Her bullet punched through his midsection. Blood burst out onto the wall, the floor.

He kept thrashing, kept screaming.

Sam fired again.

126
Before the Dawn

Monday 2041.01.20

Rangan’s eyes widened as the cop pulled his gun.

“Down on the ground!”

Suddenly he was back inside, strapped down to the table, his head below his feet, the towel over his face, water coming down.

Drowning.

Begging.

Dying.

No.

Then someone stepped between him and the cop. The big guy, the big guy who’d been attacking Stan Kim.

A gun went off. He felt pain rip through the big man in front of him.

Oh Jesus.

Then the cops all around were drawing, screaming at him. And protesters were stepping between him and them, grabbing at them.

“Run!” someone yelled at him.

Then Kade’s mind touched him, touched him from across the globe.

Rangan, Kade sent. Rangan got a sense of immense pain coming from his friend with the thought. Not the protest. The Capitol. That’s where it’s going to happen. The Capitol.

Rangan understood. Understood what was about to happen. Oh god. Oh Jesus. What the hell could he do about that?

Rangan turned, looked around frantically. Where was Stan Kim?

There! There were protesters between them.

“The Capitol!” Rangan yelled at the man. “It’s going to be attacked!”

Rangan saw Kim look at him, shock playing across the Senator’s face.

“I can help!” Rangan yelled. “You have to get me inside!”

A dozen calculations flashed across Stan Kim’s face in less than a second, plainly visible through the scrum, through the chaos of protesters and police struggling all around them. .

Then something snapped into place for Stan Kim.

The Senator nodded sharply. “Come on!”

Then Stan Kim crouched down, slipped his legs below the railing of the stage, and jumped down into the crowd below.

They moved west on E street. The crowd had spilled over past the fallen barricades, was thick around the stage.

“You need a new mask!” Stan Kim hissed.

“Trade me!” Rangan yelled to someone in the crowd, a man wearing a John Stockton mask. They crouched down and traded, and Rangan stood up a President.

Then they ran, Rangan’s need reaching out in front of them, parting the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Kim asked.

“Nexus,” Rangan panted. God he was out of shape. “They dosed everyone with Nexus.”

“Oh hell,” Kim said. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I have no idea,” Rangan gasped.

“Stop!” A line of riot cops ahead held up shields.

“I’m a US Senator!” Stan Kim yelled, not stopping. “This man’s my aide! We have to get to the Capitol!”

Kim grabbed Rangan by the arm and charged forward.

The cops hesitated. At the last second the shields parted and they were through, running, the Capitol clear in view not two hundred yards ahead.