“Six minutes for the drones,” Hayes replied. “Twelve minutes for us.”

Too slow, Shiva thought. The bounty hunters will get him first!

“We’re into the club’s systems!” came the voice of their hacker. “Cameras, security system, the works.”

“Can you see Lane?” Hayes asked.

“It’s a zoo in there,” the hacker replied. “No sight of him.”

The channel came to life again. “Targets moving towards the back door. Repeat. Targets moving towards back door.”

“South-west corner, shooters ready,” came the reply.

Damn it. They had to be there now. They had to stop those snipers from taking out Lane and his companion.

Shiva turned to the hacker. “Can you trigger the fire alarm?”

“Looking…” the hacker said. “Fire alarms. Yes.”

Hayes looked up at Shiva. “Flush everyone else out? Confuse the snipers?”

Shiva nodded. “Will it work?”

“Better than nothing,” Hayes replied. Then, to the hacker, “Do it.”

Kade got up calmly from the bar. Feng went ahead of him, and they started to wind their way through the crowd towards the back, the second bar, the restrooms, and the other exit from the club. The crowd beckoned to Kade, that sweet union, that sweet forgetting of the illusion that he existed, that he mattered.

But he remembered now. He remembered who he was and why he mattered.

Feng had a beer bottle in his hand, and Kade could feel his friend scanning, keeping track of the bounty hunter in the bar with them, looking for additional weapons he could pick up. That barstool. The mic stand. The tall bottle of whisky behind the bar.

Then a piercing sound blasted through the club. White lights came on. Emergency exit signs lit up. The piercing noise buzzed again and again and again, now with a voice over it.

“A fire has been detected,” a voice droned over the music. “Please exit the building. A fire has been detected. Please exit the building. A fire has been detected…”

Confusion ruled around him. Kade felt chaos ripple through minds, tear down the coherence that had been there seconds before. People looked around. Was there really a fire? A false alarm? The DJ turned down the music, uncertain. Lotus’s mind was indecisive.

Then the sprinklers kicked in, raining cold water on everyone, and the crowd made up its mind. Someone jostled Kade from behind, and he felt the crowd start to push towards the exits. Out of reflex he moved with them. Then Feng had hold of his arm, was yanking him off to the side, out of the way of the river of humanity making for the exits, over between a six-foot-tall stack of speakers and the wall of the club.

Down! Feng sent to him, and Kade dropped to a crouch, partially hidden by the speakers, Feng at his side.

What’s going on? he asked in confusion.