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not to remember how she’d kissed him after the meeting, or the promise of a life together that rested in her dark eyes.
    Movement stirred in the alley as he reached the top of the stairway. James fell back into the shadows to pull on his black cap, hiding his glowing hair. His association with his gang was best kept secret. A moonshiner scurried back and forth in a blur of movement. The man stopped every few seconds to crane his neck at an impossible angle toward the upper levels.
    James considered sneaking back down and reemerging at the next stop, until he followed the man’s gaze to a balcony not too far up. A woman and young girl hung from a railing, legs dangling. An elderly woman with overly large, darkened eyes perched on the balcony railing, wearing a yellow apron and floral skirt. The moonshiner woman flitted from side to side, sniffing the air as if trying to figure out why it smelled like ripe humans.
    James brought out his laser, but the man on the ground ran too quickly for him to lock on any target. James fired into the blur to get his attention. Black eyes stared in his direction as the man froze and zeroed in. James started firing, hoping he’d get at least one clean shot in the seconds before the moonshiner reached him.
    The man sprinted so quickly, his shoes skimmed the alley and kicked up empty energy cells, the plastic tubes ricocheting off the building. James ducked as the man leaped toward him, his finger never leaving the trigger. White light shot out in a stream as the moonshiner flew through the air with outstretched arms, palms opening and closing. James hit the moonshiner’s shoulder, and the force of the laser fire threw him back against the building into a heap of old rags. Before he could recover, James targeted his head. The man hit the building and slumped forward.
    James searched the rows of balconies, fearing the woman’s grip had slipped, but she hung quietly underneath the old woman’s radar. With the weight of the child on her back, she didn’t seem to have the strength to hold on much longer. James shot at the balcony, but three floors up was too far to hit anything that moved almost as fast as light. The old woman jumped, skirts flying up around her torso as she plunged to the alley floor after him.
    James watched with morbid wonder. Surely she couldn’t survive that fall .
    She landed in a heap of old mattresses and sprang up, flying toward him like a demon.
    He fired, feeling as though he was moving in slow motion in a fast-forward world. She crashed into him, and they flew back into a trash heap.
    This time, he made a point to hold onto his laser.
    He climbed over old boxes and tattered clothes. The woman squirmed above him, biting anything in her way, but she’d lost him in the mess. He fired and she stilled, hanging over a shattered wallscreen. A locket hung from her neck, showing a holopicture of an old man’s face. James closed the locket and placed it in the hollow of her neck.
    Rest in peace .
    Wondering why an old woman would bother with moonshine, James pushed his way up through the garbage. He shouted at the woman and child hanging from the balcony. “Hold on; I’m coming.”
    James dug in his backpack and pulled out a retractable cable rope. He fired the hook up along the side of the building. The three prongs landed on the balcony floor of the woman’s level and he dragged it forward until it caught the railing. Yanking to make sure he’d secured the hook, James fastened the end of the cable rope to his belt and held on as it retracted, pulling him up.
    As he rose, he saw the pair in detail. The woman looked to be in her early twenties, startlingly beautiful with curly Irish-red hair and fox-like features. The girl had blond hair and dark eyes, with a cute mushroom-shaped nose and chubby cheeks. He climbed over the railing and offered his hand.
    “I’ll pull you up.”
    Her jade eyes flashed him a wary glance before she grasped his arm. He gripped and