I had barely finished convincing myself when my phone rang again. This time it was James’ private number. I answered, preparing for a bit of a ribbing about my poor, drunken judgement.

“James?”

“Rayna, where are you right now?”

“About an hour outside the city.”

“Is the incubus still with you? Is he alive?” his voice was low and tense. The anxiety that I had just succeeded in wrestling down was starting to creep back, clawing its way up my spine.

“He is fine, for now. What did you find out?”

“We shouldn’t talk about this over the phone. Where can we meet you?”

Shit.

“I’ll be at Union Station in an hour.”

“I have rounded up a few other Partials. One of us will be there to meet you and bring you to where we are. Look for someone you know you can trust, a member of the team. And be careful. You should probably ditch the phone, too.”

“I’ll take care of it. You ditching yours?”

“I am. I’ll give you a new number when we see each other.”

“Got it.”

James hung up without any further discussion. He was tense, anxious. And I was wrong. Well, wrong and right. I had just talked myself into being wrong, I had apparently been right the first time. Something bad was happening. If there was a lesson in that, it was probably something about trusting your first instinct instead of wishful thinking, but I wasn’t much in the mood for lessons right now. I would have preferred to be wrong. The first time. I reached over and shook the incubus awake.

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled. “Are we there?”

“Soon. We need to prepare before we arrive.”

“Why, what’s happened?” he was awake now, heard the tension in my voice and it had him worried now, too. Ubarae were like that, very in tune with the feelings of others. They were exceptionally good at cold reading. Except for the rogues, of course. They didn’t connect to others well, and didn’t much care what they were feeling, beyond suffering and pain. The fact that Simon was this attuned said good things about him.

“I heard back from my boss. He won’t talk about it on the phone, but something is definitely wrong. They are going to meet us at the station.”

“And you are worried that they won’t be the only ones.”

“I am. The Organization has called, which probably means they are trying to locate me. There is a decent chance that they will have figured out where we are heading by now. We will need to move fast, find my people, and get out before they locate us. Think you can handle that?”

“I thought you said they couldn’t find us if we were on the train.”

“No, I said it would delay them finding us. If they are really motivated, it doesn’t take much to figure out the trick.”

“How worried should I be, here?”

“That depends, how sure are you that this Omega can really do what you claim he is planning?”

Simon swallowed hard, but said nothing.

“Then you should be very worried,” I sighed. “Pull the hat down lower on your head, try to look down, so your face isn’t clearly visible. They will all know you best, so they will be able to pick you out of a crowd easily, if they meet your eyes.”

Simon nodded and did as he was told,

“What if they send your people?”

I cringed. I had been trying not to consider that. If they sent people I knew, people who were being manipulated, what would I do? If it came down to it, would I be able to kill an acquaintance? A friend? I retrieved a floppy sunhat and glasses out of my bag, trying to smooth the deep wrinkles out of the hat as I did,

“Same advice goes for me.”

I looked out at the scenery flashing by outside the window. We were getting close, now.

“Try not to limp,” I continued my instructions. “Move your leg naturally. They will know you’ve been shot, will likely be looking for people displaying signs of injury,” he nodded understanding. “I didn’t tell James exactly where we would be. He didn’t tell me who would be coming, or where they would be.”

“Why, you don’t trust each other?”

“It is safer this way. In case anyone is intercepting the call. We will have to find the people he sent, before anyone finds us.”

“Like hide and seek. Fun.”

“Exactly. You can help, though,” Simon would have certain skills, he wasn’t trained to use them this way, but maybe I could coach him. It wasn’t the sort of thing I would typically field test like this, but we were in hot water. “You read emotions well, quickly, instinctively. If the people they sent are Domini, they will create an odd combination of emotions in the people around them: both attraction and discomfort. They will be hostile and armed, making people instinctually uncomfortable. They will likely be using their skills to reduce this, so they blend in better. Crowds of people avoiding them would make them stick out. If they reduce this effect, they blend in better.”

