Meanwhile Zahara stood perfectly still.
Her eyes never stopped moving. Locking on to everything around them.
"They're regrouping two carriages ahead."
She looked toward Elara.
Elara didn't even search.
She simply looked exactly where Zahara indicated.
Her enhanced vision immediately found the scope reflecting moonlight.
"I've got him."
She folded her wings and launched herself into the night.
Seconds later the sniper's radio went silent.
Back inside the train, Aziel reached the armored vault.
Andrew's voice echoed through their comms.
"That's the carriage."
The vault door was nearly thirty centimeters thick.
Rafael stepped forward.
"No."
Aziel stopped him.
"We're trying to leave the cargo intact."
He knelt beside the locking system.
His blades floated into the complex mechanism.
Tiny screws...
Pins...
Tumblers...
Each component moved independently under his telekinetic control.
The lock clicked.
Then another.
Then another.
Finally—
The massive vault door slowly swung open.
Inside rested a matte black transport case secured inside a magnetic cradle.
The Haikitium.
Even sealed inside reinforced alloys, a faint blue glow escaped through microscopic seams.
Malak whistled.
"That's a lot bigger than I expected."
Aziel lifted the case free.
"Mission accomplished."
Then every communicator crackled at once.
Andrew's voice lost its calm for the first time.
"Aziel..."
A pause.
"They're here."
Every instinct in the room sharpened.
A tremendous impact shook the train.
Then another.
And another.
The lights flickered.
A shadow landed on the carriage roof.
Then six more.
Deborah stood at the front.
Behind her stood Jezebel, Esther, Rebecca, Tarma and Seila.
Only one face was missing.
Hana.
The two teams stared at one another across the length of the train.
Eight months.
Eight months since they had last crossed paths.
Deborah's eyes drifted toward the case in Aziel's hands.
"Leave it."
Malak stepped beside Aziel, cracking his knuckles.
"I was hoping you'd say that."
No one moved for what felt like forever the pressure rising.
Then the second Deborah vanished, the battle began.
Deborah exploded forward.
The steel roof beneath her feet crumpled as she closed the distance in an instant.
Rafael met her head-on.
Their fists collided with a deafening boom that rippled through the length of the train. The impact sent both of them skidding backward, gouging long trenches into the metal roof.
Rafael grinned. "So... this is what equal strength feels like."
Deborah didn't answer. She charged again.
Their second collision shook the train so violently passengers in the rear carriages screamed as lights flickered overhead.
Seila opened her mouth. A piercing sonic pulse tore through the air.
Seraphina reacted instantly, thrusting her palm forward. Electricity burst from her hand, wrapping around her sword before she drove it into the roof.
Blue currents spread through the metal.
The sonic wave collided with the electromagnetic discharge, erupting into a violent explosion that blasted both women backward.
They regained their footing simultaneously.
For the first time, neither had the advantage.
Jezebel darted toward Aziel, twin poisoned blades flashing.
Aziel's swords never touched his hands.
With subtle movements of his fingers, they danced around him, intercepting every strike before spinning toward Jezebel from impossible angles.
She ducked one blade. The second sliced a lock of her hair.
She spoke. "You've improved."
"So have you." Rebecca vaulted across the train toward the Haikitium.
Elara swooped low, her wings carrying her between the Saint and the case.
Rebecca struck first. Elara twisted in midair, folding one wing to slip past the attack before using the other to propel herself upward.
The case never stopped moving. She tossed it toward Malak.
Malak caught it with one hand. "Got it!"
Before he could move again, Tarma appeared beside him as though materializing from thin air.
Her adaptive camouflage shimmered for only a fraction of a second.
She drove a knife toward his ribs.
Malak absorbed the impact with his forearm before releasing the stored kinetic force through a sweeping elbow.
The explosion of energy sent Tarma tumbling across two carriages.
She rolled back onto her feet almost immediately.
Ahead of them, Esther had already found her position. Nearly a kilometer away, her enhanced vision tracked every movement on the train. She squeezed the trigger.
The bullet screamed through the night.
"Down!" Zahara shouted.
Without questioning her, Aziel ducked.
The round tore through the space where his head had been moments earlier before punching through the train roof.
Zahara's eyes narrowed. "She's compensating for the train's movement."
Another shot rang out as she predicted its path. Again the Seraphs avoided it.
The battle spread across multiple carriages. Causing extensive damage to the train body.
Sparks rained into the darkness below.
Yet something became clear.
Eight months earlier, this fight would have ended already.
The Saints had overwhelmed them then.
Now...
Every attack was answered.
Every advantage countered.
For the first time, the Seraphs weren't surviving.
They were competing.
Aziel looked toward the extraction helicopter approaching overhead.
"Time to move!"
He threw the case toward Seraphina.
She caught it cleanly before Rebecca intercepted her path.
Electricity surged along Seraphina's arm as their attacks collided.
Instead of forcing her way through, she spun and passed the case to Elara, who swooped overhead.
The Saints immediately changed targets.
"Don't let her escape!" Deborah ordered.
Elara climbed rapidly toward the helicopter.
The rope ladder dropped. She reached for it— Then Seila inhaled deeply.
Her reinforced vocal cords unleashed a concentrated sonic blast.
The air itself became distorted.
The shockwave struck Elara's wings, throwing her violently off balance.
She fought to stay airborne, beating her wings harder, but the turbulent air refused to stabilize.
The Haikitium case slipped from her grasp.
"No!" She lunged after it, managing to catch it against her chest, but the delay cost her.
A second sonic pulse slammed into her.
Her wings folded involuntarily.
She plummeted toward the train.
At the last second she spread them just enough to soften the impact before crashing hard onto the roof.
The case skidded several meters before Aziel caught it.
The helicopter was forced to pull away to avoid colliding with a bridge ahead.