“The back stairs,” he said, practically stuttering in fear. He reached for the manual bomb trigger and she stopped him, pulling his hand away. “The service stairs. They come up from the delivery room in the back.”

“Perfect,” said Kira. She wrapped his hand around his backpack and pushed him gently away from the control panel. “You need to save this backpack, do you hear me? Do not blow up the building—if you blow it up, you will lose your backpack.”

“I can never lose the backpack.”

“Exactly. You find whatever escape route you have planned and you take it—you run far away, and you don’t come back for a week. If the Partials go away, I’ll be here be waiting. Now go!”

Afa turned and ran down the hall, and Kira shouldered her pack and ran the other way, swinging around the last doorway and practically throwing herself down the stairs. Sixth floor. Fifth floor. If she could reach the third floor first—if she could get there while the Partials were still split up, still alone, right where she knew they were coming—she could ambush the first and retreat before the second arrived as backup. She had a chance to kill both of them, but it was only a chance. Fourth floor.

Third.

She slowed, placing each step carefully, listening at the corner before moving around it. The stairwell was clear. She dropped to her knee, raising the rifle to her cheek, peering around the corner into the second floor. Moldy carpet stretched away in the darkness. The metal door had been completely removed, hauled upstairs as armor for one of Afa’s mini bunkers—that was where Kira would retreat, she decided. Kill the first, fall back to a bunker, and wait for the second to make a mistake. If the Partials even made mistakes.

The second floor was empty, but the signs of chaos were clear. A pattern of holes in the walls and blackout curtains showed that the latest round of Bouncing Betties had gone off exactly as planned, but there didn’t seem to be any bodies. The floor was dimly lit by the holes in the curtains, and a small flame flickered in the wall near the back. Kira waited, trying to remember what the last trap on the floor had been—something incendiary, she thought, and it obviously hadn’t gone off. The Partial was still inside.

Kira waited at the top of the stairs, her rifle aimed and ready. As soon as a Partial appeared in the doorway, it was as good as dead.

She waited.

Maybe I was too noisy, she wondered. It heard me coming and went the other way—or worse, it’s waiting for me. I could retreat back up the stairs, but then I lose my advantage. I can’t take both Partials at once. If there’s any chance I can ambush this one, I have to take it.