Getting in, Temmins thought, sure, that was near impossible but somewhat understandable, but that was nothing compared to getting out and getting away alive. The majority of their systems were concentrated on keeping people in. If they thought it was hard to break in, just wait until they tried to break out.

No, it had to be a mistake. Some sort of malfunction. Or perhaps a drill. He reasoned that could be it. Perhaps Giresun was running some sort of drill, not wanting his men, and other employees, to grow soft. Perhaps they were taking all this security for granted.

Temmins looked up from his work, not believing his own ears. A jailbreak? Here? How could that be possible?

Ran lay on the cold metal table, a small smile on his face as he pulled himself briefly to surface, allowing his senses to focus on what his ears heard. An alarm. In the grounds. Someone was here. Someone was here to rescue him.

It had to be a mistake, Temmins reasoned. There was no way anyone would even dare to attempt a break here. The security was too much. And then to even hope of escaping alive? An impossible dream.

On top of the startled orc, Clara pushed her sword farther into his chest. He seized, then slumped, head and arms falling to the cold ground, moving no more.

Clara removed both blades from the orc’s body and used his loin cloth to quickly wipe them clean. The other two orc lay on the ground moaning quietly, content to let the small woman dressed in black leave them to their wounds.

Clara ran for the other side of the courtyard as the alarm went off, announcing there was an intruder in their midst and a possible jailbreak scenario in progress.

The orc bellowed, but Clara couldn’t let his screams alert other guards. She jumped right at him, her remaining sword at the ready. With one quick slash she slit open the orc’s throat, cutting free his vocal cords, his roar switching to a silent wind of air. Dark blood spouted from the gaping wound.

Ponytail grabbed for his throat, but Clara quickly brought the blade around, plunging it into the orc’s chest. It punctured a lung, striking the heart. She rode him as he fell backwards, surprise on his face, not believing such a small thing could actually kill him.

Clara was desperate. The orc had hold of her foot and could crush it to nothing with very little thought. The ninja turned, sticking a sword deep in the orc’s wrist, slicing tendons to his hand, his grip immediately loosening.

He roared, bringing his other fist crashing down toward her. Clara scrambled to her feet, running from him, his fist slamming into the frozen ground where she had been a moment earlier. But she had left one sword still sticking out of the creature’s wrist. The orc stood up, roaring out of frustration.

Clara couldn’t let his noise alert others.

Both of Clara’s swords sunk deep into the orc’s groin. He froze, grip loosening on his sword. He made a small groan and even smaller whimper. She sliced her kitanas down and out and the orc collapsed, leaving his sword buried in the earth, clutching his wound.

Ponytail roared directly behind her. Clara leaped, but he grabbed hold of one tiny foot with his massive hand. She fell, being dragged back to the earth by her foot. She scrambled, knowing he could simply crush her foot to pulp at any moment. Clara turned, sticking her blade deep in his wrist.

The orc wielded his sword with both hands. Clara tried deflecting the blow, but there was so much power behind it, her own defense did little more than keep the blade from slicing her in two. Instead, the blow pushed her back and toward the ground. Dead eye loomed over her but didn’t slow to savor the victory too soon. Instead, he swiftly brought the blade down toward her again.

Having little other choice, Clara rolled toward him and stabbed at what was behind the loin cloth. Both of her swords sunk in and the orc froze, his eyes wide.

The orc on the ground was not dead, it taking more than a few dozen cuts and an elephant tusk buried in the orc’s back to do him in, but Clara doubted she would have to worry about him again this day.

Then ponytail came at her in a dead on charge. Clara sidestepped, avoiding his grasp, but realized too late that he was actually driving her toward dead eye. He wielded his massive sword with both hands now, leaving his club still impaling his friend on the ground. Clara tried to deflect the blow, but it was no use.

With fluid motion, Clara dove and rolled, feinting an opening for the orc’s attack. Dead eye came in quick, bringing his enormous sword down, but Clara rolled away. Taking advantage of his blind eye, she jumped at the other orc on the ground whose knee she had sliced. Dead eye swung his elephant tusk club blindly toward her. Clara leaped away from the fallen orc, the tusk piercing the creature’s back, dead eye unable to stop his own momentum upon seeing his compatriot on the ground.

The orc on the ground was not dead, but he was out of commission.