“But if I look for groups feeling both of those things…”

“Then we know which areas to avoid.”

“If they sent Domini and not Immune,” I wished he would stop reminding me of that.

“They will still trigger discomfort. Crowds have normal behaviors. Someone looking, someone searching, they violate those behaviors. They look at other people for too long, make too much eye contact, move too close. They make people anxious. Watch for that.”

“I’ll do what I can. So, we are really just going to wander around, until someone finds us?”

“No. We find them. We don’t have to look everywhere, I just need to figure out where Jim wanted me to go. You follow me; I will look, you focus on the crowd. If anything feels off, tap me on the shoulder and direct me away. If something goes wrong, find cover and let me handle it. Sound good?”

He nodded.

“Good, because we’re here.”

I reached down, touched the weapon on my ankle, making sure it was still there. Technically, they weren’t allowed on the train, but security didn’t actually check very well. Even airport security, which was considered pretty tight these days, missed weapons about 95% of the time. Trains were a cake walk, if you knew how to act like you didn’t have a gun strapped to your body. That was the real tricky part, but I had lots of practice. We disembarked and headed out into the terminal. The Via arrivals came in near Front street. From here I could head for the subway or the Great Hall. Or I could go towards Lakeshore and the Air Canada Centre or Union Plaza. There were also several ways out to the street, but that seemed less likely. Where to go, where to go. They knew I was coming in on the train. They wouldn’t wait by the entrance. But the people we were avoiding would, if they figured out which train I was on. We needed to leave here fast. I needed to figure out where James had wanted me to go. What had he said? To look for someone I knew. One of the team. Ah. There it was. I really was sleep deprived if I had missed that, he hadn’t even been that subtle. I picked up my pace and headed towards Lakeshore.

“Where are we going?”

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“You a basketball fan?”

“The arena? Why?”

“They will expect us to go to the street, to leave quickly. They will cover the entrances to Union Station. If we are lucky, they won’t remember to cover the connecting buildings.”

“And if we aren’t lucky?”

“Well, then we will be maintaining the status quo for today, won’t we?”

We set off across the concourse, he was agitated, walking fast. As he passed me, I put a hand on his shoulder,

“Slow down. Blend with the others.”

He fell back into step with me. We moved along in a stream of commuters; I watched the signs that directed us to the arena. As we reached the exit, Simon tapped me on the shoulder.

“We shouldn’t go that way.”

I glanced around; we had reached a point where a detour would be a significant one. We would have to circle back a long way to get to another entrance. I considered my options. Was it riskier to forge ahead, or to go back?

“How sure are you?”

The incubus bit his lip,

“I’ve never done this before,” he hesitated. “I’m not that sure.”

“Well, then I am afraid we need to chance it. If we go back, we need to re-cover too much ground. It is too risky.”

He nodded hesitantly and we pressed ahead. Further down the hall, the crowd thinned out. There were people walking away from us, but none going in the same direction. I realized about a beat too late that Simon had been right. We shouldn’t have come this way. I stopped and was about to turn around when 4 men stepped out from the adjoining hallways. I recognized two of them, the men from my apartment. Someone had clearly been by to pick them up. Shit.

“Looks like you are better at this than you thought,” I muttered to Simon. He froze in place.

“That’s them!” the incubus with the broken nose stated the obvious. No one seemed impressed with his astuteness.

“No shit,” the one with the sling on his arm muttered.

“What do we do now?” Simon whispered.

“Move!” I dragged him back down the hallway we had just emerged from.

