There were a number of things Sarah loved about living in New York City, but she held the firm opinion that New York in the summertime was the worst. It got oppressively hot and humid, and for every one local there were ten sweating tourists who didn't know where they were going. There was a reason the richest residents of the city fled to Connecticut or the Hamptons from May until August.

But tonight, New York's hot weather was on her side, because with each summer's heat waves always came power outages. Usually small ones that didn't last long, but they were common enough in these high temperatures that when the power suddenly went out at Orion that night, it didn't immediately raise any suspicions from the few security guards that were there. After all, for once there weren't any unsavory meetings going on there, no congregations of important people to target. No one even noticed as two shadowy figures slipped into the building, then slipped back out undetected about fifteen minutes later, a list of four-digit key codes in hand.

Now they stood on a rooftop across from Orion, and Sarah tried not to look down at the ground. She'd never really considered herself to be someone who was afraid of heights. But as it turned out, that lack of fear was mostly due to her not actively spending much time on top of buildings with little to no barrier between her and a steep fall onto the concrete below.

Sarah made the mistake of glancing down, then immediately looked back up and swallowed.

Matt picked up on her nervousness, as always.

"You'll be fine," he said. "Just remember to—"

"To do what you say, and don't let anyone see me," Sarah finished for him. "You've reminded me a million times so far."

"And if something goes wrong?"

"Run. I know."

She could tell he still wasn't happy about the arrangement, but at least he'd stopped trying to convince her to go back home.

"Okay," he said. "There's two guards coming up the stairs to the roof. They're probably doing a sweep of the perimeter."

Once they were on the roof, Matt made quick work of the two men patrolling the area. He tossed their guns over the side of the building and fished in one of their jacket pockets, pulling out a keycard.

Meanwhile Sarah was over by the door, figuring out how to get in. There was a keypad a few feet to the left of the door, and a card swiper placed several feet on the opposite side of the door. Sarah took in the set up with raised eyebrows.

"Huh. Looks like you need to use both at the same time," Sarah noted innocently. "So...you would need two people. Interesting."

Predictably, Matt's expression below the mask was unamused. He walked over to the card swiper with the guards ID in hand.

"Try not to be smug until we've actually finished the job," he said.

Sarah pulled the key code list out of her pocket and went to type it in.

"Use your knuckle," Matt reminded her. "We don't need to leave fingerprints."

"Right," she said. Ten seconds in and she already would have made a mistake had he not caught it. Great.

Once they were inside, Matt swiveled his head like an antennae, picking up on the activity in the building.

"There's three floors above ground and about...seven more below ground," he surmised. "At least two armed guards on each floor."

"Can you tell where Tyler is?"

Matt frowned in concentration, then shook his head. "It's too difficult to tell."

Her stomach flipped. What if he wasn't even here? She pushed the thought from her mind as they headed towards the stairwell.

The first set of guards they encountered went down smoothly, as did the second and third. Each time it was the same routine: Sarah would use the key codes to open the door to a level of the building, then stay out of sight as Matt quickly and quietly knocked the guards unconscious. Then he'd take the bullets out of their guns and the batteries out of their radios before zip tying their hands. How many zip ties did he carry around, anyway?

They continued downward, checking each floor as they went. Still no sign of Tyler.

They had gotten down to the fourth floor below ground before they ran into any more than two guards. This floor had six, which seemed like a good sign; they had to be protecting something, right?

As they were making their way down a hallway on that floor, Matt suddenly touched a hand to her forearm to halt her. He was listening closely to something.

"There's a few guards coming from different directions," he said. He nodded towards an open doorway leading to a dark room. "Hide in there. Don't come out."

Sarah ducked into the room, staying close enough to the door that she could see what was happening. The first pair of guards rounded the corner. She saw one go into a room a few doors down and flick on the light. The other did the same with another room. Shit. These ones were doing a thorough check.

