two men reach the bottom. Then four. One moves immediately towards Blaire while another covers Riley.

‘Bee?’ Vasily calls down from above.

‘Stay there!’ she yells back.

Riley turns away from all of them towards a dark corner, brow pinched.

‘What?’ Kade asks.

His boss stares into the dust pouring from the storage room. ‘There’s…’

‘What? Riley, what?’

People are pouring down the nearby staircase.

Blaire explains who they are, that they saved her from the attack. She lies extremely well, so convincingly Kade momentarily believes her. He throws a worried glance towards the storage room.

‘Lachlan,’ he whispers, already walking towards it.

‘Kade, wait,’ Riley says, and then a hard electronic pulse hits the room.

Every light dies instantly.

The cavernous space is smothered in pitch-black darkness.

He barely has a second to adjust when someone hits him.

Not a wild blow, but a fist that lands precisely behind his ear, shearing the dark world instantly sideways. Kade turns into it on instinct, brings Kestrel up. His wrist is captured before the blade reaches anything.

The attacker folds the joint, so Kade changes grip.

So does the person he’s fighting.

An elbow crushes Kade’s ribs, and his diaphragm locks while a palm drives into his chin and snaps his head back before a foot scythes his ankle neatly from under him. All Kade can think is what an excellent set of moves those were as they land him hard and winded on the cold concrete floor of extremely hostile territory in total darkness.

Kestrel goes skittering away, God only knows where.

Kade rolls the second he hears a boot come down and comes up on one knee just in time, reaching blindly for the body he knows must be close. He catches fabric, an arm. He grips the elbow with enough leverage to break it, but the attacker turns with him, rolling his shoulder loose and using Kade’s grip to lock in on him in the dark. A fist cracks into his jaw. Kade’s balance disappears in a nauseating rush, but he throws a punch of his own, connects with something solid…

And receives no reaction at all.

No breath knocked loose, no grunt.

Nothing.

In retaliation, he gets flipped over and slammed face down into concrete by the hair. Pain bursts hot across his nose and mouth. He tastes blood instantly, thick and coppery behind his teeth, but manages to wrench sideways before the knee can meet his lower back.

Whoever this is, they’re good.

Kade kicks and catches a shin, but the attacker absorbs the stumble, seizes Kade’s ankle and twists, effortlessly spinning Kade facedown again.