Sophia could hear the Blue Berets behind them. They were still moving down the first flight but they were almost on the platform.
She pretty much leaped down the stairs in one bound. She reached the lower platform. She saw the train on her left. It had to be the one Aviary was talking about. Czarina was already moving for it, but there was a slight problem.
The carriage doors were still shut.
Sophia hit the button under her T-shirt.
‘Open the doors!’ she yelled as she ran.
Czarina reached the rear carriage. The doors were shut so she kept moving. A grenade bounced down the stairs behind Sophia. She checked over her shoulder, recognized the shape. Smoke grenade.
Without any sort of infrared vision, Czarina wouldn’t be able to offer her any cover fire. She put some distance between the rapidly expanding cloud of smoke and herself. The Blue Berets would be moving through the cloud, off the narrow staircase where Czarina could’ve slowed them down. That was no longer an option.
‘Aviary!’ she yelled again.
Her fingers were clamped so hard over the button she thought she might break it.
‘Opening!’ Aviary’s voice filled her ear.
‘I don’t see them open—’
Shots cracked down the platform. She heard a chink sound from a passing window and saw a hole blast through the glass. She sprinted down the platform, after Czarina.
Czarina turned, aimed her carbine. Sophia almost hit the ground when she realized the carbine was pointed at her. Czarina seemed confused. She shifted her aim again, past Sophia, toward the staircase behind her.
The doors jerked open and Czarina darted inside. Sophia leaped into the carriage beside her and moved for the door at the end. Above her, dotted words rolled across an LCD announcement display.
(7) 11:38 PM
She burst through into the next carriage and kept moving.
‘Aviary!’ she said. ‘Close the doors!’
‘On it!’ Aviary shouted back.
She ran underneath a display and checked the next stop.
(7) TO TIMES SQ-42 ST
Blue Berets reached the platform and opened fire. She dropped to the ground and wriggled on her knees and elbows, her empty Glock in one hand and sword in the other. She heard movement in the carriage behind her.
Shit.
If she tried to make it for the next carriage they’d shoot her in the back. She got to her feet and bolted from the carriage to the platform. There were no Blue Berets on the platform. They were all inside — in the carriage just behind her. She ducked and moved under the windows of their carriage. She could hear them move through to the next carriage.
A cheerful male voice said, ‘Stand clear of the closing doors please!’
Her heart raced. She sprinted for the open door, legs working on adrenalin, and dived into the rear carriage just as the doors closed. She couldn’t really conceal herself behind anything: there was no cover inside the train. So she remained next to the doors as they shut behind her. She peered through the metal rails. At the other end, she could see the Blue Berets had moved into the next carriage.
No one checked their rear.
They were getting sloppy, she thought. Or over-confident.
‘Aviary,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Get the train moving.’
‘Uh,’ Aviary said. ‘I can’t do that.’
‘You said it was a new train!’
‘Yeah, not that new,’ Aviary said. ‘I can open doors. And close them. And I can start the engine. That’s it.’
‘Great.’
Sophia moved quickly to the doors and carefully opened them, then opened the next set of doors into the connecting carriage. The masked Blue Berets thought they were closing on Sophia but they would soon close on Czarina. She couldn’t handle them all by herself, especially if they had the element of surprise.
She looked down at her sword. If she could somehow get close enough.
Then the train started moving. She watched the Blue Berets hustle just ahead of her. The noise of the train moving along the track was giving her enough cover. That was good. But who was operating the train — Czarina?
The Blue Berets were ahead of her. If just one of them turned around she’d be done for. She crept around a pole and continued through the carriage, sword in both hands now. She could feel her pulse in both ears.
She made it five feet from the masked Blue Berets before the rear security swiveled, his carbine pointed at her.
She couldn’t knock the barrel off sight because another pole was in the way. Instead she drew her empty Glock and slung it into his masked face. It bounced off the mask, distracting him enough so she could move in the other direction. The other Berets hadn’t noticed yet, but as soon as that Glock hit—
The Beret tracked her with his carbine but the barrel struck the pole. She kicked him behind the knee and he half-dropped. She grasped his chin with her free hand and threw him onto his back. At the same time, she slashed outward to the second masked Beret, who brought his carbine around to see what the noise was.
Her tachi blade struck the carbine, which as it turned out made a reasonable shield. The Beret swung his carbine, pinning her sword to the floor. She slammed her palm down on top of the barrel with such force that it tore from his grasp and tipped over the sword. The carbine clattered along the plastic blue carriage seats.
Sophia brought her sword up under the Beret’s mask, into his neck. She kept her eyes on the other pair of Berets, one of her arms up to shield blood from her eyes. She launched forward. The third Beret reacted quickly, used his carbine to deflect her while the fourth Beret took aim.
Sophia couldn’t stop moving; she avoided a burst of rounds by running along the seating. She slashed backhanded, across the third Beret’s mask. He moved from its path and the strike was glancing — enough to shatter the rigid mask.
She landed behind the pair of them. They both tried to aim. She thrust the tip of her blade through the center of the third Beret, whose mask was now in two pieces. Her blade struck the ceramic plate across his chest.
The fourth Beret shifted his aim, but she was too close. She stepped forward and used her forearm to knock the barrel upward. The rounds punched through the roof.
Her sword was still jammed in the ceramic plate so she kicked the fourth in the kneecap before he could recover, sending him across the slippery seating, then pried her blade free, knocking the third onto the plastic seats as well.
The first Beret was still alive and reaching for his carbine. She weaved around the pole and came up behind him, ran the blade across the back of his neck. She caught one artery.
The third and fourth Beret watched as the first Beret clutched his neck, trying to stem the flow. He was still standing. Sophia pushed him forward, closing the gap between her and the remaining two, then moved around him — across the plastic seating. She weaved under a metal bar and her blade found the neck of the third Beret. He clutched his neck and fell.
The fourth Beret tried to gain some distance between them, meeting her strikes with his carbine. He drew his pistol with his support hand but Sophia knocked it away with her blade. She switched direction, catching him by surprise. Her sword found his neck.
She looked down to find her finally dry T-shirt, now spray-painted red.
Above her, the information display blinked.
(7) THE NEXT STOP IS
(7) BRYANT PK-42 ST
She checked the carriage. It was just the four of them. She thought about taking their radios but knew that in the tunnels she wouldn’t get much outside the train anyway.
She took her Glock from the ground and found two magazines from one Beret that fit hers. The other three were running their Glocks with .45 ACP rounds, not nine-millimeter. They were of course fingerprint-coded so she couldn’t even take their pistols. She settled for the two magazines she could use, loading one and moving into the third carriage—