Then from nowhere, one of the orc clubs came sailing at Clara. She fell to the ground, avoiding it, but two orc were coming for her, ponytail and dead eye, the first still without his weapons and dead eye wielding his club and blade. Clara got her feet under her just as the first reached for her. She felt the tip of his massive hand smack her foot as she dove out of the way.

Dead eye barreled in, weapons at the ready. Clara dodged and spun as he swung and slashed. Then with fluid motion she dove and rolled.

If the orc could grab Clara, he would literally tear her in half. The ninja dove and rolled away, standing, ready for the next attack.

She did not wait long. The orc with the bun came at her wielding two blades, having picked up the sword his compatriot had thrown aside. The ninja jumped to one side, dodging the first swipe and deflecting the next. Then she made a counter attack of her own, cutting free tendons behind the beast’s knee as he rumbled past. He roared and stumbled to the ground, his knee giving out beneath his massive weight.

Clara would have to settle for incapacitating the orc. Knowing the size of these three creatures, she thought her best efforts would be to attack their legs.

The orc with one dead eye came at Clara fast, bringing his club down followed quickly by his oversized broad blade. The ninja leapt back, then dove behind him, taking a fleeting swipe at his Achilles heel. She missed, and another orc came stomping in, forgoing the weapons and just trying to grab her. If he got even half a grip, it wouldn’t take much for him to literally tear her in half.

Unable to take the time for a definite deathblow, Clara instead went for the throat and eye. But before she could make contact, the orc dropped his body to the ground, one of Clara’s swords instead slicing a deep gash in his left cheek.

This was taking too long. At any moment, guards could see the fight in the courtyard or someone may hear the scuffle and come back, sounding the inner compound alarms. Clara had to bring this to an end. But the creatures were too strong. She didn’t think she could hope to kill all three of them.

Clara cut the orc’s calf muscle deep as he stumbled past. His back was open, but before she could leap and decapitate the orc or slice his backbone open, the balding orc with the chin hair was at her again. She only just avoided the swing of his club. He brought it back again. She jumped over it and pushed off, leaping at his face. She would have liked to finish him off, but again, couldn’t risk slowing down her attack by cutting too deep. If even one of these monsters struck home with a blow, she could be dead.

The orc with the blind eye brought his massive club up to shield himself or take another swing at the ninja. But Clara used one sword on the club to alter her trajectory and the other she raked along the orc’s shoulder and back as she bound over him. The orc grunted out of frustration, but the orc with the ponytail was nearly on top of Clara, hacking at her with his blade.

The ninja used the orc’s momentum, deflecting his attack using both of her swords, and took a slash at his leg, cutting deep into his calf muscle.

Another orc came at Clara from the right. He was balding on top, his remaining hair pulled into a bun at the base of his head. His chin had a thin, six inch beard tied off. He swiped at her with his massive sword. Leaping, Clara deflected the blow and struck as she landed, three quick stabs at his chest and shoulder, dark blood oozing from the wounds.

The center orc with the scar and one blind eye pushed his brethren aside and hacked his own sword at the ninja. She leapt away then bound again, right at the orc.

Clara was better off for now to keep hacking away at the three orc quickly, making fast slashes rather than deep punctures. She didn’t know how long her luck would hold, but this was the only course of action she saw for now. Wait for an opportunity and then take it when it was there.

An orc swung his club, but the ninja leapt back, and the creature only served to bury the large elephant tusk in the cold, hard ground. Cut, cut. Two shallow slices across his chest. But another orc came at her, this one from the right.

Clara did not have a secret weapon for these orc. She was simply determined and unafraid, and she needed to help Randal, the man she loved, from this horrible place, and bring him home and care for him and make him strong again.

With a flurry of metal, Clara made quick, shallow cuts with her swords, three inches here, five inches there, and leapt around the three orc, not slowing her pace a fraction as the creatures swung their weapons and massive arms. Clara wouldn’t go too deep with any cut for fear of staying in one place too long.

No, this would not do. The three orc blocked her path and each moment only brought them closer. Clara knew speed was her best course of action, and without hesitating further, she ran headlong at the massive beasts.

This tiny woman running at them actually made the orc stop in their tracks. This was not right. Their prey did not usually run to its own doom. There had to be something they did not know.

This was true, but not in the sense that the orc expected. Clara did not have any secret plan or special information they did not.

