Kage peered through her scope. She saw Nyx crawling up behind Eshe. She did another sweep, searching for Ahmed. He was at least a hundred paces further north, given away by the soft blue glow of his transceiver. By all the gods, she should have told them not to use those. Why hadn’t they said they glowed?

Kage loaded her gun and trained her eye back on Eshe and Nyx. They had positioned themselves two arm’s lengths apart, and now they crawled slowly across the rocky sand.

They would need to find an area that had been recently dug up, but with their poor sight, they wouldn’t be able to make it out unless it was right under them.

Kage searched for it from the relative safety of her position.

“Nyx. You need to come further south. About… eight paces. Then go up another fifty paces. You’ll miss them if you keep on that route.”

Nyx and Eshe adjusted. They came up in a crouch now, to cover the distance more quickly. Kage knew Eshe was quiet, but Nyx looked like a lumbering animal out there. She was likely making enough noise to raise a swarm of palm bugs.

Kage covered their approach.

They got within twenty paces of the disturbed ground when it began to stir.

Kage moved her finger to the trigger.

But what leapt out of the sand wasn’t human at all.

Kage let off a staccato of rounds.

“Fuck is that?” Nyx’s voice from the transceiver.

“They’re over here!” Ahmed’s voice. “Not there! Fuck!”

Kage’s response was immediate, fluid. She left Nyx and Eshe to battle the thing and repositioned herself with a clear view of Ahmed’s blue transceiver.

He was too far to see anything clearly. Just black shadows. Blur. She took control of her breath. Long breath in. Long breath out. Darkness moved across the soft blue light. Estimating the distance was the most difficult part. Gravity would pull at the bullet the moment it left the gun. One small mistake here could mean missing her target by four or five paces.

She fired—right at where the light would have been.

Her reward was seeing the light blink back to life. But whether she had truly hit the assassin assaulting Ahmed or merely shot him in the back, she was uncertain.

The light was moving again.

Good sign.

Another blink. Another shadow.

She fired.

The light disappeared.

This time, she held her breath. Waiting. No light. Had he run, or had she shot him?

Nyx and Eshe were still yelling, their voices audible through the transceiver. But she didn’t check their progress. She wanted the fukushu-sha, not some giant bug or beast. She quickly packed her bipod and reloaded her gun. She sprinted across the sand, desperate to make the distance to where Ahmed’s light had gone out.