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"Joe here," Fideli said, and coughed again "Fuck Hey, Pat, you sleeping in? Because we’re in so the release on his seat belt It was stuck, but in seconds he had a coh the thick fabric like silk Riley squirantly than either she or Bryn had done, but then, he’d probably hadli Joe cursed under his breath, rose to his knees, and cut the , helped ease hiroaning; Riley was forcing open the driver’s side door withon outside the toppled SUV, a thundering chatter of bullets punctuated by a low ru horn, and what the hell was that?

Joe had taken hold of Patrick beneath the ar the otherout of her head and turned to the crackednext to her I on, so she smashed it out with a flurry of quick punches Cuts and breaks didn’ttoward the pierced the noise of combat, and Bryn had ti from the railroad tracks, the railroad tracks underneath the SUV that she was in, and the headlight was fro force of God’s biggest hammer

Riley realized it, too, and frorabbed Joe and heaved, hauling hi thele backward to a ditch

Bryn bailed out of theshe’d broken, hit the hard, vibrating et out of the wayjust enough tiravel in the center

The train went over her like a stor metal and sparks She was facedown, cheek pressed onto the sharp chunks of rock, and the s oil overwhelmed her

She didn’t hear the train hit the SUV, but it radually easing to a stop still parked on top of her

She made sure it was stable, then shakily crawled out between the s wheels, slithered down the embank with pieces of the exploded car

The battle was in full force up on the road

Half the escorting SUVs were trapped on the other side of the tracks, barred from theaodda down on Riley, Pat, and Joe, who needed cover badly Bryn took only a couple of seconds to take the situation in, and focused on the body-arht train, who’d slid aside the doors and were pouring se to take therabbed hold of the back passenger door of their wrecked, led, chopped-in-half SUV, and braced herself All about leverage, she told herself The door isted and hanging loose anyway Go

She yanked, and roaned and shook, but the door held

One of their attackers turned his fire on her She felt the bullets striking but ignored them; pain was pain, the nanites would fix it Her world narrowed to the door

She yanked violently, twisting down, and the one re a thick armored door

She picked it up and ran to the opposite side, around the still-s SUV, and rolled into the ditch that held Joe, Patrick, and Riley She and Riley got the door up and above the the two men, seconds before the concentrated fire bore down

"Ladies," Joe said between gasps for breath, "you’reme feel kinda useless here"

"You’re the only one who can shoot right now," Bryn panted "How’s that for feeling useful?"

He grinned He was bloody from a cut on his head, and his sh Bryn hadn’t had tie of the sheltering door "Go," he said, and they shifted it a few inches down his body He fired six shots in about three seconds,his aim with tiny, precise ticks "Clear" Theyfire was less--a lot less "Got five out of six Last bastard twitched"

"Vest shots?" Riley asked

"What am I, an amateur? Head shots, thank you verybreaths, and nodded "Go"

They repeated the ain, there was only a desultory rattle of fire on the steel, and then silence

They were retreating

Joe wasn’t assuh He ejected his clip, slapped in a new one, and racked the slide so fast that it was one blur of motion Ten seconds passed Fifteen Twenty Bryn’s ar to burn under the strain, and she could see that Riley’s were shaking, too