The Darwin Elevator

Chapter Seven

Toyama, Japan

14.JAN.2283

Three thousand meters over the target, the rear cargo door of the aircraft opened and Jake jumped out.

The sun, just cresting the eastern horizon, cast the cloud tops below in a deep red.

Skyler watched until the sniper vanished into the nebulous puffs. Satisfied, he picked up a handheld microphone that hung on the wall and pressed it to his mouth. “He’s out, Angus. Slow circles, engines off.”

“Copy,” the pilot replied through a speaker on the wall. The engine noise faded a second later, until only the rush of wind could be heard. Skyler punched the large red button that controlled the ramp. Hydraulics wheezed as the thick metal door closed.

“Sixty seconds,” he said, and set to work strapping on his parachute.

Samantha leaned against the cabin wall, chewing at a fingernail. She’d put her gear on more than an hour ago. A camouflage outfit of gray and white, insulated for winter climates, black combat boots, and her favorite sawed-off shotgun strapped across her chest.

Skyler caught her attention and motioned toward Takai. Help him out, he mouthed. She rolled her eyes and began to inspect the engineer’s equipment.

“That parachute has seen better days,” Skyler said to her, noting the frayed stitching along an edge.

“The whole world has seen better days, Sky.”

Takai tried to look, but Sam held him facing forward. “Not funny,” he said.

Skyler took a closer look at the yellowed material. “Maybe we should drop on a nylon factory, fix these up.”

“Or,” Sam said, “a paratrooper base? The Brits were big into that.”

“Even better. Hell, we might find some Guinness.”

She grinned at him and he returned the smile. For a fleeting instant it felt like things used to be, when they were equals.

Jake’s voice came over the speaker. “I’m on the ground. No activity here; it’s safe to drop.”

However safe it might be, he’s whispering, Skyler noted. “Angus,” he said into the mic, “are we back over the target?”

“Thirty seconds,” he responded.

Skyler made sure his primary weapon, a small machine gun, was securely fastened to his chest. He double-checked his pistol as well, holstered on his thigh. Satisfied, he punched the red button on the inner wall and the cargo door opened once again.

Wind screamed outside. A few kilometers to the southeast, Skyler could see a pair of snowy peaks jutting up through the cloud layer.

He looked at Sam. Her blue eyes were luminous in the dark cabin. Her serious expression said she was ready.

Takai’s face said the opposite. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he fumbled with the pistol Jake had loaned him. Skyler carefully crossed to him, helped him stow the weapon properly, and grabbed him by the shoulders. “You okay?”

Takai managed a smile. “I prefer home, fixing things.”

“You’ll be fine,” Skyler said. “Stick with Sam.”

“Stick with Skyler,” Sam shouted over the wind. “That was the deal.”

Skyler hoped she’d forget that detail. “That’s what I meant. Stick with me.”

With a running start, Samantha jumped out the back of the Melville. In an instant she vanished into the clouds.

Takai stood frozen in place, staring at the puffy red-gray wall. Skyler began to worry that he would have to push the little man, but Takai closed his eyes and followed Sam’s example.

Satisfied, Skyler took the two steps to the end of the ramp and kept going, into the howling wind.

It whipped his hair and clothing with a fury. He tumbled over, facing up, and saw the Melville receding above him. Angus had already started to bank, beginning his circular holding pattern.

Skyler rolled over just in time to punch through the clouds.

Far below, Japan rushed toward him.



He steered toward Sam’s and Takai’s parachutes, both black blotches on the ground below. They had both landed well by the look of it, in a flat clearing that probably used to serve as parking for the observatory complex. Maple and pine trees covered a landscape dotted white by snow.

As he hit the ground, Skyler’s foot slipped on a patch of ice and he went down. Waist-high weeds scratched at his face as he fell to one side, black mass of his chute collapsing around him.

“I see you,” Jake said over the helmet comm. “Nice landing, Sky.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he replied. The chilled air of the descent had numbed his fingers, his nose. On the ground the air hung still, cold and silent.

“No movement at all,” Jake said. “I think this place is dead.”

Skyler worked frantically to untangle himself. “Roger. Keep us posted.”

Clouds kept the rising sun largely hidden, casting the surroundings in muted shades of gray and brown, broken occasionally by patches of snow.

