‘Come with me,’ said Mersadie, reaching for Mori. The girl flinched back. ‘We need to go, Mori.’ The girl hesitated, then nodded and was up, grabbing hold of Mersadie’s hand and pulling her brother up with the other. Aksinya fired through the door as Mersadie and the children ran for the turn in the passage, back the way Mersadie had come. They came round the corner. Behind them, energy beams snapped through the air. Mersadie could see the blast door at the end of the passage. Thirty paces. Thirty paces and then…

The lights on the distant door’s lock blinked to green. Mersadie’s stride faltered. The blast door began to open, pulling back into the passage walls. She heard a snarl of pain from back where Aksinya was crouched beside the other door out of the corridor. Energy beams were smacking the passage walls. Mori was still running forwards, her hand now pulling on Mersadie’s. There were figures on the other side of the door ahead, their gloss armour red.

Mersadie yanked back on Mori’s hand as the first crimson-armoured trooper stepped into sight, gun rising. Mori saw, her mouth opening wide to scream. The trooper fired as Mersadie pulled them down behind a wall bracing. Hard shot rang off the walls and floor. More troopers poured into the passage from the other end. From their only way out.

Mersadie could see back to where Aksinya now sat on the floor beside the hatch. The dark stains had spread across the bodyguard’s torso and a wet chunk was missing from her right upper thigh. She was reloading her pistol, face set and hard. Mersadie felt the weight of the pistol in her own hand, and fired two shots off. The snap of recoil jerked the shots high. The world was roaring with gunfire, closing in, pressing closed like a vice. Mori was shaking, her brother howling.

And in her mind, all she could think of was the moon on water, of sharp teeth and a pair of yellow eyes. Words hissed in a dream blew into her thoughts.

We are coming for you… We know… We are here for you…

Panic punched through her, flooding her with adrenaline. She needed to run. She needed to get away.

She half rose. Mori yanked her back.

‘What are you doing?’ shouted the girl.

Mersadie tried to shake her off. She needed to run, the instinct so pure and raw that it left her other thoughts shouting in its wake.

‘They will try to stop you,’ said Keeler’s face in the dream. ‘Old friends and enemies alike. They will come for you.’

She tried to rise from the cover of the support pillar again.

A pair of crimson troopers were four paces away, guns levelled, fingers on triggers. Time became an instant caught between drawn breaths. Mersadie could see it all.