As they came near the room Sarah was hiding in she held her breath and felt in her pocket for her stun gun, shrinking back from the hallway light. She flattened herself against the wall next to the door as their footsteps drew nearer.

There was a loud clattering noise at the other end of the hall that immediately caught the attention of both guards. Sarah turned her head and watched from her hiding spot, already knowing what would happen as they moved towards the sound. It felt weirdly like watching a horror movie, but with the good guys and bad guys reversed. If this were a movie, she'd be yelling at the people on screen to not go check out that strange noise, because something was waiting for them in the shadows.

But this wasn't a movie. It was real life, and the thing in the shadows was on her side.

They passed by another dark open doorway, and one of the guards was yanked inside so quickly and silently that Sarah might have missed it if she'd blinked. It took the second guard a few seconds to realize his partner was gone, and by the time he did he had already been knocked out by a baton and dropped on the floor inside the dark room, out of sight of the second pair who was approaching.

When two more guards rounded he corner, Matt seemed less concerned with stealth. He stepped out of the room just as they passed, knocking one of guard's head against the wall while grabbing the other's semi-automatic away from him. He kicked it out of reach, and Sarah watch as it slid down the hallway. By the time she looked back at the scuffle, it was over.

She waited until Matt nodded in her direction before stepping out of her concealed spot.

"Can you grab that?" he asked, indicating the gun lying on the floor behind her.

Sarah yanked her sleeves over her hands and carefully picked it up. It felt cold and heavy in a way she didn't like. She handed it to Matt, who swiftly removed the bullets. For a guy who didn't use guns, he didn't seem to have any trouble disassembling one. They passed by more open doors, and more closed ones. Sarah wondered briefly what was in all those rooms.

Matt came to a stop outside one of the closed doors.

"There's someone in there," he said.

Sarah's heart caught in her throat. "Tyler? Or...?"

Matt tilted his head, listening more closely. Then to her immense relief, he nodded.

"It's Tyler. The heartbeat's young, and afraid. He's alone. I don't think he's hurt. You have the key code for doors on this level?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Go in and make sure he's alright. I'll be back in a minute," Matt said. Sarah nodded, and he ducked around a corner, presumably to go punch someone somewhere.

Sarah typed in the access code for the room and opened the door slowly, not wanting to startle the teenager inside. Her heart twisted when she saw him, alone in the middle of the room with his wrists and ankles secured to a chair. He looked tired and scared, but otherwise unharmed. She wasn't entirely sure how she was going to get him untied, but for now she was just relieved he didn't look like he was hurt.

"Hi," she said with a small wave. "Remember me?"

Tyler blinked at her as she knelt in front of his chair, his eyes going wide with confusion.

"Uh, yeah," he said. His voice was hoarse. "You're that lady. The...one who's bad at math."

"I think a C-minus is more average than bad, but yeah. That's me."

She'd been hoping the small joke would help him relax while she figured out how to untie him, but there was no such luck.

"I guess if you're here it means your boss is coming. That guy with all the scars on his face," he said. His voice was shaking. "What...what do you guys want?"

"No, Tyler, it's okay," she said. "I'm not here to help Jason. I'm here to help you. Your dad sent us."

"Us?"

Then his gaze focused behind her and his eyes went even wider. Sarah looked over her shoulder to see Matt standing in the doorway, holding something shiny in his hand.

"Whoa," Tyler said.

She turned back to Tyler.

"Yeah. I know."

Matt strode over to them, handing Sarah the item he was holding: it was a small switchblade she assumed he'd gotten off one of the guards; perfect for cutting through the restraints.

"Are you alright?" he asked Tyler.

Tyler seemed altogether too shocked to reply as Sarah began cutting through the restraints on one of his wrists, being careful not to nick his skin.

There was a sudden commotion on one of the floors above them; footsteps running and voices yelling. It sounded like someone had come across some of the unconscious bodies they'd left littered around the building. Matt cocked his head towards the door to listen, then swore under his breath.

