Teije nudged him and made a small gesture, tapping his head. Perceive that? He jerked his chin toward the left. Niko could not see anything coming down the road. The sky still glowed an indigo blue, but under the cover of the pine trees it was already dark. Niko let his vision slide out of focus and stretched out his Perception, wishing it was stronger. All he could pick out at first were nearby energies—Teije’s aura right next to him, tiny flickers of rodent life under the snow and birds in the branches, the other two GSI soldiers across the road. After another two seconds of concentration, however, he made out the faint impression of several people, crammed too close together to distinguish their individual energies, but rapidly approaching his position. A single vehicle.
Niko pushed up on his elbows just enough to flash a hand signal toward where Falston and Hicks were concealed. He hoped the Espenians saw it through the gloom, or at least sensed the alertness in the jade auras of their Kekonese colleagues. Niko wouldn’t say he was friends with the two other men, but after three months together in the desolate countryside of Udain, he’d grown accustomed to them. Falston was gruff and cynical, and Hicks was bad-tempered, but they were generally decent and less condescending than other foreigners that Niko had interacted with. Ex-military Espenians were by far the most numerous group in GSI. Although they wore the least jade, they were the most annoyingly dogmatic about their way of doing things. They often lumped the Kekonese, the Keko-Espenians, and the Keko-Shotarians together even though the three groups didn’t speak the same language and avoided each other.
The vehicle came into sight: a muddy brown four-door pickup truck with a black tarp over the back, rolling slowly down the singlelane road, its snow tires crunching on the packed ice as it made its way toward the town of Hansill—a nondescript settlement of two hundred thousand people that Espenian intelligence had pinpointed as harboring members of an Ygutanian-supported Deliverantist rebellion against the autocratic Udaini government.
Niko squinted down the barrel of his R5. He remembered that Vin Solunu, one of the most senior Fists in No Peak, had such a precise long-range sense of Perception and extraordinary aim that he could shoot a living creature with his eyes closed from two hundred meters away. Niko had once seen him take out a squirrel in a tree while blindfolded. Niko had no such confidence in his own marksmanship, even with a night scope. Changing his mind, he slung the R5 over his shoulder and brought his knees and feet up into a crouch, motioning his intentions to Teije.
Teije’s eyes widened, but he nodded and stowed his own rifle, readying himself beside Niko. They breathed in together, gathering their jade energy. Falston and Hicks would not do it this way, but Niko and Teije were Kekonese Green Bones, and they did things the Kekonese way—close and personal.
Niko burst out of his place of concealment. His stiff muscles screamed in protest at the sudden change from stillness to explosive motion as Strength poured into his limbs, turning him into a blur of speed as he launched himself toward the road, clearing the snow and underbrush in two Light bounds.
His timing was perfect. As the truck clattered past, Niko rammed himself shoulder-first into the passenger side door at full Strength, like a stampeding bull shoving aside an obstacle. No one except a Green Bone with the highest level of Steel would try anything so dangerous. The impact threw Niko clear of the road. He flew several meters and tumbled into the trees. As the world upended in his vision, he glimpsed the truck swerving wildly as the driver hit the brakes—perhaps thinking he’d hit a deer.
Teije landed in the road in front of the truck and unleashed a powerful low Deflection that struck the vehicle’s wobbling front wheels, sending it into a dramatic 360-degree spin before it lurched into the nearest snowbank and came to a halt like a stuck cow.
Niko clambered to his feet, his head ringing. His legs went wobbly as he let the massive surge of Steel drop from his body, but nothing was broken. His rifle had been tossed into the snow a short distance away upon his landing. He snatched it and ran toward the truck, grasping for Lightness to keep from sinking into the powder, but sprinting low and hunched over. Alarm from the people inside spiked in his Perception, a sudden eruption of jagged red in his mind. Niko glimpsed the man in the driver’s seat raising a shotgun.
Bullets punched through the windshield, flinging the driver’s body backward. Falston and Hicks had reached the pickup and were releasing concentrated bursts of automatic fire that sparked in Niko’s vision like New Year’s firecrackers. The rear door of the truck’s cab opened and a man tumbled out, holding a pistol. He took a step and collapsed in the middle of the road, an unmoving lump on the ice.