Ramez Naam - Nexus

Yes, if she had to.

She waited until four of them had ascended the line, then slid down the wet roof, jumped into the courtyard, rolled and came to her feet in a sprint.

The last SEAL had his gun over his shoulder, both hands on his ascender. He hit the button and zipped up, just as he saw her closing on him.

There were shouts behind her. The other fireteam had come out from the maze and were in the courtyard now, tens of yards back. Tranq rounds struck the ground at her feet.

The final SEAL reached the top of the rope on his ascender, climbed into the helicopter where they had Kade. Sam sprinted straight at the rope, slapped the ascender onto it onehanded as she ran by and jammed her thumb onto the ascend button. The device yanked her up by one arm, even as her momentum swung her out into a wide pendulum arc. She pulled a stun grenade from her stolen belt, felt its cold weight in her palm.

A SEAL reappeared above her, assault rifle pointed in her direction. Sam jerked with her whole body as he fired, perturbed the pendulum swing as his shots ripped though the space she'd just occupied, flung the grenade with all her might. The SEAL saw her throw, ducked back into the chopper for cover. The stun grenade arced fast and hard through the air, hit the edge of the doorway, exploded with a loud bang just outside the open door of the Banshee.

The ascender whined as it zipped her up towards the chopper above.

"Sir, we've got Blackbird. She's attacking Banshee One! She's on the rope, headed up."

"Call 'em back," Becker said from the screen. "Get her in Banshee One, seal it, subdue her en route to the Boca Raton ."

Nichols nodded. "You heard that, Jane. Tell 'em to let her onboard, then keep her there."

"Roger that."

"And get Team Two up on Banshee Two. We've got what we came for."

48

NO PLAN SURVIVES…

The black Opal came over the final rise in time to see the SEALs disappearing into the stealthed helicopter.

There. He's in that one, Shu sent to Feng. And Cataranes is headed there too.

The woman was dashing towards the chopper Kade was in. Feng gunned the engine for the gates to the compound a hundred meters away. The Opal surged forward, burst through the ornate bronze and iron gate at one hundred and fifty kilometers an hour, spun and skidded to a halt under the pendulum arc of one of the ropes. A slim figure in white nun's robes was zipping up the rope under power.

The chopper canted forward, the quiet whup-whup of its blades grew slightly louder, and it began to move forward and up. The rope was swinging back at them, but the bottom of its arc was rising as the helicopter picked up altitude. The end of the rope was going to hit their position at ground level, at chest height, at head height, at three meters, four, rising…

Feng slammed open the door, jumped onto the hood of the car, then the roof, took two steps and leapt out and up into the air, more than three meters up and three meters out. He hung in mid-air for a split second, one arm extended, a man in mid-leap, legs akimbo, detached from the earth, soaring through the night sky at a slender line that was swinging back towards him, but rising ever higher as it did…

Feng snagged the very end of the rope with his black-gloved left hand as it hit the bottom of its arc. He roared in triumph. The Confucian Fist hung there for a moment, swinging beneath the chopper. Then he brought his gloved right hand up to join his left. He grinned up savagely at the chopper, a maniacal Asian man in a black chauffeur's suit, and began to climb hand over hand.

Sam reached the chopper, used the last of the momentum from the powered ascender to flip herself up and in through the wide door.

She ducked as something whistled through the air above her head. A SEAL kicked at her in the tight space and she dodged, spinning to the side. Another smashed at her with the butt of his rifle and she threw him into the man behind her.

One of the SEALs pounded a red control and the doors she'd come through slammed shut.

Oh, fuck.

"We've got her," Bruce Williams said. "Canary and Blackbird both on Banshee One, headed back our way. Banshee Two is twenty seconds from loaded."

"Combat! Combat!" Jane Kim yelled. "Two Royal Thai Air Force fighters inbound. They're hailing, demanding that the Banshees both set down."

"Lose 'em in the clouds," Becker said from screen 3. "Get our choppers back."

Shu reached out to the car, subsumed control of its electronic warfare capabilities, activated the high-gain directional antenna embedded in the roof. Through it, she felt around the edges of the choppers' electronic presence. Where was the way in? Every system had a hole. Every system. She just needed to find this one. The Americans were jamming local transmissions. Shu routed around that, flipped to a frequency far outside normal bands, connected with her higher self. Shu swam in a luminous storm of data. Her higher self dug deep into top-secret Chinese military and intelligence databases for more about the XH-83 Banshee. Where was that hole? Where was it?

Sam whirled in the tiny space. Kade was bound and gagged in the corner, his one eye wide. Two of the SEALs were down, apparently dazed by the grenade. The other four came at her.

Use their bodies against them , Nakamura had taught her. One can defeat many.

She let her Wing Chun take control of her. No drug clouded her mind. No rage from other minds confused her. She let her practice speak through her body.

She was a stalk of bamboo. She was a summer storm. She was a whirlwind.

She was made for this.

They came at her with fists and legs and knives and rifles used like clubs. Four of them.

Spin, dodge, strike.

Take the knife away.

Dodge, spin, sweep.

Get that one off his feet.

Spin, spin, block.

Lure that one in close.

Strike, spin, throw.

She sent one of them hurtling into another at point-blank range. Heads collided. They went down in a tangle of limbs.

Block, block, dodge.

The other two closed around her, backed her towards a corner.

Kick, feint, roll.

She came up free, behind them. They were fast. She was faster.

Kick, spin, strike.

One of them went down. Another came back up from the tangled pile.

Block, spin, throw.

She rammed one into another, made them her puppets. One was back up on his feet. All the rest were down, trying to get back up.

Spin, block…

An explosion sounded outside.

Fuck.

Someone was shooting at them. The chopper shook, banked hard to one side. Sam was thrown face first into the bulkhead. Her head collided with the hard wall. The SEAL fell atop her, got his arm around her neck in a headlock, squeezed to immobilize her.

Shit.

She reached back to crush his balls, hit his body armor instead, tried to kick at his knee but had no leverage on the floor. She got her fingers around his forearm. It was thicker than her calf. Fuck, he was strong. She couldn't pry him off. He squeezed harder, despite her grip. Another SEAL had a rifle aimed at her, was trying to get a clean shot. Fuck.

Her eyes landed on Kade. He was bound and gagged, staring at her with eyes wide.

The knife she'd knocked out of one of their hands was across the chopper. If she could just get her hands on it… Kade was there. She willed it at him, sent him her desire. His feet were on it. He kicked, pushed it towards her.

Sam pulled a hand away from the meaty arm around her neck, got one finger barely on the bottom of the knife's hilt, walked it back towards her. The headlock closed tighter. The one with the rifle almost had a clean shot on her. There. The knife was in her hand. She couldn't think, couldn't see, wasn't sure of her aim. She gripped the knife with both hands, pointed it towards his elbow, stabbed down hard. The SEAL behind her screamed in pain as the graphene tip came in between slabs of armor, severed tendons in his joint. His grip went limp.