Dani was a step ahead of him. At fifteen feet, the open cage was maybe four running strides away. The rational part of Sam’s mind told him there was no reason to assume the worst. No reason to think the baboon was already behind them, coming after them. It was busy demolishing crates in the Cloud Chamber. It might not even become aware of them until it heard the cage door slam shut, with them inside it. It made sense. He needed it to make sense.

Then Dani tucked into a crouch at the end of her last step, dropping and slipping through the cage door without even touching the sides. Her momentum carried her to the back of the cage, giving Sam all the room he needed to get in. In the same movement, Dani pivoted, whipping her head around and looking back.

For maybe a tenth of a second her eyes focused on Sam.

Then they focused past him.

Just past him.

Dani screamed—but Sam didn’t hear it. The sound was lost beneath the scream that came from behind him: the baboon’s shriek, so close he was sure he could feel its breath on his skin.

An instant later he dropped low, crouching in the same movement Dani had made to enter the cage. He reached for its door with one hand and got his fingers around its gridwork. Slipping through the opening now, turning and yanking on the door as hard as he could. He’d pulled it only halfway closed when the weight of the animal crashed into it, slamming it the rest of the way shut, knocking Sam backward into Dani, both of their bodies compressing against the cage’s rear wall.

Sam got his hands under him, got himself positioned to grab hold of the door, expecting the animal to pry it open and come in after them—

But by then he could see what had happened. The baboon’s impact had warped the door, tucking the top corner inside the frame while the bottom corner remained outside. The warping had jammed the door in place—for now, at least.

The baboon was standing a foot away from the cage, staring in at them. Blood ran from its mouth and eyes. For a moment it just stood there, breathing rough, staring.

Then it lunged forward and attacked the jammed door with a flurry of movement, pounding it with cat-quick forelimbs that made the entire cage shudder and groan.

Dani threw her arms around Sam and held on tightly. He kept himself between her and the animal, for whatever symbolic good it could do. If the door gave, he guessed she’d survive about three heartbeats longer than he would.