“Doesn’t sound like you draw them any special way, though?”
Painter shrugged again.
Gamble’s eyes narrowed and her mouth made an almost perfectly flat line. “Alright. We’ll just have to take it slow. We don’t want to kill any if we don’t have to, that usually brings trouble. But if it comes to that, you just stay next to me, do what I tell you, and let us do the work.”
“You don’t have to protect me,” Cass said. “I can fight.”
“I know you can, but with all due respect, we’ve got a way we operate. Best if we don’t throw something unpredictable in that mix.”
Cass hated the idea of being treated like some kind of helpless citizen. But Gamble was right. Cass wasn’t one of them. What she thought was helping might actually throw them off. This was no time or place to let pride get in the way.
“We need to run as low profile as possible,” Gamble continued. “No pimming, no active broadcast, keep everything locked down while we’re out here.”
“What about your secure channel?” Wren asked. Gamble looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Is that OK?”
“It’s real low frequency so we can use it, but we try to keep it limited.”
“That’s why it sounds funny,” Wren said.
“Finn can tell you all about it later,” Gamble said with a quick nod and a wink. Her way of gently but clearly ending any further discussion. “We’ve still got a couple of hours until sunrise, but we need to put some distance between us and the city. I’m not trying to scare you, but I want you to understand there’s some danger out there. We’re going to do everything we can to keep us all out of trouble. But there’s a whole lot of trouble between us and our destination. It’ll be helpful if you guys keep your eyes and ears open too. Stay focused, stay with us. Questions?”
Cass looked at Wren and Painter, who both shook their heads.
“We’re good to go,” Cass said. Gamble nodded.
“Wick,” she said. “You got an ETA on the others?”
“Should’ve been here before us.”
“That’s what I thought. Finn, any word?”
“Negative. Want me to ping him?”
“I’ll do it… Swoop, Gamble. What’s your location?” She waited several seconds. “Swoop, this is Gamble.” Another long pause. In the distance, a Weir gave a call. A few seconds later, another answered. Gamble and Finn traded looks.
“Swoop?” she asked. After a moment, Gamble’s expression changed slightly, but Cass couldn’t read it. “You guys need support? One for yes, two for no.”
“What’s going on?” Cass asked Sky.
He glanced back over his shoulder. “He’s clicking at us. Something’s close enough to him he doesn’t want to risk talking.”
“Weir?”
“Hope so. Otherwise they’re not out of the city yet.”
“Alright, check,” Gamble said. “We’re going to move to alternate. Can you make the alternate…? Check. See you there.”
Gamble adjusted the shoulder straps on the oversized pack she was carrying. “We’re going to have to link up with them at the alternate. I’m guessing we’ve got some Weir wandering around between us and them… Wick?” She nodded his direction.
“Yep.”
They set out again, the pace slightly faster than the one they’d maintained earlier. As they proceeded, Cass noticed a steady degradation of their surroundings. More collapsed buildings, more exposed beams and rods, more brokenness. Soon it was clear they were completely beyond the borders of any power Morningside had ever projected.
They’d walked another twenty minutes or so before they saw the first Weir. Finn spotted it, off to their left. He made a soft hissing sound, shouldered his weapon, and then extended it slightly to point at the Weir. The group stopped. Cass followed his line and caught a glimpse of the Weir just as it was passing behind the shell of a two-story building between them. She felt Wren press against her leg, and she instinctively dropped her arm around his shoulders.
About thirty seconds later, the Weir emerged from behind the building. It was a fair distance from them, maybe fifty or sixty yards away. Finn and Sky both tracked it as it prowled around the abandoned structure, crouched low enough that it sometimes placed its hands on the ground in an almost crawl. It stopped every so often, swiveling its head slowly from side to side, almost as a man would if listening for a particular sound, or trying to identify a peculiar scent. It sat back on its haunches and slowly started turning its glowing eyes in their direction.