Dawnbreaker: Legends of the Duskwalker - Book 3 Read Free

you’re dry, then just–”
    “I got it, Wick,” Cass said, cutting him off. “Find me some places to set up.” She squeezed his shoulder, and then Able’s arm, and then crossed the empty space to the back side of the building where they’d first climbed up. When she reached the gap in the wall, she forced herself to stop and scan the street below for five deep breaths to make sure it was clear. Satisfied that it was, she crouched low and hopped over the edge. The twelve-foot drop barely registered when she hit the pavement. She crouched again in the moonlit alley and ran her eyes and fingers over the controls on Wick’s weapon; fortunately all the essentials were in familiar places. Cass dropped the magazine out of the rifle and swapped in a fresh one, then did it again just to make sure she could. She shouldered it, and snapped the muzzle back and forth between a couple of arbitrary pieces of debris down the alley, gauging the weapon’s weight and getting a sense of the sight picture. She knew her way around guns, but they’d never really been her thing. Not as smooth as Wick. She could get the job done well enough... she hoped. At least she was about to get a lot more practice.
    An internal ping showed up in her vision, a digital landmark only she could see, off to the northeast. Wick’s first point of attack. She took another deep breath to steady herself, and headed out, hunched low but with quick, careful steps. Whether she could see residual heat or some wavelength beyond the normal spectrum, she didn’t know, but the night’s darkness posed no trouble for her Weir-enhanced eyes.
    Cass approached the end of the wide alley and slowed as she reached the corner. Wick’s first waypoint was only about thirty yards on the other side of the road. She edged forward and leaned out just far enough for one eye to get a view of what lay down the street. It was empty, except for the raging noise that cascaded down the channel created by the buildings on either side. Cass ducked her head and dashed straight across, forcing herself to keep her eyes fixed on her destination. Once she’d crossed, she slipped around behind a four-story structure, passing a gaping hole in the wall that exposed a skeletal staircase coated in concrete dust and debris. She glanced up at it as she went by and saw that whatever those stairs had led to at one time was gone now. The final steps had sheared off and hung out into space.
    Just past the building she paused at another corner, and then covered the remaining ground to the waypoint. As she closed in, though, it vanished. Cass glanced around looking for a good vantage point, but as far as she could see there wasn’t anywhere that had a sightline to the Weir. A few seconds later, a second waypoint appeared, further east, maybe thirty yards. Again, she made her way to it and again, as she neared, the waypoint vanished. The position seemed even worse here. Still no clear lines of attack, and even the roar from the Weir seemed dulled. What was Wick doing?
    It occurred to her now that she had no way to communicate with him directly. She hadn’t thought to ask him to patch her in to the team’s secure channel, the low-frequency, low-profile method they used to communicate in the Open without attracting the attention of the Weir. She didn’t dare risk a pim to him, knowing the signal would surely reveal her. Maybe he’d misunderstood. Or... was he leading her back towards the tunnel? Trying to send her out of harm’s way?
    A third waypoint appeared for her, northward, though still with an eastward bend. She stood for a moment, uncertain of his intentions. After a moment she resolved to go to the third point and evaluate. If by then she wasn’t seeing a place to ambush, she’d make her way back and hope she got there fast enough before Wick and Able did whatever it was they were really planning to do.
    Cass upped her pace to a trot. The third point was slightly elevated, and she had to