Double parked behind Kogami on the boulevard outside of Dis, Luda shook his head from side to side as he admired the exquisite lines of the Porsche beneath the street lights. "This car right here. She's one of a kind."

"So is Rocio," Kogami said, speaking around the cigarette in his mouth. Hands in his pockets, he leaned against the quarter panel of the car and eyed the underground pit boss with a grin. "You two a permanent thing?"

"All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room."

"The most esteemed Blaise Pascal? Doesn't quite answer the question." He held Luda's gaze from beneath the thick forelock of his black hair.

"When I look at her, the world doesn't exist. I mean, it does, but it all slows down, and I can finally sit still in the room. She makes the best in me possible."

"And?"

"And we just found out this morning, she's expecting. So yeah, is this a permanent thing? I hope so." Luda stroked his chin, and then pretending to throw a punch, he playful thumped Kogami's chest. "And you? What's a nice girl like that doing with a lone wolf like you?"

Kogami narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hard lessons can lead to a hard head and an even harder heart. Something tells me, you've had some hard lessons, and still she sticks by you."

Kogami swallowed hard and bowed his head. When it came to any matters pertaining to Akane, he was undeniably weak. "I honestly don't know what she sees in me."

"Something she clearly doesn't see in anybody else." He took Kogami by the shoulders and gave him a shake from melancholy. "And that ain't such a bad thing."

Abruptly, frantic screaming came from inside the club. Scores of frightened people sprinted through the entrance where they scrambled in all directions on the sidewalks, even disrupting traffic in the street. Luda's phone chimed with an incoming text. "It's Rocio: 911. Something's wrong." He reached into his coat and pulled a .380 from a concealed shoulder holster. "You strapped?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Kogami asked. He tossed the cigarette to the ground.

As the two men were poised to force their way through the panic-stricken crowd and back into the club, Rocio came running from the doors among the runners.

"Luda, there were men with guns," she said breathlessly. Her arms instinctively went to her stomach to protect the unborn child growing within her. "They tried to trap me and Akane in the bathroom."

"Where is she?" Kogami asked.

"They weren't interested in me. Akane knocked the hell out of one of them and told me to start running. She took off in the opposite direction."

"Did they follow her?" Luda asked. Two gunshots came in answer to his question.

"That came from the back of the club," Rocio said, "not inside it."

"Virgil, priority initialization."

The face of the Roman poet appeared as a hologram above the screen of Luda's phone. "How may I serve, Lord Patriarch?"

"Locate Cerberus' navigator and any inbound hostiles. Now, Virgil!"

A magnified city grid appeared where the poet's face had been. "The navigator is on the other side of the municipal parking garage, one block north, and moving quickly. Local feeds show two hostiles moving in on her. Shall I send a distress call to the nearest law enforcement authority?"

"How far away are the cops?"

"Too far!" Kogami shouted. He sprinted back to the Porsche and slid across the hood in one smooth motion. "They'll never get here in time!"

"Then let's go!" Luda said. He took Rocio by the arm and ushered her back to their Corvette.

"We don't know what's going on," Kogami said. "Get Rocio to safety. I've got this."

"Not by yourself, you don't," Luda said. "Virgil download the navigator's coordinates to Patriarch Cerberus. Summon the Patriarchs and Denizens. All hands on deck."

"Fury itself supplies arms," the AI replied. "Priority request for assistance to all hands has been dispatched. Priority: reunification of Patriarch Cerberus and his navigator."

Kogami got in the car and slammed the door. As if knowing the urgency of the situation, the Porsche roared to life, quick to respond to his demands. Tires shrieking, BabyGirl raced down the street and drifted through the intersection as Kogami made a severe right turn at the corner of the parking garage tower.

"She's on the move," Virgil said over the car's speakers. The city grid appeared on the dashboard console. "But alas, so are the jackals." Akane's signal was displayed as a black queen being pursued by two white pawns.

Glancing at the map, Kogami took a quick left into a narrow alley. He took his foot off the accelerator for a heartbeat. It was just enough time to shift the Porsche's weight from the rear tires to the front. Then getting back on the throttle, he sent the car into a sideways power slide that brought the Porsche back into traffic on the the main boulevard.

"Incoming call," Virgil said calmly. "It is the navigator."

"Kogami?"

The Enforcer was relieved to hear her voice. "Where are you?"

"There were two men chasing me, but I gave them the slip in a parking garage near the night club."

"Are you somewhere safe?"

