“Incoming what, though?” Julie said. “Here, buckle me.” I helped her with her harness while she pulled out her phone and started typing. “I set up a company-wide alert earlier, just in case.” My iPhone was sitting on the table, and it began to vibrate as it received her message a few seconds later.

“Clever. You’re cute when you’re paranoid.”

“And freezing. Stupid magic warning thing should’ve told me to pack a sweater.”

I was still buckling and checking mag pouches as we entered the empty hallway. Julie had just put her earpieces in. “Radio check. This is Julie, who’s with me?” I hadn’t gotten mine in yet, so I wasn’t sure who responded, but she gave me a thumbs-up. She had somebody. “Gather in the halls. If you know where other Hunters are sleeping, wake them up…Yes, Green, wake the foreigners too. No, I’m not yelling.” She rolled her eyes. “No. I don’t know what it is…What’s the temperature like on your floor? Okay.” Julie looked back at me. “Fifteenth floor is good. Seventeenth floor is comfy…Sixteenth floor is unnaturally cold. It’s here with us. Repeat, unknown entity seems to be on the sixteenth floor.”

“Son of a gun,” I muttered as I pulled back the charging handle on Abomination and chambered a round of silver buckshot. “Figures.”

“Okay, Hunters above and below. Stop the elevators and seal the stairwells. There are…five stairwells and two—no, three elevators. Don’t forget the freight one. We are not letting this thing get away.” She signaled for me to get my radio in, and while I did so she watched the hall. “Watch your shots. There are a lot of innocents here.”

I got my earpieces in place, and all sound took on a slight bit of distortion from the electronic amplification. They weren’t crystal perfect, but I could hear my teammates and protect my hearing from gunfire at the same time. I touched Julie’s arm to demonstrate that I was good to go. She nodded. The door across from us opened and Trip came out, wearing the top half of his armor, but only a pair of basketball shorts and flip flops. “Late night?” I asked Trip. “Did you level up your paladin?”

“Paladin? No. I was playing Warmachine. There’s no…Never mind…How the heck did you get dressed so fast? My gosh. Do you sleep in this stuff?”

Our hotel deal had been mostly for rooms with two queen-sized beds, so Milo was Trip’s roommate. He came out a moment later, slapping a magazine into an M-4. His beard was particularly puffy and terrifying when it hadn’t been groomed yet. “What’ve we got?” He too, had only gotten part of his gear on.

“Dude…You have flannel footy jammies?”

Milo looked down. “Yeah, aren’t they nifty? Shawna got them for me for my birthday.”