Then they raised their guns and aimed at the round floodlights above. The lights shifted within a breath, leaving her and Teo covered in shadows. They fired.

41

Glass shattered, falling to the courtyard below. Darkness cloaked the whole prison. Guards shouted below and above, but it was too late for them to figure out what was wrong. The dim orange lights on the walls were hardly any help without the floodlights from above.

Amid the shouts and scrambling footsteps, the flames along the wires surged toward the sticks of dynamite and struck them one by one. She cringed as explosions shattered the air, one every other second.

Smoke began to climb up the walls of the prison. Orange flames curled along the cells below, their light guiding the prisoners to freedom.

Aina and Teo jumped onto the ropes hanging from the grappling hooks, then aimed their guns downward. Ears ringing from the explosions, she could hardly hear the shouts from guards and prisoners. It all blended together in one wild cacophony.

But guards ran frantically on the floors below, their shadows thrown against the walls by the bright flames. Their footsteps clanged on the metal balconies, joining the din.

She avoided aiming for the guards and instead fired at the glass-covered diamond floor of the courtyard. The glass shattered with just a few shots from her and Teo.

The guards below tried to take cover, but the glass floor collapsed beneath them. They all fell into the pool of diamonds below them, and the diamonds began to swallow them like quicksand.

As pandemonium rose around them with prisoners and guards shouting on all ten floors, she and Teo climbed the ropes toward the landing of the tenth floor. They slipped onto it and joined the fray of scrambling guards, their stolen uniforms covering them as they raced across the balcony.

The guards ran, some nearly falling over the railing in the confusing darkness. Explosions below still sounded, spaced just moments apart.

Aina raced between the guards, but as she neared the corner of the walkway, a hand latched on to her shoulder.

“Stop there!” the guard shouted, pushing her shoulder so she spun around to face him. “I saw you come up from the floor below. Who are you?”

She slammed her fist into his nose. He fell back toward the wall, blood pouring down his face from his broken nose.

Another guard slammed into her as Aina turned to run, and she fell, her hands grasping for the railing to stop herself from flying over.

For a moment, she imagined herself falling to the floor and bleeding out on the diamonds.

Shaking her head to clear the image, she stood and raced around the balcony, pushing past guards in her way, and reached the other side where Teo waited for her near a set of wide double doors.

She passed him his gun. Before heading through the doors, they both glanced back once. The guards were all too busy running toward the explosion and the fleeing prisoners to pay them any attention.