Free Subject Nightingale 1: Birth and Death by Tim Cody Page A

Theo was a preacher,” Michaela clarified. “Whether or not you were a person of faith, his sermons always had a way of hitting home...”
    “ Save it,” Jonny interrupted. “We need to focus. Save the eulogies for after we get out of here.”
    “ Roger,” Michaela replied.
    “ Roger...” Nightingale said, staring at her feet as she walked.
    “ It will be okay,” Michaela whispered, reaching one hand out to touch Nightingale's shoulder. She could sense her sadness.
    Nightingale just nodded, but then shrieked when she found herself suddenly off her feet.
    “Contact, contact!”
    “ Contact!”
    Several men, Jonny included, shouted when the stairwell door at the end of the hall slid open.
    Michaela had scooped Nightingale into her arms the instant she spotted the door opening and ducked behind a corner to the left. Jonny flattened his back against the wall around a corner to the right, using it for cover as a hail of bullets filled the hallway.
    As soon as Glitch squad was behind cover, the corridor fell silent.
    Michaela crouched with Nightingale, holding her back against the wall. She stroked her hair and looked into her eyes. “Be still, little one. Stay behind me.”
    Nightingale just nodded; the bird was hiding in her hair again.
    Jonny and Michaela pivoted together, Jonny on his right foot and Michaela on her left knee, leaning around their corner cover just enough to return fire. They each squeezed off a single shot, the two bullets hitting the same target square in the forehead and dropping him. They pivoted back behind cover, and Jonny showed Michaela his empty magazine.
    Michaela tossed a half-full clip across the hallway, and Jonny snapped it into his rifle.
    “Times are tough all over, aren't they, California?” Tommy called out from the stairwell when he saw them sharing ammo. He was using the door for cover. “What have you got, like, twelve bullets left? If that?”
    Jonny and Michaela shared a glance, but remained silent.
    “Let me guess,” Tommy continued, “your plan was to time your escape route around Reverb and Specter, and then go dark. You could've hit up the west stairwell and you would've been out of here in ten minutes flat—what went wrong?”
    “ You're too smart for your own good, Tommy,” Jonny called out.
    “ Maybe you're right! The smartest thing I've ever done was ditch you and your merry band of misfits,” Tommy replied.
    “ It doesn't have to be like this,” Jonny said, poking his head around the corner just enough to see the other squad. They were hunkered down in adjacent hallways, but held their fire. After taking out one, he counted four threats remaining—they had come in with five total: the standard number of soldiers in an ECHO squad, plus Tommy.
    “ No, this is exactly how it has to be,” Tommy replied. “That experiment needs to be terminated—”
    “ She's just a girl!” Jonny yelled.
    “ She was just a girl!” Tommy immediately returned. “Now we don't know what the %$#@ she is!”
    Nightingale winced at hearing that, and looked up at Michaela for reassurance.
    “Do not listen to him,” Michaela said without looking away from the corner. “He is just frightened.”
    “ I'm only giving you one more chance, Tommy, and that's far more than you've ever given anyone else. Let us pass.”
    Tommy chuckled. “Or what? You gonna kill me with your twelve bullets?”
    “No,” Jonny said, and then he and Michaela pivoted around the corner to each squeeze off another single round. Their bullets landed in the head of another target, and he dropped. They returned to their cover just in time to avoid the hail of return fire. “I'm only gonna use one.”
    “ Ha!” Tommy laughed, almost cackling, with what could have easily been mistaken for true amusement. “I've gotta hand it to you, California—despite all my whining, you guys have got that teamwork thing down tight!”
    “ You oughta try it sometime, Tommy,” Jonny called out from around the