Nigel couldn’t believe that he was returning to the windowless building, a nondescript building in New York that he had stormed with the Dark Angels so many months ago. He wondered what happened to Sally, the girl who sacrificed herself so he could escape. He got to know Damien, Sally’s father, a little before he was ensnared by the Cabal once again.

“I don’t know if this is the right play,” Nigel said.

Blanka gave him a look of determination, which he knew quite well. He had been on many adventures with her and they had become quite intimate. A pang of guilt overcame him.

“This is our only option. Mr. Henry is incapacitated and we can only assume that he is working with Strahinja Vraza.”

“What level of resistance can we expect from building security?” Eva asked.

“The data center is the most secure room in the facility. We’re going to fight our way in and out.”

“Take as many weapons as you can carry, we need backups for our primary weapons,” Blanka said.

“This is the only weapon that I need,” Vedrana said, pulling out her katana.

Eva filled her belt with various clips. The retracting blade from Eva’s robotic hand seemed brutal and out of place. Nigel gulped at the sight of Eva adjusting it; she was enjoying herself. She gave him a maniacal grin as she finished checking her weapons.

“What else can you tell us about the building?”

“That building is a fortress. I barely got out with my life.”

“Well, that’s why you have us,” Blanka said as she placed a reassuring hand on his.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he was falling for her. He didn’t know what kind of life they would have, but he wanted—needed—to find Jet before he could move on.

“Your chopper is outfitted and ready to go. I’ve taken the liberty of installing some ordinance that you will appreciate,” Professor Paladin said.

Eva and Vedrana hurried to the helicopter. Eva took a position behind a massive automatic machine gun that looked like it could hold hundreds, maybe thousands, of rounds. Vedrana found a curved sword and started checking its balance. Nigel watched in fascination as she performed a number of ninja-like moves. He had seen her fight before, and she was magnificent. He had enjoyed partaking of her company while they were stuck in that snowy lodge. He felt a pang of regret for taking Mr. Henry’s offer.

Later that evening

As they flew over the city toward the windowless building, Nigel couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread wash over him. He knew that this mission was not going to be an easy one, and he was afraid of what might transpire. But he also knew that he had to be strong for his team; for Blanka, Eva, and Vedrana, who had put their trust in him.

“Approach from the southwest. The security is weakest from that angle,” he said.

As they approached the building, he noticed several guards.

In addition to the usual array of HVAC equipment, several satellite dishes were visible. The landing pad was wedged between two enormous dishes. Before Nigel could think of an exit strategy, the helicopter was pummeled with bullets. Karl spat blood as he took the brunt of the attack.

“We’re taking fire,” Eva said as she manned the nearest big gun.

She began firing the machine gun at the guards below. The sound of the gunfire echoed through the chopper, and he knew that they had little time before reinforcements arrived.

“Dammit!”

The machine gun jammed and the guards wasted no time returning fire. Vedrana took cover behind a dying Karl. As his burly hand reached for the gun, Vedrana removed a dagger and plunged it into his chest. She closed her eyes as fresh blood spattered across her face. He coughed up blood then gasped for enough air to fill his punctured lungs before checking out. She snatched a handheld radio from his body.

“Brace yourselves, we are coming in hot,” Blanka said as she maneuvered the helicopter and landed on the pad, narrowly missing one of the dishes.

“Whoa, that was close,” Nigel said.

Blanka shrugged, then leaped out of the helicopter. Vedrana followed. Nigel was about to jump then froze. A figure ran into the building. He blinked.

Was that? Nah, I’m so tired.

“Psst, Nigel,” Blanka said, hands waving in an urgent motion.

He followed closely behind, his heart pounding. He reminded himself that he was a hacker, not made from the same stuff that his female companions were. As they made their way toward the rooftop entrance, a burst of gunfire ricocheted throughout the rooftop antennae arrays and satellite dishes. Nigel covered his head, but the sound of bullets was deafening.

“Where are they?” Blanka asked.

“Judging from the angle of attack there are multiple snipers hiding in the antennas above us,” Eva said.

“We still don’t know how many are waiting in those hallways inside the building,” Vedrana said.

Norris and his group of commandos were less effective when he was forced to storm the building the last time he was here. As they approached the entrance, Nigel noticed something strange. There was no guard at the door. It was almost too easy. He had a sense of foreboding as they ventured inside, guns at the ready. The building was dark, and the air was thick with the smell of rot and decay.

“Something’s not right,” Nigel said.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the corridor, and Nigel knew that they weren’t alone. He signaled for his team to follow him as they crept down the hallway. Suddenly, they found themselves face to face with Mr. Henry, who was holding a gun to Nigel’s head.

“Nigel, you’ve come after all,” Mr. Henry said.

“What’s going on here?” Nigel asked, his gun steady in his hand.

