"Damn damn damn damn damn. Can't go back, forward is blocked, if we go over the top we're wide open again–"

"Shhhhh!" Alice held a finger to her lips, then pointed up. Robert cocked his head, then heard it too: a high whine from downhill, headed their way.

"Drone inbound. Can you do anything about it?"

Robert whipped out his laptop. "I can try. Frequency scanner shows a spike on the 5.8 GHz radio band, that's gotta be the controller."

The whine grew louder, though it seemed to also be moving back and forth across the slope. Probably making sweeps to check for ambushes. So much for plan A, Alice thought.

"The data is encrypted, but we're still in the game. The traffic pattern looks like a Space Core device, probably the LCX850. Those shipped with faulty encryption that the Russians broke last year.

"I picked up the crack from Wiktor. I'm running it now, if they didn't update the firmware, I may be able to take control." Alice peered over his shoulder. Most of the screen was taken up by Robert writing a script for hijacking the drone, once he was able to communicate with it. A tray at the bottom showed an ASCII progress-bar:

DECRYPTING ███░░░░░░░░░░ 30%

"Any way to speed this up? I don't think we have enough time." The whine was noticeably louder.

"I've done what I can - it's just brute-forcing keys now. We could get lucky and find it on the next try, or it might be the last one we test. Or they might have updated the firmware, in which case we're hosed."

DECRYPTING ██████░░░░░░░ 47%

The drone was almost even with their canyon now, though it still sounded about 50 feet off to the left.

DECRYPTING ████████░░░░░ 62%

A black insectoid thing flew into view, coming in from the path they'd just retreated from. An misshapen green bulge hung from the bottom like a cancer. Too big to be a camera.

DECRYPTING █████████░░░░ 71%

As the drone swooped into their canyon Alice realized what she was looking at. "Grenade!"

A red light on the bottom of the drone winked on. Alice dug frantically into the cliff wall, trying to find cover from the blast.

"Got it!" Robert whooped. Alice looked up - the drone was gone.

"Nice! That was close Robert. But now they know where we're tra–"

BOOM! The explosion echoed off the sand.

"I marked that package return to sender, haha." Robert smiled too wide, the forced laughter held a manic edge. Definitely his first kill. "I got a look through the camera before the... before it... you know. Only one of the two men was down there."

Alice paused to consider. "Wait here, I'll be back." She crawled back out, body flat against the sand. No sign of gunfire. Cautiously she peeked out over the rim. A short distance down the trail was one of the two men. Or what remained of him. The right side of his body was covered in blood; the arm was missing from the elbow up. Looked like he'd tried to bat the drone away with his rifle.

The gun itself had landed a few feet up the trail, barrel pointing uphill. Wounded though he was, the man was still conscious. As she watched his left arm reached out toward the rifle, grabbed sand, and pulled. His legs kicked weakly, but he still scooted half a foot closer to the fallen weapon.

If his buddy was close by, he wasn't breaking cover to go help. Alice weighed the risks and went for it; if there was going to be another firefight, she wanted to be armed this time. She sprang up and ran as fast as she could manage with her jarred spine.

The fallen attacker saw her coming and redoubled his efforts to reach the rifle. Despite the blood loss he moved faster than she expected; a big push covered a lot of ground, the weapon almost at his fingertip. Alice had just a few steps to go - she could get there before he could fire it.

A loose rock slipped out from under her foot, her hip twisted awkwardly to compensate. White fire shot up her spine. She stumbled and barely kept her footing. Everything slowed down.

The bloodied man seized the butt of the weapon and pulled it under his body, then pinned the side of the barrel between his shoulder and a rock, levering the tip up to point at her waist. Not an accurate stance, but good enough for point-blank range. Alice's momentum carried her into him as he squeezed the trigger.

BANG. The man's shoulder lurched violently up off the ground, then fell with a wet thud. Alice transferred her forward motion into a downward heel kick, but with his sudden spasm the blow meant for his head instead caught him in the shoulder. She came to a stop astride his torso, ready to fight, but he lay motionless.

Alice noticed there was suddenly a lot more blood on the ground, though improbably none of it seemed to be hers. A quick check for a pulse confirmed it, the man was dead. Alice gritted her teeth, bent down, and rolled him over to retrieve the gun.

She flinched and looked away, feeling queasy. The man's left side was a bloody mess. The rifle barrel had blossomed into a twisted rose of fractured metal, much of which was embedded in his chest. She'd seen a shotgun split like that from a misfire, though that time the owner hadn't been lying on top of it. Alice guessed the barrel had been plugged with dirt during its tumble. The pressure buildup from firing ended in catastrophic failure for both gun and shooter.

She swallowed hard and steeled herself for a quick search of the corpse, determined not to come back empty-handed. She turned the man's pockets out on the sand. Not much: a wallet and key fob, a bent and shattered phone, a large pocket knife, and a pack of blood-soaked wintergreen gum. A holster on his right hip held a loaded pistol, and a bandolier across his shoulder held clips for the assault rifle, though nothing for the handgun.

The pistol barrel was clean and undamaged, but an integrated fingerprint lock meant she wouldn't be firing it any time soon. She wiped the knife off and was pleasantly surprised to identify the Shirogorov F95. One of her ex's buddies had been a knife freak, his limited edition Shiros were the prize of his collection. She didn't get the fetishism around the things, but it was hard to deny the craftsmanship. Wherever Lynch found these mercenaries, they couldn't have been cheap.

The knife went into her right pocket by itself. She left the broken phone and soiled gun, and put the rest in her other pocket. The weight of steel hung awkwardly in her tailored dress pants; the pockets weren't designed for the actual carrying of things.

She'd been out in the open for minutes now, but still no one had taken a shot at her. Maybe the other man was in pursuit; more likely he'd stayed with the truck. A quick survey seemed in order.

From where she was standing she had an unobstructed view up and down the slope, though the road was still hidden by the cliff. She found where they'd made a wrong turn and memorized the path that would take them to the road.

Robert was probably freaking out by now, better not to keep him waiting. Alice hustled back up to the canyon. Something glittered on the ground near the entrance.

When she got there, Robert was lying on the ground, holding his computer out with one arm. "There's a webcam built into the top screen bezel. If I extend the screen and tip it sideways I can use it as a make-shift periscope!" An edge of panic still wriggled through Robert's voice. "Any trouble down there, you get the gun?"

"I got a gun. The big one blew up with its owner. Here," Alice tossed the pistol to Robert, who fumbled the catch but at least didn't drop it, "any way to bypass that fingerprint lock?"

"I'm familiar with these. There should be a bracelet that goes with it, acts as an RFID key so you don't have to fuss with the lock in combat. You see anything on his wrist?"

"Nope. I also didn't see any sign of the wrist. I think the explosion took care of that." Robert winced. "I'm more comfortable with this anyway." Alice expertly flipped out the knife blade by way of demonstration, then re-folded it and returned it to her pocket. "If you see anyone hostile, point the gun at them and tell them to put their hands up. They won't know you can't fire it."

Robert nodded enthusiastically, but was staring glassy eyed into the middle distance rather than looking at her. Alice wasn't sure he'd actually heard. Hopefully it wouldn't come up. It probably would.

"I think the other merc stayed with the truck. Your friends are due at the pickup site any minute now, if we can time it right we might be able to jump him when he's distracted by their arrival.

"We need to backtrack a little to pick up the path. Stay low, but go fast." Robert gave another vacuous nod. Alice hoped she hadn't broken him permanently.