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stopped to fiddle with something in her hand. Flame burst out of a wrapper she held.
    Theron was so startled that he almost didn’t react in time. The guard was lunging for Min-ji, while Andie was lunging for Optimus. With everyone focusing on them, Theron threw his knife. The guard had stepped forward to grab Min-ji, so the blade flew behind him, lodging in the closest gasoline container. The shouts that had erupted in the chamber echoed from the walls and covered the sound of the knife striking. Theron lunged in and yanked it free as he kicked over the container.
    “What are you doing, girl?” the guard snarled, turning Min-ji around and pushing her toward the smaller group of women. But not before she spotted the gasoline dribbling onto the floor, forming a puddle behind the guard.
    Theron did not know if she had noticed him knocking it over, not with the big guard blocking her view, but she reacted quickly to what was important. She managed to free her hand—she had to have burned herself, holding that fire—and flung the charred wrapper and a handful of flaming chemicals at the puddle.
    Theron jumped away before the fire ignited. He grabbed the mace hanging on his belt and was about to clobber the guard when shouts and bangs came from the cave entrance. At first, he thought Andie might be escaping, knocking men aside to flee, but the kidnappers had swarmed her, pulling her arms behind her back. Optimus, a snarl on his lips, had raised his hand to strike her.
    Theron raised his knife to throw it, intending to take the ass in the neck, but Optimus froze and stared at the cave entrance. A man was striding inside with more women and more fur-clad kidnappers behind him. Theron might have attacked, anyway, might have accepted that he had committed himself and his fate was sealed, but he recognized the man, and that recognition stunned him into inaction. It wasn’t another thug whose face adorned the wanted posters back at the base. It was Major General Duckworth, the man who oversaw Alliance border protection and who was so high ranking that Theron’s nose would have bled if he had tried to climb up to sit next to him.
    After all the battles he had been in, Theron never would have thought himself capable of panicking, but the only thought that jumped into his mind was that Duckworth would recognize him in an instant and that he couldn’t allow that to happen. Instead of hurling his knife, he lunged at the guard with the bracer. The man had turned from restraining Min-ji to flapping at the flames and kicking away the other canisters so nothing else would burn. Theron locked his hand around the guard’s flailing wrist and pressed the button on the bracer.
    The man realized what he was doing right away and tried to yank his arm away. Theron hung on with all of his strength, while keeping his back to the cave entrance and hoping the general had not already recognized him. The guard growled and used his free arm to throw a punch at Theron’s face. Theron caught it with his bare palm—it wasn’t the first time men had taken cuts at him.
    “What are you—” the guard started to demand, but white light flashed all around them.
    He, Theron, and who knew how many other people disappeared from the twenty-first century.

Chapter 3
    T he blinding white light disoriented Andie, and she stumbled and fell. It must have disoriented the guards, too, because nobody was holding her anymore. Her naked butt struck hard rock, and she winced at yet another bruise she was going to have after tonight. She forced herself to roll to her feet. Her hands were free, thanks to Min-ji slipping behind her and smearing lip balm all over her wrists to lubricate them. For the moment, nobody was holding her. If she could only see, she might finally escape.
    “What happened?” someone snarled from nearby. That guy with the dumbass cartoon villain name? Optimus?
    Andie backed away, blinking furiously. The light had faded, but so many spots burned her