Mr. Henry gave him a distraught look.

“Simple, Nigel. I’ve been working with Strahinja Vraza, and they have given me a choice. Either you get the codes he asked for or he’ll kill my family,” Mr. Henry said as he lowered the gun.

Nigel could feel the anger rising within him.

“How could you betray us? We trusted you,” Nigel said.

“They have my son, Nigel,” he said, tears rolling down his face.

A pang of guilt stabbed Nigel’s heart. He remembered how it felt to be held hostage.

“This is going sideways—tell me, what does Paladin want with the data in this facility?”

“It activates the control center.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a bunker in Maine. It’s not far from where I picked you up.”

Nigel raked his hands through his hair. He couldn’t think of what was in that area that a criminal organization would want.

“Where?”

“I heard Professor Paladin speak of Mount Katahdin. That’s all I know.”

“They’re inside,” a gruff voice said.

“What now?” Mr. Henry asked.

He could see the conflict in Mr. Henry’s eyes. He was torn between his loyalty to Nigel and his fear for his family.

“We have to get the codes, and we have to do it now,” Nigel said, his voice firm.

Blanka, Vedrana, and Eva nodded in agreement.

“We’ll split up. Blanka and Vedrana will come with me. Eva, you stay here with Mr. Henry,” Nigel said as he motioned for Blanka and Vedrana to follow him.

“Where is the data?” Vedrana asked.

“The data core is in the center of the building, about thirty floors below us.”

“That’s a lot of ground to cover,” Blanka said.

Nigel remembered that the stairwells that faced the building’s exterior were less frequented, but there was one problem. Neither went all the way to the floor where the sensitive data was kept. Nigel unraveled a sketch he’d made during the first heist. Every five floors required that they switch stairwells. But there was an elevator shaft that went directly to the data center floor. He didn’t think the elevator was operational, given that the building was dark. But he knew that the data was kept in a section of the building with its own power source. He hoped the lift was offline because he didn’t want to get scraped off the roof of an elevator car. Nigel removed more building notes from his backpack and spread them across the floor.

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“Hurry, Nige, I hear something,” Vedrana said.

A tall man dressed in a black turtleneck entered the hallway from a room mere feet from Nigel’s position. Before he could register what was going on, the man flung a throwing knife in his direction. Nigel ducked and rolled. The knife grazed his shoulder.

“Argh,” Nigel grunted.

Blanka fired at the man, but missed. The man threw two more knives. One of the blades was deflected by Vedrana’s katana, while the other was shot in the air by Blanka. The man fled, but Vedrana moved like the wind and hamstrung the man. His cries echoed through the hall. As she decapitated the man, the sound of dozens of boots raced toward them.

“We need to get out of here,” Blanka said, using an oversized bandage to dress Nigel’s wound.

Nigel scooped up his notes, then ran toward the center of the building.

“Where are you going? We’re going to get caught,” Vedrana said.

“Follow. I know the way.”

Nigel led his female companions through a maze of passageways until they came to a dead end. The murmur of men and footfalls filled the air.

“We’re trapped,” Blanka said.

Vedrana took a defensive posture, waiting for the inevitable.

“The door’s hidden,” Nigel said, feeling and pressing the walls.

A rectangular screen popped out of one of the walls. Nigel pulled on the edge of the panel until wires were visible. He removed his laptop and connected a homemade circuit. An LCD counted down from ten thousand. Blanka opened fire. Eva pulled on a loose metal tab near Nigel’s physical security hack with her cybernetic arm. She ripped off the panel with ease and used it as a shield as several men opened fire. A beep sounded, then a door opened at the end of the hall, revealing a darkened room.

“I got it,” Nigel said as he disconnected his equipment and entered the room. Vedrana and Blanka followed close behind. More men entered the fray. Bullets whizzed by as Nigel fumbled for an access panel. He found the controls and shut the door. He could hear the hollow thudding of bullets as they hit the outside of the panel.

“Why aren’t the bullets penetrating?” Vedrana asked.

“The walls that protect the data center must have extra protection.”

“Where is this data center?” Blanka asked.

“We still have a long way to go,” Nigel said.

He led them through a narrow maintenance corridor that abruptly ended at a shaft. Several cables led into darkness. He spotted a ladder, then started climbing down. His wound throbbed with each painful rung.

I’m glad that Blanka had that bandage, otherwise I’d be bleeding out like a stuck pig, Nigel thought.

They moved swiftly through the dark shaft that provided direct access to the data center. Nigel could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He knew that they were getting closer.

Just a few more floors!

When they reached the thirteenth floor, where the server room was located, rays of light were visible through the glass doors.

“There’s power—”

Before Nigel could complete the sentence, a clanking noise and the whirring of machinery echoed through the elevator shaft.

“We will be crushed,” Vedrana said.

