Adlai stood on the Bridge, next to Ripple, the two of them running diagnostics on the Horizon's flight systems. The last thing anyone needed was to lose power or something on the approach to Acantha. Ripple was muttering something cross about how they only had forty-eight hours of fuel left when Captain Falk stepped onto the Bridge, his shoulders slumped.

"Well," he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "It's official. According to a very angry Colonel Schuyler, since we have disobeyed a direct order, the IRC starship Horizon and its crew have been declared rogue. Any other Ranger and law enforcement crafts have orders to shoot us down on sight."

"Great," Ripple said, rolling her eyes. "We don't have enough fuel to power all our weapons systems, get to Acantha, attack a fortress, and get somewhere secure, either."

"So we do our best to stay off any other crafts' radars," Stark said from where he was leaning against a wall, watching everything. "We get spotted, we're dead. We can't afford to fight back."

Captain Falk groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay," he said. "So, Slater, you're officially on monitoring duty. Keep an eye on our radar systems and make sure we don't go near anyone. Everyone else, if he shouts, evasive maneuvers, got it? Oh, and one more thing. Since we've gone rogue, we are no longer Ranger operatives. Everyone, hand in your ID badges and your comms bracelets. Carter, collect them from everyone on the Bridge, then order all squad leaders to collect their people's. Lock them up somewhere secure."

Carter nodded, and Adlai saw her knuckle away a tear as she pulled out her badge and slipped her bracelet inside it. "Okay, everyone," she said, her voice trembling. "Badges."

Adlai watched as every person on the Bridge handed over their badges and bracelets. A couple people actually cried. Stark hesitated the longest, but finally handed his over, then stalked off the Bridge before anything else could happen.

Then, Carter slipped out of the room, and Captain Falk spoke up again. "Nash gave us a list of names, leaders of the Red Night. Maybe not the very top brass, but very high up. I want a splinter team to peel off and start bringing them in. Ripple, you've got command. Pick your team."

Ripple nodded, cool as ice, studying the people on the Bridge. "Five people total," she said decisively. "Slate and Fletcher." She turned to Captain Falk. "I know I'm going to have to make a good case for this, but I want Cade and Tess." Before anyone could protest, she held up a hand. "Listen, okay? I know that the entirety of Fox squad is going to want to go rescue Rowan. I also know you need Ocelot, since they're Bridge veterans. I need a Science Officer who isn't working either on the teleporter or the knockout guns, so that leaves Tess.

"Odds are, I'll also need a hacker to get to these people, and since we have a dearth of hackers on the Bridge, and I don't know anyone else well enough to want them at my back, that leaves Cade. Plus it'll be good to see how he performs in the field without the pressure of a raid like the one your planning. Same with Fletcher.

"As for Slate, I know he probably wants to go for Rowan, but I need a weapons and combat specialist. Since Slater is our only sniper besides me and Rowan, he's needed here. Plus, Fletcher can snipe for us. If Slater's not on the ground, fighting, then that leaves only Santiago and McIntire to fight with Reid. Fox Squad has Holden, Prescott and Jase already. Plus, Slate has more medical training than anyone else in the squad except for Carter and Gerrit, which could come in useful on the splinter team."

Ripple folded her arms, no expression at all on her face, waiting. Adlai stared at her, thinking that that was the most she'd ever heard the white-haired girl talk, and every word was said with cool logic and no emotion.

Captain Falk let out a long sigh. "Okay," he said. "I've ready Kincaid's file; she's a solid fighter. It'll be good to see how she works with everyone. Slate is an obvious yes–sorry, Slate. I know you wanted to go after Rowan, but Ripple needs you more. As for Fletcher, you're right. She can be your sharpshooter. I don't know if Cade's much of a fighter, but you do need a hacker. However, he and Fletcher will need an S.O., even if that person doesn't go with you."

Ripple shrugged, her white hair glowing in the light. "I'll supervise both of them, for now, and we can hash out a better arrangement once everything's been sorted out."

Captain Falk nodded. "Fair enough. Take the Fox Squad shuttle. Oh, and one more thing: while it would be nice for you to bring every one of these people in, I know that's unrealistic. You may eliminate them, if you think it's the right move. Pick up her knockout guns from Indigo before you go."

