A daring escape

Ellin raised his face. His mouth was half-open in shock; the tears that sparkled in his eyes in the dim electric light made him look vulnerable and gentle—like a princess awaiting her knight in shining armour. "Xia… what… how?"

Eve also had questions on her mind, but it wasn't the time for them right now. She took her things from Xia and put them on in a hurry. While she did that, Xia threw Ellin his.

"Come, Lin-Lin! Less crying, more moving!" Her frown deepened. "I don't know how much we have until someone will call the alarm."

Ellin shook his head and wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve. When he stood up again, his dazzling grin was back. "Who's crying there? That wasn't me, it was my secret crybaby twin. Alright, let's go!"

Xia led Eve and Ellin out of the basement. Right outside of their cell, in a puddle of blood, was lying a decapitated corpse of their guard. Eve's stomach churned from the sight of it and the coppery tang of blood, but neither Xia nor Ellin gave it more than a glance. As they walked, Xia quietly explained the situation.

"I had to seduce Beetle to learn where your things are and when Eugen's paralysis was going to wear off, but it was a few hours ago, so he should be asleep like the rest right now. There are two guards in front of this building, but we can get to the roof and climb from the other side. After that, we only need to get past the sentries on the gates and get as far from the base as possible before anyone notices our escape. I've done harder missions than that!"

In this kind of situation, Xia's graceful way of walking and the professionalism with which she held the pistol were impossible to miss. Even in front of her overall childish appearance, they stood out. Eve narrowed her eyes. 'She must have been a part of the Chinese invading army… That doesn't matter anymore. I doubt there is anything left from governments now.'

Aloud, she said, "We can steal a car."

"But we don't have any keys," Ellin voiced a doubt.

"I doubt many people there have keys. Half of these cars must be hacked already."

"Good idea, Sister Eve! They will have a much harder time looking for us this way!" Xia grinned.

Nobody stood in their way as the trio run through the narrow corridors of the building. With no problems, they got to the roof. It met them with cool night air and a dark sky overhead. No stars were in sight, just like they weren't in sight for the last dozen of years because of the air pollution.

The building was only five storeys high—for superhumans like them, it wasn't much of an obstacle. Still, Eve felt heady when looking down from the edge. To her side, Ellin gulped. In the end, it was Xia who took the lead. She clung to window ledges and cracks in the walls like a monkey. Eve watched her carefully from her spot above; when Xia touched the ground, Eve copied her route perfectly. After that there was only Ellin standing on the roof, left to climb down on his own. He was getting down slowly, carefully probing for the next foothold.

Eve didn't know where to look—at Ellin, to catch him if he falls, or around, to notice if someone went out for a late night stroll. In contrast, Xia didn't have such problems, but the more time Ellin spent climbing, the more pronounced her pout became. But as soon as Ellin's feet touched the ground, it disappeared into nowhere, changing into a serious expression.

There was no one guarding the car park. Some cars had writings or tablets with names or numbers put on them to show their owner, but it was the only security feature. Eve frowned, watching this.

"Aren't they too easy to steal?" she asked. "Isn't our escape… generally too easy?"

"Sh-h! Don't curse us!" Xia said immediately. "Better bless Cole and Eugen's arrogance and help us look for a hacked car!"

"I think we should bless you instead, Xia." Ellin grinned at her, earning a bashful giggle in response.

As Eve predicted, most of the cars in the park were hacked a long time ago. The real problem was discerning them from those that weren't and avoiding hitting any car alarms. It was really hard to understand which car was and which wasn't safe to steal by just looking at the electronic dashboards from the cars' windows.

"This is Jayce's car, but I know he has a key," Ellin pointed out. "Damn, I feel like a minesweeper!"

It was then that Eve stepped in to save the night. "Hold on, I got it."

She scratched her chin and came up to one of the nicer-looking cars. She put a hand on its side and closed her eyes. Eve only needed to think about it, and the messages appeared in front of her mind's eye.

[Another device detected. Establishing a connection…]

[Connection established successfully.]

After that, it differed from what Eve worked with before. The code used in car control's was much simpler than that in nanite cores, but also absolutely unfamiliar to her. Right now, though, she only needed to check one thing. It didn't take her long to find the settings' variables. Eve tried to change one of them at random—it did so without any questions.

Eve returned it to how it was and opened her eyes. A corner of her lips curled up. "This one is good."

Ellin grinned back. "Great! Let's get in!"

"Wait, we need to get rid of the sentries and open the gates first," Xia reminded them. "There're two of them, so to avoid raising an alarm we must kill them at the same time."

Eve pursed her lips, but nodded. 'These people don't seem to be innocents. Cole even mentioned some Chainsaws Gang before…' Still, it was very different from taking off zombies' heads. Zombies didn't bleed.

The sentries were stationed in a small booth next to the base's wall. One stayed inside, while another on the outside. The plan to get them was simple in theory—Ellin would use his water power to silence and drown the sentries, while Eve and Xia's job was to not let them do anything until that happens.

"Use this." Before they set to execute the plan, Xia handled Eve a small knife. "It's more convenient than a sword for this kind of thing."

Eve nodded and looked Xia over. Besides a gun that was poking out of her pocket, there were no other visible weapons on Xia's person. Eve wanted to ask about it, but felt that it would be stupid. 'I'm sure she knows a lot of ways to kill someone without a weapon.'

The three of them set off. The gates were brightly lit with an electrical lamp that looked like a streetlamp that someone moved over. In its light Eve could see the faces of the sentries. One on the outside of the booth was unfamiliar; another belonged to the couple that met Eve and Ellin last time, but she didn't know his name. 'Either way, he is going to die soon. It's only better that I don't know.'

Eve and Xia split their targets—Eve was going for the sentry on the outside, since it was easier. When they were ready, Ellin raised his hands into the air; following his movements, two large spheres of water gathered behind the sentries' heads from the thin air. In the next second, they enveloped their heads, changing whatever cries of alarm the sentries had into muffled gurgles.

At the same time, Eve and Xia sprung into action. The handle of the pocketknife in Eve's hand was slippery from sweat as she rushed out of her hiding place towards the frantically trying to get his head out of water sentry. The muscles, enforced by nanites, brought her to him in a fraction of a second. Eve grasped the knife tighter and slashed at the man's neck.

It was as easy as cutting butter; but as Eve saw a deep red gash widening on the sentry's neck, a deafening bang rang in her ears. Then, she felt a burning pain in her side; looking down, Eve saw that one of the sentry's hands held a gun pointed at her. In the next second, the man listlessly fell down. Blood flowed in a steam out of the slash on his neck, pouring on Eve and mixing with her own.

Eve dropped her knife and clutched at her wound. From the side, she could hear worried voices of Ellin and Xia, but her mind was blurred at the moment. She closed her eyes.