Losing comms with Bers and Herdis was the deciding moment.

“We go,” Jaquan said, and activated the door that Kiris’s hacking had given him access to.

“Yes,” the Chanei said next to him, and strapped into the passenger seat. She drew her gun with the other hand.

The car burst out into the narrow streets. Their ideal hiding spot would have been a bit closer to the meeting house, but this had been the closest place that could accommodate the car.

“Herdis! Ayna! Bers!” Kiris said into her comm again. “Gaylen,” she then added, just in case.

Nothing.

“Some kind of disruptor attack, probably,” Jaquan opined, as he drove on as fast as was advisable. “We-”

The meeting house came into clear view, via the windshield’s night vision. Milling about in front of it, with twitchy, angry energy, were four figures. The system automatically warned of human beings, but he’d disconnected any automated stoppers meant to prevent accidents.

“Green Jackets,” Kiris said.

The men stood before the opened main door, with an air of crisis or confusion, or both. What was clear were the pistols in their hands, and one turned and raised the weapon as he noticed the car coming.

Jaquan sped up, did a quick cut to the right, then back to the left, and hit the man head-on. The Green Jacket flew back like a projectile, through the door, and into the darkness beyond. He then subjected the car and its occupants to a brutal swerve, trying to hit the rest of the group with the vehicle’s aft end. The men threw themselves away, and mostly escaped. The sole additional casualty was a bump against one man’s hip, which knocked him over.

Kiris opened her window just enough to stick a pistol out and fire a shot. It went right past a man’s head, and he flinched badly and sent off a wild shot of his own. It hit the car, but the armour sheets held.

“Damn it,” Jaquan grumbled under his breath, and hit the acceleration.

For a rental on a backwards world, it was a pretty decent vehicle. The Green Jackets escaped again, but even more narrowly this time, and all landed flat on the ground.

“I don’t see Gaylen…” he said.

What they did see next was Herdis. The woman came out of the darkened doorway, leading with her rifle and its bayonet. The blade sank into the back of a Green Jacket as the man was getting up, and she picked up his dropped pistol.

Jaquan hit reverse. Again, the gangsters scurried out of the way like bugs exposed to a light, and the car came to a stop between them and Herdis. Kiris fired another shot, and another, but her one hit stopped on armour.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The men fired back, even as they hurried for the nearest corner. It wasn’t clear if they were actually aiming at anything, but one shot hit the side of the car, while another one flew over Herdis’s head.

“Damn it,” the woman said as she opened a passenger door and dove inside. “Gun doesn’t work.”

“There are more,” Jaquan pointed out.

Two men came around the meeting building. They weren’t clad in green jackets, and lacked the panicky, desperate air. Both were shouldering guns with a short barrel and a short stock; the sort of compact, rugged thing used for fighting in cramped urban areas and on starships. And on covert ops, of course.

They fired, and an alarm warned of damage to the car.

“Where’s the rest?” Jaquan asked as he hit the acceleration again.

“I don’t know,” Herdis said. “But not here, I think.”

He drove them off, swaying erratically, as much as the narrow street allowed. A shot went past the car, and another one hit a window. The heat-absorbing film applied to it took the shot and the window disintegrated, taking away most of the frame as well. Then they went around a corner, and there was a moment’s peace.

“My rifle doesn’t work,” Herdis said. “Nothing works. It just happened, all of a sudden. The lock on that door we were hiding behind died as well, and Bers had to chop through it. We went out to check on the meeting house, and ran into a pack of Green Jackets.”

Jaquan took another turn, starting a circle around the general area, staying mobile.

“Their guns worked, but we were close enough to rush them. I think they were being made to stand by, in case something went wrong.”

“Something did,” Kiris said.

“Yes. More Jackets showed up, and what I assume are the Heg agents. It was just chaos; everyone shooting at everyone. And these Jackets use ID-coded guns. I retreated, but Bers… he went wild. You know how he can be.”

“Yes,” Kiris and Jaquan said simultaneously.

“He ran off somewhere, and I made it to the front door. It had been shot open. The floor in that place has collapsed, into a cellar or a tunnel. I heard voices down there; it sounded like a pursuit. Then those Jackets showed up behind me.”

“And Ayna?” Kiris said.

“Haven’t seen her. I mean, hiding from danger is her whole thing. I’m not that worried about her. But her comm will be fried as well.”

“And Bers is Bers,” Jaquan said.

“He wants to die in battle,” Kiris told the other two. “Sometimes, at least. The issue is Gaylen.”

The car arrived at the edge of the forest, and the vague borders between it and the suburbs. Jaquan turned again, continuing the circle.

“We need a plan,” he said.

“Stop the car and let me out,” Kiris told him.

“What?” Jaquan said.

“Just do it,” Kiris told him, and slipped on night vision goggles.

Jaquan did stop, and she stepped out. They were now halfway through the circle, north of the meeting house.

“You two go for the backup guns we stashed,” Kiris told them.

“And you?” Herdis asked her. “What are you going to do?”

The Chanei produced her little personal pad.

“That other Green Jacket we tagged… he’s nearby, fleeing the whole mess, from what I can tell. He and I are going to have a chat.”

“I should go with you,” Herdis said. “Look, I both shoot and fight better-”

“I interrogate better,” Kiris reminded her. There was a hard cast to her face, and a cold gleam in her eyes. “You are ultimately a good person, Herdis. I’m not. Now stop wasting time, both of you. I’ll be on comms.”

She switched her gun’s partially spent cell for a full one.

“I’m going to get my man back.”