There were seven of the things, and they all soared upward, Mark with them and among them, sailing high above Nob Hill and the long, steep incline into the Embarcadero. The city shone beneath him, still intact, still a jewel, but echoing only with the drums of hybrid gangs and the howls of the dying.

Gina screamed his name, and he saw that three of them were on her, clawing at her but also fumbling in their efforts to find the leverage to subdue her in the formlessness of the air. He tried to fall toward her but slid past instead, his own jump running out of energy. As he dropped down, he stabbed directly into the top of the head of one of the creatures. It fell away gargling a death rattle.

In its cry he could hear the despair of a vividly conscious mind.

He hit the ground and rolled, slamming into the wheels of the derelict cable car. Immediately, he jumped to his feet and slashed the air around him, but he was clear.

Gina and two of the three hybrids that were on her hit the ground a few feet away—and then he saw a shadow, looked up, and saw that the air was entirely filled with bio-insects, a vast swarm that were rising out of every manhole up and down California Street.

He grabbed Gina, who was so intent on her fight that she did not stop working her knife even as he dragged her away from the creature she was destroying.

“We gotta keep moving,” he shouted.

Teeth bared, eyes shining with the sharpness of battle, she snarled at him and tried to pull away.

He pointed upward. “No time!” He threw her into the cable car, leaped onto the motorman’s perch, and released the brake. The car lurched, then began rumbling down the steep hill. It cut the legs off one of the large hybrids, which fell, then began pulling itself after them with its arms, racing after the cable car with preternatural speed, leaving a spray of blood behind.

The sky got darker and darker yet, and the cable car rumbled more loudly as it swayed and lurched, its wheels screaming on the steel rails.

The world whipped past at breakneck speed—and sunlight appeared again. At least for the moment, they were out from under the deadly mass. The cable car was picking up speed fast, though. It was out of control, hurtling down the hill.

He grabbed Gina. “Jump!”

They had to fight the sway to reach the runners, leaping, finally, through a shower of sparks and into the air, soaring high once again as the car fell on its side below them and slid, disintegrating into splinters that sliced through a troupe of confused hybrids, scattering their drums with great, resounding booms.