Clara had little other choice but to face these three orc. She had to get to the other side of the courtyard to learn where Randal was held in this massive prison.

She drew her swords, starlight reflecting across the blades. This gave the orc pause, obviously not expecting someone as little as her to willingly put up a fight. But they continued to slowly stalk toward her. One on the left, dark, coarse hair pulled back into a ponytail, tied with a piece of leather, licked his obtrusive lower canines with a thick, brown tongue, longing in his eyes.

The orc grinned maliciously at Clara. He grunted something, and the other two orcs turned, their own surprise and then pleasure as they saw the tiny figure clad all in black. The three orc faced her, fanning out a little and slowly approaching her, their smallish noses sniffing the night air, perhaps trying to catch the scent of fear on their prey.

This was not good, but Clara would certainly not give these beasts the pleasure of her fear. If she left now, the alarm would certainly be raised. If she stayed, she seriously doubted very much her own survival.

The three orc in the courtyard were huge, ten feet tall, bare-chested, green brown skin, heavy flesh and massive muscle. They wore loin cloths of bear and mountain lion. Their massive feet were bare, standing on trampled snow and brown, withered grass. Large puffs of warm air formed then disappeared as they breathed. Each carried a huge metal blade and a club with an elephant tusk spike. One turned toward Clara. He had a scar deforming his already ugly face. One eye was dead, but he saw the ninja with the other.

First surprise passed over his face, then happiness.

Cars screeched to a halt, fear in the eyes of driver and passenger alike.

Having finished his initial ammo, Kurl stepped back into the van and pulled down a sliding blast shield closing the opening in the side. The faerie darted into the gaping hole in the building to investigate the glyph’s fate. Helen jerked the van into the road, turning down side streets before trying to disappear in traffic.

Sprite signaled Turtle that Kurl and Helen’s mission had been successful. T made a quick turn and zoomed into the curved drive, stopping fast in front of Revel and Jac.

The orc stepped out of the van and unleashed with the huge gatling gun in his arms, armored shells tearing into the glyph’s car fast approaching. Anja jerked the wheel, trying to avoid this sudden attack. But Kurl kept his massive finger on the oversized trigger and threw his bulk forward as she flew past, immense shoulder striking the side of her Racer, sending it into the lower level of a building across the street.

Kurl righted himself and continued to fire on the rear side of the vehicle until his thirty foot ream of large caliber ammunition was spent.

Anja the glyph tore through traffic in her two door, sporty Silver Racer, passing slower drivers, flying toward Revel. The dignitary would be removed from danger shortly.

Sprite saw the armorcoptor at the main event and knew they couldn’t handle air support. She eyed the glyph’s car and used her faerie to signal Kurl and Helen. This was Kurl’s first real mission, and it was hard to say which of the two was more nervous. Sprite guessed Helen.

The faerie signaled them. Now was the time.

Helen punched the door release, the two doors in front of Kurl exploding outward.

Air support tore through the streets, slowing where the Red Ninja had reported the sniper. They checked several sensors but didn’t find anything. Finally they decided to keep an eye on this area, but to get closer to the delegate.

The armorcoptor radioed their intention, and Jac agreed. Killing the sniper was not the objective; it was to keep Revel safe. Besides, the armorcoptor’s rotating blades would clear the smoke screen out quicker, restoring visibility to his men. Having a few of his own snipers in the air couldn’t hurt either.

And best of all, Anja would be there shortly.

The packages Gunn and Reynolds had left, erupted with the sound of sporadic gunfire, altering acoustics to simulate changing locations of shooters. The darts hoped that with the smoke and the fact that the devices did not produce a heat signature, the hired guardsmen would not discover the ruse. They returned fire through the cloud; the building only a couple hundred feet away, now completely obscured from view.

The attack had felt like forever, but Jac knew that in the heat of battle, time slowed down; it really hadn’t been more than a couple of minutes since the initial gunshot.

Gunn and Reynolds left behind a couple packages out of traffic flow and made their escape through the smoke, blending with the chaos and the crowd running into the building. Reynolds silver left arm was shaped like an arm again and Gunn had dropped his rhino stopper outside. In lockers downstairs, the two had gray janitor zip-ups waiting for them.

Jac knew it couldn’t be more than another couple minutes before Anja would pull up in her hotrod, and they could get Revel out of harm’s way. Until then, he kept the politician low and several other guards surrounding him.