COLIN POV

Sage and I slipped inside the wooden hut full of dispirited prisoners. They were wearing shabby, gray clothing, thin and emaciated. Outside the walls of the prison hut, artillery boomed and roared.

"Who's in charge here?" I demanded.

They looked us over, taking in the uniforms Sage and I had stolen off of guards. None of them seemed eager to help.

Sage tossed out a Cowgirl Cheer. I could feel it affecting everyone in the room. The prisoners seemed visibly more energetic. There were men and women both, all mixed in here in this little hut crammed with bunks four high, in which multiple people were lying under a single thin blanket. No children, thankfully. Their hollow eyes followed us, and a few of them started whispering to each other.

"I'm here to get you out, but I need to know who's in charge," I said.

A man stepped forward. "I suppose I am. They've taken everyone else."

"Let's start getting them organized," I said. "Line them all up here by the door. When you hear the alarm, get out and head for the center of camp. We’ll take it from there.”

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm here recruiting," I said, looking over the prisoners. These were, according to Gambler, the last remnants of multiple small fragments that had found themselves in the top level of the reality engine. They had laid low for as long as they could, hiding, but as the Dominators swept up the larger fragments, they had eventually been corralled into this place where they were waiting for the Dominators to get around to processing them. Our plan was to get them out first.

“Recruiting?”

“No time,” I snapped. “We’re on a schedule. The distraction won’t last forever, and I’ve got eight more groups to canvass. Get moving!”

As the prisoners began forming up, we left the hut and hurried to the next one. Across the row, Rok'gar was emerging from an identical hut. He gave me a thumbs-up sign before he ducked into his next target.

We roused the prisoners in each building, giving them the same talk. Then Sage raced to the center of the camp, where, as agreed, she rang the alarm bell. Meanwhile, I pulled out my remote detonator and set off the charges we’d planted around the outskirt of the camp before sneaking in.

The prison huts doors flung open, and the prisoners streamed out. Rok'gar and I were shouting, "This way! This way!" We urged them toward the center, where the big building that dominated the camp loomed grey and imposing.

As they saw where we were taking them, the first prisoners balked. "In there? There's no way out. No one comes out of there."

The sign over the door read "Processing" in grim letters. I could smell blood from here, and a grim trail of smoke emerged from four different chimneys.

"You have to trust me," I said. "We've taken this over. There's only one way out, and it's through there."

I pulled the doors open. The prisoners stared at each other, clearly terrified. Rok'gar raced ahead of them and disappeared into the building.

"See? He's not afraid," I said.

"It could be a trick."

By now, the other prisoners were mounting up behind us, crowding around the building, all sounding terrified. I raised my voice.

"We're here to recruit you for another war," I shouted. "There's a way down to the layer below. It's not safe, no. You'll have to fight, but we can arm you and point you at an enemy. You won't just be waiting for them to get around to killing you. But you've got to take this chance now."

I saw hesitancy and fear before, at last, a thin woman in scraps of a jacket climbed the stairs.

"You better not be lying about this," she said, and plunged inside.

That broke the dam. The rest of the prisoners raced past as Sage and I watched anxiously. The distraction we'd given the guards seemed to be working. As the last few pushed their way up the stairs and into the building, Sage and I followed, slamming the door shut behind us. We hurried down the dark stairs, then emerged out into bright purple light.

The prisoners were milling about, taking in the sights of Monte Carlo. "What is this place?"

Gambler boomed, "Welcome. I am addressing each of you now. And — done. We're all on the same page now," he told me.

The prisoners, rescued prisoners, were lining up now, grim-faced.

"We're ready to help," one said.

“Fantastic!” I clapped my hands together, then shouted directions as Rok'gar began handing out weapons and armor and Sage started forming them up into groups. We'd managed to bring away more than I had dared hope, enough to shore up weak places to our west and south.

"We need your help to keep pushing out our boundaries, bringing in more territory, and defending what we have. We've got a plan for everyone to get out of here, but we're going to have to work together."

"They understand now," Gambler assured me. "They're part of this."

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I let my motivational speech drop. There wasn't much point when Gambler could just accommodate them into his gestalt. Instead, I turned to Sage.

“That’s it for the day. What do you say we take a look at the holdings?"

Her eyes sparkled. "You mean—"

I nodded. "I'm ready to risk it."

She grinned and summoned Mr. Smokey out of her pet storage. The enormous eastern-style dragon appeared, hovering three feet over the ground. She had constructed a saddle for him, and now, with a quick gesture, modified it to have two seats. She swarmed up in and settled herself, then reached down and helped me up behind her.

I took a deep breath. Sage had been asking me to come for a flight on Mr. Smokey for what seemed like weeks now, and I'd found one excuse after another to turn her down. Truth be told, it made me nervous just watching her. But I'd promised that after this mission, I'd give it a shot.

Now Sage urged her dragon skyward. It leapt forward, driving upward into the air almost vertically. I fell backward in my seat, trying desperately to hold on. My hands grabbed and caught Sage's shoulders. I realized what I was doing and dropped my grip immediately, instead holding onto the saddle beside my legs.

Mr. Smokey leveled out. We were several hundred feet in the air, and now he began a slow upward spiral. Down below, the pink mollusk shell in the center of Monte Carlo gleamed. There were the buildings we had constructed, laid out on a grid pattern, with our army units in training drilling on the parade ground. Beyond them lay the ring of defensive turrets I had built.

