Yeri hurtled out of the hospital bed.

She took a ready stance as soon as the lights powered off and shoved Saeron behind her. An intruder would go straight for the two standing figures, not the unconscious one. A ninety-nine percent chance that they would go for the one in front, a ninety-six percent chance they would actually hit her. Civilians before agents. Just like it had always been.

But then again, this was also the med ward. The highest of security, especially in lockdown.

For a moment more, it was pitch dark, then red lights flashed on.

Chaos outside of the sliding door sounded just a few feet in front of them. Yeri listened for the telltale signs of danger. There were none. Just doctors and nurses quieting patients down, doing check-ups for the more unstable patients.

“Yerim? What - What’s going on?”

“Either it’s a freak power outage, or we’re under attack.”

She doubted it was the former.

“Stay here. When I leave, lock the door, hide under the bed. Do you understand?”

“Y-Yes.”

She patted Saeron on the shoulder. The most reassurance she could offer. She spotted the neatly stacked bodysuit on the chair next to the door. Grabbed her gun and knife and flashlight off of it and pulled on her boots.

Still no sound.

She gave Saeron one last once-over, then slipped out of the door. The red lights cast eerie shadows, but they only bothered her because of the low lighting. Low lighting meant visionary issues, which meant that she’d have to be at least three times more careful. She stuck close to the walls, invisible to bustling nurses and doctors and panicking patients.

She hoped Joy was okay.

The elevator was stuck. Emergency protocol. No other way out of the med ward. She had to get out of here because she had the feeling that this was the Maple Leaf, and she was on the team designated to take them down. She couldn’t bail out now. Not a chance.

She maneuvered her way to the control room, picked the lock with the knife, then shut the door behind her. The room was empty with just one red light. She clicked on the Maglite and stuck it between her teeth, shoving the chair to the side and scanning the control panel. They were all labeled accordingly with peeling, yellow scotch tape, and messy scrawls. She’d be able to figure it out without the labels anyway.

Calculating the time frame, heads and tails, there was roughly a sixty percent chance that no one was in the elevator, a forty-five percent chance there was an agent in the elevator, and a five percent chance there was a Maple Leaf goon in the elevator. She liked her chances.

She backed out of the room, looked around for a second. Saw the doctors and nurses and patients all bustling around, all doing their own thing. She fired into a wall. The reactions were instantaneous and predicted, all hit the floor at the same exact time, stock still and silent.

They were trained on how to react, and they reacted perfectly.

“This is an agent speaking! Everyone in the rooms, now!”

There were no questions, only obedience to the command like they weren’t taking orders from a seventeen-year-old girl. She didn’t bother to watch. She went back inside the control room, the flashlight.

She flicked the switch.

There was a whirring and a grinding, then a smooth purring of the mechanics as the engine kicked back to life. She clicked off the flashlight and slipped back out of the room. The elevator was heading down, which meant someone was in it, which meant that there was now a ninety-five to five percent chance that it was an agent or a goon. Respectively.

She got her gun up to the ready.

Five, four, three, two, one.

“Yeri? You complete freaking genius!”

Joy couldn’t care less about the agents topside. They could take care