Alaric
*[That's not reinforcements for Teller,]* Rook said, tense, every instinct in him reading danger in the sudden, unnatural quiet that had replaced the roar of approaching engines. *[Something's wrong out there. Somebody just stopped those bikes before they reached the building.]*
*Meaning what.*
*[Meaning somebody else got here first. Somebody neither Teller nor us accounted for.]*
I kept Marlowe pressed low beside me, scanning the chaotic room for any tactical advantage in the sudden lull, and understood, watching Teller's expression shift from fury to fresh uncertainty, that he'd registered the same unnatural silence I had.
"That's not my men," he said slowly, more to himself than any of us. "They should have come straight in. Why would they just stop like that outside?"
The