We raised up higher, and I could see the next cluster over, formerly the home of one of our allies. By now, Gambler had formed a gestalt with almost all of the minds we had associated with. From what he said, they were all still present, just unified. I didn't pretend that it made any sense to me.

Sage urged her dragon forward, and we flew. The wash had been pushed back a good way on all sides. From here, I could see it stretching out toward the horizon, glowing white mist punctuated here and there by islands of purple. Some of them represented allies we had yet to reach, others were unclaimed land or hostiles.

I leaned forward to see past Sage's shoulder. “This is a hell of a view," I admitted.

"I've been telling you that for weeks now, Colin." She let out a sigh and relaxed, leaning back against me. I stiffened before forcing myself to relax. I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Sage leaned into me, and my other arm went around her waist without me really thinking about it. Then I did think about it quite a lot, but Sage sighed and nestled against me.

"What if we're trapped here forever?"

"Then at least I'm trapped here with you," I said. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather be stuck with. But we're not, Sage. The exploit's not over. We still have a chance to escape. We just need to figure it out."

We circled for a while. The temperature here was perfect, shirt-sleeve weather, even 500 feet up. Once I was used to Mr. Smokey's undulating flight, I enjoyed myself. It was nice to spend some time not thinking about our next raid or beefing up our defenses or researching the next tier of armor for our peons.

"We're going to get out of here," I promised her. "All of us. You, me, Rok'gar, Gambler, all of our allies. We'll find a way. We'll get up there and get a message to Coyote. The Ad Astra has room."

"You're certain?"

“Coyote told me that he could bring away other fragments if they were willing to come with us back before all this started," I told her. "We'll make it."

She reached up and squeezed the hand that was laying on her shoulder. "I hope so. 'Cause it's not the company I mind. I just — I miss my family."

I missed my squad, too. What I'd give to have Sam and Pete down here cracking jokes with me. Or Rose telling me to get a grip on myself and stop being such a wimp. Or Amber accusing me of having practiced an exploit in secret before showing it off just to make sure I got it right.

"We'll see them again,” I promised Sage.

She said nothing, just nudging Mr. Smokey forward and down as we began our slow glide back to our base.

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Shad POV

When Kvaltash and his people came calling, I was ready.

“Captain Williams. We have a task for you. The last piece of the key is in a zone that three corporations — Proxima, Antares, and Kuala Rdia — are all squabbling over," Kvaltash said. "I've got an underpermit from Antares giving us a right to conduct archaeology in the area, but the other two organizations won't respect that. It does give us cover for what we're doing, though."

"Which is what?" I asked.

"We need to break into a vault. This facility is not, strictly speaking, a lab, but instead represents Progenitor treasures. That's why it's under contest by three different factions."

"And Antares doesn't know you're screwing them over?"

"Antares has resigned itself to losing this battle. They are hoping that we will be able to turn the tables in some way and deny their enemies a victory."

"I can get behind that," I said, and ended the call.

"No military on this one," Grandpa told me when I briefed him. "Not in the contested zone. Your civilian teams can get by with that cover contract, but we don't want to upset any of the big players."

"We've been taking them into contested zones before. What's different about this one?"

"That it's a hot contest and you're going to be sneaking in under heavy fire," Grandpa suggested.

I wasn't sure I was convinced, but he was my superior officer, so I agreed and sat down to planning. The zone was, as Kvaltash had said, under siege from three different factions. There was a castle in the center, atop a hill, heavily protected and fortified. The three factions were fighting it out in the valley around the castle.

The simulated tech level was medieval, with knights in armor and such, but they packed quite a punch. Apparently, this zone had been heavily influenced by Proxima and Antares, and all of the NPCs were orcs. It was calling on orc legends and tropes. Fortunately, I had gotten to know some of those orc stories from Mak’gar. He was in this level somewhere, fighting for Antares.

I'd made contact with him when we got the contract, just to let him know we’d be coming in. No sense fighting each other if we didn’t have to. . "Glad you're on our side this time,” he said. "It's been a slog. We're just grinding against each other. No one can get anywhere near the castle."

"Any kind of secret back entrances or tunnels that you've found?"

"If there were, would I still be here fighting?" he asked. "How many men are you bringing?"

"Two squads. My archaeologists and my gamers."

"Pfft," he snorted. “Like we’ll get a lot of use out of them. I was hoping you might shift the tide of the war for us.”

I shrugged. "See you in there."

I briefed my team carefully on what was going on.

"We have to help those assholes again?" Rose demanded at once, pacing the briefing room. "Can you assign us something else?”

“They're against everything we're fighting for," Sam said quietly. "They want to enslave every reality engine out there."

"I know. I don't like them either. This is the contract we've got, and we've got to uphold it. And I need you. Because you guys think faster on your feet than anyone else." I turned to the archaeologists. "You guys have already made a rapport with Kvaltash's people, so I want you along. Plus, you've got good insights into this Progenitor stuff. What I'd love to find in this vault is something we can steal. Kvaltash says he's only after the key. If we can loot it, I want to."

"We weren't able to loot anything at the lab," Henry reminded me.

"Kvaltash says this vault is different, that it's got treasures in it. Let's see how it goes," I said. "Any questions? See you at 0800 hours."