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"No, but it’s mine, so I appreciate the repetition," said Mahir "Is the fence likely to be electrified?"

"Yes, but that’s what these are for" I held up a pair of rubber clips "They’ll bridge the current and let us cut through the wire We’ll have to leave them behind e run, but at least we’ll be able to run"

Mahir eyed the bridgers "Buffy’s work?"

"Dave’s" I smiled a little "He’d love this shit"

"He’d already be halfway to the fence," said Becks

"Whereas we still need to getelse I should know about the area?"

"Lots of blackberries, very little ground security according to the Cat’s schematics; they don’t patrol all that much Once we’re inside--"

"We run, we keep our heads down, and we pray"

"I do love it when you have a concrete plan, instead of ," said Becks dryly She pulled a pistol froht seearage, theed at first, but found a pace that kept hi over the broken ground as quickly and quietly as we could

The quarter-mile between the van and the CDC was mostly open fields We hunched over as we crossed thehts came on to mark our trails, and no alar in our favor once again--the CDC’s, not ours They’d been heroes since the Rising, and anyone who tried breaking into one of their installations wound up on trial for treason, if they were lucky We’d always coitimate entrances, whether ere supposed to be there or not It had been so long since their external security was tested that they weren’t prepared for a set inside

The fence was only a few yards farther away than I expected; our n for the rest of the job I tossed one of the bridging cords to Becks, jerking ether, waving for Mahir to stay back He didn’t argue

I told you he was a ser toward Becks She nodded, holding up two fingers of her own When ere both holding up three fingers, we leaned forward and snapped the bridging cords into place A bright blue spark arced through the of ozone Becks squeaked, and all the hair on my arms stood on end

Slowly, I reached forward and wrapped h the links of fence between the cords Nothing happened Our bridge was successful; the current was no longer routing through this patch of fencing I gestured for the others to come closer and pulled a pair of wire cutters out of my coat pocket

It took only athe Seattle CDC from the abandoned fields behind it Then ere onto the , waiting for the sirens to start going off