Howard watched Adrian, Black Cat, leap across the 10 meters from the shuttle’s rear landing ramp to the side of the tower.
The young hybrid of the old American government’s supersoldier program made it look as easy as a child skipping a square in hopscotch.
Thoughts of a long-dead sister and colored chalk on a sidewalk in warm summer days out in front of their house flittered through his head.
Home.
Canada.
Once Canada, now?
Well, he figured it’d probably still be Canada for awhile until enough people that remembered went into the dirt.
Then it could called whatever.
The people that took over would decide.
Float stones made the shuttle eerily quiet.
He had been on many an op in the dead of night with the rotors of a helicopter or the engines of a plane roaring in his ears if not for the plugs.
Another life.
Not that much different really.
Out to kill to protect innocents.
Except, this time it was a hundred percent true.
It wasn’t just the reason the higher ups fed him and his fellow soldiers to keep them from thinking too much about what they were truly protecting.
Just people now.
Not like before.
Not for oil or any number of things that made and kept rich old men rich.
That kept the power in their hands.
It would have been a perfectly nice and quiet night to relax and meditate if not for the sounds of battle raging across the entirety of Vancouver.
The skyship was to the west.
He could see the flashes from her weapons dueling the fishmen’s magic.
Closer to the north, the lights were brighter, the sounds louder.
Last contact with Alin had been when the kid was about to reach Hayden’s little fort.
Everything since then had been garbled static without even the hint of a human voice.
“Done,” Black Cat said through the comms.
Howard could see in the dark as well as Black Cat or any other nocturnal predator.
Black Cat slinked through the human-sized hole he had cut in the window with his claws.
The shuttle’s thrusters puffed sporadically to keep it steady.
“Here.” Rupert, Teddy Bear placed a glowing eyeball in his hand. “No promises it’ll work, but…” The wizard shrugged. His previous attempts to place his conjured eyes inside the tower had failed within a meter or two upon entrance.
Some kind of magical interference.
Teddy Bear thought there might be a chance they’d last longer when held in a person’s hand.
Something to do with life auras and shit.
A very technical magic explanation that had Howard’s eyes glazing over within three sentences.
“The communication spell will run out, probably faster the further you move away from me. I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s cause of the spires, although, I’m, like, 80% sure that necromancer has an anti-scrying spell active.”
“Just do your best, eh.”
Howard leapt across the empty void.
An easy jump, though not quite as graceful as Black Cat.
He had to turn and skid on his armored back to protect the glowing eye in his palm.
Like trying to carry a soap bubble through the obstacle course back at basic.
That shit had cost him an hour of extra push ups.
“Comms only.”
“Copy that,” Black Cat said.
The closer they were the better it worked.
“You copy me, Teddy Bear?”
“Yeah, you’re good so far.”
“Marian?”
“Loud and clear, boss! Following you. Weapons are hot!”
The young pilot was too excited about this whole thing for his tastes.
“Alright, we’re moving.”
They had inserted about halfway up the tower.
Keen ears quickly picked up the sounds of battle.
Most above, a smattering from below.
Initial scans with the shuttle’s instruments had come up with little more than movement and some body heat.
Teddy Bear’s spells helped flesh out the picture a bit better.
People fled upward, fighting a running battle with undead.
Zombies mostly, with more powerful skeletons and bone constructs and the rare abomination of stitched and melded flesh.
Human and monster.
The slasher necromancer wasn’t the sort that stuck to a single theme.
“Is Alin’s fog here? Or am I not seeing it?” Black Cat said.
“I don’t know.”
Dark offices and corridors passed in silence.
Empty except for spent shells, spell burns in the walls and carpet and the red smears.
“Take a sniff.”
“What am I looking for?”
“People.”
“Signs of that everywhere.” Black Cat opened his faceplate. Black-furred face twisted as he sniffed the air. “Death everywhere.”
They continued on until Teddy Bear chimed in.
“Stop. Above you. Movement.”
“People or… others?”
“I sense more shambling than walking. But, again, not a hundred percent on that.”
“We’ll get a visual confirmation.”
Black Cat leapt.
The ceiling and floor was made up of a mix of plastic, MDF and maybe wood.
Superhuman strength made short work of it.
“Undead… they see me. No people, er, living people.”
“Take them out, Marian.”
