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Rix had ever seen.
    Rix turned away
from the approaching figures, leaning against the tailgate of his truck. Best
they not know how easily he could spot them, he decided.
    A couple moments
later he heard Angie 6's voice, whispering softly. "Rix, follow me."
    He followed her
back to a dark corner of a parking lot across the street, where two vans were
parked unobtrusively in the dark. Rix boosted the low-light resolution on his
optics. She was dressed entirely in black, with a short jacket zipped to her
neck. Rix noticed, barely visible, a sheer set of goggles of some sort over her
eyes and secured around her head by a nearly invisible band. Two other men
standing back a couple paces wore the same gear.  
    "Are they
still there?"
    "Yes.
They'll be leaving soon."
    "Good. I
have my men positioned around the property." She checked the screen of her
E-Thing, or at least that's what Rix assumed it was. Like their optical
headgear, it was of a type he had never seen before.
    She eyed him
thoughtfully for a moment. "You sure do move fast, Rix. How did you find
these guys? We hadn't considered the possibility that the guys with brightly
tinted skin would actually be that color. "
    "I have my
sources. How about you? You were up in this area too. Any good leads?"
    "Limited.
We were visiting some specialists in the custom pharmaceutical biz to see if
they had caught wind of our property entering the underground market. We also
had some frank, face-to-face discussions with certain buyers and installers of
Modified technologies. Everything comes through Dallas eventually. So far, it's
been quiet. Whoever took our stuff isn't trying to move it quickly."
    She tensed up
for a moment, cocking her head slightly as she listened to reports from her
team.
    "Ok, enough
chatter." She turned to her team members behind her. "Resume your
positions. They should be leaving soon. Rix, if you want to hang back from the
perimeter and watch, feel free. You can be the last line of defense," she
said with a slight smile. "Not that we'll need it."
    Rix drifted back
into the shadows across the street from the warehouse gym and waited. He could
see, faintly, the positioning of some of the team. They seemed well hidden and
properly placed for the coming abductions. But it seemed to him a small team
for taking three Fightin' Mads. With a sinking feeling he began to wonder if
this Open Sky team knew anything about the capabilities Peruvian Steroid
Numero Dos gave to a person.
    He was thinking
about sending a warning blip to Angie 6 when light from an opening door sliced
through the darkness. The three Fightin' Mads filed out, bulky crimson
silhouettes filling the doorway.
      They had walked a few steps beyond the
circle of light when the first members of the team acted.
    Through his
optics, Rix could see the confrontation clearly. He recognized the weapons the
team was brandishing. One team member was wielding a net gun, another a tranq
pistol. He watched them fire the net gun at the first man — looked like
Joey Pegg — followed instantly by a tranq dart from the concealed team
member. Pegg shouted out and fell to his knees. Rix heard a soft chuff and another net came unwinding from the darkness,
engulfing the second Fightin' Mad giant. He too stumbled as tranq darts found
their target.
    The third man,
however, reacted immediately, exhibiting reflexes clearly hyped beyond human
normal. Rix had seen the red men in action before and knew they were capable of
explosive bursts of power, the kind that most people would not have believed
possible. The man leaped into the air, far above and beyond fallen comrades,
startling the team closing in around him.
    One of the Open
Sky operatives from the outer ring of the team's perimeter ran to intercept the
red man, blocking his path. The bulky red figure leaped again, causing the
approaching man to check up. In one fluid movement the red fighter landed,
rolled and popped to his feet, delivering a monstrous punch to the side