24

KYRA

K yra and Parisa had progressed perhaps halfway down the corridor when Kyra's earpiece crackled urgently.

"Kyra, be advised," Max said. "More operatives showed up in Rana's place. Anton and I—" His voice cut off in what sounded like a burst of static or possibly gunfire.

"Max?" Kyra called, her heart rate spiking. "Max, come in."

Only silence greeted her, and her gut twisted painfully with worry.

He's immortal. Nothing is going to happen to him, she tried to calm her racing heart.

"What's wrong?" Parisa asked.

"My team has encountered more trouble than expected." Somehow, Kyra kept her voice steady despite the worry gnawing at her. "We need to keep moving. "

Now Kyra understood the logic in Yamanu's team assignments and why he'd refused to pair her with Max. Their emotional involvement would have been an impediment, taking away from their focus on the mission.

Reaching the end of the corridor where another door was supposed to lead into the neighboring building, Parisa reached for the handle, and Kyra's pendant immediately burned hot against her skin in warning.

"Wait," she hissed, pulling Parisa back. "Something's wrong."

No sooner had she spoken than they heard footsteps approaching from the other side of the door. Heavy, measured steps—not the casual movements of a maintenance worker or a resident.

Kyra briefly considered alerting Jade to the appearance of more Doomers, but she knew that if she did that, Jade would immediately backtrack and they might then be too late to save the boys. Kyra decided to trust her training and her instincts, prompting her to handle the situation on her own.

"They've anticipated our escape route," Kyra whispered while backing away and pulling Parisa with her. "We need another way out." Parisa's eyes widened in alarm, but to her credit, she didn't panic. "There's a utility access to the roof halfway back," she whispered. "We passed it."

They retraced their steps, moving as silently as possible .

The utility access was a narrow ladder set into a shaft in the ceiling, covered by a hinged metal panel. Kyra helped Parisa up first, then followed, pulling the panel closed behind them just as the door to the service corridor burst open and footsteps rounded the corner below.

They emerged onto the flat roof of the apartment building, and Kyra pulled Parisa into the shadow of a large air conditioning unit, assessing their options.

"Four of the rooftops are connected," Parisa said, her voice remarkably calm given the circumstances. "We can move across them to the end of the block, then use the fire escape on the last building to get down." She smiled sadly. "My husband made sure to teach the kids and me all the possible ways we could escape our apartment if a bad situation ever developed."

The guy had been in the Revolutionary Guard, but Kyra was starting to suspect that he had also been a plant of the resistance of some other anti-regime forces.

"Smart man. I wish I had gotten to know him," Kyra said.

"Yeah, me too," Parisa said.

Kyra had a feeling that her sister was fighting tears, but now was not the time for a heart-to-heart comforting session. "Let's move. Stay low."

As they crossed to the edge of the first roof, Kyra's comm unit finally crackled back to life, and Max's voice came through, partially broken. "Extraction successful but—pursuing—regroup at?—"

"Max, your transmission is breaking up," Kyra said. "We're currently on the roof, evading pursuit. Moving to the secondary extraction point."

Jade's voice came through more clearly. "I've secured another transport, and I'm on my way to the school. ETA ten minutes. The van is all yours. Can you make it to the rendezvous point?"

The female had stolen the other vehicle just as she'd said she would, and Kyra wondered how she'd managed that. It was a skill that she doubted Jade had picked up as part of her training back on the Kra-ell planet. She'd probably stopped a driver, pulled him out of the vehicle, knocked him out cold, and commandeered the car.

"Got it. Affirmative, we'll make it to the rendezvous point."

Kyra gauged the distance across the connected rooftops, then the drop to street level.

She guided Parisa across the first gap between buildings—a simple step across that posed no real challenge—and they continued their progress across the rooftops. The tactical part of Kyra's mind noted their exposed position, but the buildings' height and the blaring sunlight would make them difficult to spot from the street level.

"Your friends don't look like Kurds," Parisa said as they ducked behind a water-heating rooftop solar panel. "They're not really with the Kurdish resistance, are they?"

Kyra hesitated, then decided that partial truth was better than obvious lies at this point. "No, they're not. They're fighting the bad guys who want you for your special genetics. Some of us have unique capabilities."

"I thought as much," Parisa nodded. "No ordinary person moves the way you do."

"What do you mean?" Kyra asked, pausing to check if they were being pursued on the street below before crossing to the third building.

"My husband moved like that. He was in the special forces."

Kyra chuckled. "I was in the Kurdish resistance for many years before I joined the special team. My training was accumulated during that time."

Not a lie, not the entire truth either. She was good at that as well.

When they reached the edge of the fourth building, where the fire escape would take them to street level, Kyra peered over the edge, scanning for hostiles before gesturing Parisa forward.

"You're too young to have spent many years in the resistance."

The statement caught Kyra off guard. She hadn't thought the lie through, and Parisa was a sharp woman. She didn't miss much.

"I'm much older than I look," she said, then regretted the words immediately. She couldn't be much older if she wanted to pretend to be her own daughter.

Her sister didn't deserve the lies, but now wasn't the time for revelations, not with Doomers in pursuit and Parisa's sons still in danger.

"We need to keep moving," Kyra said instead of addressing the question further. "The fire escape looks clear."