The silence was shattered as the belly mounted rotary cannon on the shuttle whirred to life. Not from the gun, as it used magnetic acceleration to propel the hand-sized projectiles, but from the tower’s skin and bones shattering and breaking.
Two quick bursts raked across the floor above them to conserve ammo.
“Got a visual. No more hostiles! Floor is cleared, boss!”
They continued the climb, tearing through ceilings.
Why take the stairs and elevator when that was what most people would expect? At least those not used to superhuman abilities.
Floor by floor.
Marian sporadically cleared undead as she flew around the tower, spiraling around it to keep pace with them while conducting her own search.
Twenty floors up.
Not much left.
They had seen the broken window in the uppermost floors on their approach.
Either someone had the same idea as them or the people inside took the easy and long way down.
Would be just like the leaders to bail.
Teddy Bear’s magic eye popped like a bubble.
“Uh oh.”
“What?”
“Oh? Man, glad I can still hear you. Magical interference just spiked.”
Black Cat climbed through the ceiling.
Gun fire shattered the silence.
“Save that thought.”
Howard drew a recoilless submachine gun and leapt.
Bullets plinked off his Threnium armor.
This necromancer didn’t do bullets, so he stowed the gun behind him and raised his hands.
Flashlights shined in his face.
No big deal for the HUD.
“Don’t fire. You’re wasting rounds and we’re not here to hurt you.”
“That’s a monster!”
“He is a hybrid of an evil supersoldier program.”
“Fuck that! Slasher soldiers have been running around upstairs. Killed the board of governors and they’re picking off the council.”
“Fuck’s sake. We don’t have time for this. Check the event page. Howard and Adrian. You’ll find us on your team, eh.”
That did it.
Lights and guns lowered to the floor.
Under any other circumstances the people would’ve kept blasting and he wouldn’t have blamed them.
However, the spires gave him and Adrian legitimacy.
They weren’t on the slashers’ side, which meant they were the same as the tower natives.
All just food on the menu.
Adrian and him were priced quite highly thanks to the slashers they had taken out and their partial role in taking out the demon clown.
The hallway was barricaded on both sides, encircling the elevators and stairs.
At a glance he could tell that this group had decided to make a stand here.
He wondered if that had been their choice or those on the higher floors.
Space was limited.
Then again, a lot of the undead, at least what remained of them after Marian had finished, seemed to be the local residents of the tower.
Lots of bare feet and pajamas in the tattered remains.
“Mind if I take a peak?” he gestured at the stairs.
“We’ve cut the elevators and blown as much of the stairs as we could. Nothing’s come up yet, but…” the hard-eyed woman glanced at the hole they had made in the floor.
“We didn’t see any evidence of the undead doing the same.”
“Yeah, well, if they decide to copy you then we’re all fucked, aren’t we.”
“Sorry.” He turned to Black Cat. “Check the place out.” Apartments or condos. He always got the proper terminology wrong. On second thought. The tower used to be a hotel. So, that made them rooms or suites for the bigger ones.
The hard-eyed woman opened her mouth to protest.
“He’s got super senses. He’ll sniff out the undead. Kinda hard to miss, eh? So, give him access. We’re on the same side.”
She scowled, but nodded, gesturing for Black Cat to follow her.
Howard went to the elevators, pried the doors open.
The dark shaft went all the way down to the remains of the car.
No climbing undead.
It was the same for the stairs.
They had blown it out down about 3 or 4 floors.
Empty aside from a few corpses on the next intact landing and the smears on the walls.
So, what was the necromancer doing?
He checked the other stairs before Black Cat called him on the comms.
The young man used code, which meant shit had gone wrong.
He rushed to the room.
Wounded soldiers held people, including Black Cat and the hard-eyed woman hostage.
Along with a young family.
Mother, father, two kids, a boy and a girl.
Close in age.
The girl held the boy protectively even as a black-clad assassin held a thin dagger to her neck.
He counted two soldiers.
The woman assassin and another man, clad in tactical gear in urban pattern camo.
Old America from the looks of it, even if the soldier had a partially torn balaclava hiding his face.
He sensed another 2, maybe 3 soldiers hiding in the shadows.
“What the fuck is this shit, eh?”
“Bro, I didn’t want to do it this way.”
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Definitely American.
