The skyscraper tops were just a hundred meters down now, lurid like Chinese New Year decorations, bright and colorful in the pale light before the sun.

Wind out of the north hit as he came around on his turn. He was coming in too slow, dropping too fast.

No way to make the next street.

Feng came in one street short of his goal. Or was it two?

He was even with the tops of the buildings now, bombarded on all sides by the neon colors and the moving adverts. Lu Song! That was Lu Song on that building hefting his spear!

“Rise, China!” the building yelled at him.

What the hell?

No time for that. He was at five hundred meters. Parachute height. Still dropping.

Feng put his hand around the cord, ripped it away, blew his chute open. He felt the drogue pop out, felt it catch air, felt it pull the rest of the folded chute out of his pack and into the sky behind him, and suddenly straps were grabbing him, holding him up more aggressively.

He looked up and back and there were thin black lines, almost imperceptible, leading up to a nebulous distortion in the sky above.

Clean open.

Feng released the bottom attachment points of the wing, let it pivot from his shoulders, sweeping out behind him, parallel to his plane of motion.

Then he reached up, grabbed the handles of the chute.

The streets were filled with people.

What he needed was a rooftop. A low roof, close to street level, large enough to land on.

There.

“Kade, Sam.”

Kade blinked in surprise.

“Feng?” he transmitted.

“No,” Kade heard back in Feng’s voice. “I’m the boogey man. Yes, Feng! Over.”

Kade chuckled.

Sam looked up from where she was splinting his knee, her face a mix of amusement and horror, her visor and helmet next to her, on the floor of this store they’d broken into from the alley.

She picked up her helmet, held it to her face. “What’s your status, Feng?” she said quietly. “Over.”

There was a pause. Then Feng’s voice again.

“Status not where we want to be,” he said. “Looking down on a black reserve chute, lotta angry soldiers.” He paused. “Couple bodies. Over.”

Sam frowned, shook her head. “Roger. Did what I had to.” Her voice sounded strained to Kade’s ears. “Over.”

Kade clenched his jaw. She’d killed those men to save him.

“Yeah,” Feng said over the radio. He paused. “Send your twenty. Over.”

“Alley south from there,” Sam said. “Fourth door on the right. Lock’s broken off. Knock. Over.”

“Roger,” Feng said. “Out.”

“Sam…” Kade said. “Those soldiers you shot…”

“It was them or you, Kade,” Sam said, tightening the splint around his swollen knee. “You die…” She paused, then went on. “You die now, a whole lot more people die.”