Finished with his gear, Skyler moved through the weeds to where Sam and Takai waited. He crouched with them behind a small earthen berm dusted with fresh snow, and studied the target.

From the vantage point, the observatory looked long abandoned. The semispherical telescope dome had collapsed on one side. A fire had gutted part of the complex at some point, years ago. The blaze had charred one side of the main building and reduced one of the outlying structures to nothing more than a pile of blackened wood.

Sam pointed toward the back of the main building, which faced them. “Door’s open,” she said, rubbing her hands together for warmth.

She was right: The door hung by one hinge, half-buried in a knee-high snowdrift that had collected along the back of the building. Even from fifty meters away Skyler could make out vicious scratch marks along it, and a large chunk of the frame was missing where a lock should have been. He noted the scratches were on the inside of the door.

A feeble chain-link fence stood between the team and the structure, but it had numerous holes in it and wouldn’t need scaling. Skyler pressed a finger to his earpiece. “We’re moving up, Jake.”

“Copy. Still clean,” he replied in Skyler’s ear.

Samantha didn’t need further orders and moved in a low run toward the fence. Skyler hefted his machine gun and clicked the safety off. He motioned Takai to follow and headed for the fence in a half crouch.

When she reached the door, Samantha pressed herself against the outer wall and took one quick glance inside. Skyler moved up next to her. They kept still for a moment, letting a silence settle.

A cold wind picked up, pushing past them and generating a deep, eerie moan from within the building. Skyler shivered. Samantha flipped on the flashlight affixed to her shotgun and looked to him for the sign to proceed.

He turned his light on as well, and waited as Takai removed a smaller handheld flashlight from his belt pouch. He had to smack it against his open palm a few times before it came to life. Skyler, satisfied, nodded to Samantha.

She vaulted over the pile of dirty snow and disappeared into shadow.

Skyler moved in right behind her.

The hallway stretched from one side of the building to the other. A few meters inside he saw the remnants of a small animal. Bones and fur in a tiny pile, the faded carpet below smeared with blood. The carcass had been there for many months. Ahead, Samantha pointed to more signs of habitation. Dried feces, and the gray remnants of what might have been an apple.

“This looks old,” she said.

Skyler nodded. His stomach turned at the sight, yet part of him marveled at the animalistic instincts that survived in the subhuman brain, despite the disease. Scientists predicted the diseased would die out within months, but nearly five years later their numbers had grown, if anything. Skyler had seen the children; he’d killed them and the adults alike.

The same instincts must be latent in all humans, he realized, glad he would never have to worry about becoming such a creature.

He shook off the thought and tapped his earpiece again. “We’re inside. Hallway is clear.”

Jake acknowledged him over the radio. Takai finally crept over the snowdrift to join them.

Satisfied, Skyler tapped Sam gently on the shoulder and gestured toward the nearest doorway along the hall. She led them toward it, keeping close to the wall, her weapon aimed slightly toward the floor.

Reaching the door, she tried the handle and found it to be locked. Skyler motioned for her to keep moving. She hesitated and pointed at faded kanji on the wall.

Takai read it aloud, keeping his voice low. “I think ‘Janitor.’”

Sam, incredulous, glared at him. “You think?”

“We’ll force it later, keep moving,” Skyler said to her.

They continued down the hallway and came to an alcove. On one side they found an elevator, useless without power, but beside it an open door gave way to a dark stairwell.

Takai approached another sign next to the elevator, covered by filthy glass. He wiped a gloved hand across it to reveal a basic map of the building. “Record keeping is basement three,” he said. “This is floor one.”

Skyler nodded. “There, see? Glad you’re here, Takai.”

“Yes, delighted,” Samantha said.

“Down we go?” Skyler asked.

The woman objected. “We should clear this floor first.”

“It’s fine, there’s nothing here.”

“Clear this floor,” she said, “then down.”

Skyler stifled the urge to pull rank. He nodded, instead.

The next door proved unlocked, giving way to a conference room. Water dripped from the ceiling onto a long oval table. Mold grew everywhere. Skyler covered his nose at the stench. Chairs in various states of decay littered the floor.

“That screen looks intact,” Samantha said.

Skyler followed her gaze to a large monitor hanging from the wall. Coated in dust, it appeared otherwise undamaged. “Probably dead.”

“Components are very useful,” Takai said.

