So far, there had been no real danger along the way, but it was only a matter of time, Rio knew. She never slackened up. Her training would never permit it. Her sense of duty would never forgive it. And so she sat in a sleep so shallow that sound of a mouse skittering in the walls would be all it would take to rouse her to action. As a result, despite the effort to move quietly, the sound of boots on the floorboards of the corridor alerted her well in advance of the coming attack.

The door to their room was kicked open and a grenade was tossed in. At most, she had three seconds, so her first move was to flip Ellis' bed with him in it so that mattress would shield him somewhat. Between her cloak and Ironhide, she hoped to absorb most of the blast. Although she only caught a glimpse of the grenade, she was pretty sure it was just a flashbang, maybe a smoker, but she had to assume the maximum threat to be safe. A frag grenade she might survive, but a conc would probably turn her innards to jelly.

The grenade went off and she was relieved to hear that it was just a flashbang after all, but that was just the opening act. There was a burst of rifle fire, but the shots were muted, sounding about as powerful as a staple gun, and hit so weakly she could barely feel them. Rubber bullets. Whoever this was, they were trying to take Rio and Ellis alive. That was good. She was not going to be so kind, though.

Pivoting into her attacker, she struck with her staff. The lead shooter had standard tactical armor, a vest with a flap to protect the groin, kneepads, shinguards and such, but the thighs were left open and that was where she hit. This staggered him, making it easy to take out his leg with a sweep to the ankle and then deliver a thrust to the neck.

Two more shooters opened up on her, but while rubber bullets were no joke to an average unprotected human, for Rio they may as well have been spitballs. While the groin plates on their armor protected from forward damage, they did not protect from below, which was exactly where Rio targeted the shooter to her right to unbalance before taking out his leg, then flowing into a thrust to the foot of one to her left. She hit hard enough for him to feel it through his boot, then cracked him on the helmet to disorient him before she could go for his legs as well.

The shooter on the left had a sidearm holstered on his left hip with the grip facing forward. He was one of those people who thought a cross draw was faster, but the problem with having your grip facing the enemy was that if they were close enough, you were just asking them to try to grab it from you, especially if you left your holster unsecured, which this person did. This combination of bad habits was a lucky break for Rio. You could rarely count on them to happen, but when the opportunity presented itself, you would do well to exploit it.

Rio generally did not like firearms, but now was not the time to be picky. She took the shooter's sidearm and correctly figured that it would be loaded with proper bullets. There were three more members of this breaching team. The second pair moved in just as Rio was drawing the pistol. At this range, it took little effort to put two rounds in each of their faces before doing the same to the remaining member pulling up the rear, then used her last two rounds to put one in the head of the pair she had on the floor. That left the first one in the door, who was gurgling his own blood. A sharp yank on his helmet broke his neck to finish him off.

Rio took a quick peek in the corridor to see if any more were close at hand. A second team was not there waiting in the wings, so she could take a moment to better assess the situation. The six men were not the Royal Army or the Gendarmes, Rio was rather sure. They were most likely mercenaries, but they had taken the precaution of removing any identifying badges. She could tell by looking at the unfaded spot on the sleeve with a few stray strings still sticking out that a unit patch had been recently removed.

Their rifles were Type 74s, rather ubiquitous, so they did not help narrow things down any. She took one of the rifles and checked the magazine. Rubber bullets in 7.62 were not ideal, but probably the thinking was to have the men use the weapons they were most familiar with. She fished out a magazine from one man's ammo pouch and saw that it was a lethal load. Apparently they thought a single magazine of the rubber bullets would have been enough for their purposes.

She quickly collected ammo and slung a spare rifle just to be safe before going back to check on Ellis. While she let him sleep normally, she did at least insist that he do so fully clothed so that he would be ready to go if they needed to be on the move quickly, just like they did now.

Ellis was wide-eyed and quite understandably terrified.

Ellis did not move. They would just as well have been at the South Pole he was so perfectly frozen. It was last thing they needed right now.

Impatiently, Rio seized him by the cloak and pulled him up, growling, "Come on, dammit. We don't have for this. On your feet."

Ellis saw the bodies scattered about and immediately his legs turned into wet noodles.

His legs did not find their strength and Rio knew if she let him go know, he would just collapse. As much as she did not want to have to deal with this, she had to get him to come around or else they were never going to get anywhere.

Trying to sound as firm yet supportive as possible, she said, "Ellis. Take a deep breath. I'm going to get you out of this, but I need your help. I need you to stand and I need you to move. Stay close and I'll take care of anything that comes our way."

