"If you shoot him, the whole damn street will be swarming with corporate suits in ten seconds flat," Seraphyne hissed, her fingers wrapping around Vaelric’s unmutated left wrist and yanking his arm down before the heavy metallic fingers could close entirely around Garrett’s throat. Garrett stumbled backward against the fender of his transport rig, coughing violently as he clawed at his collar, his face flushed a mottled shade of purple. "Crazy bastard!" the smuggler gasped, wheezing for air as he glared up at Vaelric with terrified, bloodshot eyes. "You’re out of your mind! Both of you!" "Shut up and open the bay doors," Vaelric growled, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that sounded like grinding tectonic plates. The golden veins beneath his skin flared into a sudden, blinding amber pulse, casting harsh, flickering shadows across the grease-stained walls of the garage. "We don't have time for your theatrics."

 "The engine's flooding!" Seraphyne screamed over the deafening roar of the corporate armored cars grinding their heavy treads into the loose gravel of the mountain pass. "If I turn it over again without clearing the lines, we’re going to blow the manifold right off the block!" "Then clear it, fast!" Vaelric bellowed, his massive obsidian hand gripping the passenger-side door frame so hard the rusted metal groaned and crumpled under the pressure of his unholy strength. Outside, the flash of rifle muzzles painted the darkening pine trees in rapid, violent strokes of white light. "Because if you don't, we won't have to worry about the manifold! They’re lining up their sights on the cab right now!" "I am working as fast as I can!" she snapped back, her face flushed with the biting mountain wind and the absolute terror of their impossible position. Her hands, caked in black grease and dirt from the logging camp, fumbled

 "Hold on!" Seraphyne screamed, her hands slamming the gearshift down into first with a violent wrench that made the transmission shriek in protest. The battered flatbed truck leaped forward like a wounded animal stung by a whip, its rear tires spinning furiously against the loose mountain gravel before catching traction with a sharp cloud of dust and smoke. Fifty yards ahead of them, the corporate barricade loomed like a wall of iron and malice, two heavy armored scout cars angled perfectly across the narrow pass with their mounted searchlights blindingly bright. "They're tracking us!" Vaelric bellowed over the deafening roar of the overworked engine, his body thrown violently against the door as Seraphyne cut the wheel hard to the left. "Watch the left flank! The ditch is too steep—if we flip here, we're finished!" "I'm not flipping!" Seraphyne yelled back, her eyes wide, locked on the gap between th

 "Hold on!" Seraphyne screamed, her voice tearing as the flatbed truck slammed through the gap in the corporate barricade with a deafening screech of twisted metal and shattering glass. The truck violently fishtailed across the frozen asphalt of the mountain pass, its rear bumper clipping the steel flank of an armored scout car with a thunderous CLANG that sent a shower of orange sparks dancing into the freezing night air. "Keep it straight!" Vaelric roared, his massive, obsidian-plated right arm wedged hard against the dashboard to brace himself as the vehicle careened toward a blind, hairpin curve. "Don't let the rear slide out—if we lose traction here, we're tumbling down the ravine!" "I know what I'm doing!" Seraphyne yelled back, her knuckles stark white as she fought the bucking steering wheel with every ounce of her strength. Her breath came in ragged, hyperventilating gasps, her chest heaving a

 "Out. Now," Seraphyne snapped, shoving her door open against a heavy drift of crusted snow as the truck's engine died with a final, pathetic wheeze. "The radiator's blown, and if those corporate scouts have thermal optics on their drones, this hunk of junk is basically a giant glowing beacon in the dark." Vaelric swung his massive, obsidian-plated right leg out of the passenger side, his boots crunching heavily onto the frozen logging road. He winced, his face twisting in a sharp grimace as he tried to shift his weight. "Easy to say when your arm doesn't weigh as much as an entire engine block." "Then don't carry your arm, carry the rucksack," Seraphyne retorted without missing a beat, tossing the heavy canvas pack squarely into his chest before he could steady himself. She grabbed a heavy crowbar from the truck bed, her breath pluming in jagged, white clouds against the freezing night air. "And keep your voice down. The wind i