“And very heavy. We’ll grab it on the way out. First priority is the goods on the list.”

They moved back into the hallway. Behind the last door they found a lobby and small gift shop stocked with space-related products geared toward children. Most were electronic. Skyler remembered the list Prumble had supplied him. “Hold up,” he said, then removed a large canvas bag he kept folded in his pack. Takai helped him shovel ultracapacitors of all sizes from a circular rack, avoiding those ruined by exposure and time. Skyler then found pairs of two-way radios meant for children, which he knew to have excellent range, and bagged them. In another aisle Takai discovered a locked glass case protecting high-end game tablets. He explained that the screens and memory might be salvageable. Skyler agreed, kicked in the glass, and grabbed the boxes.

He glanced across the rest of the lobby, looking for anything else of value. A receptionist’s desk appeared to be the only furniture not ruined from exposure. The surface of it looked barren, save for a postal container covered in dust, packages still inside. “Good enough, let’s move on.”

They headed back for the stairs. Takai left the bag of toys in the hallway. Skyler felt himself relaxing, his confidence bolstered by the quiet as much as by Sam’s tactical attitude.

The stairway led both up and down, pitch black in both directions. On the landing one level up, Skyler’s flashlight came across the carcass of a cat, long dead. Only fur and bone remained.

“Down we go,” Samantha said. She kept the lead as they descended, boots thudding loudly on the metal steps, echoing throughout the stairwell. The sound caused Samantha to move faster, stealth no longer on their side.

Jake’s voice suddenly came into Skyler’s ear, barely a whisper. “Movement on the tree line.”

Skyler grabbed Samantha’s shoulder, stopping her halfway down the flight. He tapped his earpiece. “Subs?”

A tense moment of silence followed. “Negative. If you can believe it, there’s a deer approaching the building.”

Skyler let out his breath.

“I can drop it if you want. Scrawny little bugger, but there might be some meat on it,” Jake said.

Skyler felt his stomach twitch at the idea. “Only if it’s moving away. For now let’s keep things quiet out there.”

“Copy that,” said Jake.

“What’s going on?” Samantha asked.

“Local wildlife. Keep going.”

She complied. After two flights of stairs they came across another locked door. On Skyler’s silent order, Samantha ignored it and continued down.

Basement level three proved to be the bottommost floor. Sam approached the door and tried the handle.

It didn’t budge, so Skyler signaled for her to force it.

One kick from her leg and the door flew open, stopping hard against the wall with a loud thud. The sound of it reverberated through the entire complex.

Somewhere above, Skyler heard movement.

Samantha dropped to a crouch and froze in place. She turned her flashlight on the stairs above. Skyler followed suit.

He saw nothing, yet the sound, like small feet scuttling across sheet metal, continued. Another cat, Skyler guessed. Perhaps a large rodent.

“I think it’s in the crawl space between floors,” Samantha whispered.

“Keep still,” Skyler said, listening. He crouched there, straining his ears until the sound receded.

“This place is creepy as hell,” Samantha said.

“I agree,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”

She glanced into the space beyond the door and swung her shotgun and flashlight across it. Skyler watched from over her shoulder.

It appeared to be a vast library, about twenty meters square. A strong odor of rot and mildew greeted them. Water dripped from numerous cracks in the ceiling.

Skyler feared the shelves of material would all be water-damaged beyond usefulness, until he noticed the cracks did not have the typical brown splotches that indicated long exposure. Recent, then.

Sam pushed inside, and Skyler followed.

The rows of shelves extended all the way to the far wall, where they could see a single door, closed. Skyler whispered to Samantha, “Sweep this first, then clear that back room, before we turn Takai loose.”

“No shit.”

He let the comment go, instead looking back at Takai.

The engineer’s eyes were wide, his face sheet-white. He managed a nod. “I’ll follow.”

Samantha set a faster pace, checking each aisle of shelving. Most were stocked with a mix of black binders and beige data cube holders. All appeared to be labeled and organized, a good sign assuming Takai could be able to decipher the scheme used. For now, he set his concerns aside and continued toward the back of the room, where Samantha waited by a door.

He took up a position on the wall to the right of the entrance, a mirror of Sam’s stance on the left. He nodded. She turned the handle and pushed it open.

Skyler could hear Takai suck in his breath at what greeted them inside.