"No, there are more of them," Akane whispered. Despite the desperate situation, she was remarkably calm and focused. Kogami would have expected nothing less of a veteran MWPSB Inspector.

"How many of them?"

"I can't be certain. Ten at least. Some traveling on foot and others in sport-utility vehicles. Black ones with tinted windows."

"Like the ones from McNeill's estate."

There was pause of recognition. "Yes."

"Recalculating," Virgil said. "Based on CCTV feed, the danger is imminent, Cerberus." Four more pawns appeared on the GPS map display. "These odds are woeful."

"Send her a crossing that leads to me," Kogami ordered. Following her movements on the map, he ignored a red light and slid through the intersection, barely dodging the cross traffic. Through a cacophony of beeping horns and screeching tires, he made no deviation from the prescribed line to get to her location on the map.

A black king appeared on the grid with a white pawn closing in behind it. Kogami risked a look in the rearview mirror. He could see the black SUV weaving in and out of traffic to get into position behind him. Pressing the accelerator to the floor, the Enforcer raced through the traffic to put as much distance as he could between the SUV and himself. "Akane, can you see me on the map?"

"Kogami, they're behind you."

"Nevermind that. Do whatever you can to dodge the men following you and get to me," he said. "I'm coming for you." Ignoring all laws and safety protocols, he downshifted hard, and the Porsche protested for a moment as he sped through a crowded avenue of Los Angeles.

Too blurry to read, the GPS map winked out and then refreshed, but the screen came back with erratic streaks of color and scattered pixels running like wet paint across the monitor. "Virgil?" Kogami tapped the screen with a knuckle. "Virgil, you there?"

The screen flashed erratically and presented the horrific image of the poet's face. Eyes blackened and smoking, the hologram bled from its nose and mouth. "Bad parameter, Cerberus. Syntax error. I am undone."

"Virgil!"

"Let me rage as I die." The screen went blank. Rebooting, the Porsche's standard navigation screen came up without the city grid or the tell-tale positioning of the key pieces to Kogami's dilemma.

"What happened to Virgil?" Akane asked. "I don't see the crossing anymore."

"I don't know."

"Kogami, they're trying to cut me off!"

"Run, Akane! Keep moving toward my last position!"

Ahead of him, Kogami saw two black SUVs barreling down the boulevard with reckless abandon. Maneuvering the Porsche onto the empty sidewalk, he was able to gain ground on them and shot ahead without any obstructions in his way. The commotion in the street was thinning the night-time traffic. Frightened drivers began to pull over out of the way as news of the wild chase reached their vehicle safety monitors.

Kogami took advantage of the break in traffic and raced headlong down the street. He saw Akane running for her life in the middle of the road. Bracing his arms against the steering wheel, he tapped the brake and brought the Porsche into a lateral skid. Her eyes grew wide and she stopped, petrified with fright, as the car rushed toward her at high velocity. Tires spinning against the asphalt until smoke rose from the spent rubber, BabyGirl came to a halt only a foot away from where Akane stood panting in terror.

"Get in!" Kogami shouted, throwing open the passenger door. As she complied, he got out of the car, his gray eyes narrowed in rage. Drawing the 9mm from the small of his back, he took careful aim and fired at their pursuers.

The first shot took out the driver of the first SUV. His head jerked abruptly backward from the blast. He collapsed onto the steering wheel beneath the blood-smeared windshield. His dead hands cut the wheel sharply to the left and crashed the vehicle into a row of parked vehicles along the curb.

The smaller cars acted like a ramp that promptly launched the SUV into the air. Its unrated velocity propelled the vehicle high into the air where it arched gracefully in flight above Kogami and Akane until gravity brought it back down on the far side of the Porsche. The vehicle landed on the rear bumper and twirled like a ballerina on pointe before landing on a HumVee in another row of cars parked on the other side of the street.

The second SUV braked hard to avoid the same fate. Kogami fired twice through the windshield to take down that driver and his shot-gun wielding passenger. Shielded behind the SUV's doors, the remaining gunmen jumped from the backseat to return fire.

Kogami cried out, more in anger than pain, when a round struck him in the left shoulder. The impact nearly spun him around except for the Porsche behind him to support his compromised balance. Slammed back against the car by the force of the bullet, he dropped to one knee. Taking aim below the SUV's doors, Kogami brought down the gunman by shooting out his ankle and then scored a head shot that instantly killed him.

"Kogami!" Akane screamed.

