“Understood,” Hargrove replied.
On the field generated by the datastream detailing the battle, Leah watched her designation change from BLUE SCOUT to SATCHEL TEAM THREE.
“Good hunting, Satchel Team Three,” Hargrove told her.
“Yes sir. Thank you, sir.”
The alley was a dead end. A twenty-foot wall blocked the way. On the map she had, the alley had been shown as unblocked. She cursed, knowing that the intel they’d had on the op was sloppy. She didn’t completely blame the agents who’d done the recon. Keeping up with the demons and their machinations was almost impossible.
“Up, Leah.”
She glanced over her shoulder and saw Wickersham there.
“I’ve got your six,” he told her. Smoking ruin showed on his left shoulder where a Darkspawn shooter had winged him. Blood ran over the black material.
“You’re injured,” Leah said.
“We’re going to be dead if you don’t hurry.”
Behind him, Darkspawn entered the alley.
Leah slung the satchel charge over one shoulder and holstered the Thermal Bolter. She pressed a button on her left control wristband. The suits they wore weren’t as automated as those of the Templar. Many things remained manually operated.
Microscopic hooks shifted out of the pads of her gloves, elbows, and knees. More sprouted from the toes of her reinforced boots. When she reached the alley wall, she threw herself onto it and slammed her palms, elbows, knees, and boot toes against the stone and mortar. The hooks dug into the stone and provided her enough purchase to slither up the wall quick as a lizard. The climbing was a practiced maneuver, and she’d spent weeks perfecting it.
Wickersham followed her in the same fashion.
Near the top, Leah paused, gathered herself, and launched herself toward the wall’s edge. She caught hold of it and hauled herself up. A heartbeat later, Wickersham landed beside her. Energy bolts crashed against the wall and sizzled through the air around them.
Leah ran along the wall toward the building in the direction of O2. She threw herself against it and slithered up another two stories to reach the roof, then hauled herself over.
Wickersham came over as well, but he landed awkwardly and went facedown. He loosed a muffled yelp of pain, then a curse. He rolled into a sitting position and pushed himself to his feet.
“They’re climbing,” Wickersham said.
Leah reached into her pack and took out a HARP grenade. When she had it, she slammed the grenade against the rooftop to activate the timer. The grenade pulsed blue as it started its countdown.
Using the overhead recon available through the bot-supplied images, Leah shoved the grenade over the rooftop’s edge and dropped it into the mass of Darkspawn Troopers forming a flesh-and-blood ladder to scale the building wall. It was two stories, but the demons had plenty of bodies.
The grenade landed in the writhing mass. A few of the Darkspawn recognized the threat and tried to bail from the top of the wall. It was wasted effort, though. The grenade went off, and the blue-white glare filled the alley.
Leah glanced over the side and saw that the largest knot of demons had disappeared. Arms, legs, heads, and torsos littered the ground to mark the radius of the blast. A large section of the wall had disintegrated as well.
And so had a huge piece of the building.
The rooftop shuddered and shifted with a groan.
Realizing the danger, Leah grabbed Wickersham’s armor harness and yanked him into motion. “The support columns on this side of the building are gone,” she shouted.
Both of them ran, barely managing to stay ahead of the building’s collapse as the rooftop dropped. The destruction gathered force and intensity, sounding like a wave crashing in their wake.
When they reached the rooftop’s edge, a forty-foot span opened over the street below. The four-story drop to the street level was manageable, but the demons held the area. If they dropped into the street, Leah knew they wouldn’t last a moment.
“The other side,” she gasped, and launched herself into the air with all the power of her augmented suit. “It’s the only chance.” She took flight like a human missile.
Wickersham was only a split second behind her. He flailed awkwardly through the air high above the street fighting. Some of the Darkspawn below saw them and recognized them for what they were. Bullets, beams, and arcane forces tracked Leah and Wickersham across the street.
Leah knew she couldn’t hope to catch the building’s rooftop. She angled her descent toward the windows because she didn’t think her suit’s armor would manage the collision with the building.
“The windows,” she yelled to Wickersham. She didn’t know if he heard her or tried to respond. In the next instant she smashed through the glass. Glittering shards arced through the air and caught the gleam of fires and weapons discharges.
Empty clothing racks covered the shop’s floor. Everything worth taking had been taken years ago. Leah gasped as the impact drove the wind from her lungs. Then she lie on the floor, tucked into a fetal position, hands wrapped over her head and knees tucked in to protect her stomach.
When she was sure—and surprised—that she was still alive, Leah pushed herself to her feet and stared back out the shattered window. Darkspawn Troopers ran toward the store.
Behind them, the collapsing building fell into the street. Tons of stone, mortar, and glass slammed over the massed Darkspawn. What had only seconds ago been a mistake now became a savage blow struck against the demons.
Leah dived back down as stray bits of stone and mortar crashed through other windows in the shop. The suit’s audio receptors struggled to keep up and finally failed out during the crescendo. She got her breath back as debris pelted her. After making sure she still had the satchel, she unlimbered the Thermal Bolter.
Three Darkspawn crawled through the broken window. Leah fired three rockets into them. The front of the store turned into an inferno, and the concussion of the explosions blew the Darkspawn back out onto the street.
Another demon tried to force its way