A skeletal corpse sprawled in a desk chair, head titled to one side.

Bits of leathery skin stretched over the bones. Skyler guessed it was a man, judging by the style of the clothing that remained. He appeared to have shot himself through the mouth. A revolver remained clutched in the body’s hand, and a spray of dried blood decorated the wall behind.

“Suicide. Dead a long time,” Skyler said. Obvious to all, but he hoped to calm Takai down. The short man was breathing hard.

“Better than letting the subs get you,” Sam said.

Skyler grunted. “No argument here.” He mentally cataloged the rest of room, looking for anything that might be of value. A desk of cheap fake marble jutted from the wall. A computer console, though caked with dust, seemed intact. “Takai, start looking for the cubes.” He handed his engineer the paper that Prumble had provided.

Takai practically ran from the morbid scene.

“I’ll cover the stairway door. Didn’t like that sound earlier,” Sam said.

Skyler flashed her a thumbs-up and went to work searching the office for valuables. First came the gruesome task of prying the revolver from the dead man’s hand. The weapon had rusted a bit, but Skyler felt it could be cleaned up. Worth a sack of vegetables back in Darwin, if it fired. He unloaded five bullets from it, a nice bonus. Smiling, he unfolded another duffel bag from his pack and dropped the weapon inside.

Everything on top of the desk went into the bag: console, sleek monitor, and an old-fashioned keyboard. Despite being caked with dust they could still fetch a good sum. Then he got down on his hands and knees to inspect the area below the desk. All of the various power and computer cables went into his bag.

On a bookshelf behind the dead scientist, Skyler found a framed photograph. He wiped the dust from it. The image showed four men in casual clothing, smiling in front of the observatory. Two were Japanese, the third a handsome Indian fellow.

The fourth Skyler recognized.

“I’ll be damned,” he said to himself.

The last man was Neil Platz, the business tycoon who had owned most of Darwin, and nearly all of orbit, before the disease came.

Skyler flipped the frame around and coaxed the picture out. A date on the back indicated 2260, a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The bastard had his hands in everything back then, Skyler thought.

On a whim he folded the picture and slipped it into his jacket pocket. Then he realized a glass bottle had been hidden behind the frame, filled with an amber liquid.

“Well, well,” he said. The faded label said Lagavulin Whisky, dated more than five decades past. And, more important, unopened. Just the type of thing he could give to a Nightcliff inspector to turn a blind eye.

Jake’s voice interrupted him. “How’s it going in there?”

“Decent,” said Skyler. “We’re in the records room now. One rotting corpse is about it so far.”

“How much longer?” Jake asked.

“Why, something wrong?”

“Something’s boring.”

Takai stepped into the doorway, frowning, holding a small, beige data cube container.

“Just a moment,” Skyler said, excitement surging within. He raised his eyebrows at Takai. “Excellent! Found them already?”

“Numbers match, but cubes are missing.” He turned the empty container for Skyler to see.

In that instant Skyler’s excitement crashed. His knees buckled, forcing him to lean on the desk. “You’re sure? Searched the whole room?”

Takai nodded, his face a mask.

Skyler took a long, deep breath. “Were any other cubes missing?”

“No,” Takai said.

Sitting on the edge of the dead man’s desk, Skyler hung his head. He doubted another crew had beaten them here. Rich Orbitals sometimes hired multiple crews to increase their chances, but the place seemed otherwise untouched. No, more likely the intel was bad. Old, outdated, or just plain wishful thinking on some Orbital’s part. The end result was the same.

Another failed mission, and worse—one based on the recovery of a single, valuable item. A mission on which he’d staked his very job.

Salvage what you can, he told himself. At least he could leave the others without a debt.

“Looks like we’re shit out of luck,” Skyler said into his communicator. “Smash and grab, everyone. Anything of value.”

He heard Samantha curse in the hallway outside. She kicked something.

Jake’s voice was faint over static. “I’ll arrange pickup with Angus.”

Skyler shook the failed mission from his mind. To dwell on it now would be pointless, and dangerous. “Copy. Takai, bag some data cubes anyway. The Orbitals ask for blank ones all the time.”

“Okay.”

Skyler rifled through the desk drawers. None were locked, to his relief. He bagged a variety of items: a stapler, scissors, a box of pencils, and what appeared to be a wristwatch, though it had a strange layout.

