The Society (A Broken World Book 1) by Dean Murray

stun-baton. Darkness tried to claim me. I couldn't move, but I still refused to let myself fall unconscious until after I saw the baton slam into Megan as well.
    I'd underestimated Megan, secure in the supposed superiority of my nanites, but I wasn't going to repeat that mistake. Shattered ribs, blown knee, broken arm, none of that mattered as long as Megan was conscious. As long as she could still move she was dangerous.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    Present time
    Traveling at night was dangerous, but I needed to get out of Piter's territory before sunrise or I risked being trapped on the wrong side of his barricades. I'd gotten extra sleep before my drop into the city, but hadn't wanted to get too far off of a normal sleeping schedule—it was one more difference from those around me that I hadn't been sure would have been justified.
    It meant that I was exhausted by the time I reached the barricade on the far side of Piter's territory. Luckily I seemed to have arrived before word of Bash and the other enforcer made it to the border. That meant that security along the barricade wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was still significant. I saw the expected collection of clubs, knives and swords hanging from the belts of the enforcers on Piter's side of the barricade, but there were also several blocky, two-hundred-year-old firearms in evidence.
    That was concerning—I was fast, but nobody could outrun a bullet. The Society's intelligence on this section of the city was better than what we had on the territories of most of the other warlords, but it still left a lot to be desired. I knew there had to be ways through the barricade, routes used by smugglers and others who profited on moving goods and people to other territories, but I didn't have any contacts on the ground, and despite my hopes from before I'd jumped out of the plane, I wasn't going to have time to perform any kind of detailed analysis of the perimeter.
    If Piter was anything like most of the warlords, he couldn't care less about murders that happened inside of his territory—unless they happened to his enforcers. Crimes against his men were one of the few things that he couldn't afford to turn a blind eye to. Piter would have someone publicly executed before the sun set again.
    Justice inside of grubber cities was swift and less concerned with accuracy than it was with creating deterrents. I knew better than to let my guard down though. Executing some poor individual who was in the wrong place at the wrong time wouldn't stop Piter from continuing to look for the actual murderer. He couldn't afford to let me get away any more than he could afford to let his 'citizens' think that I'd gotten away.
    My only way to make sure that I was beyond Piter's grasp was to find a way across the barricade and into the territory to the north of his, the territory where my target lived.
    I spent nearly twenty minutes scouting Piter's northern border without any luck. I found a couple of likely holes in the wall of metal and wood that ran from building to building, but each and every one of them was guarded by at least two guys. It spoke volumes that Piter was so concerned about keeping everyone in his territory from leaving, but I suspected that it was much the same in any of the territories controlled by the various warlords who ran the city.
    I could feel the clock ticking down with each passing minute. With all of the disruption from the bombing, and the late start that Piter had awarded all of his people, there was a chance that the two bodies I'd left behind me wouldn't be discovered until dawn, but it would be foolish to rely on that. There was no choice but to go inside one of the buildings on the border.
    It was risky—once I was inside there were fewer options when it came to running away from any pursuit. Even more concerning was the likelihood I would quickly be recognized as a stranger by the building's normal occupants, but the buildings were the last possible