Still she was getting nothing out of him.

That gave him a bit of a start and the strength returned to his legs enough for Rio to try letting him go. He managed to stay on his feet. That was a start.

She reached in under his cloak and patted the little snub-nosed revolver her carried in a shoulder holster and told him, "Remember, this is a last resort. As long as I'm still breathing, you won't need it, but don't forget that you do have it. Right?"

Ellis nodded.

Although she performed reasonably well in marksmanship, Rio considered firearms inelegant for combat and inappropriate for her usual duties, which was why she did not carry any of her own. Her staff could extend up to three meters and she never had much need to engage targets much further away than that. However, in the current situation, her staff was not going to cut it, especially if the enemy had the kind of numbers she was expecting.

Rio touched her throat with her free hand to activate her wireless. They communicated subvocally, the signal interpreted by implants in their ears to make it more difficult for outsiders to listen in.

Rio glanced over her shoulder to the window on the opposite wall and asked, "How 'bout the east side?"

There was a brief pause before Bel replied, "Copy that, Pilgrim One. Engaging hostiles. Get ready to move."

Rio lowered her hand to take hold of the rifle's hand guard to properly steady it, then told Ellis, "Bel's gonna take care of our company outside. We move on my mark. Got it?"

At least he actually spoke up. So long as he did not freeze up again, they might have a chance of living through this.

She heard the crack of Bel's first shot. He was using Draculina, his 7.62 rifle. He was worried about collateral damage, so he was trying to limit overpenetration. but with most buildings in the town being made of adobe, the walls did not have much stopping power. The second and third shots followed in quick succession. Bel was always quick to take out his targets.

Rio could hear the mercs arguing downstairs, but it did not sound like they were coming up, at least not yet. She weighed her options. Part of her was tempted to go in and eliminate the threat, but that was not her first priority. She had to get Ellis out as quickly as possible with minimal risk to him. She could leave mopup to someone else.

With nine armed men at the front door, the window was looking like a better exfil route. Because they were out of Bel's view, she was going to have to rely on some gadgets. Much like firearms, Rio did not much like using gadgets either, but there was a time and a place for everything. Shouldering her rifle, she took the Gan-Q out of her pack and tossed it out the window. The Gan-Q was basically a remote-controlled camera about the size of a tennis ball that would roll around on the ground, typically escaping the notice of the casual observer. It was a handy spy tool and good for recon in an environment like this.

She strapped the console to her wrist and turned it on. She looked around the alleyway and there was no sign of the enemy there. She then moved the Gan-Q to either corner to see if anyone was waiting for them there. No one close, at least.

Rio peeked out to confirm with her own eyes what she saw with the Gan-Q and looked back to Ellis one more time before she jumped.

It was a calculated risk, but Rio went ahead and jumped out the window, hoping it would light a fire under Ellis and get him to come along. The moment she touched down on the ground, she took up her rifle and checked both directions before shouldering it again and motioning for Ellis to follow her.

She held up her arms.

The voices of the mercs in the building got louder, and that was enough to get Ellis to overcome his fear and crawl out the window. He tried climbing down, but there were no real footholds to be had, so he was just hanging their from the windowsill as his feet vainly attempted to find purchase on the wall.

Ellis' foot slipped and he was unable to keep hold of the windowsill. Fortunately for him Rio was there to catch him as promised, though if the situation had been any less serious, she might have let him learn a lesson from this. There were bigger things to worry about than a seven-meter drop.

She then contacted Bel on the wireless, saying, "Pilgrim Two, this is Pilgrim One. We've exited the building on the east side and will proceed northward out of town."

Rio's plan hinged on several assumptions. First, she expected the enemy to number somewhere between fifty and two hundred men. Second, she expected them to divide their men evenly between the teams sent after her and Ellis and the one that went after Mongo and Adom. They did not know which one was the real Child of Promise, so they would give themselves the best opportunity either way. Third, unless they had far more people than she guessed, they could only afford to post men on the main thoroughfares going in and out of town. They almost certainly could not afford a complete cordon of the town, and based on the tech level of the team she took out, they probably had little to no capacity for drone surveillance or anything like that.

She did not know how Mongo and Adom fared against the team sent after them, but she knew that nine of the eighteen in her nearest vicinity were neutralized, so it was smarter to head north rather than south where Mongo was. If he would move in the opposite direction of her, then the enemy forces would remain split and easier to handle. She would do well to make sure that was what he did.