Next he examined the shelves on the sidewall. On one he found a portable music device, and inside it some zinc-air batteries. He put the whole thing in his bag, which had become rather heavy. He set it back down and slung his rifle over his shoulder to free up both hands.

“I carry,” Takai said from the doorway, putting his own pistol away with awkward movements.

Skyler nodded and stepped back. “All yours. Let’s get the hell out of here, eh?”

He led the man back to the stairwell. Samantha was gone.

“She went up,” Takai said.

Skyler took the stairs quickly and had to wait at the first landing for his engineer to catch up. The next flight he maintained a normal pace. From the main hallway, he could hear Samantha cursing from frustration.

They found her in the conference room, hands on her hips, staring up at the wall-mounted monitor. “Damn thing is bolted down. I trust one of you brought some cutters?”

Skyler shrugged and turned to Takai. The little man grimaced and said, “In the plane.”

“Amateur hour.” She pushed past the two of them and stalked back down the hall toward the door they had entered from.

“Wait a second,” Skyler said.

Samantha turned around. Her narrow glare brimmed with annoyance.

“Something about this feels wrong,” Skyler said.

“No shit,” Samantha said. “You goosed it. Again.”

“Not that. The dead guy.”

She folded her arms. “Billions of them around.”

Something still nagged him. “No other cubes were missing.”

“So?”

“Odd, isn’t it?”

Jake’s voice crackled in Skyler’s ear. “Angus is three minutes out.”

“Understood,” Skyler said to him. He focused back on Samantha. “Someone offered a small fortune for this. We get here, and it’s the one set missing from the entire room? If a bunch were missing, I’d chalk it up to the chaos of five years ago. But the exact set we came to find, gone?”

Samantha gave a grudging nod. “Okay, Sherlock. So where is it? Not in the room, not on the dead guy … You did search the body, right?”

He hesitated, felt a knot grow in his gut. “No. Didn’t seem right.”

She stormed off toward the stairs. “He’s not going to mind, Sky.”

As her footsteps faded, Skyler realized what he’d missed. He jogged back to the lobby area, bypassing the gift shop in favor of the reception desk. Takai waited at the door, throwing constant nervous glances back toward the stairway.

On the desk in the lobby, Skyler brushed a thick coat of dust off a neatly wrapped package sitting in one of the two mail bins. The parcel’s dimensions were identical to the data cube cases Takai had pulled from the shelves in the records room. He tore at the brown paper wrapping, an easy task—the brittle material all but disintegrated in his hands, leaving only a faded shipping label behind. Skyler’s hunch proved accurate.

“Takai, have a look.”

“We should stay with Sam,” he said from the door.

“She can take care of herself,” Skyler said. “Come over here.”

Takai crossed the room with timid steps. He jumped when a sudden beam of light came in through the tattered drapes that covered the lobby windows. Within a few seconds, the room filled with pale orange shafts.

Dawn.

Skyler tapped his ear. “Status, Jake? Angus?” While waiting for a response, he unlatched the plastic container. Inside, four ceramic cubes were packed in a bed of Styrofoam shells.

“Thirty seconds,” Angus said.

Takai appeared at Skyler’s elbow, holding the list Prumble had provided them. “Numbers match the second set.”

Though he felt a rush of hope, Skyler fought the urge to celebrate. He rummaged through the box and found a folded piece of paper beneath the cubes. Something had been written on it in Japanese.

“‘You must finish what I could not,’” Takai said.

“Hmmm?”

“That’s what the paper says. You must finish what I could not.”

A chill ran up Skyler’s spine. The message, the entire situation, implied that these cubes held something worth every council note offered for their retrieval. He closed the box and slipped it inside his jacket. “Let’s get out of here,” he said.

He turned back toward the door. Takai ran ahead, no longer content to be led.

In the hallway Skyler found Samantha emerging from the stairwell.

“Found an old phone, and a wallet,” she said. “Why are you smiling?”

“Tell you outside,” Skyler said. He made a conscious effort to wipe the grin from his face as he ran for the door at the end of the hallway.

Sunlight on snow patches blinded. He stopped their progress just outside the door, allowing his eyes to adjust. In the distance, he saw Jake emerge from the tree line, carrying a small deer over his shoulders. A broad smile graced his haggard face.

