Iris was already pulling on her climbing gear, cool as ever. “We’ll deal with trouble as it comes, boss.” She tilted her chin up at me. “You’re a good fighter, right? And a fast runner.”

I laughed despite myself as I pulled on my gear too. “I’m a survivor.”

“I can back up on the ground,” Victor added through the earpiece.

“Stay hidden unless needed,” Lingyi ordered. “The fewer people involved, the better.”

“Got it, boss,” Victor replied.

“Go when I go,” Iris instructed. “Side by side, like on the way up.” We both went to the wall’s edge, facing the fifteen-story drop below. “Ready?” Iris asked.

I nodded, rolling my wrists.

She hoisted herself onto the shoulder-level wall with ease, and I followed. The entire rooftop flooded in red lights the minute we triggered the sensors. I slammed my handholds into the concrete wall, trying to find purchase with my shoes. Going down was much more difficult and awkward than the climb up. An alarm blared even as pulsing red light filled our vision.

“They’ve put the building on lockdown,” Lingyi said. “I’m monitoring everything from within.”

I wrenched my arm in my rush, not deactivating the handhold with the necessary wrist flick, and swung out from the building, clinging on by one grip and one foot. My heart leaped into my throat, certain I’d fall to my death.

“Steady,” Iris said, and her calm voice brought everything back into focus, even as the blood roared in my ears.

I flexed my arm still connected to the wall and pulled myself back, muscles straining, then thrust my shoe against the concrete, making sure I had a firm hold with all limbs before descending again, falling into a quick rhythm.

“They’re sending five men out,” Lingyi said. “They’ve scanned the cam recordings, but I’d wiped everything, so they think you failed on your attempt to break in. Exactly as I’d hoped. They’re waiting to intercept you on the bottom for questioning.”

Iris jumped down onto the ground just as two men rushed toward her with red tasers drawn. Before I even reached the ground, she had kicked the tasers from the hands of the two men and twisted one’s arm behind his back, before stabbing him in the neck with an injection. The big guy immediately slumped to the ground. I landed as she pulled two more syringes from the side of her pants in one swift motion, and jammed one into the throat of the guard scrambling on the ground for his weapon. He dropped like a sack of rice. The other three guards arrived, shouting in alarm as I flung my handholds down and reached for my throwing knives. One. Two. I knocked the tasers out of their hands, drawing blood from only one of the guards as Iris dispatched her third.