Then the alley walls exploded in a burst of flame and brick ahead of them.

Shiva blinked as the feed from the avatar bot cut out abruptly.

Hayes saw it happen on screen, spoke up. “Teams C and D are inbound.”

Shiva brought his attention back to the displays before them. From a camera on one of the drones he watched the armored jeep rush into an alley, his men following, firing at the wheels, trying to disable the vehicle without harming Lane.

The jeep slammed to a halt and one of his chase cars crashed into its armored rear.

“Blow the alley’s far end,” Hayes said into his microphone. “Cut them off.”

Overhead two of their circling drones launched micromissiles at the building walls fifty meters forward of the once-again accelerating jeep. Shiva held his breath. They could not kill Lane!

Then the missiles struck home, and the walls of the buildings flanking the alley came down in a heap of fire and rubble.

Feng watched the walls coming down in slow motion and immediately knew they wouldn’t make it. He slammed hard on the brakes as the walls collapsed in front of them. The jeep slowed, skidded, skewed to one side, but they were too close, moving too fast.

The front right wheel of their vehicle hit the pile of rubble in a jarring crash that he felt through his bones and Kade’s, and then they were flipping over it, gravity shifting as the momentum of the jeep’s rear carried it up and over the front of the vehicle, somersaulting it crazily, end over end, spinning, rolling as it flipped.

Feng let his body go limp as they’d taught him. Relaxed every muscle and let his mind freeze time around him. He took in everything at once, the way he’d been built and trained to do in combat: the spin and trajectory of the jeep, over and to the side, destined to hit the building on the right; Kade’s gasp of shock and alarm, the belt around him; the weapons in easy reach, those he’d take when they left the vehicle.

Then their tumble through the air ended as they crashed into the side of the alley, still spinning, crashed through the brick wall, through support beams, opening a wide gash in the building, before coming to rest on the driver’s side of the jeep.

“Out!” Feng yelled. Kade was shaken from the crash, bruised by his safety belt, his mind still shocked and stunned from the hurtle they’d taken through the air. His side was up. Feng’s was down. They had to open Kade’s door, climb out, escape before those soldiers got here.

KADE. OUT! Feng sent his friend.