"There's more guards coming," he said. He turned to Sarah, who was finishing with the second restraint now. "Take Tyler and get him out of the building. You can take the northwest stairwell up to ground level. There's no one over there, and I'll keep them away from it. Keep going back towards Rob and don't stop; I'll catch up soon."

Sarah swallowed and nodded.

"Okay. Be careful."

Matt nodded and exited the room, leaving her to hastily finish freeing Tyler from the chair. When she was done, she looked up at the petrified teenager and smiled as reassuringly as she could with her heart racing in her chest.

"Ready to get out of here?"

Just like Matt had said, the stairwell was empty of anyone but the two of them. They climbed the stairs as quickly as they could until they reached the ground level floor, then stumbled out into the cool night air. Sarah was dying to stop for a minute and let the stitch in her side fade, but they needed to get back to Rob. Matt said he would catch up soon. Sarah glanced back inside uneasily; she didn't like the idea of leaving him there, despite knowing he could handle himself.

"Come on," she said, pointing down the street. "It's this way."

Tyler shook his head, squinting in the opposite direction. "No, I have to go home. My dad—"

"Your dad's not at your home. But I know where he is, and I can take you to him."

"What about...?" Tyler nodded to where they'd come from. "Is he coming?"

As if on cue, they heard the sound of shattering glass from inside, followed by an ear piercing alarm splitting through the night air. Sarah jumped at the sound. It was incredibly loud even outside, meaning the sound inside must have been insane.

Definitely loud enough that Matt couldn't hear what was going on around him.

Sarah was frozen on the spot for a moment, staring at the building in horror. Then came the sound of a gunshot from inside, audible even over the piercing alarm. It was quickly followed by two more shots in close succession. Sarah's heart flipped, and she snapped out of whatever state of shock she'd gone into.

She turned to Tyler abruptly. He looked to be similarly frozen by the sound of the gunshot.

"Okay. O-okay, listen," Sarah said. She wasn't sure if she was trying to calm him down or herself. "I have to go back in, but you—"

"Back—back in there?"

Sarah nodded.

"Are you nuts?" he exclaimed. His voice cracked a little, reminding her again how young he was. "You're supposed to run away from gunshots!"

"Listen. You need to go hide. There's a park at the end of the block," she said, pointing towards the entrance in the distance. "Go hide there, and don't come out until we come find you, and then we'll take you to your dad."

She wasn't crazy about sending him off on his own, but the alarm was filling up every inch of air and there was every chance that the next bullet fired would hit Matt—if one hadn't already.

She grabbed her pepper spray and stun gun out of her sweatshirt pocket and held them both up.

"Take your pick," she said.

Tyler stared at her in shock for a moment longer, then reluctantly took the pepper spray. Sarah nodded shakily and pocketed the stun gun.

"Go."

He took off towards the park, and Sarah ran in the opposite direction, back towards the doors they'd just come out of. It occurred to her that no police were showing up, and she wondered who Jason had paid off to make sure this place wasn't responded to.

Back inside, the sound of the alarm was deafening. It seemed to get louder as it bounced off the walls, screaming through the air. Sarah took a breath, bolting towards the staircase and trying to remember how many levels down she had seen the door for an electrical closet. It had been inside the stairwell, and she dearly hoped it would have a circuit breaker in it.

Thankfully, when she found the closet it was unlocked, and the breakers were inside. A rare stroke of luck for her.

Sarah tried to block out the noise and focus on the task in front of her. None of the switches were labeled, but there was a large one at the top that she assumed was for the whole building. She flipped it with shaking fingers.

The piercing siren came to an immediate end as she was suddenly surrounded by pitch black. She heard shouts from a few floors below her and assumed the rest of the building was plunged into darkness as well.

Sarah's ears were ringing from the noise. Between this and that idiot Tracksuit firing his gun right next to her ear, she was probably going to end up with some kind of permanent hearing damage.

