They all held as still as possible. After two, maybe three minutes, Wick looked back over his shoulder and held up three fingers, and then waved an open hand at about forty-five degrees, towards the right of the alley entrance. Gamble nodded, and then ducked her head and whispered into her hand. The group held position for another minute or so, and then Wick gave another hand signal — a fist with thumb and pinky extended. Cass had no idea what it meant, but Gamble whispered into her hand again, and a moment later there was the hint of a shuffle from the other end of the alley.
Cass looked back and saw Sky moving towards them in a low crouch. Finn slid smoothly over into the spot where Sky had just been, keeping his weapon up to cover the intersecting alley. Sky continued past Cass, scooted up behind Wick, and patted him on the shoulder. As soon as he did, Wick swiveled fluidly and swept back down the alley towards Finn. Wick looked intense, though he managed a quick wink at Cass, and lightly touched the top of Wren’s head, as he passed them. When he took up Finn’s original position, the two of them carried on a brief conversation that was some mix of whispered words and indecipherable hand signals.
Gamble sidled up next to Cass and leaned in close, so close Cass could feel her breath when she spoke.
“They’re pretty stirred up tonight,” she whispered. “Wick’s going to try to take us around. We’ll move soon.”
Cass nodded and Gamble returned back towards Sky. When Cass turned to check on Wren, she found him peering at her from within his hood. His eyes were wide.
“You OK?” she asked.
“Mama,” he said. “They’re everywhere.”
Cass nodded. “They’ll get us through,” she said, hoping to reassure him. From his expression, though, it didn’t look like she had.
Wick motioned again. Gamble relayed the message to the whole team, and then came alongside Cass and the boys.
“Stay about six feet behind me. And be quiet as you can.”
Wick disappeared around the corner. Finn stood but held his position, providing cover as Gamble led Cass, Wren, and Painter past him, quickly following Wick’s lead. They slipped into the intersection. Gamble let the gap between them and Wick stretch to maybe four or five yards. It’d give them a little more time to react if something happened to him. As they progressed, Cass realized they were in a twisting network of narrow corridors and alleyways, amongst some cluster of buildings several stories high. There were branches every few yards, and Wick led them at a quicker pace than Cass had been expecting. He took turns seemingly at random, but with such certainty and precision she had to believe he knew exactly where he was going.
The calls of the Weir were coming almost on top of each other now, from all directions. At least that’s what it seemed like to Cass. With the way the walls carried the sounds and the echoes, it was impossible to accurately judge numbers, distance, or location. But Cass felt the hair stand up on her neck and knew they were walking a knife’s edge. She could feel the Weir, in a way. A kind of wild pressure, like the tension in the air just before a violent storm.
Wick took them down a short side street and then ushered them quickly across a narrow gap between buildings and into a deep recess under an overhang. At first glance, it looked something like a concrete U, and Cass didn’t much care for the idea of getting boxed in. But on closer inspection, she saw a narrow opening near the center. She didn’t have time to see much more, though. With a single aggressive hand gesture, Gamble directed her, Wren, and Painter to crowd back into the left-most corner.
Cass obeyed immediately and instinctively crouched down, though she didn’t really know why. It just seemed like the right thing to do whenever they stopped moving. Wren slid in next to her, and Painter flopped down beside them. He leaned back against the concrete wall and closed his eyes.
Wick and Sky remained near the entrance of the alcove, each on a knee and weapons shouldered. Scanning for targets. Behind them, Gamble and Finn stood next to each other in conference.
“Swoop, Gamble,” Gamble said in a low voice. “Status…? Check. We’ve reached the alternate rally. It’s pretty sporty out here. How is it your way…? Got an estimate…? Alright, check. See you in a few.”
She looked up at Finn. “Think they’ve got a line on us?” Gamble said.
“Good chance,” Finn answered.
“Anything you can do?”
“Not from here. Wick and I can go out, try to draw them away.”
“Negative, I don’t want to get split up more than we already are.” Finn waited in patient silence while she thought through the options. “We’ll hold here and hope the others get here first. Check that hall, make sure it’s secure.”
Finn gave an easy nod and moved towards the opening Cass had seen on their way in. Out in the open, the moonlight had been enough to navigate by, but beneath the overhang it was much darker. It didn’t bother Cass, of course, but she wasn’t sure how Finn was going to clear the corridor. He had his rifle up, pointed down the hall, but he hesitated at the entrance. A red light flicked on from somewhere alongside his weapon, bathing the corridor in a sinister hue. Low intensity, enough to see by without disturbing night-adjusted vision.
A necessary risk, and minimized, but still it made Cass nervous, knowing how little they could afford to draw any more attention to themselves. She didn’t bother to ask for permission. She patted Wren on the back, and then slipped down the wall towards the darkened hallway. Her motion caused both Gamble and Finn to look at her sharply, and Cass held up a hand to let them know nothing was wrong.
“I’ll check it,” Cass said to Finn.
“I’ll take care of it, ma’am,” he said, as Gamble joined them.
“Finn, I can do it without the light. It’s safer.”
“What’s going on?” Gamble asked.
“I’m going to clear the corridor,” Cass answered before Finn could speak. “I don’t need the light.”
Gamble just looked at her for a moment.
“Finn, kill the light.” Finn grunted in disapproval, but he switched the light off and lowered his weapon. “Back Sky for me.”
Finn grimaced, but he nodded and went over to take a position between Wick and Sky.
“Down to the end and back,” Gamble said. “I want to be sure we can get through there if we have to.”
Cass nodded. Gamble pushed something into her hand. Cass looked down. Her jittergun. “You know how to use it, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Cass answered, glancing back up to read Gamble’s face. She was focused and serious, but Cass thought she could see a hint of fear behind Gamble’s eyes. Cass couldn’t remember a time when Gamble had feared anything.
“Shouldn’t need it, but just in case,” Gamble said with a fleeting and unconvincing smile.
“Be right back,” Cass said. Gamble nodded, and Cass turned to face the entrance of the corridor. She eased her way slowly around the corner, carefully scanning it for any sign of trouble.
It was a concrete tunnel, smooth-walled and only about ten yards long, wide enough for maybe three people to walk shoulder-to-shoulder. It looked like it opened out into a similar configuration on the other side, into an open space beneath an overhang. There were a number of unevenly spaced gaps on either side of the hallway, though, and Cass couldn’t tell if they were shallow alcoves or additional corridors.
The weight of the jittergun and the texture of the grip was oddly comforting, and she looked down again at the stubby weapon in her hand. It wasn’t the same model as the one jCharles had given her long ago, but all the controls were basically in the same place. Memories returned: the air-rending buzz as it fired, the rapid vibration in her hand. The last time she’d used one of these, she’d been trapped in the Strand with Wren and Three. She’d killed a lot of Weir with it that night. But not enough.