Kira looked ahead, trying to spot it, but it was impossible to see anything that far through the snowfall. She looked back at Samm. “I won’t leave you here.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” said Samm, and Kira saw now that there were other soldiers with him, dug in across the width of the road. “Get your people to safety, and wait for my signal. Now go. And Kira?”

She looked at him, her heart still twisting at the confusion of seeing him here. “Yes?”

“I’m . . . glad you’re safe,” he said. It was a simple sentence, but the link data that came with it was so powerful it made her hands tremble. She nodded, trying to say the same thing back, but it came out as a confused mumble. She’d thought he was gone for good, trapped on the other side of the wasteland. She’d dealt with it. She glanced from Samm to Marcus and back to Samm again.

She didn’t know what to do now.

“Let’s go,” said Marcus, and Samm gave them another burst of covering fire as they helped Green to his feet and ran forward through the howling storm. Cars and buildings and lampposts loomed like ghosts on the edge of their vision. Bodies lay in the snow, already half-buried by the relentless storm. The close buildings gave way to a wide, empty parking lot, and then they reached the bridge—the ocean inlet it crossed was narrow, barely thirty feet wide at the most, and it wouldn’t hold the army for long. In this weather, though, removing it would buy Kira’s people a few precious hours.

Someone waved them forward to the bridge. “They came out of nowhere,” said the man; he was one of the humans Kira had sent ahead, though she couldn’t remember his name. He gestured to Heron, climbing up from under the bridge with Tomas, the demolitions tech. “She says they know you.”

“They do,” said Kira, looking at Heron’s eyes as she approached. “I’m starting to think I don’t know them, though.”

“Hey, girlfriend,” said Heron, though her tone was hardly playful. “You miss me?”

“You’re lucky I haven’t already shot you for selling me out to Morgan,” said Kira.

“I don’t think it counts as selling if I didn’t accept any payment,” said Heron.

“How am I supposed to trust you? Nothing you do makes sense.”

“Pay better attention,” said Heron, and looked at Tomas. “You ready?”

“Samm said to wait for his signal,” said Marcus. “He covered our retreat.”