Nigel hugged the ladder with one arm as he rummaged through his pack with another. After a moment his hands brushed across a disc. He slapped it on the elevator door. Moments later, the door opened and light poured into the shaft. Nigel could see rows of computers in the room. He threw his backpack inside, then jumped through the open door. A moment after Blanka and Vedrana entered the room, the elevator car zoomed by. Nigel caught a glimpse of a man in a white coat and several armed guards in the car. Shouts followed by the screeching sound of metal scraping against metal emanated from the shaft.

“They must have hit the emergency brake. Do your thing. I will cover you,” Blanka said.

Nigel ran toward the central terminal, a machine connected to a gigantic monitor. He could see the login prompt on the screen, and he quickly got to work. Blanka and Vedrana stood guard as he typed furiously, their weapons at the ready. He could hear the sound of gunfire and shouts coming from outside the room. He unlocked the computer using the same code he had cracked previously.

For a secure facility, you’d think there would be better access control.

He chuckled. Blanka gave him a curious look. He removed the flash drive.

“We have it,” he said.

Guards poured into the room and opened fire. Nigel took cover behind a terminal that resembled a mainframe.

“Cease fire, you idiots,” a man said in a German accent.

The men stopped shooting. Vedrana punched the nearest guard in the throat, then commandeered his automatic weapon. She smiled as she mowed the men down. When they returned fire, she ducked behind a massive machine that Nigel recognized as a quantum computer. These machines cost millions of dollars, and these soldiers were cutting them into ribbons. He heard an anguished scream, then caught a glimpse of a man with a wild, unkempt beard in a white lab coat heading for an exit. Blanka rushed into the room, firing toward the guards. She took out two of them, but the rapid firing increased in intensity. Nigel removed his gun and peeked from behind the machine: the men were retreating. A few more shots—then nothing.

“They’re retreating,” Blanka said as she reloaded.

Nigel gaped at the scene before him. Dozens of guards littered the floor and a river of blood poured into the open elevator shaft.

“We need to go before backup arrives,” Vedrana said.

Nigel nodded, then leaped toward the ladder and ascended the shaft. After a few floors he used his pocketknife to open an air duct. They crawled through one of the air intakes. Nigel used his maps to guide them through the underbelly of the windowless building until they reached a junction point. Shooting echoed nearby.

We must be getting close to the rendezvous point.

Nigel gazed out a nearby vent and caught a glimpse of Eva and Mr. Henry fighting off a throng of guards. Nigel kicked the vent outward and shot toward the attackers. Blanka and Vedrana found alternative ways out of the shaft and joined in the battle. The guards stayed for just a moment before fleeing the area. Nigel jumped out of the vent and landed near Mr. Henry.

A roar that reminded Nigel of a gigantic, caged beast echoed through the hallway.

“Run!” Eva said, pointing to a door.

A gorilla with a silvery coat tromped through the hallway, hitting the walls at random. It pointed at Nigel, pounded its chest, and shambled in their direction. The beast was injured, but was no less formidable.

They made their way back up the stairs toward the landing pad. Nigel prayed that the helicopter was still there. Blanka shot at guards as they ascended. The heavy breathing of the injured beast permeated the air as it entered the stairwell. The screams turned into wails of frustration and pain. As Nigel pushed the door open to the roof he turned and found an enormous silvery hand reaching for him. He could feel his heart racing as they picked up pace and ran toward the helicopter. He could see Eva and Mr. Henry already inside, waiting for them.

As they lifted off from the landing pad, the gorilla grabbed onto the helicopter. Eva and Blanka opened fire; Nigel felt sorry for it as it gushed blood from its many wounds. He wondered how such a beast could grow so big. Fur dropped away like dirt in a shower, revealing shiny metal. Bits of bloody fur clung to the metal as it let go and plunged to sudden death. An odd sense of pity for the creature and relief washed over Nigel.

Doc Chop has gone too far. I will rip his heart out!

His stomach churned at the sight of the once magnificent beast suffering at the hands of a mad man.

“I hope it was worth it,” Eva said.

Nigel thought about it for a long moment. They had gotten the data that Strahinja Vraza wanted. But at what cost? Nigel couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt for what had transpired. Mr. Henry had betrayed them, and now he was a liability. Nigel knew that they couldn’t trust him anymore. Mr. Henry sat in uneasy silence as Eva performed an ordinance check.

“We’re losing fuel,” Blanka said as she returned to the landing pad atop the windowless building.

Nigel’s temples were pounding so much he thought his head would explode. The smell of fuel filled the cabin. Moments later, Blanka shut down the helicopter and they filed out onto the roof. Fuel leaked from several holes. A military chopper ascended from the other side of the building. He froze as a familiar face caught his eye. Was that Dahlia?

