“Forget about slow.” Daniel waited out another gang of revelers, then launched himself down the stairs as soon as the door shut, me and Hannah tight on his heels. We passed the fifth-floor door, rounding the halfway to the fourth at full speed. Down on the fourth-floor landing in the light from a half-open door, a single Adder swayed as he pissed into the center well. He looked up as we came at him, his unsteady squint slipping past Daniel to focus on me, then Hannah.

“Pussy!” he bellowed in slurry delight.

Daniel hit him with a body block, knocked him flat on the concrete, and kept going. Terror cleared my head like a breaking wave. With escape my only thought, I hurdled the sprawl of arms and legs—faster than avoiding it. Hannah hesitated, lifting her bow, then decided against and followed. Half a flight downward, the guy we’d mowed over was already yelling his lungs out, down but not out, sober enough to raise the alarm. We took the next three flights full out, as best we could in the dark, snatching at the railing, flinging ourselves around the corners, almost in free fall.

Say what you will, sodden as they were, the Adders responded fast when called to alert. Dropping from second to first floors, we felt the vibration of heavy feet pounding down behind us. The clamor upstairs backed off, shifting toward a more focused aggression. As we gained the ground floor and dashed across its open center toward the loading bay, we heard scattered gunfire from above and thunder on the escalators.

“They’re shooting out the windows!” Daniel shouted. No point in quiet now. “Outside, stick to the wall!”

“Poppy’s out there!” I had barely breath to yell, and no chance to catch it.

Could only hope she’d taken cover in time.

Daniel barely slowed at the loading door, a half-second to judge the thickness of the lead hail from the upper stories, then he was out and scooting sideways along the row of doors with us in his wake. We were out of sight to anyone above and the shooters didn’t think to aim straight down. They were venting their fury on the bodies floating in the middle of the street. Maybe thought they’d got us already.

I glanced ahead at Zephyr, saw Poppy peering out of the wheelhouse just as she spotted us. Damned if the engine wasn’t still running. I nearly cheered. Felt like we’d been inside that hellhole for hours, but probably wasn’t more than ten, fifteen minutes.