Page 51 of Dark Rebel's Fortune

"Max, your transmission is breaking up," Kyra said. "We're currently on the roof, evading pursuit. Moving to the secondary extraction point."

Jade's voice came through more clearly. "I've secured another transport, and I'm on my way to the school. ETA ten minutes. The van is all yours. Can you make it to the rendezvous point?"

The female had stolen the other vehicle just as she'd said she would, and Kyra wondered how she'd managed that. It was a skill that she doubted Jade had picked up as part of her training back on the Kra-ell planet. She'd probably stopped a driver, pulled him out of the vehicle, knocked him out cold, and commandeered the car.

"Got it. Affirmative, we'll make it to the rendezvous point."

Kyra gauged the distance across the connected rooftops, then the drop to street level.

She guided Parisa across the first gap between buildings—a simple step across that posed no real challenge—and they continued their progress across the rooftops. The tactical part of Kyra's mind noted their exposed position, but the buildings' height and the blaring sunlight would make them difficult to spot from the street level.

"Your friends don't look like Kurds," Parisa said as they ducked behind a water-heating rooftop solarpanel. "They're not really with the Kurdish resistance, are they?"

Kyra hesitated, then decided that partial truth was better than obvious lies at this point. "No, they're not. They're fighting the bad guys who want you for your special genetics. Some of us have unique capabilities."

"I thought as much," Parisa nodded. "No ordinary person moves the way you do."

"What do you mean?" Kyra asked, pausing to check if they were being pursued on the street below before crossing to the third building.

"My husband moved like that. He was in the special forces."

Kyra chuckled. "I was in the Kurdish resistance for many years before I joined the special team. My training was accumulated during that time."

Not a lie, not the entire truth either. She was good at that as well.

When they reached the edge of the fourth building, where the fire escape would take them to street level, Kyra peered over the edge, scanning for hostiles before gesturing Parisa forward.

"You're too young to have spent many years in the resistance."

The statement caught Kyra off guard. She hadn't thought the lie through, and Parisa was a sharp woman. She didn't miss much.

"I'm much older than I look," she said, then regretted the words immediately. She couldn't bemuch older if she wanted to pretend to be her own daughter.

Her sister didn't deserve the lies, but now wasn't the time for revelations, not with Doomers in pursuit and Parisa's sons still in danger.

"We need to keep moving," Kyra said instead of addressing the question further. "The fire escape looks clear."

25

MAX

"Are you hurt?" Max asked Rana.

She shook her head. "No. What's going on? Who is chasing us and why? And who are you?"

"My name is Max." He offered her his hand. "And I'm with an organization that saves people from those bad guys who want to abduct people with your specific genetic profile and use them in unsavory ways. There is more to it, but this is not the time to get into it."

"My genetic profile?" Rana repeated, confusion momentarily overriding her fear. "What are you talking about?"

Another sharp turn threw them against the van's side, cutting off Max's response. Outside, the sounds of pursuit continued, and Anton was still driving like a bat out of hell.

"Can you lose them?" Max asked him.

"Working on it," Anton replied without taking his eyes off the increasingly narrowing streets of the neighborhood they were flying through.

Max's comm unit crackled with static, and his heart accelerated, expecting to hear Kyra's voice. He was worried about her, and trying not to think about worst-case scenarios was taking a deliberate mental effort.

She was with Jade, who was on par with if not a superior warrior to him and Yamanu, and the female had promised him to protect Kyra. But now Kyra was alone with Parisa, and Jade was on her way to Parisa's sons.

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