"That last one wasn’t in your directive."
"No."
"So you didn’t know either."
"I know the orders I was given." The officer adjusted his grip on his weapon. "They were clear."
"Which means what?"
"You heard me."
The detainee stopped speaking.
The woman’s breathing was still fast. The child gripped her sleeve. Heat radiated from the asphalt.
A voice shouted from across the intersection. "Officer! Behind you!"
The security officer turned.
"Behind you!"
This time, he did not move.
A woman laughed near the pharmacy. The sound shifted mid-breath. It came out in the security officer’s voice.
The Taurus man faced the pharmacy. "Gemini."
"I know," the officer replied.
"So there are six," Marek was counting.
"Yes."
"Good. We agree on a number." Marek counted what they already knew. "The big man over there is Taurus. The Aries man moved the concrete barrier. There is that other man who knows more about the instructions than the officer does. Someone is shooting from the pharmacy."
"That’s four."
"There is a Gemini woman using other people’s voices. If she was the one at the doors, that is five, and one I have not seen. If she is not, that is six and I have seen all of them."
The detainee said nothing.
Cooper’s voice came from the van. "That’s the longest I’ve heard you speak."
"You have known me for four hours."
Cooper had no answer for that.
"Why did you attack us?"
The man shifted his weight. "It’s the government."
Marek waited.
"We’re getting people out before the government turns these facilities into prisons. We weren’t trying to hurt civilians," the Taurus man said. "Half of us were locked up because somebody decided our Marks made us dangerous."
"And now?"
"Now nobody’s told us anything."
Movement came from behind an abandoned vehicle farther down the road. Another man stepped into view. A violet Mark showed beneath his torn shirt.
Scorpius.
The Scorpius man faced them. "We’re trying to get people out. Not kill them."
"Even if getting them out means hurting innocent people?"
A gunshot struck the pavement.
Everyone dropped lower.
Cooper moved behind the front wheel of the lead vehicle. Another shot came from the pharmacy. The bullet struck the road. Small pieces of pavement scattered against the side of the vehicle.
The Scorpius man faced the pharmacy. "This is not what we talked about!"
Another shot struck the asphalt. The Scorpius man moved back into cover.
Marek stayed low. The smell of copper and spilled coolant hung in the air.
The shooter was not necessarily working with the others.
At least, not anymore.
The shooting stopped.
Nobody moved. The officer leaned out from behind the van. He fired toward the broken window of the pharmacy.
Glass shattered inside the building. Then, nothing.
The Taurus man moved around the rear of the lead vehicle. Cooper came around the opposite side. Neither noticed the other until they met in the middle.
The Taurus man reacted first. He turned and raised his arm. His shoulder caught Cooper across the chest.
Cooper was thrown three meters away as he landed on his side.
Marek stood. "Cooper!"
The Taurus man stopped.
Marek crossed the pavement. Cooper coughed. He rolled partly onto his back.
"Can you breathe?"
Cooper took a breath. "Obviously."
"Anything sharp?"
"No."
"Did your head hit the road?"
"My shoulder did."
No blood at the temple. The shoulder had taken it. There was no obvious deformity.
"Move your fingers."
Cooper did.
"Your wrist?"
Cooper moved it.
Marek pressed the joint.
Cooper pulled away. "That hurts."
"Then don’t move the arm more than you need to."
Cooper got himself upright with one arm.
The Taurus man remained several meters away. He stared at his own arm. "I didn’t mean to hit him."
"You still hit me."
The man did not answer.
Cooper made it to his feet with Marek’s arm under his good side. They returned to the lead vehicle.
"What happened?"
"He got hit."
"I can see that."
Marek helped Cooper sit beside the tire. "Keep the arm still for now."
Cooper leaned back against the metal.
The Taurus man walked closer.
Marek stepped between him and the others.
The detainee stopped. "I’m not going to hit him again."
"You didn’t plan to hit him the first time."
"Exactly."
"That isn’t reassuring."
"Then tell him to put the gun down."
"He doesn’t work for me."
The officer watched the pharmacy.
The Taurus man stepped forward.
"You were warned about Ophiuchus, but you still tore the doors off our vehicle."
"I didn’t know you were inside."
"You saw us before you pulled the second door."
"We were trying to take the vehicle."
"That explains the door. It doesn’t explain everything after."
"You think we should’ve stayed inside the detention center?"
"I don’t know what happened there."
"Exactly."
The Scorpius detainee’s Mark remained visible near his waist.
The Scorpius man caught Marek looking.
"People started Awakening inside locked rooms. One guard threw another man through a door without meaning to. Someone started copying voices over the intercom. The locks stopped working in half the building. Then they started moving people depending on whatever Mark appeared on them." The Taurus man turned. "I was already inside when all this started. You think I was going to sit there until someone decided what my Mark meant?"
"Why were you detained?"
"Does that matter right now?"
"It matters if you’re asking me to trust you."
"I’m not asking you to trust me."
"Then we agree."
A gunshot interrupted them. The officer moved behind the van. He fired twice toward the broken window. Something moved in the shadows behind the broken window.
Marek could not tell whether it was the shooter or the Gemini woman.
The officer pulled back into cover.
"You keep shooting at us and expect us to stop."
The officer checked his weapon. "Someone is shooting at civilians from that building."
"They aren’t with me."
"You escaped together."
"That doesn’t make us friends."
The Scorpius man stepped partly out from cover. "If the shooter was really with us, he wouldn’t be shooting this way either. There were people waiting for trial. People being held overnight. People already serving sentences. When the place broke open, everyone left at the same time."
The shooter had stopped firing.
The security officer moved closer. "Get the injured behind the van. I’ll keep them away from you."
He looked at the Taurus man. "Especially him."
"You think you can?"
Neither moved.
The Taurus man crossed the remaining distance. He reached for the officer’s weapon. The officer pulled it back. He struck the man’s wrist with the barrel.
The Taurus man did not flinch. He grabbed the officer by the vest. The officer grabbed him in return.
They remained locked together.
Then the Taurus man was forced backward.
Golden light appeared beneath the officer’s torn collar. The top of a Mark showed across his upper chest.