Getting back on the wireless, she said, "Pilgrim Five, this is Pilgrim One. Do you copy?"

No response.

Still nothing, but before she could try again, she got a response.

Rio quickly reviewed the map of the town in her head. The block they were in was about 60 meters wide and 120 meters long. It was 700 meters to the edge of town. Their first biggest risk of exposure was at the end of this block. If it was her securing the perimeter, she would have at least one six- or eight-man team posted on the north, east, and west sides of the block to catch anyone who got away from the capture teams moving in from the south, but did these mercs have the same idea?

As she got closer to the end of the alley, Rio motioned for Ellis to stop. Waiting for them was a tripwire, but connected to what? She carefully went forward to assess the threat. They did not bother to hide it. It was a mine. Based on the coloration, it was intended for crowd control, consistent with their less lethal loadout. Even if it would not kill or seriously injure them, setting it off would alert the hostiles, which was something Rio was trying to avoid.

She wondered how the tripwire was rigged. If it was simple, cutting the wire would be the best thing to do, but if they were being tricky, cutting the wire would trigger the mine the same as tripping it. Preparing for the worst was usually the best policy. They would just leave the trap undisturbed and maybe the Auxiliary could come through and sweep the town for this and any other traps after the immediate threat had passed.

It was a simple matter of stepping over the tripwire, but before she did so, Rio felt a sudden need for additional caution. She took the MultiScope out of her pack and switched the viewing mode to infrared and her instincts were proven to be correct. There was a laser tripwire invisible to the naked eye about waist level, so even if you avoided the physical tripwire, you would still trigger the trap, or else you would at least alert the mercs who set the trap. These people were a little cleverer than Rio had initially thought.

Rio got on the wireless and said, "All units, this is Pilgrim One. Be advised there may be traps along egress routes. I've just found a tripwire mine with a laser backup. Proceed with caution. Over."

Now the question was how to defeat the laser tripwire. The emitter was not attached to either building to her left or right, so it could be that the laser covered the entire width of the block. Maybe it just triggered an alarm instead of the mines, but that brought her back to the problem of alerting the enemy. The sensor was probably not that sophisticated, so spoofing with another laser ought to be enough, but that meant her hands would be occupied and she would not be able to respond if there were any hostiles waiting for them. She did not want Ellis to be out in the open a moment longer than necessary, but could she count on him to get to cover quickly enough? There were no options free of risk. She was going to have to take a chance, even if it risked the whole venture.

She peeked around the corner and checked left and right with her scope. No one was on the ground, not yet at least, but down at the end of the street was a Razi masjid and the minaret would make for a fine sniper's nest. Would the mercs have someone posted there? She could not deny the danger.

She took out some rigging tape to bind her scope to her rangefinder so she could leave her left hand free to hold her mirror. She waved off Ellis to get a little more distance between him and the mine in case she accidentally set it off. Trying to stick as little of her head out as possible, she activated her rangefinder's laser to make contact with the sensor. Every millimeter she was exposed, the chances of her catching a bullet increased, but taking this risk would be for nothing if she did not actually make contact with the sensor. Once she was fairly confident she had the sensor, it was time to test out her plan by using her mirror to deflect the emitter's beam. She took a slow, deep breath as she lowered the mirror. By the time she was at the beam's level, it felt like her heart stopped. The mine did not detonate, and if an alarm was triggered, it was nothing she could hear. She stretched her arm out to give Ellis as big of an opening as she could.

If she told him about her concerns of a sniper being in the minaret, she would never get him to move. Ignorance was definitely bliss in this case. However, even with Ellis taking a tentative step forward, he still hesitated.

Haltingly, Ellis got one leg over Rio's arm, then the other, carefully tucking in his foot so he did not kick Rio in the head.

Once he had both feet on the ground on the other side, Rio told him, "Sprint across. Now! Quick!"

Ellis started running, only to stumble, causing Rio's heart to skip a beat. She half expected him to fall over dead. After all, if there was a sniper out there, the bullet would hit before she would hear the report, but, no, he was just clumsy. Honestly, it might have been a good thing. If these mercs were smart, they would know that Ellis was dressed like the Protectors and expect that he was not as skilled as them. Him fumbling around may well have proved his identity as the target they meant to capture alive and just saved his life. Rio did not expect to be so lucky.

It was Eiri, peeking out from Rio's shadow. She was a shadow-walker and had been travelling in Rio's shadow all this time. Up until now, she had mostly just been taking shifts in the night watch but was otherwise on standby until she was called for. She was their secret weapon, so the idea was ensure that as few people as possible knew what she was capable of. That did not mean Rio could not tease her a bit.