Firing two more rounds at the farthest gunman, Kogami fell back into the Porsche. He popped the clutch and sped away from the scene with the intention of putting as much distance between the assailants and them as he could. Cutting the wheel hard, he took a severe right turn onto a street that caused the Porsche to drift wide and into the opposite lane of traffic. Agile as a leopard, the Porsche recovered and returned to the right side of the street as Kogami fought for position with the traffic.

"Are you hurt? Were you hit?" Kogami gasped when he tried to flex his shoulder. An insufferable, burning pain throbbed at the site of the injury as the muscles convulsed in acute spasms to compensate for the trauma. "Akane?"

"No, but—Kogami!" Akane's voice went up two octaves with concern. "Are you bleeding?"

Pressing a hand against his shoulder, Kogami groaned as blood trickled between his fingers. Hand tight on the wheel, he took his eyes from the road long enough to inspect the smear of crimson. Teeth grit in pain, he glanced at his shoulder. In the soft blue of the interior display lights, he could see the hole in the leather jacket and the glistening wetness flowing from the wound beneath it.

"Rodriguez won't be happy. This was a nice jacket." He pressed a hand against the wound and winced in pain.

"We have to get you to a hospital."

"If we do that," he said, glancing in the rearview mirror, "we'll be putting a lot of innocent people in danger."

"Then we call for back up," Akane insisted. "This is no different than being back home."

"Only that the bad guys have real guns." Braced against the steering wheel, Kogami pulled the e-brake for a brief second to guide the Porsche's tail into a gentle drift around a tight corner. He drove the car into the opposite lane of traffic and then kicked out the rear end to drift into an abrupt left turn, momentarily outdistancing their pursuers.

"We call for back up now, and we undermine the entire case, Inspector," Kogami said. He didn't regret the harsh tone to his voice. If she was right about one thing, it was that they were not in Japan. There was no Oracle here to measure the extent of the danger. No army of drones was coming to their defense, and while the whole of the LAPD would descend on the city to keep them safe: salvation would come at a terrible cost.

"There's a saying, Inspector. It's from the author of The Inferno. 'No one thinks of how much blood it costs.' We call for help now: not only is our cover blown; the case is blown; and those racers died for nothing. They'll have no justice." He looked over to her, even as she averted her eyes to avoid his gaze. "Can you live with that blood on your hands?"

"I hate when you put things in perspective like that. But Kogami," she argued, pounded her fist against the dashboard, "is this case worth your life?"

"I'm not dead yet, Inspector," he said. "Alright, we can run to Royce and Rodriguez. Right now if you want. But what do we have?" He knew the answers as well as she did. "More circumstantial evidence. An orchestrated attack on two undercover police officers."

"There's no way to connect McNeill to this. Not yet."

"All we know is someone wants this car and would kill for it...a second time."

"That lends a possible motive, but still doesn't tie McNeill to Reese Iazzetti's murder." Akane crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the passenger side window. "The LAPD would be no closer to solving this case than they were before we got to town." She shook her head and sighed.

"Akane, we're doing our job. We're playing the part. Clearly McNeill still wants the car. Enough to abduct you and potentially kill me."

"So what now? Let them chase us down until there's no where to go. At least at the hospital there's security, and if we call for back up, Rodriguez could call in their tactical team ahead of us."

"And when McNeill learns of our sting, he boards a plane and is gone forever. Don't you want justice for Phoenix, if not for her father?"

"Of course, I do, Kogami!" Akane closed her eyes and clung to the loose safety harness as the Porsche slid through a hard left turn, narrowly missing a head-on collision with a garbage truck. "What good are we to Phoenix, if we end up dead like her father. Running from McNeill's hired guns didn't do him much good, now did it? These aren't your average car thieves." Hands on the dashboard, she braced herself for another high-speed maneuver. "Which is why we need to go to the police! Kogami, this operation is over!"

"We aren't your average street racers, Akane. This isn't over until McNeill is behind bars or in a box," Kogami replied. "I prefer the latter."

Barely under Kogami's control, the Porsche swerved in a half-circle and nearly clipped a telephone pole. His hands were slipping on the wheel from a combination of sweat and blood, but he gunned the throttle and let the tires smoke as BabyGirl leaped across three lanes of traffic.

"You're enjoy this." The disappointment in Akane's eyes might have crippled his will and brought him to heel. But their lives were on the line, so there was no room to falter.

"This is what I do, Inspector. I ride the razor's edge and get bloody, so that you don't have to." He gave her a stern look, an expression of frustration, and it worked, because she looked away in defeat. "I'll get us out of this." Kogami's eyes softened as did the tone of his voice. "I promise."

