The Shot

Time slowed.

Vance fired.

Ren didn't dodge. He calculated the trajectory and moved *into* the gap, taking the bullet in his Kevlar vest. The impact knocked the wind out of him, but he didn't fall.

He raised his gun.

He didn't aim for the fuel tank. That would kill Maya.

He aimed for the lights.

*Pop. Pop. Pop.*

The floodlights shattered. The warehouse plunged into darkness, lit only by the muzzle flashes and the lightning outside.

Ren was in his element. The darkness was his friend.

He moved through the chaos. He didn't kill indiscriminately. He incapacitated. A shot to the knee. A strike to the throat. He cleared a path.

He reached the catwalk ladder. He climbed, silent as smoke.

Vance was trying to switch to night vision.

Ren vaulted over the railing.

Vance spun around, swinging the rifle. Ren batted it aside. He kicked Vance’s knee, shattering it. Vance screamed and fell.

Ren stood over him, the gun pointed at Vance’s head.

"33," Vance gasped, holding up a hand. "Wait. Think about this. The Syndicate... they’ll never stop hunting you."

"Let them come," Ren said.

"You can't escape who you are," Vance sneered, blood on his teeth. "You're a killer."

Ren looked down at the man who had made him. Then he looked over the railing, into the dark below, where Maya was waiting.

"No," Ren said. "I'm retired."

He didn't shoot Vance in the head. He pistol-whipped him, hard, knocking him unconscious.

Then, Ren reached into Vance’s jacket and pulled out the phone—the one with the encrypted blackmail files. The one tracking Maya.

He crushed it under his boot.

He grabbed a flare from Vance’s belt. He lit it and tossed it onto the oil-soaked crates below, far from Maya, but close enough to the structural supports.

"Fire!" someone screamed below. The mercenaries scattered, running for the exits, dragging Vance with them.

Ren vaulted back down to the floor. He ran to the conveyor belt.

Maya was there, huddled in a ball.

"Ren?"

He pulled her up. He was bleeding, bruised, and terrifying.

"We have to go," he said.

"Is it over?"

Ren looked at the burning warehouse. "The job is over."

He took her hand. His grip was tight.

"Run."

\---