“Madam Dahlia?” Eva asked.

“It can’t be! We would be dead,” Blanka said.

Dahlia made a throat slitting gesture. Moments later, shots rang out. They appeared to be coming from everywhere at once. Mr. Henry’s chopper exploded. Nigel shielded his eyes. The heat from the flames was almost too much to bear. Nigel felt the shockwave hit him, and he stumbled backward. He could hear the sound of debris raining down on the roof, and he knew that they needed to move fast if they wanted to survive.

“Get to the edge of the roof. We need to rappel down,” Nigel said urgently.

Blanka and Vedrana nodded in agreement, and they made their way to the edge of the roof. Nigel could feel the heat from the fire on his back, but he forced himself to focus. He quickly set up the ropes, and, one by one, they rappelled down to a ledge. Nigel estimated that they were about a third of the way down the building. He scanned the ledge for any escape route. The chopper banked and turned toward their position. They had to get off this roof before Dahlia turned them into hamburger.

“A door,” Vedrana said as she ran toward it.

“Wait,” Eva called out.

Just as Vedrana got near the door, it slammed open. Several guards descended on the narrow ledge.

“Cover me,” Nigel said as he readied his weapon.

Blanka and Vedrana nodded, and they began firing at the guards. Nigel ran toward the nearest cover, ducking behind a metal box as bullets whizzed past him. He took aim and fired, taking out one of the men. The sound of gunfire echoed through the air, and Nigel could feel his heart racing as he fought for his life. He could see Blanka and Vedrana taking out several guards.

“Fall back!” Nigel shouted, his voice urgent.

Blanka and Vedrana retreated toward the door. Nigel covered them, shooting at several guards as they went. He didn’t think he hit anyone, especially since he wasn’t skilled with a weapon. But traveling with his new companions over the past year had toughened him in ways that he could never have imagined.

Finally, they made it back to the door, and Nigel slammed it shut behind them. He could hear Dahlia’s men pounding on the door, trying to break it down.

“We need to find another way out,” Nigel said.

Blanka and Vedrana nodded in agreement, and they quickly scanned the area for any escape routes. They spotted a ventilation shaft, and Nigel nodded in approval.

“Vedrana, can you fit through there?” Nigel asked.

Vedrana nodded confidently, and she quickly made her way to the ventilation shaft. She removed the grate and disappeared inside. Blanka followed her, with Nigel close behind. They crawled through the narrow shaft, their muscles aching from the effort. Finally, they emerged on the other side. They were behind a fence of a maintenance area, and they quickly made their way down to the street level. Nigel could hear sirens, screams, and nonsensical chatter in the distance.

“Dim, batter, butter,” someone said.

Nigel noticed several glowing lights farther down the darkened street. He had forgotten all about Doc Chop’s cybernetic experiments.

“We need to be careful,” Nigel said, his voice low.

Blanka and Vedrana nodded, and they followed him closely as he made his way toward the source of the lights. As they got closer, they could see a group of figures huddled around an enhanced cybernetic goat. A vest and two small rockets were attached like a mini tank and a radar dish was attached to its head. The figure next to the goat was humanoid, but it was clear that it wasn’t human. Its limbs were elongated, and its skin was a sickly shade of green. Nigel could sense the danger emanating from the group, and he knew that they needed to get out of there fast.

“Let’s get the hell out of here before that thing sees us,” Nigel whispered urgently to Blanka and Vedrana.

They sneaked around the group, hiding behind burned-out vehicles and other debris. They were almost out of sight of the abomination when the cybernetic goat let out a deafening bleat.

Nigel looked in the direction of the goat, its eyes glazed over, then the rockets fired.

“Get down,” Nigel yelled as he dove behind a dumpster.

Blanka, Eva, and Vedrana followed suit. An explosion rocked the dumpster and it was propelled into something hard. They tumbled as the container tipped over. Nigel felt like a car hit him. He could barely move and muscles spasmed as he tried to use them. As they crawled out of the dumpster, the goat and its strange companion had moved on.

“What the fuck just happened?” Eva asked.

“Welcome to New York,” Nigel said, holding his side.

They walked away slowly, feeling every painful step along the way.

“Where do we go now?” Blanka asked.

“We need to find a place to rest, I’m about to collapse.”

“Look,” Vedrana said, pointing to a small, run-down building in the distance. It looked like it had been abandoned for years, but it was their best bet for a hiding place.

“Let’s get out of sight,” Nigel said, pointing to the building.

They quickened their pace, approaching the building cautiously. Nigel pushed open the door, revealing a dark, musty interior. They stepped inside, the silence enveloping them. The room creaked as they entered. Nigel followed his companions to the top floor, where they found a small room with a single window. Nigel approached the window, peering out. He couldn’t see anything as the sky darkened, but he could sense that they were being watched.