The beauty of the panoramic view in his helmet was that he didn’t have to turn around to check—just let his eyes dart to the edges of the screen. He didn’t see anyone, and decided not to wait. Having your enemies too far behind you to see them was a good thing.

At the moment he stepped inside the hall, he did see them—a security guy followed by one of the black and white striped referees.

He’d suspected that the ref models were more than just protection, and hoped that Armory hadn’t put as much work into them as he had in his own suit. Otherwise this might be a short fight.

He took a few steps down the hall, Alexis close behind him.

“Turn!” Alexis said, and whipped around, assisted by the jets built into his armor’s arms and legs. The Frog suit didn’t let Larry turn as quickly, but he came around as the person in security armor stepped through the door.

Each of Alexis armor’s arms made popping noises, and the security armor fell backward into the ref. Larry hit them both with the black goo, covering them and sticking them to the armor, and the doorway.

Then they turned around, the Frog suit leaping while Alexis ran, occasionally pushed forward by a burst of air.

“Exactly as I’d hoped,” Alexis said.

“Yeah, except I don’t have any more of the goo. Can’t do it again.”

“No matter. This gives us a little time.”

Behind them came the noise of pounding, pulling, and swearing. Getting the men out without hurting them or getting stuck to them would be a challenge. Larry wondered how long it would take before they took the obvious solution, and ripped a hole in the wall next to the door.

From the pounding, it might be sooner than he wanted.

Larry and Alexis made it to the suite quickly, pushing the door out of its frame.

Isaac and Cheryl weren’t there. That end of the plan had worked out. They had only one thing to do there. Larry asked Alexis, “Did you get everything out of your room?”

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“I didn’t bring anything I couldn’t lose.”

“Well, if Lim did his job, you’re about to.”

They walked through the suite, through the workshop, and into the vehicle access hallway on the other side. They walked twenty feet down the hall, and Larry sent the signal that activated the bombs.

Explosions wracked the rooms, and the door blew apart, flooding the hallway with smoke. Flame lit the hall.

After a moment, the fire alarms began to ring in addition to the other alarms, followed by the sprinklers. Water hit the floor, puddling in corners.

“Well, only two things left on the list,” Larry said.

Then he fired off a barrage of missiles toward a spot further down the wall, exploding, and ripping a hole in the metal. Larry reached out with the Frog suit, ripped it further, and jumped out. He landed, crushing some flowers, and missing a palm tree by only a few feet.

Alexis flew out, and landed next to him.

“Alright, the hangar’s next.”

He could see the building. It was on the edge of the jungle. Hotels and palm trees hid most of it, but he could see the hangar’s shiny, metal roof. They just had to get there, and they could leave. With any luck, Lim would have the plane ready. It didn’t seem likely that he’d have problems. It hadn’t been hard to guess what would happen if Armory called for help. They’d try to catch him on the way out. They’d block the passageways that vehicles used, and they’d block his way to the hangar if they could.

That was why he’d hurried out.

Now all he had to worry about was if any of the powered contestants tried to help. He doubted they would. They weren’t here to do law enforcement. He figured he only had to worry if one of the contestants had a grudge.

It wasn’t that likely, but it was possible.

And anyway, the dice were cast. Now it was time to find out what came up. He leapt forward, taking forty foot jumps. It wasn’t as fast as his regular armor, the Rhino suit, but it wasn’t bad.

The hangars stood in a row alongside the runway, all of them wide, white buildings with curved roofs. The other side of the runway held only palm trees, bushes and grass.

His first sense that something might be wrong came when he noticed that Lim’s DC-3 wasn’t out on the runway. While Lim might have chosen not to make it obvious that they were leaving, that wasn’t the plan.

Larry and Alexis stood alongside the far wall of the next hangar over, leaning so only the edge of the helmet had the potential to be seen. Zooming in, he saw that Lim stood next to Cheryl near the front of the hangar. The plane’s nose stuck out a little onto the runway.

Unfortunately,they weren’t alone. A man in a black suit stood next to them. He was shorter than Lim, a little overweight, but obviously someone who cared about his appearance. He could have passed for a wealthy businessman even though his lumpy nose appeared to have been broken and healed more than once.

“Dammit,” Larry muttered.

Alexis said, “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a man with them—Neil Sloan. He’s a specialist in elemental magic, and he’s particularly good with earth elementals.”