“You’re soldiers and slashers.”
“We only went after other slashers and combatants. No noncombatants, no kids.” The soldier glared at the woman.
“You clad yourself in righteousness even as you willingly took a class that requires murder. Does that target make all the difference? In that case, then my conscience is also clear. After all, I only killed my enemies,” the woman assassin said.
Yup.
Chinese.
Which meant Phoenix Dynasty.
“Listen, you know who I am? More importantly, who I work for.”
“I neither confirm nor deny.”
“Yeah, I get it. Black ops. Probably, no tags. Empress sends you out here to get levels, huge rewards, take out possible threats while you’re at it. Except, that shit won’t fly if you can’t get that plausible deniability, eh?”
“Lads got it right.” A third soldier lit up a cigar and propped his feet up on the desk.
Howard was impressed and concerned.
He hadn’t noticed the man.
Tactical gear as well.
Urban camo.
UK judging by the pattern and the accent.
“Well, shit. I heard that the Queen of England was an upright sort. Not the kind to send out killers.”
“Oh? Like you lot? Not everyone has the benefit of aerial conveyance. Regardless, my mission was to do good. Like, my American chum, our orders were to strictly target other slashers. No locals, unless our lives were under threat and definitely no innocent children.” He raised a brow at the dynasty assassin.
“Ah, but it guaranteed their ears, didn’t it?”
A rumble escaped Black Cat’s throat.
“Careful manbeast. You might make my hand slip.”
The Brit cleared his throat.
“Let’s not quarrel amongst ourselves when a greater threat looms. I don’t know about you lads and lasses, but I daresay I can’t see myself shambling about gnawing on necks and the sort.”
“What do you want, eh?”
“A temporary alliance. How about it? From the sounds of it you’re a native of this once grand country. We’re subjects of the same Queen.”
“Don’t recall it being that way. Even more now. Oh yeah, I got it wrong. She’s actually the Queen of London.”
“I suppose that’s technically correct.”
“We’re worth a lot of points to you.”
“Right back at you.” The American soldier grunted. “The necromancer’s worth more.”
“Yes, Ms. Traynor has done quite well for herself. I can only imagine how many points she’s accrued this night. It likely won’t be enough to overtake Ms. Foster, however,” the Brit said.
“Alright, I’ll hear you out, but let the kids go first.”
“If the father or mother takes their place,” the dynasty assassin held out a gloved hand.
The father approached slowly to let the dagger press against his throat.
Mother and kids fled behind the hard-eyed woman.
“It’s their fault,” the American soldier scowled at the dynasty assassin. “They attacked us, which let the necromancer surprise us.”
“What? She’s above?” the hard-eyed woman snapped.
“Ah! Yes. Quite the sneaky maneuver,” the Brit soldier said. “Use her hordes of undead to chase you lot,” he nodded at her, “while letting these two,” he pointed at the American and the Chinese, “use up what they had on each other and cause chaos in the upper floor, which gave her the opening.”
“How do you know this?” Howard said.
“Well, my team gave it our best, but I’m ashamed and saddened to say that it wasn’t good enough. Indeed, I’m only alive because she wanted information and was curious about my home.”
Howard’s eyes narrowed.
“How’d you get away?”
“He’s clean,” the American soldier said. “No secret traps in his body. No magic or Skill shit, at least as far as we can tell with ours. Granted the bitch is high level…” He shrugged.
“Nothing quite so nefarious. I simply promised to put a word in my Queen’s ear. About potential service, so to speak. Ms. Traynor seems to think that being far from this continent would be for the best once the contest ends. I, of course, felt no need to mention that my Queen is on favorable terms with a certain flying man.”
“An ocean away won’t be far enough for her.”
“That is what I suspect. Regardless, it allowed me my freedom.”
“Enough of this,” the dynasty assassin said. “You have a flying ship—”
“No,” Howard said flatly. “And before the threats come out, know that there’s no way you’re getting on board. Best offer I can make is that you slip out in the chaos when the necromancer hits this floor.”
“Told you.” The American soldier chuckled.
“You can head down. We left holes and lots of shredded undead. Honestly, it’s a good shot… unless traps, but you always got to look out for those. Oh and it’s a warzone out there. In case you didn’t know, fishmen decided to join the party. Not to mention monsters running wild. All of you moving at the same time. Seems very coincidental. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?”