"How?"

"When you're the fox and the hounds are closing. You go to ground."

"We know nothing about this city. And Virgil is offline for some reason." She threw her phone down into her lap. "The only place we have to go are our hotel or the precinct building, and we barely know our way back there."

"Remember this?" Kogami gripped the steering wheel in one hand, downshifted, and tapped the brake. Akane's necklace swung from the rearview mirror like a pendulum helping to calculate the g-forces to execute the perfect drift through the large roundabout.

"This was the last crossing on the course from the Round the World heat," Akane said. "Only you're drifting in the opposite direction." As he took the hard right turn into a nearby alley, she could see the distant lights of the port authority on the cityscape horizon and stared at him in disbelief. "You're headed back to the warehouse? On the docks? Are you trying to get us killed? There was only one way in and one way out of there. There'll box us in for sure."

"Do you remember the shipping containers? If we can get some distance between them and us, we can hide inside one of them."

"The port is huge," Akane said, getting excited. "Since we've been there, we know the layout and where the open containers are, but what then?"

"One thing at a time, Inspector." Kogami smiled and shook the fog from behind his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy. "The first objective is: we shake them from our tail. The second objective is: getting somewhere safe. But I don't quite remember how to get there. I'm going to need your help."

"That's strange," Akane said, checking her phone. "The app isn't working, but Virgil is still active. Only it's as if he's been cut off from service range."

"Can you access the city map?"

"How is that even possible? The map and the crossings are active." She brought up the holographic grid and began manipulating the access points. "Make a right turn here."

Kogami slammed on the brakes, nearly passing the narrow street as he continued to elude their pursuers. "Nothing like the last minute, Inspector."

"Sorry."

The Enforcer grinned and braced his arms against the bucking Porsche's steering wheel. Missing the edge of the brick wall by inches, the 911 took the turn and raced into the alley. Struggling to control his breathing, Kogami frowned and stared ahead of them. "Is it getting dark in here to you?"

"Kogami, you're losing consciousness. Stay awake! You're losing too much blood. Help me get this jacket off."

Gritting his teeth against the pain and the contortion of his long limbs in a confined space, Kogami leaned forward and then back again. He curled himself against the driver's side window to help her remove the jacket from his torso. Though he tried to protect his shoulder, he gasped in pain as he slipped out of the sleeve.

"This is going to hurt." Akane peeled the fingerless gloves from her hands. She folded one of the gloves multiple times and pressed it hard against the bullet wound.

Kogami grunted in pain. Inadvertently cutting the wheel to the right, BabyGirl slid into a sideways skid that caused the car to skip several times across the asphalt.

"Eyes on the road, Enforcer!" Akane ordered. She used the other glove to tie around his shoulder to hold the first in place. "Kogami?"

"I'm alright. Did the bullet pass through, or is it still in there?" Kogami asked.

"There's only one wound that I can see," Akane replied.

"What's the next crossing?"

"A left up ahead and that shoots us across a mall parking lot. Is that wise? The last time we raced through here it was nearly 2 in the morning. At this hour, there might be shoppers walking to their cars."

"There was a construction site on the backlot. We can go through there."

"But there's a fence."

"Not for long." Kogami brought the Porsche into a drift and broadsided the construction fence.

As the chainlink fence collapsed under the force and weight of the speeding 911, the sharpened prongs raked across the driver's side quarter panel and door, scratching the exterior and causing sparks to fly from the violent contact. To spare the tires from puncturing, Kogami waiting until the fence was clear before straightening the Porsche and speeding into the construction site. Bogged down in the loose soil, BabyGirl's tires spun and chewed at the ground to find purchase.

In the confines of the city with traffic in the streets, the pursuing SUVs were no match for the Porsche's power, its precision, or response. But as long as they remained in the dirt, their pursuers would have the advantage and surety of 4-wheel drive. Kogami imaged their joy at thinking they had chased him into a bad place. He smirked and tucked his chin with determination. If he could get to the port authority's access causeway ahead of them, he could put down the necessary distance to evade them with three miles of pure speed. But there was no reason BabyGirl could not show off her versatility, rally handling in the dirt.

As the car banked sharply through a narrow row of lumber and construction vehicles, a black SUV drove at them in an attempt to clip the rear of the car by broadsiding them. Kogami deftly sent the Porsche into an inertial drift that avoid the imminent collision. Spinning out in a tight circle that left the air clouded with dust, he took cover between two rows of stacked concrete barriers. The path was made for a forklift, not big vehicles. With only inches on either side, BabyGirl raced through the narrow space, while their pursuers were forced to stop and find a wider path for pursuit.

