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Moonlight nodded, and Marasi kicked in the door and hurled her grenade toward the group of people in the left corner, near the window where she and the others had been spying.

Sorry, TwinSoul,she thought, knowing the grenade would catch him too. Her aim was solid, and the grenade box bounced off one lab table, then fell to the floor near the group of guards and scientists.

The two guards immediately leaped away, one sliding over the table, the other one dashing for the front of the room. One of the scientists was also at the perimeter and—unfortunately—jumped away in surprise.

When the grenade activated, it caught only two of the scientists in gasmasks. Luckily, that included the one holding a tin with warning labels on it, presumably the poison tablets.

Marasi’s grenade would keep them frozen. But now she had to deal with the otherswithoutraising an alarm. The free scientist was cringing at the side of the room, so Marasi dashed forward and slammed her rifle’s butt into the arm of one guard, who had been pulling out a pistol. Moonlight moved behind her—hopefully dealing with the other guard, because the man Marasi had attacked decided to slam into her, shoving her back against a table full of beakers.

She grunted as he rammed her own rifle up almost to her neck. Glassware shattered on the floor around her, and a part of her panicked. The part of her that still, even after all these years, worried she wasn’t good enough and didn’t belong.

That part of her was a lot quieter than it had been. Because shedidbelong. This washeroperation. And though this man was stronger than she was, he was only a common brute. Training beat strength.

She shifted, then let go of the rifle and stepped out with her left leg, shifting the man’s weight—and force. As he stumbled, she wrenched out from his grip, rotated around behind him, then slammed his face down into the counter.

She recovered her rifle, sparing a glance for Moonlight, who was struggling. She’ddisarmed her guard, but he’din turn pressed her against the wall. As Marasi took that in, the wall distorted and a door popped into existence behind Moonlight.

Marasi barely caught sight of the stamp in Moonlight’s hand as the door opened, and the woman fell backward through it—surprising the guard, who cried out as she pulled him down with her. Moonlight elbowed him in the face to cut off his cry, so Marasi finished off her guard with a rifle butt to the face, then turned to deal with the scientist, who was…

Destroying evidence? Marasi cursed and scrambled over to the woman and pulled her away from the trash can where she’dstarted a fire. Marasi kicked the trash can over, scattering charred notebooks and papers out of it.

“Marasi!” Moonlight cried.

Rusts. The scientist had found a large knife and joined Moonlight’s fight. As Moonlight struggled to deal with the guard—who was trying to grapple her—the scientist raised the knife.

Making a quick judgment, Marasi swung up her rifle and snapped offa shot, killing the scientist with a well-placed bullet. The sound echoed in the tunnels like a screamed condemnation. Someone would hear that for certain.

Moonlight finished off her guard with her own knife, then was cut off from view as the door she’dmade vanished. Marasi sat on the floor and groaned softly, the shimmering barrier of her slowness bubble just a foot away. She’dtaken the risk to save people. She’dknown what she was getting into. But now their operation was jeopardized.

So don’t let it be wasted,she thought, hauling herself to her feet. As her slowness bubble came down, she pointed her rifle right at the two scientists.

“Make one move to open that tin,” she said, “and I will kill you. I’m having a particularly bad day, so I wouldn’t test that threat.”

The scientist with the tin of poison gas tablets carefully set it down, then both raised their hands and backed away. Moonlight entered a moment later and began binding them. TwinSoul stumbled in behind her, holding to the doorframe for stability.

“I appear to have run afoul of your powers,” he said to Marasi.

“Sorry about that,” she said.

“I note two disabled guards,” he said. “And one dead scientist. So the operation went well?”

“Marasi had to shoot one,” Moonlight said, pulling one of the scientists’ bonds tight, “to save me. I ruined it.”

“No,” Marasi said. “It was my fault for not helping fast enough.”

“It is done,” TwinSoul said. “We should see to the captives and secure an exit. What are those burned pages?”

“They destroyed evidence,” Marasi said. “I assume about how they were accomplishing the Hemalurgy. I wasn’t able to save it, so…”

Moonlight sniffed. “Looks like the cover of a book there. You saved that much.”

“But none of the writings,” Marasi said.

“I can rewind that later,” Moonlight said, “with a stamp.” She grabbed the burned remnants and shoved them into her sack. “TwinSoul is right. We should probably begin our extraction—that gunshot will bring people running.”

“Extraction?” Marasi said. “Entrone said he was going to help an invading force attack. Moonlight, can enemy troops really reach us from… another world?”

“They’re probably coming through Shadesmar,” Moonlight said. “A dimension overlapping ours. It’s how TwinSoul and I got here.”