Freya lifted a finger to her lips in the universal sign to keep quiet, and Alex nodded, watching her move silently forward to the next corner, her gun ready, slack taken out of the trigger …

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” she asked in semi-irritation.

Dillon and Breed materialised.

“I’d really rather not,” the older man said, somewhat dryly. “And you wouldn’t have shot me.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Because I still owe you money.”

She seemed to think for a moment. “True.”

Alex looked past them. “Where are the others?”

Dillon shrugged. “Mal, Zoe and Simon have gone looking for Gabriel. He’s taken it into his head to come down and face Quintana alone.”

His forehead tightened. “Does he need our help?”

“No. We’re to deal with the hybrids. Mal’s orders.”

“What about Jayne and River?”

“They’re just behind us.” Dillon half-turned, then took three steps back down the corridor. “They were just here. Where the hell have they gone?”

“It’s all right,” Freya said, sighing slightly. “They’re after Mara.”

An icy chill settled into the pit of his stomach. “You can feel that?”

“Yes.”

“But you couldn’t feel it was us around the corner.”

She smiled, just a lift to the corners of her mouth. “It’s … complicated.”

“You just wanted to scare us,” Breed added. “And you did.”

“Come on,” Freya said. “No time to waste idly chatting.”

She led the way forwards, stopping them before they got to the next intersection. She held up one finger, then pointed forward, then to herself. One guard, she was saying, and she’d take care of him.

Dillon shook his head, about to whisper, talk her out of it, but she’d already gone, diving around the corner into a forward roll that meant the two bullets meant for her body went over her head instead, and then bounced lightly up onto the balls of her feet, her gun pressed into the guard’s neck.

“One more twitch and you won’t be seeing another sunrise.”

The guard’s eyes widened. No more than twenty or so, he suddenly had his