Gamble clenched her jaw for a long moment. Then she finally dipped her head forward slightly. “Straight out the front, cross into the alley, don’t look back. Do you know where you’re running to?”
“Not yet.”
“Pick a place. Somewhere away from the compound where you can get lost.”
Kit thought for a moment, and then nodded. She said, “OK, I know one.”
“And a backup.”
“OK.”
“The backup is only for if you get cut off. You got it?” Gamble asked.
“Yeah, I got it.”
“If we had more time I’d have you pick two more.”
“I won’t even need the backup,” Kit said.
Gamble kept looking at her, but said, “Sky, our guest is going to give us a hand… yeah… yeah, she can do it. Front door. Anybody tries to get a bead on her on her way out, you drop him.” And then to Kit, “You sure you want to do this?”
Kit nodded with confidence, but she licked her lips as if they’d just gone dry.
“Alright,” Gamble said. “Pull your hood up. And run like all hell is on your heels.”
One of the trickier parts of Sky’s job was keeping track of all the targets; not just how many and where they were, but how they were armed, their estimated skill level, who was in charge. If the team was ever forced to engage, it made everyone’s jobs easier if they knew who the biggest threats were and where the bad guys were getting their orders from before the shooting started. Cleaning up the Weir was a lot easier. One was pretty much as good as another when it came to target selection.
“Finn, you still got two back there?” Sky whispered over their secure channel.
There were two clicks in the channel, the sound of Finn quickly opening and then closing his broadcast without speaking. The bad guys were so close he didn’t want to risk answering.
“You in trouble? Gimme one for yes, two for no.”
A pause. Then: Click. Click.
Right now, there were six guardsmen prowling around the perimeter of Mister Sun’s Tea House, and Sky didn’t recognize any of them from before. In fact, he didn’t recognize any of them at all. He had eyes on four of them standing in a knot about thirty meters up the street from the Tea House. Two others had approached and disappeared around the back side. A few moments later, those two emerged from behind the building.
“Alright, I’m clear,” Finn said. “I think those two were doing a quick high-low.” Checking for entrances above or below street level.
“That’s a lot of attention for the night.”
“Might just be following up from before.”
“That’d be nice. You think so?” Sky asked.
“No.”
“Yeah.”
Sky had already identified the head man in charge, which he just dubbed Headman; one of those close-crop haircuts, square-jawed, perpetually angry guys who was so emphatic he had to use a fully opened hand to point at things instead of just a finger. Two of the other guards had coilguns, small sidearm-style jobs that usually went to low-grade officers. And at least one was toting something heavier. The last two were a couple of grunt-level foot soldiers, each carrying a stunrod.
Three officers and a specialist meant something more than just the average foot patrol. This was a unit. And they were loaded for bear.
Sky adjusted his optic and scoped each target in order of importance; Headman, Heavy, Coilgun A, Coilgun B, Footie One, Footie Two. If they were a seasoned team, he’d have to drop half before they broke. If he was lucky, he might just have to take the first two. He never counted on being lucky.
The six guards broke into three teams. Headman and Heavy stayed back while each Coilgun paired up with a Footie and started spreading out on either side of the building. But they were keeping some distance. Sky got the impression that they might be there more for observation and containment than an assault. Or they might be an advance force, staging before the rest of them got there.
“Gamble, Sky,” he whispered over comms. “I don’t think this is gonna work, Ace.”
“Nice timing,” she answered.
Sky flicked his eyes to the front door. A split-second later it slid open, and he saw a figure standing in the entrance. Straggler. Kit. She had her hood back up. Gamble had updated him about her, but as he watched her come down the stairs, Sky stood by his original assessment; she definitely walked like a dude. Why was Kit walking?
Coilgun A and Footie Two were the pair of guards closest to the front, and they reacted almost immediately, shouting and gesturing at Kit, Coilgun A with his hand on his holstered coilgun. She just kept right on walking, head down, like she had nowhere in particular to be. Sky scoped in on the Headman. He and Heavy hadn’t done anything yet, but they were intent on the situation. The other pair of guards had stopped in their tracks, but they were still far enough around to one side that there was no way Gamble and the others would be able to slip out unnoticed. Sky looked back to find the guard had his coilgun out now, pointed at Kit, and she had her hands up.