Rogue by Mark Walden

the upper left corner of the array and realised that he’d found his targets. Captured on the screen were several familiar faces. He reached for the transmit button on his comms unit and was about to relay the position of the fleeing group when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. He sucked a quick involuntary breath through his teeth as the pain intensified. He knew that he had to report the position of the targets, but something was stopping him from speaking. He fought against the block, knowing what he was supposed to do, but still he couldn’t speak. It was as if somewhere inside his head a tiny voice was screaming at him to ignore orders, to let them get away. He took a long deep breath and forced himself to focus. Then he pressed the button and spoke.
    ‘All units, targets are heading to the roof via the east stairwell.’
    ‘Roger that,’ Ghost’s voice said in his earpiece. ‘Moving to intercept.’

    Raven looked down the gap between the guard rails around the concrete staircase as she heard the sound of raised voices from several floors below. Heavily armed men were pouring into the stairwell, a couple of them looking upwards to spot their fleeing quarry.
    ‘Keep moving,’ she hissed at Nero and the lone G.L.O.V.E. guard, who were struggling to carry their injured burden towards the door at the top of the stairs. As they approached the door Raven pushed past them and opened it, popping her head through the doorway to check that the corridor beyond was clear. Seeing nothing, she beckoned the other two forward.
    ‘Get to the hangar doors. I’ll be right behind you,’ she said quickly. As the door closed behind the two men she looked back down the stairwell. Their pursuers were now just a couple of floors below her. Too close. She detached one of the two small cylinders that were strapped to the tactical webbing on the left side of her chest, popped off the small protective cap with her thumb and pressed the stud on top. She waited for two interminable seconds and then dropped the metal tube, already turning to run as it tumbled through the seemingly bottomless void in the centre of the stairwell. As it passed the level of the pursuing H.O.P.E. assault team it detonated with an enormous bang and a bright white flash of light. The few men on the stairs who had been wearing night vision goggles were blinded instantly, perhaps permanently. The others were stunned by the concussive force of the explosion and sent reeling, their hands covering their damaged ears.
    As Raven ran down the corridor towards the hangar doors she knew that she had only bought them thirty seconds, a minute at most. More worrying was the fact that Darkdoom was no longer even groaning. He had gone silent and his skin was pale and clammy. If they could get him to the Shroud she could try to stabilise him, but he was losing too much blood. She only needed to look at the crimson trail that he was leaving on the ground to see that.
    They reached the heavy steel doors that sealed off the hangar, and Raven stabbed at the button that would normally open them, unsurprised by the lack of response. She hit the switch on the hilt of one of her swords and configured the variable geometry force field along its blade to the sharpest possible cutting edge. She pressed the tip of the blade to the cold metal of the door and pushed, the crackling point of the sword sinking into the toughened metal with ease. She pulled downwards firmly, the blade sliding through the steel with a hum, the metal of the door glowing white hot along the thin line she was carving. Raven finished the first cut and proceeded to make another one, forming a low rectangle. She pulled the sword out again, sliding it into the scabbard on her back, and gave the door a solid kick. The weakened section fell into the room beyond with a loud clang and Raven watched as Nero and the security guard carefully manoeuvred Darkdoom through. She glanced back down the corridor as she followed