Back in the stairwell, she leaned over the railing, gripping the cold metal tightly as she listened for any sound of what was happening below. But it was difficult over her own gasping breaths and the ringing remnants of the alarm in her ears. Around her, dull red bulbs along the walls were slowly beginning to light up as the backup system kicked in. They were small and widely spaced out, bathing the stairwell in a weak but eerie light.

To her relief, she finally heard the sounds of fighting going on below. There was a harsh yell of pain that definitely wasn't Matt's, meaning he was still moving—and hopefully winning. Sarah's hoped his hearing would be quicker to recover than hers was. At least he had the added upper hand of now being able to fight in his own territory: pitch dark. He'd be okay, she reassured herself, breathing a sigh of relief. Now she could go find Tyler in the park, where Matt would meet them there in one piece, and they would bring him back to his dad—

Then a hand clamped down on her shoulder and whipped her away from the railing, sending her careening into the wall. Her hood slipped off as her head snapped back and cracked hard against the concrete wall.

She gasped in pain. Between the dim red lights and the black spots that were now exploding across her vision, it was difficult to see who was attacking her. When she felt a hand close around her arm and fingernails digging into her skin, she lashed out, punching at what she hoped was her assailants face. To her satisfaction, she made contact with what felt like his jaw. It hurt, but unlike past attempts it didn't feel like her hand had exploded.

The blow didn't get the man—and she could see now that it was tall, bearded man who she didn't recognize—out of her space, but it did get him to let go of her. She tried to dart past him but he caught her by the arm again, twisting it behind her. She automatically tried to yank it away and was met with more pain.

No. That wasn't what she was supposed to do. Struggling to remember the right move, Sarah was surprised to find that her body seemed to remember how to do it all on its own. She twisted into the man's hold on her arm, forcing him to grasp her at an awkward angle, then pushed back abruptly.

His hold on her loosened, and she sent an elbow back towards him; she was rewarded with a pained hiss as her elbow made contact with his ribs. She knew there were specific areas she was supposed to aim for, but at the moment she was just grateful to have hit him at all. She did it again, this time aiming high over her shoulder and elbowing him hard in the throat.

Sarah struggled out of his grip and bolted for the stairs, making it up almost one level before he was suddenly in front of her again. He grabbed the front of her sweatshirt and shoved her back so that her spine hit the metal railing. Something clattered loudly to the floor. Her heart jumped into her throat as she realized he was trying to push her over.

She wildly grabbed at anything she could reach, which was mostly just the person trying to kill her. She felt her fingernails slash into his skin a few times, but it seemed to have no effect. There was a panicky animal trying to claw it's way out of her chest, and it really didn't like being suspended over a railing.

The lighting was brighter on this level, allowing the man to get a better look at her face as he tipped her over the railing. She saw his eyes widen as he recognized her, but seemed to be struggling to place who she was. She took advantage of the momentary distraction to bring her knee up hard between his legs.

He let out a yell and let go, leaving Sarah to scramble to regain her balance and not fall over the railing. She felt in her pocket for her stun gun, then realized with a sinking feeling that she knew what had clattered on the floor a few seconds earlier.

And it seemed her opponent had realized it, too. When he came lunging back to his feet he had her stun gun in his hand, and she didn't have any time to get away.

He lashed out, digging the stun gun viciously into her shoulder, and hit the button.

The electric volts shot through her like lightning. She would have screamed if she'd been able to, but she couldn't move at all. Her muscles were rapidly contracting over and over, and she couldn't form a single thought in her head. It felt awful, like every single part of her body cramping, trying to curl in on herself unsuccessfully.

Then the electricity was gone, and so was the man in front of her. The entire thing had only lasted about five seconds, but it felt much longer to her.

The second nothing was holding her up, Sarah slid to the floor. Surprisingly, the pain was already receding, although muscle in her body felt like she had just run thirty miles. Across the room, she could see two dark figures fighting—or more accurately, one dark figure badly losing.