Landis was already heading for the door. Variam followed. “Shield off, Vari, there’s a good lad. Standard cover. Verus, you stay with Caldera and take a breather. We’ll take it from here.” They disappeared out into the street.

I was left alone in the wreckage of the living room. Flames were still licking around and I tried to find a way to climb back up to the first floor.

It took me a minute, and by the time I made it up, I found Caldera slumped on the bed. Blood had soaked through the side of her jacket and into the bedclothes. “Caldera.” I kept my voice low. “Can you hear me?”

“Not like I could miss it, way you talk,” Caldera muttered. “Was that Landis . . . ?”

“It was him.” Not good. I hadn’t realised how badly hurt Caldera was; she must have been forcing herself to keep going. “Vari’s here too. We should be safe.”

“Didn’t call for Order of the Shield.” Caldera’s eyes opened; she stared at me suspiciously. “Should have been Star.”

I sighed. “Seriously? You’re going to give me a hard time about this now?”

“You were on your phone. When I took the kid down . . .” Caldera sighed and closed her eyes. “Never follow orders, do you . . .”

“Yeah, well, you can shout at me later.” I was looking Caldera over. The gash on her shoulder didn’t look bad—it was the side wound I was worried about. How deep was it? “We need to get you some help.”

“Already called for—”

“On your com disc, I know. I think we can give up on that, all right? You guys must have backup ways of getting in touch. Phone number?”

“There’s a number.” Caldera didn’t open her eyes. “For emergencies.”

“You think this might qualify?”

“I’ll read it. Type it in.”

I made the call. It took longer than it should have to convince the woman on the other end that I was who I said I was. Finally I just passed the phone over to Caldera and let her give the authentication code. By the time it was done I could hear the strain in Caldera’s voice.

At last it was done and Caldera hung up. “Hate those people,” she muttered. “Bureaucrats . . .”

Caldera was still slumped on the bed; she’d stopped moving except when she had to, and when she’d lifted the phone to her ear I’d seen that it had hurt her. “You doing okay?”

“You always ask such stupid questions?”

“Yeah, I’ve got the feeling it might be a good idea to keep you talking until the medics get here.” I could still smell smoke; it wasn’t getting any fainter. “Oh, and I don’t want to worry you, but just so you know, the house is on fire.”

“Lovely.”

“On the plus side, I don’t think it’s going to collapse in the next ten minutes.”

“You know,” Caldera said, “even by my standards, this was a really shitty night out.”