A sharp gasp rang through the room. Trig held Oz’s arm as xe grabbed the edge of the table. A whimper, far from the sweet sound that he’d elicited from xem in the alley, sliced through him.

  “Oz,” he said softly, wishing he knew what to do. Nothing in his days before or on the streets had prepared him for whatever this was.

  “So much pain,” xe said so softly he could barely hear.

  Tears fell from Oz’s human eye when xe looked up at Trig. Xyr monotone voice then pushed through. “Data transfer initiated. Estimated completion in seven minutes.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered. Before he could think to say more, Oz went on.

  “Security coms is picking up three guards attempting to gain access at the north door. Communications have been blocked.”

  Another string of expletives as Trig looked through the door towards the mainroom. “Will they break through?”

  “The probability of the doors holding is unlikely.”

  The decision was made before he even had to think about it. Trig slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around Oz. “Work as fast as you can. I’ll hold them off.”

  Back in the main room the doc was still pouting over wanting to get back to work but restrained. The electro-magnetic straps kept even possible tech from functioning while wrapped around his wrists and ankles.

  There were two other doors into the room. The first was the one he and Oz came through. The second was a smaller door across from them. He went to it and checked to find it led into a hallway with more doors.

  Shutting it, he cursed the lack of lock and pressed his forehead to the steel. “Let’s go, Trig. What’re ya gonna do about it?”

  Trying to amp himself up, he turned and looked at what he had to work with. The tables were his first impulse. The nearest had two legs, each flayed and dismembered at the joints to reveal high end enhancements.

  Shoving the limbs off, he heard the doc babble something about expensive equipment but ignored him. The night was about to get a lot more expensive if they didn’t get out of here soon.

  It took longer than he liked to pull the steel table to the door but it would make for a decent barricade. That done, he did the same with the exterior door.

  “Oz. How are we on time?”

  “Four minutes, thirty seven seconds,” was the monotone response. “The north side entrance has been breached.”

  Already the goons were ramming at the interior door. What was it that Oz had said about the guards? One at the door they came in, one on the roof, two at one door and was it two or three at the other? Damn, he wished he could remember. Not that it mattered too much. There were still too many.

  Figuring it was worth the risk, he pulled his lazer-lighter from his pocket and turned to the doc. “Is there anything flammable?”

  The doc looked bewildered but Trig caught a flinching glance at a nearby cabinet. The steel door slammed against the table, shoving it half an inch.

  Figuring it was only seconds before they came piling in, Trig flung the cabinet open and grabbed what jars he could find.

  The first head and gun to push through the small opening of the door was bombarded with glass jars full of everything from liquid to capsules to powders. The second guard to rush through, this time full bodied and shooting, was met with a hospital gown on fire. The flames licked the slurry of chemicals among the glass shards, setting both guard and door on fire.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  It wasn’t enough to kill any of them but it did cause enough of a distraction that the first bullets to find flesh were Trig’s embedding themselves in the guts of three of the five guards pressing forward.

  The flames licked the ceiling and the lights in the warehouse went from white-blue to red as an alarm blared. Sprinklers began hosing the scene, flooding both the large room and the hall beyond.

  Through the haze of alarms, shouts, and gunfire, Trig could hear the doc crying and cursing as all his hard work was ruined.

  Two guards down, Trig stormed forward. The minor bottleneck he’d created at the door would do nothing for him if they came all the way through. Besides, he needed to make sure if nothing else these bastards didn’t get to Oz.

  He surprised the third guard by shoving the table back at him then lunging over and ramming his face with the butt of his rifle. Now, more than ever, he was glad for the augments in his own bones and muscles. Faster than the guards could blink, he was on them.

  A bullet grazed his arm and another embedded in his leg. Pain flared through him but before it even fully registered that he’d been hit he had two more of the bastards down and the last one in arm’s reach.

  “Come on, rust bitch,” the guard spat. “You’re fast but you can’t outrun-”

  Whatever the idiot was about to say next was garbled as Trig kicked the gun up then again so that the butt rammed the guard’s mouth. Blood and a few teeth went flying as he kept going. Grabbing the guard, he slammed him down on the ground. Lastly, he pulled the blubbering piece of filth’s head up before slamming it against the concrete ground. The body went limp in his hands, giving him a moment to breathe.

  Pulling up from the carnage he called as he pushed through the door. “Oz. You better be ready.”

  The tell-tale click of a gun’s hammer was the first sign that he’d counted the guards wrong. There had been six and the exterior door had been breached. “Fuck,” he sighed and raised his hands up, staring down the muzzle of the gun.

  Before he could face either his death or a long night of painful discussion, the door to the private operating room opened. Oz stepped out and threw something silver past Trig’s head. He felt the zing of the air pass his cheek before he heard a low cry and the scattershot of bullets.

  Without thinking, Trig went to Oz and took xem down and under him for protection. A scream startled him and at first he thought it was the Droido. Looking down, however, Oz’s face was an emotionless mask.

  Looking up, he saw the screams had come from the doc. Behind him the guard was struggling with a scalpel in his throat. The doc was shot through. Their blood made red pools in the fire system’s downpour.

  “Oz, are there more?” he asked, pulling xem up before going to grab the gun.

  When Oz didn’t respond he turned. Xe just stood there looking like a soaked, lost child in an oversized jacket. Even xyr human eye looked dimmed.

  Trig stepped back and grabbed xyr hand. He’d seen people go into shock. Mostly kids who’d never been in a street fight where someone died or the first time shooting someone. It fucked them up and either they came out of it a better fighter for it or…well, he didn’t want to think about the latter just then.

  Pulling Oz along, he slipped out of the opening the last guard made in the exterior door. Outside was hot and dry. Muffled music from Kato’s carried over along with the night noises of Mercy.

  Not wanting to press their luck, Trig hurried them towards the alley to circle back to his car.

  He found it where he left it on a side road a block away from Katos. Just as he felt escape and victory near at hand a large, unmarked van pulled around the corner. The door slid open and Trig only got a glimpse of a man who wore the same gear and had the same tech as the guards he’d laid low back at the warehouse.

  Grabbing Oz with lightning fast reflexes, he dropped them both behind his car as the bullets flew.

  “Get in!” He ordered, practically shoving Oz through the driver’s side door and climbing in after xem.

  Thankfully his baby had bullet proof and cloaking upgrades but that only held up for so long.

  Gunning it, he took off and maneuvered them away from the warehouse district towards traffic. Most gangs didn’t shoot into the main strip unless there was some bad shit going down but Trig doubted these goons had any qualms about laying low locals.

  “Can’t take this shit to Harry’s he said, outmaneuvering the van even as more bullets rained down. Cars swerved around them, some right into the crossfire. “If these fucks don’t kill us, he will for bringing it to his door.”

  Next to him, Oz said nothing. He’d worry about xem later. One thing at a time.

  “I got a safe house, just as soon as I can lose these…here!” He turned on a dime and sped into a side road. A few more like that and they’d looped back into the outskirts but this time towards the north end of town. If the van was still following, he couldn’t see or hear them.

  “That was fucking close,” Trig said with a laugh.

  Turning to catch a look at his passenger, that laugh died in his throat. Oz was crying again.