They had a clear advantage of numbers, but fortunately, these guys were amateurs. Two easy ways to assess that: first they had tipped their hand far too soon. If they had waited until we were closer before revealing themselves, they could have taken us by surprise. Instead, they gave us room to escape. Secondly, the shots they fired as I dove around the corner all missed the mark wildly, proving no real risk to anything but the now pock-marked walls. People often believed that simply giving a person a gun automatically makes them dangerous. That was absolutely true, but often they were only a danger to themselves. As they rounded the corner after us, I turned and fired a few shots towards the nice cluster of targets, all rushing around the corner together. One of the ubarae cried out, and they all scrambled back behind the wall, into cover. I didn’t have time to see if anyone was actually injured, they may have been startled by the shots, but they wouldn’t stay that way for long, we needed to move.

“We need to get to the parking garage. If our contact isn’t there, we can at least find ourselves a ride.”

“I don’t think the lot is open right now,” Simon was already breathing hard, and he was favoring his bad leg. Running was not going to remain a viable option for long.

“That isn’t really important at the moment,” I snapped. I didn’t like babysitting. Being shot at did not improve the situation. “I’ll take my chances with a parking garage rent-a-cop, over our new friends back there.”

Besides, while the gunshots had done wonders thinning out the crowds, security would surely be here any moment, no matter what we did. Through the use of judicious covering fire whenever they rounded a corner behind us, we managed to stay ahead of our pursuers until we reached the underground garage, but they were still on our heels and in the wide-open space, we were now at a disadvantage. Shots exploded in the concrete structure, they seemed to echo off of every wall at once. A car window in front of us exploded. Their aim seemed to be improving a bit. I shoved Simon down behind the nearest car, a red sports car that sat low to the ground, better cover. I ducked back there after him.

“Stay behind the engine block,” I instructed, tersely. Cars were far less bullet proof than movies led people to believe. Simon nodded numbly.

I waited for a break in the gunfire and peeked out to take a few shots of my own. They had spread out, taking cover behind the concrete pillars in the garage. My shot hit the pillar, sending up a cloud dust. I needed to conserve ammunition. As long as I had bullets to fire, they were unlikely to leave cover and come closer. But I couldn’t hold them off forever, we needed a way out of this, and I wasn’t seeing one. Shots peppered the hood of the sports car. Simon tapped me on the shoulder and pointed; in the reflection on a car across from us, I saw one of the gunmen moving to the east, trying to flank us. As soon as he cleared the front of the car, before he could line up a shot, I put two in his chest, centre mass. He dropped to the pavement with a wet gurgle. Then, headlights swung across the aisle, illuminating the body. Tires squealed as the truck pulled up, and into the line of fire. If these were their reinforcements, we were done. A man scrambled out of the driver’s seat and behind his own engine block, his back to me. Briefly, he turned and waved cheerfully, before putting a bullet in the ubarae with the bandaged nose. I smiled, finally a little bit of luck. I motioned for Simon to stay put, and crawled up to join him.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, Vasquez.”

“In a bit of trouble, Ray?”

“Nah, I was just killing time until you showed up. Took your sweet time, by the way.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure how to find you, at first. I should have remembered, just follow the sound of gunfire.”

“Glad I could be of assistance.”

Mark Vasquez smiled broadly, showing off a set of gleaming teeth. Cool under pressure. That was a good trait to have as an agent. Vasquez was young, still in his twenties. He had only been an agent for a couple of years, but Jim spoke highly of his skills. I could see why.

“You have a plan?” I asked.

“I was kind of thinking that we could shoot all the guys with guns and then drive out of here.”

“Slow down, I’m not sure I can follow something so complex.”

“You have a better idea?”

“We get in your car and get the hell out of here.”

“You want to leave them here?”

“I want to keep my informant breathing. And I don’t want to be here when the cops show up. With all this gunfire in a public place, they should be here any minute.”

Vasquez considered that for a moment and nodded.

“I’ll cover you, get the incubus and let’s go, before the truck takes too much damage.”

“Right.”

He popped up from behind the hood and fired a few shots, causing the remaining ubarae to duck back behind the pillars. I motioned Simon over, signalling that he should stay low. He got to the truck, I opened the door and waved him in.

