There is something about having a large, rather gender-ambiguous woman bearing down on you with fists raised that shakes even the bravest to the core. The ink-men were not the bravest.

The first to question their presence with a “hey, you!” lost his nerve the instant Cassandra turned to face him, face falling first into confusion, then concern, and finally terror before he bolted back down the corridor from which he had come. The second took an uppercut to the jaw that sent him staggering backwards, before being hit with a flying tackle from Andreas. The attack could have almost been coordinated.

“Watch out!”

Keri span around at the cry, just in time to see an ink-man coming at her from the opposite end of the corridor. Her wild swing knocked the man sideways, sending him tumbling headfirst into the wall to crumble into a heap.

Anisa, who had shouted the warning despite her own situation, was wrestling another of the monochrome-uniformed men to the ground, the both of them using whatever limbs they had available to strike at each other. Anisa, however, slowly gained the advantage, swinging the ink-man below her and wailing on him with a flurry of blows. With a groan, the man went limp.

Anisa stood up, breathing heavily through gritted teeth, fists balled and bloody. Her eyes burned.

The next ink-man to come around the corner didn’t even stop running before analyzing the situation and deciding he was needed elsewhere. Anywhere but here.

Someone must have called for reinforcements, because the next group they encountered as they searched room to room was much larger and better organised. They too, however, crumbled under the assault of Keri’s group[1], either knocked unconscious to the floor or hightailing it away as the odds became increasingly stacked against them.

“Too easy,” said Anisa, as they kicked open the door to another room. This one, also, was filled with technological debris, but nothing that looked like the data-sphere they sought.

Eu nodded in agreement.

“We do seem to be having rather a lot of luck, don’t we?” she said, thoughtfully.

“Ha!” snapped Cassandra. “Luck? When have we had any luck since we saw that goddamned sphere?”

“No, Eu’s right,” said Andreas, at the front of the group. He gestured for the others to stop. “We’ve been concealed from the all-seeing city security, gone down into and got out of a half-collapsed underwater city, taken on Kilgore and his toys, we’ve been saved by a damn Butcher at least twice and escaped him as many times, and now we’re walking almost untouched through an Incident Management station whilst all around us everything turns to hell.”

He looked at each of the group, one after the other, before his eyes fell on Keri.

“And one of us keeps receiving mysterious messages just when we need them. You must have all noticed. Something wants us to have that sphere. Something is helping us to make sure we do.”

Cassandra snorted.

“Yeah, helping us. Or using us.”

Andreas’ eyes stayed fixed on Keri for a moment, and she saw a glimmer of suspicion within before he turned back the way they were heading.

What am I to supposed to do? she thought to herself, as they forced open another door.

Andreas was right; they shouldn’t have got as far as they had, Keri thought. Hell, they shouldn’t have got as far as they had in the past five minutes. The five of them must have taken down almost twenty of the ink-men so far, which was ridiculous. No matter how unused to combat the inkers were, sheer numbers should have sent things their way. She should definitely not have taken down two or three herself.

A memory of a smiling Butcher’s face. A true memory this time, not some half-glimpsed image that disappeared almost before it could be seen. And she had seen it. What was it? Who was it?

“Aha,” said Andreas, as they stepped into yet another room and saw the sphere. “Gotcha.”

“No, no,” came Pearce’s smug voice from behind. “Got you.”

[1] or Anisa’s group, or Cassandra’s, or… Keri was beginning to lose track of the power balance. The whole damn group was more a sack of cats than anything else.