It wasn't just the first intersection that was blocked off. The road leading to the university seemed to be serving as the border of the territory that the police were actually exerting themselves to protect. Every intersection that they passed had a manned barricade preventing them from continuing onward if they tried to turn left.

Some of the police tried to wave them down. Solomon didn't even let his mount slow. He wasn't interested in any more talking. He was even less interested in taking orders from a police force that had abandoned half of the city. His parent's half, at that.

None of the officers they passed tried to do anything to make him stop. Not that there was much they could do. No guns, no cars, no radios. He thought the city had some mounted police, but it was up to luck whether their horses would have been considered close enough to pets to be spared by the system.

Put like that, he could almost sympathize with the cops. They were adjusting to their reduced capabilities by only protecting a section of the city they knew they could handle. Just like ordinary citizens were playing it safe by barricading themselves inside. It wasn't their fault that playing it safe was buying into an illusion.

Solomon shook his head. He'd share the news with anybody who would listen, but he wasn't going to twist anybody's arm and force them to safety against their will.

Soon enough, the entrance to the campus came into view. Solomon slowed his mount to a stop at the sight of the most confident border guard he had run into since the system showed up.

The people of Glide had rigged up a barricade by piling together whatever they'd had to hand. The Eugene police force had built their barriers out of sandbags and sawhorses and manned them with officers carrying a mix of department-issued batons and personal melee weaponry. The gate leading to the university was only blocked off by two men.

They weren't dressed in a uniform. Not quite. Each of them was wearing a pair of jeans and a dark t-shirt. The guard on the right was wearing a red armband around his right arm, decorated with a symbol that Solomon didn't recognize. Each man was also carrying a spear. A nice spear. The same nice spear. His system-enhanced eyesight let him pick out that much. Somebody had spent some serious coin to arm these two.

The two guards stood with an easy confidence that was a stark contrast with the police. These two hadn't been devastated by the chaos accompanying the system. No, they had the look of two men who had found their place in the new world.

Solomon nudged his mount to take another step forward. Two spears swept down to point at his chest.

He looked to the side. The walls surrounding the university were largely decorative. Red brick meant to convince parents that their tuition money was purchasing a suitably refined education for their offspring. They weren't really designed to keep people in or out. Now that Solomon was looking at them from up close, though, he could see a familiar distortion in the air starting at the wall and angling back to cover the whole campus under an enormous dome.

He turned his eyes back to the guards. Solomon himself would not have been happy to face down a mounted foe with nothing but a spear. He didn't see an ounce of hesitation in either guard's eyes, nor did their spear points waver. He had no idea what kind of ability the system might have given them to go with their weapons.

Decision made, Solomon nodded at the guards and guided his horse to turn around. He and Kanmi walked their mounts away from the gate.

He waited until they were well out of earshot to talk. "This could be a problem.

"You don't know the half of it," Kanmi said, shaking his head. Solomon couldn't see his expression with his helmet on, but there was an obvious note of tension in his tone. "Those armbands... it was a half assed imitation, but... the guys running this zone are bad news."

"You scared?" Solomon asked. He'd never heard Kanmi sound worried about anything, leaving aside the time Solomon had shot him.

"I take calculated risks," Kanmi said. "Sometimes you have to know when to walk away."

Solomon thought it over. Oregon was about to be facing a hostile takeover from an alien mega-corporation. His sister was stuck in their zone of control. She was probably on a balance sheet somewhere as a corporate asset.

"You think they'd negotiate?" Solmon asked. "All we really need to do is get Tiff."

He'd said he would find the kids from Glide if he could. Taking on this kind of opposition by himself was beyond the scope of that promise, in his opinion. As long as he could get his sister out, he was willing to let bygones be bygones for now.

Kanmi snorted. "They're not gonna come to the table to meet with small fry like us."

Solomon nodded. That was about what he'd expected. There weren't going to be a lot of reasonable altruists in their line of work.

"Their heavy hitters," Solomon said, "what would they do once they took over a zone?"

"I imagine they'd go visit the neighbors," Kanmi said. "Maybe borrow a cup of sugar, maybe take over the land and set them to sharecropping, who knows."

That was also about what Solomon had been expecting. Kanmi had been eager to start gobbling up territory back in the middle of nowhere. A well prepared, well financed team with the chance to grab a heavily populated area wouldn't waste any time getting to work.

The important thing was that right now things were still up in the air. Over time, the invaders would tighten their grip and turn the campus into an impregnable citidel. Right now, they had a couple of newly impressed locals guarding the front gate.

Solomon pulled on the reins, bringing his mount to a stop, then leading it to turn around. They were a block away from the campus. "Once we're inside, follow me."

Kanmi mirrored his actions, reluctantly. "Are you crazy?"

"Is it going to get any easier to raid this place?" Solomon asked. Taking the silence for an answer, he continued. "We hit hard, move fast, and escape in the confusion."

The system had taken out the cell network. The aliens would only have had a day or two to set up a replacement. If they were ever going to get in and keep ahead of the news of their attack, it was now.

Solomon looped the reins around his hook and kicked his mount into action. It leapt forward, setting his pulse pounding. Down at the end of the block, the two guards lowered their spears into position. There was no sign of panic. No doubt they had something planned to keep from being run over.

Well, Solomon had his own cards to play. At half a block away, he drew a pistol. The MP enhancing the shot flowed out with barely a thought as he aimed around stomach level at the guard on the left and pulled the trigger.

Both guards started at the roar of the shot. A spray of asphalt chips near his target's feet told him where the shot had landed. Solomon's mount continued charging on.

He dropped the pistol and drew another. Again he aimed at the gut of his target. Again his MP flowed. Again the gun roared. This time the back of the guard's head exploded as the shot caught him in the face.

The surviving guard lowered his weapon and backed away, eyes locked on his dead companion. Solomon gave his mount an unnecessary kick to keep it moving in full gallop as they passed through the gate.