Chapter 8 · Ghost Signal - Chapter 8: Don't Let Him In

The security shutters slammed down before Qin Chuan's people could clear the loading bay.

One of them got an arm through. Metal came down on his wrist guard with a hard crack, and he swore loud enough to make the dead vending machines buzz.

I had my pistol up. Qin had his pointed at my chest.

Between us, the old relay station screamed through every speaker it still had.

"Lin," Zero said in my ear, too calm. "Move left. His second shooter is behind the coolant tanks."

I moved left.

A round chewed through the wall where my head had been.

"Cute," I said, firing twice at the tanks.

The hidden shooter ducked. Qin didn't.

Of course he didn't. Captain Qin Chuan had always been good at standing still when everyone else wanted to flinch. Back in the unit, it made rookies trust him. Made commanders listen when he said a plan was bad.

Right now it made me want to shoot him in the knee.

He wore black field armor under a rain-dark jacket, though there hadn't been rain in the lower city for weeks. His jaw was bruised. Fresh cut over his eyebrow.