“Stay on the floor.”

He nodded and crawled in, lying on the floorboard of the truck. I looked to Vasquez, he motioned with his head and I ducked in, too. I fired a couple of shots through the already broken right window, providing covering fire as Vasquez jumped behind the wheel and we peeled out. They managed to shoot out the back window as we fled, but otherwise we got away clean.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell them to shoot for the tires?” Vasquez laughed, pulling out of the parking garage as fast as traffic allowed.

“Be glad that they didn’t, we don’t have the time for that,” I could already hear the wail of sirens in the distance.

“Yeah. It wouldn’t do to keep Jim waiting.”

“Or to make him pay our bail.”

“Do they bail people out on murder charges?”

“Depends. Better not to risk it, though.”

“Obviously.”

He pulled down a small side street.

“We picking anyone up?” I asked. Vasquez couldn’t have been the only agent Jim sent to intercept us, he would have spread a few out, if he could.

“Nah, they have their own transportation. I already sent him a message. He’ll see us there.”

“Where are we heading?”

“First, we need to switch cars. Then we head to the meeting point.”

“A second car, smart.”

“James set it up. Didn’t want anyone following us when I picked you up. I doubt he had anticipated a shoot-out. Although he knows you pretty well, so…”

I rolled my eyes,

“How far away is the rendezvous?”

“It is about 20 minutes from here. We are holed up in an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront, for now.”

“How many?”

“Not sure. They were still trying to reach people when they sent me and Vasili out to find you.”

He was evading the question. That was a bad sign.

“How many when you left, then?”

“There were 3 of us, not counting James.”

“Shit.”

“Give it time. Our people know what they are doing. If they felt threatened, they probably went to ground, and it might take time to get in touch with them.”

“I hope that’s all it is.”

3 agents. Total. If that was all there were… It meant we had lost a lot of people. Too many people.

We pulled up in front of a small, suburban home where a nondescript blue sedan was waiting. I got out of the truck and took a hard look at the damage. The right side was covered in bullet holes. Most of the windows were shot out. It was… conspicuous.

“What are you planning to do with the truck?” I asked.

“I was just going to leave it here. Why?”

“I think that we need to get rid of it. It stands out too much.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Give me the keys. I’ll take it and dump it in that pond over there, then I’ll walk back to the road and meet you.”

He considered it, then handed me the keys.

“Simon?”

The incubus was still crouched on the floor of the truck, rocking gently back and forth. Apparently, he had been shot at one too many times today.

“Simon!”

His head snapped up, eyes wide, pupils too dilated. Terrified. I snapped my fingers in front of his face,

“I need you to focus, just a little bit longer. Go with Vasquez. I will join you in a minute.”

He bobbed his head, but still didn’t say anything. I didn’t have time to play therapist, as long as he got in the car, we could deal with the rest later. Simon rose and stumbled to the sedan. Vasquez raised an eyebrow, I shrugged,

“Just keep him safe. We need him.”

“Got it.”

I pushed the truck into the water and watched as it sunk from view. When I was certain it was submerged, I hiked back to the road and found Vasquez waiting for me. I hopped into the passenger seat, and we headed off towards the port.

“Any problem?”

“Nope. All taken care of.”

“You ditch your phone?”

“Threw it in the pond, with the car. I’ll get a burner later.”

“Good. So, what’s the deal with the incubus?”

“How much did James tell you?”

“He said you would explain when you got here.”

“What else has he told you?”

“That we are under attack, that we need to lay low for a while. That you had more information.”

“That’s all, eh?”

“That’s all. But he has been pretty busy, hardly talked to us at all. Just brought us into the warehouse and disappeared to make about a hundred phone calls. We’re in trouble, aren’t we?”

I glanced back at Simon, who was staring out the window and blinking so infrequently that I was worried he could be catatonic.

“Yeah, we might be in trouble.”