I do not stay inside.
I grab my tablet from the coffee table and a blasting rod and head for the back door.
“Ines!” Roxy snaps. “Ines,do not?—”
“I’ll stay low.”
“Ines.”
“I’m a journalist, Roxy. I have to see with my own eyes what’s happening with Kryzon and also, I have questions.”
“You are a journalist who isabout to get stabbed again,” Jana rants.
“I’ll be careful.”
“No—”
I’m already through the door, following after Rook.
I keep low and do my best to move the way I’ve watched Scar move through the yard for the last week, which is to say I probably look nothing like him but I’m trying.
I have to step over a cleaning bot that’s been knocked over on its side, still trying to whir forward against the grass. Poor little Max, I think. I pat him on the dome as I go past. Sorry, Max. We’ll fix you later.
The compound is chaos. Fighting is still happening at the front. I can hear Cannibal roaring again, Heavy shouting orders to Chief, and I see Texon confronting another Green Horn.
I slip along the side of the house toward the jungle and find them at the tree line.
Rook has Kryzon cornered against a rock outcropping. Kryzon is bigger than Rook by a full hand, but Rook is between him and the open jungle, and Kryzon can’t get past him. The older Xylan’s face is twisted with rage.
“LittleRook,” Kryzon sneers. “They sent theruntto stop me?”
“I will not let you in the compound and I will also not let you leave,” Rook says. “You are ending this night in a jail cell with the peacekeepers.”
“I will end this night on a transporter disk set to anonymous.”
“Not happening,” Rook snarls.
Then everyone arrives at once.
Chief comes through the trees with Scar at his shoulder. Heavy and Cannibal emerge from the other side, bloodied and panting. And Texon is beside me before I even realize he’s there, his gloved hand finding my arm, pulling me back against his side.
The Green Horns must be either dead or fleeing. The fight at the front is over. Now the full force of the Fever Brothers surrounds Kryzon of Twelve.
And there, right in the middle of all of them, is Rook, the brother who found him.
“It’s over, Kryzon,” Chief says.
Kryzon laughs.
It is the ugliest sound I’ve ever heard.
“Over?” He spits on the ground. “You thinkthisis over? You think you’vewonsomething tonight?”
“We’ve caught you in the act,” Scar says. His voice is low and dangerous. “You’ve hired mercenaries to attack our compound. Minecorp administration won’t be able to cover this one.”
“Minecorp administration.” Kryzon’s laugh sharpens. “You still don’t understand, do you? You’re still looking at the wrong enemy.”
“Stop stalling,” Texon growls. “Your mercs are dead. You’re finished. We’ve already alerted the peacekeepers, they are on their way.”
