"Jaka, stay put at the primary platform," Kanya ordered, her voice cutting through the damp air like a drawn blade as she checked the magazine of her sidearm with a sharp click. "Mara, I need two of your sharpest scouts to watch the southern ventilation shafts. If those bounty hunters bypass the bypass, they’ll try to flank us from the lower drainage pipes.""You think I'm going to stand here and knit while Bambang drags a two-hundred-pound cast-iron range straight into a crossfire?" Jaka demanded, slamming his stainless-steel prep knife onto the wooden cutting board with enough force to make the cleavers hanging on the rack rattle. "He's carrying the heavy chassis by himself because our cargo cart threw a wheel yesterday. He won't even hear them coming over the screech of the gears."Mara spat another stream of tobacco onto the platform edge, her single eye narrowing as she looked between the chef and the security enforcer. "The cook’s got a point, Kanya. You

"Forget the bounty hunters," Kanya shouted over the mounting, metallic roar of thousands of gallons of pressurized storm runoff slamming against the upper drainage infrastructure. "If we don't clear the jam at the primary sluice gate right now, the entire West Concourse tunnel is going to turn into a high-speed flume! Jaka, grab the heavy winch poles and get those prep tables up on the upper rack brackets immediately!"Jaka didn't hesitate, his hands already gripping the edges of his primary stainless-steel prep table as water began to spill in thin, freezing sheets over the edge of the lower platform. "And leave my spice inventory down here to dissolve into a muddy soup? Not a chance! Help me heave this rack higher before the overflow hits the bottom shelves!""There's no time to save every sack of paprika, Jaka!" Mara barked, her single eye wild as she wrenched a heavy iron pry bar from her tool belt and shoved it into Kanya’s hands. "The water level in the