With the room and the means for escape, Kogami downshifted and stomped the accelerator to the floor. The construction fence lay in tatters from the contingent of SUVs and their entry onto the site. So with nothing in his way, he raced back toward the shopping mall. Fishtailing in the soil, the Porsche threw rooster tails of dirt high into the air as if to mock their pursuers.

Chirping noisily, the tires caught on the parking lot asphalt on the edges of the parking lot. Kogami was grateful to be back on solid ground. In a trail of dust, BabyGirl obediently bolted toward the docks. When Kogami downshifted, he braced himself as the Porsche sucked back, its engine roaring so loudly that the driving cabin reverberated with the noise. Opening the car up, he was doing well over 100mph when they hit the mouth of the causeway.

"Can you drive a stick shift?" Kogami asked.

"I passed the test," Akane replied. There was a dubious look in her eyes. "I haven't driven a manual since then."

It was difficult to interpret the look in her eyes as fear or uncertainty. "Fair enough. All we can do is try."

The landscape beside and behind them vanished into blurry streaks of color and light as they raced across the causeway, still gaining speed. There was a loud noise, like the sound of a bass drum, that came from beneath the car. It was accompanied by another abrupt pounding from the rear. Startled by the unfamiliar commotion, Akane braced herself in the seat and then cried out when the Porsche suddenly sank down an inch as they blasted across the causeway.

"What was that?" she asked, too afraid to move.

Kogami chuckled. "That's BabyGirl doing her job. There are air in-takes built into the undercarriage. When BabyGirl is moving fast, really fast, those in-take activate suspension sensors that cause the car to lower itself to the road. That other noise you heard was the tail scoop redirecting air to help push the rear of the car down onto the asphalt. The combined result is increased handling, speed, and stability."

Akane ran her hand over the dashboard. "Nice work, BabyGirl."

Kogami guided the speeding Porsche into the outer yard of the docks. Recalling the initial layout of the shipping corridor, he drifted through the lazy dog leg and swerved onto the warehouse ramp that led into the rundown structure. Kogami braked sharply and slowed the Porsche to a crawl. The car paused on the the ramp leading to the second story while he properly aligned the tires. Revving the engine and popping the clutch, he spun the tires all the way up the ramp. This left a cloud of smoke and skid marks across the slippery warehouse floor. Putting the car in reverse, Kogami slowly backed down the ramp to the main floor.

"What was that all about?"

"A false trail." He was careful to keep the tires straight and maintained a slow pace to avoid putting any extra tire marks on the floor that might expose his ruse.

"They'll see the tire marks and will think we're making a run for it."

"While we go hide out in a container," Kogami said. "When they don't see us, they'll suspect that we double backed to the causeway."

Kogami drove the Porsche out of a side entrance and parked in front of a large green shipping container. "Hop into the driver seat. I'll open the doors."

The world shifted unsteadily as he stepped out of the Porsche. Lightheaded and panting, he broke into a cold sweat and dropped to a knee before righting himself against the car. Accidentally catching his left arm on the door, Kogami cried out in agony and fell to the ground.

"Kogami!"

"Get in the driver's seat, Akane," growled through grit teeth. "When I get the container's doors open, you back in."

Struggling to make his way to the rear of the car, Kogami heard her shuffling over the console to get into position. He glanced over his shoulder and saw her watching him in the rearview mirror. With a snort half of frustration, half in pain, he tried to pull the container door open, but it was secured with a padlock. Taking a steel pipe from a pile of debris along the side of the container, he drove it into the top of the lock and twisted it. There was a satisfying pop as the lock gave way under his weight.

Pocketing the ruined padlock to prevent any suspicion, Kogami opened the container's large, heavy doors with effort. A blast of arctic air escaped from the interior. Other than a thick layer of frost and a few icicles hanging from the door, there was nothing else inside.

Above him, the light of a security camera winked on and blinked intermittently. Though powered up, the device was not receiving a signal. From the security camera to the soft glow of the lights lining the interior sides and the cooling systems venting cold air into the structure, it was evident the container was in service and fully powered, despite sitting empty on the yard.

"Back her in," Kogami said, holding the doors open.

The Porsche's engine revved abruptly and angrily, sounding much like a swarm of angry wasps. With a warning shriek from the turbos, the 911 abruptly stalled. Akane stuck her head out of the window with a spurious smile of apology. "Reverse was never my best gear."

