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beside him. He grabbed them and pulled.
    There was a growl of surprise as the man lost his balance. He landed on his back, and Six punched him in the head.
    The man kept struggling, his skull protected by the gas mask. Six ripped it off, sending shards of plastic buckles flying, and jabbed a gland in the assailant’s throat. He slumped to the floor immediately.
    There were five attackers in the room now, but Six noticed that the gunfire didn’t seem to be directed at him. It was aimed at the walls, shredding plaster and cracking bricks, leaving holes like the ones Six had noticed in the now-demolished ceiling. They seemed intent on making a lot of noise and creating panic, but the force used didn’t seem to have lethal intent.
    Or maybe it did. One of the attackers in the room had spotted Six on the ground next to the unconscious man and was leveling his Eagle.
    “Surprise,” Six said as he pulled the pin out of one of the PGCs on the unconscious man’s belt.
    In the moments before the explosion, he scrambled to his feet and dived for the bullet-riddled door, shutting his eyes tightly.
    Crack!
    The white light was dazzling even through his eyelids. The sound of the grenade bursting mingled with the crunching of the door as Six plunged headfirst through it.
    The stun grenade didn’t disorient the soldiers for long—the goggles in their gas masks protected them from much of the impact. But they were still blinded for a moment, and when that moment was over, Six was gone.
    Outside in the corridor, Six took a quick look around—and his jaw dropped.
    It wasn’t just the ceiling to Crexe’s room that had been demolished. The attackers had blown the roof off the entire building. And out here in the corridor, there were more than thirty men storming out of the fog, firing bullets into the walls and scanning the corridor with goggled eyes.
    Nine’s voice echoed through Six’s head. What if it’s a diversion? We’ve got our eight best agents here on this. If there was a perfect time to attack the Deck, wouldn’t it be now?
    Perhaps it wasn’t a diversion intended to leave the Deck unprotected; instead, it was a trap for the best agents. Lure them here, then exterminate them—crippling the Deck.
    But why do that with a platoon of soldiers? Why the elaborate trap with Dehayt’s blood and Crexe’s body? Why not just blow up the building once the agents were inside?
    Boom!
    As if on cue, the floor shook beneath Six’s feet, and he staggered against a bullet-peppered wall. For a moment he thought the building was being blown up; but no, the foundation stood. The shock wave had come from nearby, but destroying the building clearly wasn’t the aim.
    Six pointed his Owl at the crowd of attackers. Whoever they are , he thought, whatever their motives may be, they’ve underestimated me. We’ll see who cripples whom.
    Six opened fire, emptying the entire eighteen-shot clip into the crowd. Nine of the soldiers were hit in both knees—but not a single one fell.
    The armor seemed to cover their entire bodies. All Six’s shots had done was attract their attention.
    Thirty soldiers turned as one to face him, and leveled their rifles.
    Maybe I should have used a grenade , thought Six.
    He turned and ran.
    Bullets chattered over his head and slammed into the roofless walls, cracking the plaster and spilling brick dust into the corridor. The fog smothered everything, like a cold, grey blanket.The soldiers were dim shapes and shadows behind him—but the bullets were still very solid.
    Six dived to one side, into a doorless apartment. He crouched behind the wall and tapped his earpiece.
    “This is Agent Six,” he hissed. “Two, do you copy?”
    “I read you, Six , ” came the reply. “What’s your status?”
    “I’m hiding. Don’t worry about me, I’m safe. Where are you?”
    Six kept his voice low. He could hear the troops moving about in the corridor outside—getting closer, he thought.
    “The whole team is pinned