Maria hid on top of one rack, nestled between the crates. Yeger had barely finished ripping a hole large enough for him to fit through when Maria, on watch duty, had seen the Alchemist soldiers enter the room. Yeger now hid in the next row over, waiting for her signal.

  She peered over the rim of the shelf, watching the faint outlines of two soldiers stalking through the room. They stepped into the row she hid in—directly opposite Yeger’s hole—and walked down it, the long barrels of their gas rifles awkward in the cramped space.

  One emerged from the row and approached the hole. The second followed, scanning the room behind them, wary of a trap—for all the good it’d do them if they didn’t have speed or reflex extract.

  Maria uttered a silent prayer. Her entire plan hinged on them not having those extracts. If they did? Well… it was about to get messy.

  The first soldier stepped up to the hole and stared out while the second stopped directly below her. She could practically reach out and tap his head.

  Maria took aim with her small, useless grappling pistol.

  Bang!

  The soldiers reacted at a glacial pace to the shot and the pronged bolt hit its mark, piercing the coat of the soldier closest to the hole. Maria almost whooped for joy. No speed or reflex.

  In a second, both gas rifles were aimed at her, the shot having given her away. But she was already moving.

  Maria lunged from the shelf, reflex triggering and slowing the world to a crawl as she plunged towards the soldier three feet below her.

  Another explosion rippled through the air as the soldier got off a shot. She clicked the cord lock on the grappling pistol into place, then, as she fell level with the man, she reached out with speed boosted movements and looped the cord twice around his neck.

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  He let go of his gas rifle and slowly reached up, his fingers closing around the cord as his eyes widened.

  Maria let go of the pistol and landed in a graceful crouch, the world snapping back to speed as her body sensed her being out of danger. Well, immediate danger.

  The soldier’s gas rifle clattered on the deck and Maria screamed, “Now!”

  Only then did the soldier by the hole appear to notice the grappling bolt that snagged his coat.

  Yeger burst from cover with a roar, charging the soldier by the hole.

  He slammed into the man and a scream pierced the night as the hapless soldier flew backwards—

  —straight out the hole.

  The cord snapped taught, tightening around the second soldier’s throat. His steel hard skin protected him from suffocating, but did nothing to help against the two hundred pounds of his comrade flying into the night. He lurched back, somehow keeping his balance, getting one strength extract boosted leg behind him and pushing.

  Maria dived forwards, driving her shoulder into his sternum with a painful crack. She cried out, tears stinging her eyes and instantly freezing. It felt like running shoulder first into a block of steel.

  It worked, however. The soldier teetered.

  And fell.

  He disappeared out the hole with a scream soon stolen by the thundering roar of wind and engines.

  Maria stood, quivering. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins and she wanted to vomit. She’d just killed two people.

  Then Yeger was before her, looming and fuzzy. “Good plan,” he said gruffly, as if the words hurt to utter. He gripped her bruised shoulder and fresh pain flared. And with it, clarity.

  The room came into sharp focus and Maria gasped. Icy air thrashed against her forehead, her hands shook, and a sharp pain bloomed in her left side. She reached down, feeling below her ribs. Wet. So they had hit her. Still, could have been a lot worse, it only felt like a surface wound.

  “We need to go,” Yeger said, snatching up the second soldier’s fallen gas rifle. He hesitated, then reached out, placing a hand on Maria’s shoulder—her uninjured one this time. “It was them or us, Maria. You saved our lives.” With that, he jogged out of the room.

  After a moment, Maria took a deep breath and trailed after him, unable to shake the feeling that perhaps there’d been another way.