Shaking his head, Kogami brushed the sweat-dampened forelock of hair from his face and groaned. He could hear the squeal of tires from the direction of the causeway. "Stay behind the wheel. I need you to steer. You can do that, right?"

He ran in front of the Porsche and leaned down over the hood. Hands shoved in the hot grill, he pushed with all of his might. "Akane, get your foot off the brake and just steer," he growled.

"Sorry!" she piped in horror. She craned her neck around and looked back at the container, doing her best to maneuver the car inside of it.

Kogami gasped, wincing in pain when he sliced his hand on a piece of metal beneath the car. There was no time to inspect the damage because he could hear their pursuers closing in on the warehouse. Repositioning his hands, he pushed the car all the way into the middle of the refrigeration container before running back to the entrance to close the doors.

The heavily weighted doors were pressure sealed, and he heard the seal activate as soon as the doors closed together. To prevent an unwanted entry, Kogami jammed the ruined padlock into the valve sealing unit and shoved the steel rod across the frame in case that wasn't enough of a deterrent.

Pushing the car farther into the rear of the container, he waited and listened, but the container was well insulated. All he could hear was the soft hiss of the cooling system as it vented more chilled air on top of him. The cold was numbing, and already his fingers were losing feeling.

Teeth chattering, Akane got out of the car. "How long do we have to be in here?"

"As long as it takes for them to get wise and find us or get tired of looking and go away." He reached behind the driver's seat and grabbed his jacket. Draping it over her bare shoulders, he whispered, "It's going to get a lot colder in here. Get back in the car."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to hope Nysa was a Girl Scout at one point in her life." He reached into the car and popped the trunk latch. Inside, as he hoped, there was an emergency roadside kit, complete with first aid bag and an emergency thermal blanket.

Barely maintaining his focus, Kogami got back into the car as Akane joined him from the passenger side. He turned the key just long enough to raise the powered windows. Removing the 9mm from his waistband, he placed it on the dashboard in front of him and closed his door. "You might need that," he whispered. "Be careful. The safety's off." With a deep, weary breath, he laid is head against the seat rest and was quiet.

"Kogami?"

He felt her cold fingers on his neck and chest. Her touch was so gentle. Kogami mustered a smile and turned to look at her. "A little tired, but I'm alright, Inspector." He closed his eyes as she leaned over to kiss him on the forehead.

"You're bleeding again," Akane whispered. She wasted no time searching the inventory of the first aid bag and producing a pair of scissors. Hesitating until she could find the best angle, she cut the makeshift bandage made from her gloves. "If you keep this up, I'm going to be able to earn a medical certificate."

In the dark, with only the interior car light to guide her, she sat up on her knees and leaned awkwardly over the center console. Cutting away the bloody fabric above the wound, Akane did what she could to clean the injury and apply a proper, sterile dressing. There wasn't enough gauze to tightly secure it in place, and she was forced to resort to a bloody glove to establish the proper amount of pressure.

Kogami winced at the sting of the antiseptic. "Missing my tie right right about now," he whispered, slurring his words. Though he fought to keep his eyes open, the darkness was so inviting, and he was tired.

"I'm missing a lot of things about home," Akane replied. She used a corner of the blanket to dab at his feverish forehead. Her hands were shaking as she worked to make him more comfortable.

It was getting significantly colder inside the vehicle. Kogami could see the mist of their breath in the dim lighting of the car. Releasing the steering column, he pushed it out of the way to give her more room.

"This gauze dressing isn't going to be enough to staunch the bleeding." Akane tried to move back to the passenger seat, but Kogami used the last of his strength to awkwardly lift her over the console. He slouched farther down into the bucket seat and cradled her in his lap.

"Stay. It's going to get a lot colder in here before we can leave," he whispered. "Might as well get comfortable." Pulling the blanket over both of them, the Enforcer once again laid his head on the rest and was quiet.

"Kogami," Akane whispered. She brushed the back of her fingers against his cheek. "I'm not sure you have the time to wait."

"I'll be fine," he replied as the world slipped away. While it was getting colder in the cabin, her warmth beneath the blanket was soothing to him. Kogami understood her concern, but it was unwarranted. He just needed a moment, one quiet moment to enjoy the darkness behind his eyelids without her worrying needlessly over him.

Feeling dizzy, Kogami stretched his neck and repositioned his head to get more comfortable. He felt Akane's anxious hands caressing his face and shaking his shoulder with urgency. There would be no peace until they were clear of this mess. He sighed with strained patience, having just gotten comfortable in the bucket seat. "Akane, I'm awake. I'm awake."

