Rachel grabbed the radio from its nest on the front of the mule. "Saul? What is it?"

Saul squeezed off a round at the closest thug, who dropped to the pavement grasping his thigh in pain. The rest of the posse scrambled for cover in the surrounding alleys, taking pot shots as Saul ducked down behind the overturned kiosk and tossed the radio to Mona. "Miss Wu, this is Mona. Saul's…" She trailed off as the cook peeked above their cover and sent a few shots ricocheting against the wall of the nearest alleyway, forcing the black-clad man who had been trying to line up a clean shot to duck back into the alley. Mona shrugged. "He's occupied."

Rachel cast a worried glance back at Dex as the mule skidded to a stop at Artemis' open cargo ramp. He shrugged helplessly as he helped Mariah off the trike. "What the hell's going on?"

"We're downtown, corner of…" Mona bent her head away from the kiosk to get a look at the flickering street marker, then yelped in surprise as a bullet cut through the composite less than an inch from her left ear. "Corner of Bian Xi Fa and the the Triway! These five xuan huen dahn just came outta nowhere, started shooting at us!"

Rachel drove the mule aboard and hopped off as it slid to a stop, cursing under her breath and drawing her eyes across the cargo bay, hoping to be suddenly inspired by…well, anything. "Hang in there, mei-mei. We're on our way."

Dex squinted. "On our way? How?"

"Still workin' on the details."

Mariah glanced nervously out at the near-darkness, punctuated by the lights of the city outskirts. "What's wrong? You guys know how to handle a gun…"

Rachel sent her an annoyed leer. Dex winced and shrugged apologetically. "Ain't soldier types, but well enough. Ain't the problem, though; how we gonna get there in time? Near twelve miles, even the mule'd take too long."

Rachel's eyes flitted around the bay, then lit themselves up. "Dex, you know how wide the Triway is?"

Dex stared at her in confusion, then blinked, then grinned. "Pedestrian mall, 'bout thirty yards, at least."