“Cards on the table,” the American soldier said. “Yeah, she put it together. Somehow got a dialogue with the fishy bastards going. For the record, my team didn’t sign up with her.”
“Neither did we,” the dynasty assassin said.
“We did, but that was a keep your enemies close gambit. I daresay, we were able to do so because we weren’t as clumsy with our assassinations as you two lot,” the Brit soldier said. “Might have been a bonus when our sudden, but inevitable betrayal failed. I may also have some charm-related Skills.”
“He’s a slick-tongued snake,” the American soldier said. “Didn’t work on me though.”
“Neither on me,” the dynasty assassin said.
“Nope,” Black Cat added.
Howard was in a bind.
There was no way he could trust them to not knife him and Black Cat in the back if the opportunity presented itself. And he was not about to let them take the shuttle.
Hopefully, the conversation had gone through the communication spell.
Marian would know to create distance.
Fortune spared him from making a decision when the building rumbled.
The Brit soldier peeked out the window.
“Well, I’ll be a right proper wanker… it appears that a few buildings by the harbour have just been destroyed.”
“He’s right,” Teddy Bear said. “I just got a message from Rand. Fishmen magic. Compressed sea water. Made to violently expand on impact.”
Gun fire erupted from outside the room.
“I don’t suppose that was some kind of signal,” the Brit soldier mused.
“Doubt it. Listen up, try to stab us in the back and I’ll make you regret it,” Howard eyed the dynasty assassin. “You no longer have plausible deniability. Shit’s going to roll up hill straight onto your empress’ lap. Honestly, best thing for you is to disappear. As for you two? I ain’t got much to say to soldiers that take up the slasher class. Orders or not… well… saying I was just following orders is shit for a reason.”
Eyes hardened.
“So, slip out in the fighting or do the right thing for once. Up to you. Don’t really care, eh.”
The dynasty assassin snorted before disappearing into the shadow on the wall. The other two presences he had sensed likewise vanished.
“Black Cat.”
“Sir.”
“Find an out of the way corner and head down.” Howard regarded the hard-eyed woman and the civilians. “Best chance I can give you. Remember, the streets are just as dangerous, but at least you’ve got options out there. Not trapped up here with the dead.”
With that he readied his gun and stepped out into a nightmare.
----------------------------------------
Swan Princess was out. Chandra was out.
Alin scooped up the former and carried her into the building.
The front lobby had become an abattoir.
Dark water mixed with splashed around his ankles.
He pushed bodies out of the way to reach the stairs where Ibra relieved him of his burden.
“She’s alive. Chandra?”
“The same,” Ibra said.
“Wanderer’s dead.” Galen sat on the steps, leaning against the wall. His right foot was twisted to the side. Broken. Enhanced Pain Tolerance had allowed him to limp this far.
“Who’s left? Scanners aren’t working.”
“No other casualties the last I saw of the battle in the park,” Ibra said.
Alin followed the older warrior up and into a small office.
They passed locals, many injured, some dying as they were being tended to by anyone with a pair of hands and the ability to move.
Bloody-handed children did the best they could under the direction of a few healers. The lone doctor barked instructions to 5 year old's pressing red bandages on gaping wounds with their tiny hands. Without the doctor’s Skills Alin knew that many of the people would’ve already been dead.
“Where’s Monsignor and Sakura?”
“They joined the battle. It was the former’s belief that she lacks the energy to make a difference here. She might be able to prolong a few lives, but what would that matter if the fishmen get past our defenses?”
It wouldn’t.
The men would be killed, while the women and children would be taken away to slavery and a darker fate.
“I’m heading out.”
“I will accompany you.”
“Someone needs to watch over them.”
“I—”
“I got that covered.” Galen limped into the room. “Running on empty, but I’ll push through. Got at least one more cold mist step in me. And grenades. If I can’t win then I’ll make sure they don’t win either.”
“Hold as long as you can. The eidolon’s out there fighting a transforming moose. I think he’ll win and when he’s done with that he’ll help with the fishmen.”
“He is not an ally,” Ibra said.
“Yeah, but he’s all about championing the innocent and killing monsters.”
Outside, a small hill stood, jutting out of the once grass-covered ground.
