Robert and Alice climbed the loose skree up the crumbled cliff. Alice stopped as they neared the edge.

"Check ahead with your periscope trick, I don't want any surprises."

Robert nodded and lifted his laptop above his head until they could see over the edge. A grassy hill stood between them and the road. On top of it was a man wearing chinos and a windbreaker, scanning the horizon with a pair of binoculars held in one hand. The other hand was in the windbreaker pocket, which contained a noticeable bulge. Alice tapped it on the screen. Weapon, she mouthed.

The man turned and waved at someone on the other side of the hill. He said something Alice couldn't make out, then walked down, disappearing from view.

"Now!" Alice whispered. She and Robert scrambled from the cliff to the hill, the hiss of the waves covering the sounds of their advance. Once safely flattened against the hillside, Robert pulled out the computer again to spy over the top.

The truck Alice had seen from the helicopter was parked on the side of the road, a few dozen paces away. The missile launcher had vanished back into the bed, and no other weapons were in evidence. The man in the windbreaker stood in front of the cab, talking to two men on motorcycles who looked to have just pulled up.

The riders wore full black leathers and dark tinted helmets. One swung off his bike, and approached the man. The conversation was hard to make out over the ocean noise; Robert turned up the gain on his laptop mic and piped it through speech to text.

"Need some help monsieur? Engine trouble?"

"Nyet. I am only watching the birds. I thought I saw a Shearwater out there." The mercenary gestured vaguely with one hand, the other still in his windbreaker pocket.

Robert looked at Alice questioningly, inclining his head toward the road and miming a running motion with his fingers. She shook her head and pointed on the screen at the other motorcyclist. The second rider, still mounted, was slowly reaching down to a black protrusion on the outside of his thigh.

With surprising swiftness the mercenary pivoted toward the motorcyclist and pointed with the bulging windbreaker pocket. A jagged web of cracks materialized across the rider's helmet, complete with tidy bullet hole where a spider might sit. The man crumpled and fell, carrying a quarter ton of high performance motorcycle to the ground with him.

The remaining rider tackled the shooter from the side, slamming him to the pavement hard enough to rattle teeth. Skriiitch, nylon ripped as the mercenary yanked his weapon free, its firing hammer caught in the synthetic fabric of his jacket. A cross body block knocked the pistol to one side, three shots went wide. The motorcyclist reached down and drew his own gun, only to have his wrist seized in return.

The combatants appeared frozen, locked in a deadly impasse wrestling over the guns. The man on top arched back, then blood splattered skyward as he delivered a crushing head-butt with his helmet. Momentarily stunned, the mercenary's grip lapsed. The cyclist swung his gun up and fired a practiced double tap to the mercenary's forehead.

The victor stood, brushing off some gravel that had stuck to his riding suit. A quick check of the truck cabin and bed confirmed he was alone. He pulled a handkerchief from his saddlebag and wiped the blood from his helmet, cursing softly in French.

It was at this point that Robert scooped up his laptop, stood and started walking toward the helmeted stranger. By the time Alice realized what was happening it was too late to stop him.

"Robert?" The rider called out. "My name is Aris, Wiktor sent me." A pause. "I was told there would be two people, where is your friend?"

Aris flipped his visor up, showing watery blue eyes, a crooked Roman nose, and a day's worth of stubble. His English was accented with French and something else, but easy enough to understand. Robert looked back over his shoulder toward where Alice lay hiding.

"Ah, a little shy coming out eh? Do not worry, I will get you to safety. But we should be quick. The gendarme may be busy today, but gunfire and dead bodies will still draw attention." Alice noticed he'd made no attempt to check on his compatriot, and still hadn't holstered his weapon.

Robert stopped in front of Aris. "I appreciate what you just did there for us," he said while studiously avoiding the two corpses, "but I still need to verify your credentials. Also, would you mind putting that gun away?"

"Of course, of course." Aris returned his pistol to its holster, though he did not button it in, and pulled out a phone. "Here is the confirmation hash." Robert used his glass to confirm the man's idenitty.

"He checks out," Robert shouted back over his shoulder, "you can come out now."

Alice reluctantly left her place in the hills and began to walk down slowly, eyes locked on Aris. The cool softness of the grass was a welcome relief after the hot rocks and sand. She kept both hands in her pockets, tenting her fingers slightly to hide the knife.

"Please madame, we must hurry."

Alice kept her steady pace. "How do you propose to get us out of here? I don't ride motorcycles, and it looks like the other driver isn't taking passengers right now." She nodded toward the dead cyclist, but didn't look away from Aris. She'd come abreast of Robert now.

"No problem amie, we can use that." Aris pointed directly behind Robert's head with his left hand. Alice feigned turning her body then whipped back around, catching him reaching down for his gun. Aris's eyes widened at the reversal, but he still finished drawing his pistol.

HONK! The truck behind Aris sprang to life, horn blaring and lights flashing. Simultaneously, the pocket knife appeared in Alice's hand, blade flicking out as it cleared her pant pocket.

The momentary distraction from the car alarm was enough for Alice to close the gap. She aimed a vicious upward swing at the gun arm, ramming the tip of the knife through the leather sleeve. The blade caught. She gave another push and felt it drive home. Aris swore and dropped the pistol, aiming a haymaker with his left fist at Alice's head. Instinct took over and she leaned back and away, releasing her stuck knife in the process. The swing came up short by inches.

A resulting pang in her spine took some of the oomph out of her counter, a front-kick to his groin. It was still a solid enough strike to make Aris double forward in pain. Alice grasped his helmet in both hands and twisted hard, rotating it a quarter turn and covering his eyes. The gap from the raised visor now showed a narrow window of close-cropped hair and an ear that hadn't seen a q-tip in months.

Aris roared and lunged at Alice's last position, arms wide to try and grapple her in a bear hug. She side-stepped the charge easily and gave him a side-kick to the back as he passed. He tumbled face-first to the ground. The helmet impacted with a loud thwack and the knife clattered free from the jacket. Alice rolled for the blade, and came up next to Aris's shoulder. In one motion she drove the knife with both hands into the gap between his collar and helmet. He stopped struggling. Alice wrenched the knife out, wiped the blade off on the hankie, and returned it to her pocket.

"Holy shit, where did you learn to do that?"

"I was Taekwondo state champion in college. That was before the Space Core executive Krav Maga training."

"I uh... I skipped that one." The truck was still honking and flashing. "Lucky break on that car alarm though huh?"

"I make my own luck." Alice pulled the key fob out of her pocket pushed a button on it. The truck chirruped approvingly and went quiet. "Get in. I'll drive - you need to get back in touch with Wiktor to see if he can find a safe house for us."