The noise from outside went quiet. Her visual showed that everyone had taken cover somewhere, and combat had stopped. What now? Footsteps crunched on broken glass nearby. She had no swarm inside, so she peeked around the desk. Ammanuel and Quin stood and scanned the room.

“Over here,” Welga called. “Can’t wave my damn arms.”

Ammanuel helped her stand while Quin deployed a stretcher.

“All quiet,” Hassan said on the team channel. “Half the protes are down or have fled the site. The other half are broadcasting surrender, and the cloaked enemies are gone or hiding. Santiago is secure and away from the action. You’re clear to extract Ramírez and Troit.”

Welga waited until they had Connor strapped onto the stretcher before moving from her position. She ran outside, taking cover where possible, but all remained quiet. On the left half of the street, the bomb squad’s van lay on its side, flames licking up from the engine. Police cars blocked the road in both directions. Humans and law-bots peered over them, weapons ready but not firing.

A white ambulance waited behind all the vehicles. The rear doors opened for them. Olafson reached out and helped Welga clamber in, then loaded Connor’s stretcher. Ammanuel gave her a nod before closing the doors. She returned it. They certainly didn’t need hand-holding anymore, and she had no doubt they’d make a fine shield.

Welga put some coin in Ammanuel’s tip jar, then turned her attention to Olafson as the ambulance hooked itself up to her partner.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Welga asked the JIA officer.

Olafson held up a hand for silence. Half a dozen microdrones clattered onto the van’s floor.

“I hope you were a cat in a previous life, Ramírez, because this has to count as another of your nine. How many more times are you going to blow yourself up?”

Welga snorted. “However many it takes. Where are we headed?”

“San Francisco Terminal and then headquarters. I came here hoping you’d bag a live Machinehood operative that I could bring back for interrogation. They’re pulling you for an in-person briefing and strategy session. We’ll get your injuries treated over there. No time now or we’ll miss the next sub-orb to DC.”

“Why in person?”

“Because we need to do some free exchange of ideas, and we suspect that the Machinehood can tap into secure comm links. They might not have a sentient AI directing them, but they have computing capabilities we don’t understand. Something strange is going on there.”

“What about the androids?”

“No captures anywhere so far. The Chinese just blew one up. The rest… well, we weren’t prepared for their camouflage. Looks like they’ve hit and run. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

The ambulance spoke. “This patient needs treatment from a hospital. I am unable to complete the necessary surgical procedures.”