Marcos, Weizza and Ba Kuang walked across the square to their squad car. The guards saluted as they passed.

"What stops Ambrus from ordering us killed now that you're out of the room?" Marcos spoke quietly, mindful of the nearby soldiers.

"The module I implanted learns. The 'training session' was for the software, not Ambrus. It will monitor him while I am away. Full calibration takes more time, for now the system will err on the side of punishment."

Marcos's stomach turned. He wasn't squeamish about killing, he'd dispensed enough death to take it in stride. But this was different. Worse. And personal.

Weizza seemed to read his thoughts. "I did not put a training module in you Marcos. I could make you obey, but the process is destructive, particularly for combat reflexes. You would be useless broken in."

"I did install a kill switch," Weizza added, "do not cross me."

Marcos nodded slowly, focused on keeping his expression neutral. Inside he raged at the betrayal, wanted blood. He suppressed the urge to strike. For now.

"You will drive, Commissioner Oliveira." Marcos nodded again. The three of them had risen rapidly through the ranks of Hungary's government.

He drove for the Slovakian border, rain splattering the windshield. The hour passed in silence; Marcos had nothing to say. Not to the woman that booby-trapped his brainstem.

A guard met them at the gate of the customs warehouse.

"" He spoke in Hungarian. Marcos's glasses subtitled the question for him. He spoke only a little of the language now, nothing like the fluency granted by the command module.

"" Marcos replied.

The guard's eyes narrowed at Marcos's accent. "" he ordered.

Marcos handed over the badge he'd plucked off Kardos's corpse, along with a signed letter from the Prime Minister. The guard looked at them skeptically.

"" Marcos suggested.

"" The guard retreated a short distance and dialed. He paled visibly as the conversation continued. The gate was open by the time he returned.

""

"."

The guard swallowed hard before speaking, and his eyes darted uphill. ""

Marcos put the car in gear and rolled up to a large warehouse with a floodlight over the door. Something was off with that guard, something in impound made him nervous. Too much of a coincidence. Marcos parked and unholstered his service revolver.

* * *

Robert's glowing laptop illuminated his furrowed brow. Hacking Petbe proved challenging. He had taken over an unpatched logging service, but still couldn't access weapons. Whoever built the system had chops.

Alice fared no better. She restarted the mining system, but couldn't command the worker bots. Another agent killed her tasks as soon as she made them, preventing them from running.

She'd responded in kind, her own agent crashed the launch system. The job would restart, but as long as Alice stayed connected the weapon couldn't fire. But time was not on her side - the battery gauge read 30%.

If Lynch's team hadn't responded so quickly she would already have shut it down. But with the enemy connected and actively fighting, all she could do was stall.

Could she lock them out? They had burned in the list of authorized base stations years ago. Not on the list? Can't connect. But they did it with e-fuses. It was only supposed to be updatable in-person, but if they could find a backdoor, they could lock Lynch out for good.

"Robert, forget about the weapons system. Focus on–"

The warehouse lights sprang on, blinding Alice and her companions.

"What's going on?" She whispered over the walkie.

"No idea, nothing we did. Can you see anything up there?" Robert sounded nervous.

"Just the lights, but someone must be coming. You and Wik climb up now, we might need to escape through the roof."

"What's wrong with the way we came?" Robert sounded nervous about the climb.

"Robert, get up here now! There's only one door, and someone just came through it."

Alice leaned out of the container to check on him. He and Wiktor were reluctantly working their way up the shelving frame. No one coming up their aisle yet, but Alice heard voices getting closer.

Alice deployed another agent set to sabotage at random, then made for the roof. Maybe they'd get lucky. If nothing else the launch was still stalled.

Dimitri gave her a hand up. From the top they could see the four people were walking toward them: A police officer with classic asshole authority figure swagger. A severe asian woman in a low-cut cocktail dress. A young man in fatigues with wild black hair. And a customs agent looking like a child caught with one hand in the cookie jar.

Wiktor and Robert were climbing the opposite side, still out of sight of the new arrivals. She and Dimitri helped them over the edge.

"Four people, headed this way. One of them police," Alice whispered.

"I think we must go," said Wiktor, "it was a good attempt." He hooked a foot on the rope ladder hanging from the hole in the roof. "I will go first. Dimitri, you bring up the rear."

Wik climbed four rungs, then paused as his head cleared the ceiling. A moment later, he let go and tumbled backward off the ladder, hitting the container with a bang. His expression looked serious, though there was a bullet hole where his nose used to be.

* * *

Darkness filled the crew compartment. Humans couldn't pilot Hayaban, not at the speeds it flew. Squad leader Okada was out of the decision loop until touchdown.

Her body slammed back in the cradle as the main rockets fired. Synthetic webbing cushioned enough to prevent blackout, but little more.

"Primary burn successful. Flight time 11 minutes. Prepare for landing."

The cradle swiveled to prepare for the deceleration burn. Okada brought up the drone interface. Chiba and Hirano had already logged in and were running diagnostics. She expected no less from SumatoTek's best bot runners. They would stay with Hayaban, providing robotic support for Okada and Takedo.

Deceleration set in; landfall would be in seconds. Chiba deployed recon and sniper drones as they passed over the target. Okada's mission map updated with fresh data.

A final impact marked touchdown. Okada's restraints snapped back and the cradle tipped her to standing. She sprinted toward the wall, which sprang open as she reached it. Damp night air rushed to meet her.

"Hirana, report." Okada commanded over ghost comm.

"Three guards patrolling, no armor, light weapons. Positions marked on mission map. One vehicle with heat signature from recent operation. Police. No other actors outside."

"What about the warehouse?" Okada queried.

"Containers inside interfere with imaging. Confirmed two bodies on top of container stack. Probable two to four additional hostiles. Someone blew a hole in the warehouse ceiling over the target container."

"Weizza." Even over emotionless ghost comm Okada made it sound a curse.

"Breach rear wall when Takeda and I approach. Keep snipers on overwatch, SMGs come with me. Once we're in I want the sappers moving to cut out the comm module."

"Yes ma'am"

Okada dashed the last steps to the warehouse, Takeda on her heels. A sapper zoomed over her shoulder and detonated, blowing a hole in the warehouse wall.

"I'll take right. Takeda you go left. Shoot to kill."