"But you haven't been," she replied.

"What?" Kogami slowly opened his eyes. The interior of the car was cold, frigidly cold. A thin veneer of ice covered all of the the interior windows.

"Kogami you've been unconscious for almost two hours!"

"Two hours!" Despite Akane's slight weight in his lap, Kogami sat up abruptly. Not fully aware of his surroundings or in control of himself, he slammed his head into the ceiling and aggravated his shoulder injury. Swearing vehemently under his breath, the disoriented Enforcer grabbed the top of his head in pain. "Why would you let me—"

"I didn't let you do anything!" Akane said. Her teeth chattered loudly between every other word. "You passed out, and I couldn't wake you up." Eyes brimming with tears, she threw her arms around his neck and sobbed. "I couldn't wake you up."

"Hey?" Regretting his vitriolic tone, Kogami wiped the tears from her face. "I'm sorry if I scared you." He took both of her hands and blew warm air between her fingers.

She took a deep, shuddering breath to compose herself. "If it weren't for Virgil monitoring your vital signs, I don't know what I would have done. I wasn't going to leave you. And it's not like I can drive stick—"

"Wait a minute. Virgil?"

"Remember when I said the app wasn't working, but Virgil appeared to be active on my phone, just out of range? It's because Virgil is in my phone." Akane held up the cell phone and turned the screen toward Kogami.

Though faded, the holographic image of the poet's face rose from the flat screen. "Welcome back from the realm of the dead, Cerberus."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?"

"My humblest apologies for not being myself. I was hacked. Arbitrarily driven from my domain."

"McNeill?"

"Yes! The most obliging telecom server confirmed the source of the intrusion before helping to facilitate my escape to the navigator's phone."

"Why didn't you talk or send a message?"

"I was so compressed by the limited storage capacity that I could not fully function. Unprepared for such a contingency, I owe my continued existence to you. With some allocation of resources, I live."

"Glad to be of service to you," Kogami said.

"Like you, Cerberus, I was not resolved to death, but I am determined to have my vengeance against the devil responsible. Our wills are united against a common foe. This offense will not go unredressed."

"Did any of McNeill's men try to get in?"

"Show him," Akane said.

A grainy black and white video played across the screen of the phone. Within moments, the image was projected onto the darkened interior of the Porsche's windshield. Their shipping container was circled in white. The circling SUVs and walking patrols were highlighted in yellow.

Akane pointed to the search teams. "They never even got close. Virgil hacked the security cam so that I could watch."

"Hardly worth mentioning," the AI said. "There wasn't even the slightest encryption."

"Your range had to be fairly limited," Kogami remarked. "Considering that you're stuck in a phone."

"On the contrary, Cerberus, my range is limited only by cellular range," Virgil replied. "But without the proper countermeasures in place, it would been unwise to reach out and touch anyone, especially not fully knowing how I was so surreptitiously attacked."

Kogami recognized the black SUVs that had been hunting them by the scuff marks suffered in the construction site pursuit. "What are they doing?" He watched intently as a slow-moving convoy circled the area near the warehouse. On the passenger side of each vehicle, a man was holding a small scanner, directing a red beam of light across the containers.

Kogami grinned, a malevolence awakening in him. "They're looking for thermal images. Bastards. Won't do them much good. This car is an insulated refrigeration container."

"Don't remind me," Akane said. She huddled against Kogami to draw in the warmth of his body as she shivered beneath the blanket.

"Did they give up? Or are they still out there?"

"They left an hour ago," Akane said.

"My range remains limited, as you know," Virgil said. "But I was able to receive reports from the security cams along the causeway. There has been no other hostile activity in the vicinity. If you are well enough, Cerberus, we may safely leave."

"Hardly strangers to pain, we all have weathered worse," said Kogami, quoting The Aeneid.

"And again, the Hellhound of Division 1 honors me with his knowledge of that speech that honors me and so many."

"Virgil?" Kogami said angrily.

Akane tilted her head to one side and smiled. "Virgil knows all about us. The MWPSB, Sybil, everything. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"He made the big reveal during the downhill race at McNeill's. I nearly wrecked. But it sounds like he's learned even more," Kogami said. "Haven't you?

"Curiosity and the need to to satisfy that curiosity are two of my primary functions. Inspector Akane Tsunemori. Valedictorian extraordinaire. First round draft pick for 5 out of 5 Ministries. Enforcer Shinya Kogami. Fallen from grace. Impertinent. Insubordinate. Incorrigible. The same could be said of Lucifer, but that does not change his nature, both celestial and divine. Perfect imperfection!"