Apparently different people's shadows had their own feel to them and Eiri was rather picky. For whatever reason, Rio's shadow was one of the few places she would stay for long periods of time without complaint. Of course, they were on mission and Eiri's preferences were very low on the list of priorities.

In other words, she wanted Rio's shadow to connect to the shadows across the street so she could cross over without exposing herself to danger. The sheer cheek of some people...

Rio managed a bit of a grin and said, "I'll see what I can do. Get ready."

Eiri sank back into Rio's shadow as she stepped over the physical tripwire, carefully keeping her hands level so that she did not disturb the beams. Once she was past the tripwire, she pulled away the mirror so the beam from the emitter would go to the sensor, and from a brief glance at the mirror, she saw a flash from the minaret and a bullet tore through her rangefinder and grazed her arm. Then the mines set up along the street went off in quick succession, showering her in rubber pellets.

Without even giving herself a moment to regain her bearings, she clumsily sprang toward the opposite side of the street before the smoke could clear. There was the crack of another shot, but the sniper was probably counting on her to be staggered longer than she was.

Ellis rushed to her side, asking her, "Rio, are you alright?"

Rio waved him off.

She was able to activate Ironhide in time, so she was not left much hurt by the pellets from the mine, but being so close to the explosion left her a bit dizzy with her ears ringing.

From the masjid's speaker, instead of the call to prayer, a man's voice said, "Protectors, we have you surrounded. Throw down your weapons and surrender. Your lives will be spared. Refuse and you die. You have one minute to comply."

Judging from the man's accent, he was not Jabbari, not Murabitan nor Libnian either. The mercs' kit made it difficult to identify any one country. It was all common military surplus you could get on the grey and black markets. He could be state-sanctioned and doing a good job of hiding who he worked for or he could be something else. She had no way of knowing and it really did not matter that much. The Auxiliary could investigate it later. Right now she had do focus on getting Ellis clear of town.

Contacting Bel on the wireless, she said, "Pilgrim Two, this is Pilgrim One. I'd like to call in a noise complaint."

Minx cut in, saying, "Are you really suggesting he shoot at a masjid? The Razis will raise hell."

There was silence for a moment before Minx said, "Understood, Pilgrim One."

Although the Protectors were more Ahorazedi-aligned, their policy was not to unnecessarily provoke the other faith communities. However, the mercs occupying the masjid was already provocation enough, so resolving the issue ought not be a cause for complaint, not unless the Razis themselves were the ones sponsoring the mercs. She seemed to recall some ancient firebrand saying about barracks, helmets and bayonets, but that probably was not relevant here.

Although provoking the Razis may have been inevitable, at the moment, Rio was aiming to provoke the sniper. She took her rifle and popped out to fire three quick shots at the minaret, then took cover for five seconds and repeated once, twice, but on the third time, she went back under cover the moment she popped out, and as she was expecting, the sniper had picked up her pattern and took the opportunity to take a shot at her. He had fallen for her trap, revealing his position with the muzzle flare of his rifle, and his shot was immediately followed with another one by Draculina.

There was another shot, followed by an explosion at the masjid.

Bel then fired off four more shots.

A couple more shots.

Once Rio got off the wireless, Ellis asked her, "What's going on?"

They weaved their way through the buildings and alleyway toward the edge of town. It would seem that the mercs did not have the time or resources to rig any traps further out than the immediate vicinity of Rio and Ellis' inn, and presumably Mongo and Adom's as well. That or they were deliberately limiting the scope of their operation only to what they thought was necessary.

At the edge of town, there was a stretch of fallow fields about 300 meters to the treeline. It was hard not to think of crossing so much open ground as anything other than suicide, but that was only if there were any hostiles around to exploit their vulnerability.

If Rio's MultiScope could have been saved when the sniper's bullet destroyed her rangefinder, she did not have the leisure to recover it, so all she had were her naked eyes to look for danger.

She called up Bel again and said, "Pilgrim Two, this is Pilgrim One. What's your status?"

Rio then looked to Ellis and asked him, "You ready to move?"

Rio pointed to the treeline then motioned to her right.

Ellis sighed and resigned himself to following Rio's lead. Rio swapped in a fresh magazine for her rifle, scanned the area, then set out. They were not in the clear yet and even if this particular threat was past them, Rio knew there would only be more to come. The trials of the Warrior's Road were just beginning.