“Not as scrawny as I thought.” Jake eased the dead animal off his back and rubbed at his shooting shoulder. “Venison stew tonight, I think.”

As Sam and Takai admired the carcass, Skyler tapped his headset again. “Angus, ETA?”

The kid replied quickly, voice clear without interference from the building. “How flat is that field?”

Skyler imagined himself trying to land here. “Should work. Favor the east side.”

“Any resistance?”

“None,” Skyler said, “but let’s have a nice quick dust-off, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Ultracap level?”

“We’ll make it. Just.”

A moment later Skyler heard the Melville’s ducted-fan engines. The noise grew louder until the four of them were forced to cover their ears.

Angus set the craft down in the southeast corner of the field, a textbook landing. He’d even positioned the rear cargo door to face them, open and inviting. The engines remained on for a quick departure. Skyler admired the kid’s work and envied his natural skill.

Samantha once again took the lead, passing back through the chain-link fence and across the weed field. Takai and Jake were last, under the burden of their respective prizes.

Once inside the Melville, Skyler punched the red button that controlled the cargo door and instructed Angus to lift off as soon as the rest of the team was strapped in.

“What about that monitor,” Sam asked, “in the conference room?” She held a tool belt.

“Forget it. The caps are running low.”

“The parts will fetch a good price.”

Skyler patted his jacket and smiled. “Nothing compared to—”

She punched the button to reverse the cargo door and ran off toward the observatory.

“Sam! Dammit.” He hit the communicator. “Angus, hold tight, Sam went back inside.”

His voice came right back over the speaker. “Kill the engines?”

Skyler weighed the options. The noise would only draw attention, but to spin them down meant spinning them up again, a lengthy process. He glanced at Jake and Takai, who both just stared back. “Keep them hot,” Skyler said to Angus.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Jake, can you cover me from the ramp?”

In answer, Jake picked up his long sniper rifle and removed the lens cap from the scope. Skyler wasted no time racing back across the clearing. Only when he passed through the fence did he realize he had left his machine gun in the Melville.

Before he could unholster the backup pistol kept on his thigh, Samantha emerged again from the building, arms wrapped around the large black monitor. Her face strained from the weight of it.

“Piece of cake,” she said.

“Except a lot heavier.”

She giggled. “Shut up and help me with this.”

With a quick laugh, Skyler grabbed the leading edge. He turned and started back toward the waiting aircraft.

Jake knelt on the cargo ramp. For some reason his rifle pointed well off to the side.

A plume of fire and smoke erupted from the muzzle of the long gun. A split second later the booming sound of the weapon reached Skyler, loud even above the Melville’s idling engines. He felt his clothing pulse with the concussion wave. Birds erupted from the surrounding trees. Skyler glanced right in time to see a human form drop into the weeds and out of sight.

“Subs! Run!” Samantha shouted.

Skyler pumped his legs as fast as the weeds would allow. Patches of snow thwarted any hope for an all-out sprint.

He glanced right and saw two more subhumans loping toward them. The closest one ran hunched over, using one hand for balance. In the other hand it held a length of plywood. A club, of sorts. The one farther away had stopped. It coiled itself, preparing to throw something.

Another shot boomed from the plane. The rock thrower jerked and dropped to its knees, toppling over and out of sight.

The runner closed in on Skyler and Sam with terrific speed.

Skyler felt his grip on the heavy monitor failing. His gut told him to ditch the bulky device, then Jake’s rifle boomed again. Skyler glanced at the runner just in time to see it tumble into the weeds.

They reached the cargo door, Takai closing it the moment their Sam’s touched the ramp. The engineer gestured toward a blanket he had laid out on the floor. “Place it here,” he said.

Skyler and Samantha carefully lowered the screen onto the padded blanket and laid it flat.

“Secure it,” Skyler said to no one in particular, and tapped the microphone. “Angus, dust off, but keep it slow until we’ve got everything stowed.”

“Copy that,” he replied.

Skyler turned to Jake, finding him already in the process of breaking down his rifle. “Hey.”

Jake stopped and turned to face Skyler, rubbing his shoulder more vigorously now, the shoulder where he rested the butt of his weapon.

“Nice shooting,” Skyler said.

Jake shrugged. “They made it easy, running straight at you like that.”