Raising it had deepened the area surrounding it, creating a moat.
A double-edged sword.
Hayden and the others couldn’t fight in the water where the fishmen had the decided advantage. At the same time the deeper water was a weapon for the fishmen.
Violent waves thundered against the hill’s slope, eroding chunks of dirt as fast as Bolder could pull back into place with earth magic.
Rand’s spellbook shined bright in one hand while he pointed with the other, casting pinpoint magic shields to block attacks.
Doomborer rumbled down on tank tread-like feet straight into the toothy maw of a sea creature that resembled an extinct animal. Drill and excavator scoop hands took great chunks out of its mouth and tongue while saw-like teeth whirring all over the gray surface of their power armor carved crimson tracks all the way down the creature’s gullet.
“Go. I will look for open shots on their mages.” Ibra had pulled an enchanted crossbow from his bag of holding along with a quiver of bolts laced with manticore venom.
Alin fired his thrusters, arcing into the sky.
Colors flashed with each spell and counter spell like a fireworks show.
He landed on a fishman warrior, plunging his multi-weapon into the exposed gap on the side of the neck, right into the gills.
Dark blood gushed over the yellow light.
He drew a handcannon, but missing fingers fouled his aim. Shots went all over the place except where they actually needed to go.
A fishman warrior clubbed him into the mud.
The Skill pushed him deep.
A fishman rogue appeared suddenly, plunging a dagger-like spine right through his armored stomach. Barbed tines ripped chunks of organ meat and flesh on the way back out, yet left the armor and undersuit unblemished.
Life-saving systems kicked in automatically.
A healing gel poured into the wound, sealing it.
Multi-weapon turned into a longsword, thrusting up into—
The fishman rogue vanished only to reappear a short distance away on the end of Sakura’s short blade.
A dying counter strike plunged the dagger-like spine into a cut log.
Sakura popped out of white smoke behind him. Her blade erupted out of his mouth with a spray of dark blood.
A barrage of dark eldritch magic raked across them.
The ranger shinobi traded her spot for another log while Alin could only turn and cover his exposed arm, placing his trust in the armor.
“Move it, Boy!” Hayden snapped, firing bursts from a recoilless rifle. “Monsignor! Cover fire!” She engaged thrusters, shooting her across the distance as the ranger priest’s rifle took up the slack.
Hayden’s superpower meant that her armor didn’t have the same ammunition issue as Alin’s and rest. She punched her hand toward the knot of fishmen mages. Gossamer-thin wires shot out, sticking barbed needles into their scales.
Water was a great conductor and the fishmen were dripping.
Her electricity was of such strength that visible arcs of blue-white light played across the wires.
Fishmen seized up. Every muscle in the their bodies contracting so violently that Alin heard them tear, heard bones break. Their bodies smoked and blackened, but they were already dead. Their hearts had failed almost instantly.
Hayden helped him out of the crater.
“Could use some of your power.”
The gray jetted from him like high-pressure steam.
“Something’s wrong?”
The cold coastal fog swarmed over his like hungry locusts.
Their magic was stronger here at the heart of their focus, while he was tired.
“Yeah,” Hayden sighed. “They’re a pain. Icy Tea’s been on condensation duty this whole time.”
He followed her gaze.
The teenage wizard sat at the peak of the small hill. Eyes screwed shut in concentration. Icy staff in one hand planted into the dirt radiating partially-visible waves of white-blue light. Spellbook levitating around her like a moon. Frost coated her enchanted robes and Threnium body armor. Not even her pointy, blue wizard hat had been spared.
It was then that he noticed a faint, glittering nimbus around most of the small hill.
Water vapor in the fishmen’s fog turned into ice crystals by Teresa’s magic before it could envelop them.
“That’s—”
Hayden nodded. “Getting into the danger zone. The wizards are past the safe limits of mana potion usage.” She shook her head. “I swore I’d never do the child endangerment thing and yet, here I am.”
“Head’s up!” Rand thrust bent fingers in their direction.
Magic shield flared to life above them.
Arcane symbols scrolled across the round pane of translucent blue.
A jet of high-pressure water, strong enough to strip flesh from bone bored into Rand’s shield.
“Move it!”
Alin followed Hayden back toward the top.
The shield shattered.
The jet carved a trench in their wake, showering them with dark water and dirt before running out of steam.
