Page 85 of Seer Prophet

Loki motioned for Ontari to leave the power source attached. Four of his people had already squeezed through the opening and into the corridor near the kitchen before those doors finished disappearing into the walls.

Loki felt the difference in the nearby Barrier space at once.

They’d been tracked.

At least one enemy seer monitored the elevators now.

He motioned for Anale to take the lead, and to move fast.

They began a combat jog down the center hall, single file.

They kept to the shadowed part of the passage, moving soundlessly as they aimed for the North Hall. Going around a large pile of rubble and burned furniture just outside the opening, they entered in groups of two at Loki’s silent prompt. Each paired team sent clicks back through the links to signal the space ahead was clear.

Then all of them were running for the North Portico entrance.

They still moved quietly, the thud of boots dulled by sound-canceling organics, along with the brush and squeak of armor and cloth.

Anale and Rex led. Kalgi took up the rear like before.

Loki ran just ahead of Kalgi.

He worried briefly that the entrance itself might pose a problem, but the bullet-proof glass doors had already been blown out in some previous skirmish. The opening stood as a ragged, gaping maw, only slightly lighter than the shadowed interior.

The sun had begun to fall into the horizon while they were below ground.

He now glimpsed a sky tinged with pinks and oranges, dark clouds with growing red underbellies. Gold sunlight slanted sideways over the lawn, and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Anale and Rex disappeared through the opening first.

They sent back an immediate ping, letting Loki and the others know the way was clear.

Loki switched comm channels. “Okay, Preela. Now would be good.”

“Roger that.”

She might have said more after, but before she could get it out, gunfire erupted from the west, directly in front of where Loki stood.

He shifted directions instinctively, darting right just as something pummeled into his shoulder, knocking him to his back. Next to him, he saw Kalgi fall, too. Mika dove behind cover, firing past the opening where the glass doors had stood.

“Fuck,” Kalgi said next to him.

She was up again, and dragging him, even as Loki fought to regain his feet.

Kalgi brought him around to the east side of the doorway, behind where Mika continued to fire. Loki gasped, got to his feet, and followed her, glimpsing through the opening where Rex and Anale fired back at whoever approached from the west.

He glanced at Kalgi. The female seer’s face contorted in a grimace. Her free hand pressed against the middle of her chest, but he didn’t see any blood. The injury clearly hurt her, but it hadn’t penetrated her bullet-proof vest.

Looking down at his own shoulder, he realized he hadn’t gotten off so lucky.

“Some are packing organics,” he said through the link. “Armor piercing. Don’t assume the jackets will hold.”

He felt the acknowledgment from Anale and Rex.

A beat later, he felt it from Mika, Illeg, Holo, and Kalgi.

Raising his rifle, Loki realized he couldn’t quite brace it with his injured arm. He slid it down against his hip instead, handling it with his right arm, which was awkward, since he usually used his left.

He could still shoot, but not well.

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