Back at the security office, Malachi wrestled with an agent. When Tila had opened the door for them to run Typhon had vanished but left two agents in the lobby. Tila had rushed to fight one, leaving Malachi to fend for himself. Malachi was young and strong, but fear and raw power alone was not enough to overcome the agent's advanced training, and Malachi quickly found himself on the floor with one arm twisted at a painful angle and his thumb forced back against his wrist.

The agent knelt between Malachi's shoulders, flicked open his stun-stick, and jabbed Malachi under the arm. The stick flashed. The air smelled of ozone. Malachi yelped in agony, and bucked against the pain, but escape was impossible.

The agent raised the stick again.

Tila sprinted through the lobby, her staff pointing forward like a spear. She jammed it into a broken floor tile and vaulted over a desk. Turning as she jumped, Tila struck the agent in the face with her heel. He dropped Malachi's arm, rolled away and climbed to his feet. He ran at Tila, stick raised. Tila whipped her staff around and parried his first strike, deflected the second and took him to the floor by hooking it under one arm. She snatched the stun-stick, thumbed the power button, and smacked it against his temple. The stick flashed. The air smelled of ozone. The agent fell and did not rise.

Tila dropped the stick next to the agent's unconscious body and offered Malachi her hand.

He took it and Tila pulled him to his feet. It was hard to miss his grimace of pain.

'I'm sorry. These agents are tough. I had to separate them. Are you hurt?'

'It'll be okay.'

'Good. We need someone to fly us out of here.'

'You can fly the Rhino if you have to.'

'Yeah, but it won't be as pretty as you.'

'Uh-oh.' Malachi pointed over her shoulder with his good hand. 'Reinforcements?'

'Back door?'

'This way. There's a garage underground.'

They hopped over the bodies both groaning and silent and ran for the elevators at the rear of the lobby.

'Can you get us a cruiser.'

'No need.' He winked. 'Kian's been very generous. He won't mind if I borrow it again.'

'That is generous of him. We should thank him,' said Tila. She grinned back, ignoring the tension and the pain. 'You sure you're okay?'

Malachi cradled his wrist as Tila pressed the button to call the elevator. 'It's not broken, and I won't be punching anybody, but I can still fly. It's just painful.'

'Just like all our memories of this place. It'll fit right in.' She glanced back at the main doors. 'They're coming,' she said, hammering the button with her index finger. 'Come on, come on.'

Behind them, four more agents stepped over the broken glass at the lobby threshold with weapons raised. They fanned out and crept forward.

Finally, the elevator chimed its arrival, and the door opened.

Typhon showed his teeth as the elevator doors parted.

'There you are, and with your friend too.'

'Let me guess,' said Malachi.

Tila hammered at the close button. 'That's right. Run!' She pulled Malachi's bad arm and ran for the stairs. 'Up here.'

Typhon stepped through the door and clapped his hands. His gauntlets flared to life with a crackle, under lighting his face with white fire.

'Shoot them,' he ordered the agents.

Tila and Malachi took the stairs three at a time. Needler rounds buzzed past their ears like mosquitoes and pinged off hard surfaces.

Typhon strode to the middle of the lobby to watch the chase. Tila and Malachi had reached the mezzanine and were out of sight. Typhon ordered three agents up the stairs. The fourth he held back to cover any attempt at escape.

Upstairs, one agent drew his stun-stick. Typhon heard a yell and a crash, and an ornamental tree above him wobbled as an agent materialised through the branches and fell with a thump all the way to the lobby floor.

The sound of fighting rang out. Each chime was accompanied by a grunt. Each grunt louder and angrier than the one before. Metal rang against metal against metal against flesh. The second agent rolled down the stairs.

Typhon watched the fight unfold with interest. These were good agents. Not his best, he admitted, but then this was supposed to be a routine arrest. And here they were getting an education in close fighting from some Juggernaut scrat. A nobody from nowhere.

The third agent suddenly appeared flat against the low glass wall of the mezzanine. There was a flurry of movement as he fought someone to a standstill. The sound of the fight changed. Tila's face appeared over the balcony. The agent pushed her. She sidestepped and vanished. Then another fist swung at the agent. The boy. The agent ducked. Typhon saw the staff raise and fall like an axe. He heard a fleshy thump.

One hand gripped the rail of the mezzanine wall, and Tila pulled herself up. She looked at the defeated agent with an expression of relief and contempt. She rubbed her shoulder and said something to the boy. Malachi, Typhon remembered. Then she looked directly at Typhon and walked to the top of the stairs.

Typhon clenched his fists in anticipation. This girl had caused more than enough trouble. Conway was going to pay for the damage in here anyway. A little more wouldn't make any difference.

Typhon rolled his head around his neck. First, he would beat this scrat into submission, then her friend, then go back for the princess. This time there would be no one to save her.

Tila took the last step down into the lobby and paused. The environment had changed again. Desks and chairs were out of position. Glass covered most of the floor. What was left of the doors was wide open. Most of the walls were glass and they were wide open too. Only one large pane of glass was still intact. Getting through the door would be the easy part, but first they had to get past the gatekeeper.

