Kade reached out, activated the second back door even as Shiva swung about and tried to throw Kade from his arm.

As Shiva swung him, Kade’s legs left the ground, but Bruce Lee kept his hands locked around the other man’s arm. Kade sent the passcode, felt Shiva’s mind open to him. He pushed in to grab mental control, to still him.

Shiva’s other fist lashed out, slamming into Kade’s face even as Kade clenched his mind around Shiva’s thoughts. Pain exploded through Kade’s head, the world spun and he felt his grip break, felt his body fall back across the roof, felt his head come down on the ground.

Everything was pain. Pain and confusion, pain and chaos. Nausea surged up through him. He turned onto his side and retched, puking up bile and blood. He retched again, wondering when he was going to die.

Then he felt it. The absence. Shiva’s amplified mental pressure on his mind was gone. He turned, pain stabbing inside him, and saw Shiva. The man was on his knees, staring vacantly at Kade. And Kade could feel Shiva’s mind now, stunned by Kade’s mental assault.

Kade reached into Shiva’s mind again, deeper, forced his will into the man’s thoughts, cemented his control.

He felt another vibration shudder through the building, heard a booming over the ringing in his ears. Another explosion somewhere. Kade sifted through Shiva’s mind, found his entry point to the Nexus repeaters, reached through them at full volume, sent the second back door activation command, sent the passcode, then sent the signal to turn off consciousness in all those minds like flipping off a row of so many light switches.

He felt them fall, crumpling like puppets with their strings cut all across the grounds.

Kade was breathing hard. His heart was still pounding, aching. His body hurt so bad. He forced himself to crawl, crawl back towards Shiva, one painful inch at a time, until they were face to face, both on their knees.

Then he reached out, out through the house’s limping network system, out into the world, to use his back door one final time.

Sam’s trembling faded bit by bit. By then the house was quiet. The gun was still in her hands, in front of her, the barrel pointed straight up, close enough to kiss. Death, her one true lover.

She heard a voice. Feng’s. “Kade!” it yelled. “Kade!” No one answered.

So that’s how it was.

The hood of her suit was stifling, now. The goggles fogged over. She reached up, pulled the hood off of her. Then she rose to her feet, and started in towards Feng’s voice.