the children. The second would probably have caught Aaron sneaking out early to do just what he’d threatened.
She could hardly blame him for doing what she’d trained him to do.
***
Shepherd: Onyx?
Confirm
Shepherd: U scheduled for Piper?
No—why?
Trace clenched his teeth in frustration at the delayed response.
Shepherd: received intel that Piper was delivered extraction details
Intel delivered by who? The only people who relayed team information in Down Below were Radar or Shepherd. Even distress calls were verified by one of the two of them.
Shepherd: not team
U have confirmation of this intel?
Shepherd: confirmation received in dark side
Shit. The Dark Side consisted of a collection of brothels and tightly managed sex clubs. The menu delivered offerings to suit every taste, but more important, the establishments catered to New Delphi clients and Regent guards, as well as Down Below clientele. Information, always available there, came at a price. If Dark Side intel claimed an external feed for an extraction request, then it had already been delivered and most likely indicated a setup.
Confirmation from Wolf?
Shepherd: off grid—not responding
Shepherd: your plan?—if Piper a target they will be at your doorstep next
Pack up—bug out—find her
Shepherd: copy
***
A squad of sentries, eight men, paced the exterior of the Med Lab Building. Laser cannons strapped to each thigh, they checked the IDs of every citizen entering and leaving the building. Another squad held positions inside in the lobby, beside the lift elevators and along the rear of the foyer, all visible through the twenty-foot glass windows.
Analena adjusted the hood of her cloak, lifted her face to the sun, and leaned back against the building’s metallic gravel surface. It wasn’t too late to back out, but nothing had changed in her assessment of the situation, with either the personnel or the surrounding environment.
Thick traffic covered Regent’s Square. Shuttle pods punched up from the transport rails below the street every two minutes, depositing ten to twenty citizens for work in front of the various buildings along the square. Hover vehicles zipped above the center grid of the street, while solar bikes and two-wheeled lazy platforms added more people to the mix.
She could enter a pod, follow the transport line to its end, and blend back into the stream of night workers heading back home to Down Below. But bailing now didn’t sit well with her. She’d been extracting kids for a long time. This should be nothing new. Her recon for this mission was thorough, no different from the rest, and the little girl targeted wouldn’t survive to see the detention camps. Heart donors never did. So, Analena waited for movement from the building.
Discretely angling her hand, she tapped through the latest security message feeds and localized broadcasts. All relayed more snippets for a secured personnel relocation from the Med Lab to another small facility on the New Delphi grid. Nothing from Radar. That, combined with the increased security after canvassing Down Below, torqued the chill already biting along her spine. Her refusal to contact Onyx weighed heavier. Her ostracism of him felt like betrayal, and perhaps it was, but she was too far along to send a message from above the grid.
Her reconnaissance of the destination facility, twelve blocks away, targeted five access points to the Down Below. Too convenient for ambush.
She’d chosen to intersect the security vehicles at a transfer point on their route. If this were a trap, they’d expect her at the termination point, not at a point en route. In theory, she could back out any time before she committed to the extraction. The transportation lines just below the street provided multiple avenues to Down Below.
The squads in front of the Med Lab shifted, assembling before the solar-paneled front doors. Four men emerged from the building in escort around a
She could hardly blame him for doing what she’d trained him to do.
***
Shepherd: Onyx?
Confirm
Shepherd: U scheduled for Piper?
No—why?
Trace clenched his teeth in frustration at the delayed response.
Shepherd: received intel that Piper was delivered extraction details
Intel delivered by who? The only people who relayed team information in Down Below were Radar or Shepherd. Even distress calls were verified by one of the two of them.
Shepherd: not team
U have confirmation of this intel?
Shepherd: confirmation received in dark side
Shit. The Dark Side consisted of a collection of brothels and tightly managed sex clubs. The menu delivered offerings to suit every taste, but more important, the establishments catered to New Delphi clients and Regent guards, as well as Down Below clientele. Information, always available there, came at a price. If Dark Side intel claimed an external feed for an extraction request, then it had already been delivered and most likely indicated a setup.
Confirmation from Wolf?
Shepherd: off grid—not responding
Shepherd: your plan?—if Piper a target they will be at your doorstep next
Pack up—bug out—find her
Shepherd: copy
***
A squad of sentries, eight men, paced the exterior of the Med Lab Building. Laser cannons strapped to each thigh, they checked the IDs of every citizen entering and leaving the building. Another squad held positions inside in the lobby, beside the lift elevators and along the rear of the foyer, all visible through the twenty-foot glass windows.
Analena adjusted the hood of her cloak, lifted her face to the sun, and leaned back against the building’s metallic gravel surface. It wasn’t too late to back out, but nothing had changed in her assessment of the situation, with either the personnel or the surrounding environment.
Thick traffic covered Regent’s Square. Shuttle pods punched up from the transport rails below the street every two minutes, depositing ten to twenty citizens for work in front of the various buildings along the square. Hover vehicles zipped above the center grid of the street, while solar bikes and two-wheeled lazy platforms added more people to the mix.
She could enter a pod, follow the transport line to its end, and blend back into the stream of night workers heading back home to Down Below. But bailing now didn’t sit well with her. She’d been extracting kids for a long time. This should be nothing new. Her recon for this mission was thorough, no different from the rest, and the little girl targeted wouldn’t survive to see the detention camps. Heart donors never did. So, Analena waited for movement from the building.
Discretely angling her hand, she tapped through the latest security message feeds and localized broadcasts. All relayed more snippets for a secured personnel relocation from the Med Lab to another small facility on the New Delphi grid. Nothing from Radar. That, combined with the increased security after canvassing Down Below, torqued the chill already biting along her spine. Her refusal to contact Onyx weighed heavier. Her ostracism of him felt like betrayal, and perhaps it was, but she was too far along to send a message from above the grid.
Her reconnaissance of the destination facility, twelve blocks away, targeted five access points to the Down Below. Too convenient for ambush.
She’d chosen to intersect the security vehicles at a transfer point on their route. If this were a trap, they’d expect her at the termination point, not at a point en route. In theory, she could back out any time before she committed to the extraction. The transportation lines just below the street provided multiple avenues to Down Below.
The squads in front of the Med Lab shifted, assembling before the solar-paneled front doors. Four men emerged from the building in escort around a
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