“Counter attack on the mages!” Hayden barked.
“How? I can’t see them through the water. Some kind of spell or ability.” Rand gasped like a man that had just sprinted the length of a football field a few dozen times.
“Bolder?”
“Yes, ma’am?” The dark-skinned young man turned his attention from the rear of the hill where he was raising a wall of earth along the rear edge of the park to keep the river water from reaching the one building still standing.
“Anything left?”
“I will die before I fail.”
“What have I told you about that?”
“Um… less dying and more making the other guy die.”
“Good kid. You heard the words, but you’ve got to really listen to them. So, I’m going to need you to uplift me some fishmen mages.” She jabbed a finger toward the roiling surface of the dark water.
“I can, if I knew where they were.”
“Just raise everything. You’re bound to get some,” Alin said.
Bolder shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough mana to do that.”
“That’s fine,” Hayden said. “Potter!”
“Yeah?” Rand said.
“Scry.”
“Can’t without stopping my shielding.”
“I’ll take over.”
“Alright, but I’ve already tried that remember? They’re blocking somehow.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll give them something else to focus on.” Hayden clapped her hands. “On now!” Her faceplate slid open. Magitech eye flashed red.
The leader of the famed team, The Heartfuries, shot a red beam of light into the dark water. Steam erupted as the laser vaporized an enormous amount of water.
Over the years Hayden’s powers had grown stronger.
Through exercise and diligent practice she had gone from having enough electrical power in her body to light up a small town to now having the same output as a medium-sized old American state.
The water parted for a brief moment.
Alin used the distraction to push the gray into the churning steam and water to find the mages and attempt to drain their vitality.
He failed.
“Got them! Sent location!” Rand said.
“My turn!” Bolder punched the dirt.
Roughly 30 meters away a pillar of dirt shot out of the water.
Fishmen mages flew through the air like those huge flying fish they used as mounts.
At the same time Hayden ejected small discs from her armor into the air, covering all of them.
Electricity charged up the connecting wires, powering the magictech shield generators.
Fishmen fire cracked the blue-white shields.
“I left you a gap!” Hayden said
Rand chanted, fingers twisting.
The pages of his spellbook fanned until he found the right one.
He thrust his hands toward the small gap.
A tiny red bird of light zipped through.
It split into 3 pieces.
One for each fishman mage.
Two turned to ash on contact.
A bio-luminescent glow sheathed the third, blocking Rand’s spell.
The fishman mage was unlucky.
Being propelled a few dozen meters into the air put it right in Ibra’s sights.
Faint green, barely as strong as an old tracer bullet, streaked across the dark.
The bolt took the mage in one large, round eye.
Alin zoomed in.
The black orb sizzled and popped gushing dark blood tainted with the manticore venom’s green.
The mage splashed into the water.
Triumph was short-lived as it tended to be when under siege by a powerful foe with superior numbers.
The defenders ever dwindled. Bodies, ammunition, energy. All were a finite resource.
An enormous shape surged from the distant river, pushing the dark water over the remains of their first wall.
Like a submarine surfacing or an orca swimming onto shore to feast on seal pups the giant monster emerged.
“Oh! Giant crab!” Teresa’s eyes opened suddenly.
The black-shelled monstrosity made her words an understatement.
10 fishmen rode ensconced within an armored platform on the back of its shell firing spells and spines.
There was even a large, mounted spine shooter akin to the cannons on the Raynanaut and the shuttle. Magic and sinew spat spines the length of a human arm.
“Shields aren't going to hold for long!” Hayden spat.
“That’s not just a crab,” Rand’s eyes were agog, “it’s like the god of crabs.”
“Like Tamatoa?” Teresa said.
“Yeah, minus the shiny and the fun song.”
The black crab waved claws large enough to cut and crush cars menacingly as the fishman rider urged it forward.
“Easy,” Alin muttered.
When in doubt kill the rider, controller, summoner or whatever when it came to giant beasts.
It seemed that Ibra had the same idea as bolts revealed that the rider was protected by magic shields.
“Right… mages, then rider.”
“Good plan,” Hayden nodded. “Bolder. I want under.” She pointed to the dirt.
“I can do that.”
“Make it quick! Either I go down first or my shields do,” Rand said through grit teeth.