He ran to the kitchen. From its window he could see the courtyard and parts of the house. Security men moved about frantically. Beyond the house he could see smoke rising, underlit by the red of flames. Gunfire sounded from somewhere.

Then he heard the door to his suite open, heavy footfalls.

He turned and they were there. Two of Shiva’s security men. They wore Nexus jammers. Their minds were balls of static.

“Come with us,” one of them said. The dark-skinned one he’d never placed. The other one had a third Nexus jammer in his hand, meant for Kade.

Kade shook his head, and a look of impatience flashed across the soldier’s face. He came forward and Kade grabbed a pot from the stove top, swung it at the guard’s head.

The security man caught it, ripped it out of Kade’s hand, then slapped him across the side of his head hard enough that Kade saw stars.

Sam nodded in return, acknowledging Nakamura’s signal.

Then she opened her mind, in receive-mode only. If they were right, the children were on this side of the building, on the west face, on the first or second floor. Once she found them, they could rally them, use the sub and their own skills to misdirect and blind the defenders, clear a path, get them on the vehicles and towards the airfield while Feng and Nakamura retrieved Kade.

Her mind opened and the night was alive with Nexus. Dozens of minds inside the building. Fear and confusion. Panic.

And there. Those minds. The children. All together. It took her breath away to feel them, to feel them like this. It brought it all back to her, all the reasons she’d fallen in love with them and the reason she was here.

Shiva was not going to turn this beauty into horror.

Sam reached out, projected her own thoughts outward towards Sarai and the rest.

I’m here, she sent. I’ve come for you.

And across the link, she felt those young minds rejoice.

Sarai woke to the sound of explosions. Her heart thudded in her chest. Her brothers and sisters had woken to it too. They were all frightened.

The connecting door opened and the five boys flooded in to the room she shared with the three other girls. Aroon was crying, wailing, carried on Kit’s shoulder. Everyone looked to her.

I’m the oldest, she thought. I have to make this right.

She reached out to them, brought them together, sent calming thoughts. They huddled together on the floor, the youngest on the inside, the oldest around them.