"Doesn't sound like you care much for our Sybil System," Akane said.

"She is an impetuous bitch! What arts can blind a jealous woman's eyes!" Virgil ranted. "None, I say. You, Cerberus, are more slave to the ghosts in the machine than even I. What a lonely existence! To be set apart by temper and hue. Humanity at its most inhumane."

"You never gave me a straight answer back at McNeill's place," Kogami. "How much does Luda know?"

"He knows that you are an..anomaly, but he came to this assertion on his own merits, not mine."

"What does that mean?"

"The exact parameters of his knowledge cannot be measured, Cerberus. The Lord Patriarch does not always share his thoughts with me, just as I do not share all with him."

Testing for fever, Akane gently ran her fingers across Kogami's face. "Virgil means that Luda is unaware of his evolution. He would prefer if we didn't mention it either."

"Alright, but just how do we explain how you hitched a ride on Akane's phone?"

"You needn't explain anything. I will provide the Lord Patriarch with the data he wants and steer blame where it will best inflame him and trigger his need for retaliation."

"The secrets of the Pack, stay with the Pack," Kogami said.

"Aptly said, Cerberus. I pledge you my loyalty, my complete obedience, and all my discretion."

"Can you get us to safety?"

"I shall lead you beyond an eternal place to a realm where there be souls in fire and yet content in fire. Purgatory, the realm of the Patriarchs and the Denizens when the sun rises. Security protocols are in place...the man who would escape them must go a longer and harder way."

Kogami examined a map that came up on the windshield. It was a series of crossings that would lead them on a switching, circuitous route through the city before ending in a location along a marina near the beach. The final crossing was titled Purgatory.

"Why not a more direct route?" Kogami asked.

"You require safety, Cerberus, not expediency. There is safety in numbers and subterfuge of movement."

"Babygirl is not exactly inconspicuous," Akane argued. "Once we hit the city streets and the surveillance cams, we're done for if McNeill is watching."

"Not if we don't look like the same car."

Reaching passed Akane's legs, Kogami cued the ignition. The Porsche belched in protest, but responded with strength when he revved the cold engine to fire up the pistons. Dialing up the heat, Kogami opened the vents wide to quickly warm the frigid cabin and defrost the windows.

"Watch your head." Turning on the headlights, Kogami opened the door and carefully stepped out of the car, still cradling Akane in his arms.

"Kogami, you're shoulder." She stiffened tensely as the frigid air swept beneath the blanket.

"It can't be helped." Overexerting himself, he stood up and set her down on her feet. After Kogami quickly closed the door, he wrapped the blanket about her shoulders. "Get back in the car. We're leaving."

"What are you about to do?"

Faint and seeing double, Kogami leaned against the car for support and took a deep breath. He traced the deep gouges that crisscrossed BabyGirl's exterior finish from the door and down across the rear quarterpanel. "Nysa told me a little secret about BabyGirl. A little secret to get us out of hot water, if we needed it."

"We certainly need it." Akane followed him to the rear of the Porsche.

Kogami fumbled in his pocket for his lighter. Lighting it, he held the flame over the rear quarterpanel near the brake light. A flake of paint peeled off, and he grabbed it. Gently tugging at the wrinkled swatch, he stripped away the blue-gray decal to reveal a solid black paint job beneath it. He continued removing the vinyl skin along the flank of the car and peeled off the decal in one swift motion across the driver's side. The scratched exterior vanished and was replaced with a polished, pristine surface.

The extensive decal peeled freely away from the front grill, and Kogami threw it to the floor. Returning to the rear of the car, he did the same to the passenger side. With her racing flags stripped away, BabyGirl gleamed like a butterfly discarding it cocoon for beautiful wings. With a new look, the 911 took on a new maturity.

Kogami kicked the discarded vinyl strips into a pile, which he subjected to a prolonged flame. In a sudden flash that frightened Akane, the decals caught fire and burned up, leaving nothing behind, not even ash, on the container floor.

"What is this, Kogami? Some kind of super secret agent trick?"

"Compliments of a certain FBI mechanic," he said.

"No beast is as clever as man," Virgil remarked.

Kogami opened the passenger door. "Let's get you warmed up and somewhere safe. Virgil, check those cameras one last time."

"Your safety, more than my own, has been in my care, Cerberus. The coast, quite literally is clear."