Lim, who had years of following both the original League and us didn’t hesitate. Tapping the screen exactly twice, talked into it, and as he finished, his words blasted out of speakers throughout the complex, “Evacuate immediately! Only take something if you’re holding it. There’s nothing in here that’s worth your life. Again, get out now!”

To us, he said, “I’m leaving with the staff. Go to your jet and don’t feel bad about breaking things if you need to.”

Jaclyn and Izzy looked at each other and Jaclyn said, “I’ll go left. You can take the right. No one’s here but us right?”

Izzy blinked and then said, “No.”

Lim gave us a wave and ran out of the nearest door, a door that was on the opposite side of the room of the door that we needed—not that it mattered. The nice thing about not caring what happened to your surroundings was that you could go all out. Jaclyn and Izzy did.

The tall, twisty trails through the room turned into a straight, wide trail toward the door on the other side of the room. Moving more quickly than I could see unless I did an instant replay with the implant, Jaclyn and Izzy knocked the piles sideways, causing domino-style crashes on either side of us. Smashed and shattered boxes fell backward, releasing their contents. Out of my peripheral vision, I could see clothes, laptops, clay cups and vases, car parts, and mystery devices.

I didn’t realize until later that I’d seen a glowing sword fly sideways into another pile, sinking into one of the crates as if it were cutting butter. If I had, I might have grabbed it, but I didn’t grab anything. I was flying after Cassie and Daniel on the theory that they wouldn’t appreciate the heat of my rockets.

We went through the room in a blur, followed by the hall to the room with the jet, a final burst toward the jet’s hatch. Someone elsewhere in the complex was kind enough to open the way to the tennis court above us.

We didn’t wait for the fake tennis court slab that had carried us down to carry us back up either. I didn’t even make it to my seat before the jet started going up of its own accord. I supposed that I had given him leave to respond to emergencies on some level.

Hal sent everyone a text to the League comm channel as we started to fly.

[Activating cloak. Changing orientation for a faster escape.]

Even though the windows were darkened by the cloak, I could see the jet’s nose point upward toward the sky and felt the jet’s engines shoot us upward. Thanks to the anti-gravity, the only hint of the engines’ strength came in the form of a small slip as I put my right foot down, but since I didn’t fall downward, hitting the back wall of the cabin at hundreds of miles per hour, I had no complaint.

We made it into the sky long before the tennis court slipped back into place. Once I’d snapped the final belt in place, I took control of the jet, seeing the incoming missiles flying toward the top of the small mountain that we’d left below.

It struck me that we could make Lim’s life easier if we shot them down. The same thought must have popped into Cassie’s mind. Aided by her implant, she took control of the jet’s weapons and let loose the anti-personnel lasers. They weren’t as effective as the main gun, but you didn’t have to aim the entire ship in the right direction to use them either.

Bright beams took out two of the five missiles as they flew across the river on the way to the top of the mountain. The first of the other three missiles dipped down toward the tennis court, hitting before it got into place. Chunks of concrete, rock, dirt, and trees from the mountain’s peak exploded outward, covering the place in black smoke and flame.

The other two missiles must have been timed well enough that they didn’t have to hit the tennis court because the ground underneath the ruined resort exploded, throwing pieces of the building and the ground beneath it in all directions even as what was left fell inward. The same thing happened on the other side of the tennis court—in the storage room, I guessed—turning the peak of the mountain into a long divot.

I barely had time to take that in when I noticed four egg-shaped objects in the air on the far side of the mountain. Judging from the dirt on them, they had to have been near the mountain when it blew.

On the League’s comm channel, Lim’s icon blinked, “If you’re still here, we’re in the eggs. Please don’t fire on us.”