'We're leaving,' said Tila, as Malachi joined her.

'You're both under arrest,' said Typhon. The agent next to him powered on his stun-stick.

Without looking, Tila pointed her staff at the nearest unconscious agent. 'That's what he said, too.'

'Uh, Tila,' Malachi whispered, 'Can't we just run past them?'

'I don't know. Typhon is quick.'

'You fought him already?'

'Back at the house. He attacked Ellie.'

'What? Is she safe?'

'I don't know,' she admitted. 'We had a fight.'

'When did this happen? I thought you were getting along again.'

'After I rescued her.'

'From him?'

Tila nodded. 'And I'm going to make sure he never threatens her again.'

Malachi nodded and braced himself for painful times ahead.

'What can I do?' he said.

'Stay out of the way.'

'The door is open,' Typhon taunted. 'You're free to join your young friend.'

'She's safe from you now,' said Tila.

'Is she?' said Typhon.

'Please tell me he's bluffing,' said Malachi.

Tila took a step forward and to one side. They would have to go around. 'Why do you want to arrest us? We haven't done anything wrong,' she said.

'That's not for me to decide. I bring you in. What happens next is nothing to do with me.'

'What does happen next?'

'I don't know, and honestly I don't care. All I have to do is make sure you can still answer questions.'

'We already answered Conway's questions, but he never answered ours. He stole our data.'

Typhon and the agent took a step backward and to the side, matching Tila's movement.

'I don't work for Conway.'

Tila glanced at Malachi.

'Not Conway?' said Malachi.

'Then who?' said Tila.

'I can show you, if you'll just step this way.'

'No thanks,' said Tila, 'We'll leave instead.' She whispered to Malachi, 'Get ready.'

The agent standing with Typhon touched two fingers to his ear and nodded in reply to some unseen messenger. He nodded at Typhon.

'I can't let you do that, young lady. And it seems I have no more time to talk.'

'Now or never, right?'

'Something like that.'

Tila attacked first. She spun forward, whipping the staff around her head and building momentum until she struck. Typhon barely moved but when the staff struck the floor he was already standing somewhere else.

The bedroom fight had confined their actions. The limited space forced both Tila and Typhon to make smaller strikes, take smaller steps. Here in the open space of the lobby there was room to move. Their battle expanded to fill the available space like a Boyle's law of conflict.

Meanwhile, Malachi circled the agent, distracting more than fighting. He knew he couldn't do much with his damaged wrist, but at least he could stop Tila's fight becoming a two-on-one.

Every time Tila struck or jabbed with her staff Typhon was somewhere else. He ducked, retreated, or sidestepped every blow. She was used to fighting mooks on the Juggernaut, but this man was trained and disciplined, and far, far more dangerous. She would have to be more cunning. She would have to learn faster.

Malachi feinted by lunging at the agent, but his first and only clumsy attempt was met with a quick counterpunch that left him reeling, and a kick to the knee that sent him sprawling to the floor. Winded and bloody, Malachi coughed and crawled back to his feet, and the agent returned to the fight without missing a beat.

Tila was learning fast. She noticed Typhon never wasted an action. That was something she could use. Tila faked a strike to one side of Typhon's face. He dodged the other way, but just as Tila expected he moved only enough to avoid the hit. That meant his face would be there, instead of there.

Tila jabbed her staff at Typhon's head. Her lead hand let go, she took one step closer and struck him square on the nose with the back of her fist.

Blood seeped from his broken nose, but Typhon didn't flinch. He grabbed Tila's staff and yanked it forward. Tila refused to release her grip and was pulled forward, but she was too alert be caught off balance. With teeth bared, she brought one foot up and planted it against Typhon's hip to deny him leverage.

Typhon let go the staff. He caught Tila's leg with one gauntleted hand, grabbed a handful of clothing from her shoulder with the other, and lifted her bodily from the floor. His fingers squeezed tight like a pressure door sealing shut. Tila grunted and pounded his head with her fist. Typhon slammed her back into the floor.

Tila braced herself for the worst of the impact, but it was still a stunning blow that knocked the wind from her. It was disorientating enough that she didn't notice the glass fragments embedding themselves in her clothing and flesh. Pinpricks floated before her eyes. She tasted blood, and her tongue hurt.

Tila tried to roll to the left, but a desk blocked her way. She rolled right, saw movement and pulled her hand clear a fraction of a second before Typhon stamped where her fingers had been.

He reached down and wrapped his fingers around Tila's neck one more time. His thumbs caressed her throat, and then he squeezed.

The gauntlet flared with white lightning.

Tila didn't know if she screamed. Her voice was gone. Her body betrayed her. It spasmed against the gauntlet's shock. Quicksilver flashes of star-white energy clawed through her nerves and tore across her skin.

It lasted a second. It felt like a lifetime.

And Tila was afraid.