They all nodded, and Tess, Cade and Adlai scrambled off to pack the gear they'd need for the next couple of days. Who knew how long they'd be in the field beyond that?

Adlai threw her new Ranger uniform into her battered backpack, then added a couple of changes of civilian clothes, clean underwear, and a warm jacket, then packed her weapons and ammo in a separate bag.

They met on the shuttle, and, once it had disengaged from the ship and taken off for who knows where, Ripple gathered them in the squad room. "Okay, guys," she said, projecting a list of names onto the screen. "Our targets. First up is..."

"Everett Jamison," Jase read out, his brow furrowing as he spoke. "Why do I know that name?"

Tess straightened suddenly. "Wait, the news presenter from Channel 4?" she asked. "That Everett Jamison?"

Ripple nodded, not a flicker of any emotion crossing her face.

"No wonder nobody's heard of the Red Night before," Cade muttered. "If they have people like Jamison in position to control the flow of information, they can pick and choose what stories circulate. I would be impressed, except, well, I'm more disgusted than anything. The Red Night was started to help the people, not keep them in the dark!"

"This isn't that Red Night anymore," Ripple said grimly. "That Red Night only exists in stories and history now."

The decision was unanimous; they would start with Everett Jamison. Their next decision was also unanimous; they wouldn't be bringing him in.

Four hours later, as dark fell over Berlin, Germany, Adlai lay flat on the rooftop of the building opposite Jamison's opulent mansion. It was sickening, how much gold decorated it, outside and in. Did anyone really find that tasteful.

"Everyone in position?" asked Ripple, who was stationed on the roof opposite with a rifle not dissimilar to Adlai's. Her job wasn't to take out Jamison, but to cover Adlai and Slate, who was watching the house from the cafe on the ground floor of the building Adlai was using as her sniper's nest.

Then, from the safety of their shuttle, Cade said, in a warning tone, "Uh, guys? I found Jamison's schedule. He should be on his way home now for... wait, who the fuck designates half an hour for 'sex with boyfriend?' The guy's a bigger ass than we thought!"

Before he could say anything else, Tess announced, "His car just turned onto the street. He should be pulling up now and–"

"He's getting out of the car," Slate said neutrally, as if he was remarking on the weather. "Fletcher, there's too many people around right now. Wait til he's inside to take your shot, yeah?"

"I don't have a clear shot, anyway," Adlai informed him, a bit peeved that he hadn't thought she'd already realized that. "I'd have to shoot through two of his bodyguards' heads, and I won't be able to work up that kind of velocity. I'm not a god."

Tess snorted, and Adlai knew that Ripple would be rolling her eyes. She leaned forward, peering through her rifle's scope, tracking Jamison as he spoke to one of his bodyguards, then walked inside, presumably for "sex with boyfriend," as Cade had informed them.

Then, just as she was beginning to get uncomfortable, Jamison walked up to one of the windows and stood there, unbuttoning his shirt as he spoke to someone, presumably his boyfriend. "Slate, get ready," she hissed.

Her finger caressed the trigger as she lined up her sight, aimed, and took a deep breath. On the exhale, she fired. The glass between her and Jamison splintered but didn't shatter as the bullet punctured it, then tore through Jamison's brain, right smack in the center. He wavered for a second, then his body toppled over.

Adlai pulled away from her scope in time to see Slate sprint for the house, just as Cade said, "Remember, I need his computer to make sure we're on the right track!"

Slate snapped, "I'm on my way, asshole. Okay, I'm in. And here's his briefcase. Not a very secure place to keep things, the hall table. And voila, the computer. I'm leaving now."

Then came Ripple's flat voice. "Rendezvous at the shuttle in five," she said. "And don't get caught."

Adlai packed up her rifle, her scope and everything else she'd needed, and carefully climbed back down to street level, making sure not to get spotted. The last thing anyone needed was for her to be asked awkward questions about why she was scaling the facade of a building.

She took back streets to the shuttle, and slipped on board just before Tess, who was followed shortly by Ripple, and, a few minutes later, by Slate. "Okay," he said, handing the computer over to Cade. "Here's my contribution. Nice shot, Fletcher." 

Adlai shook her head. "It wasn't, really," she admitted. "It was a straight, close shot, and Jamison wasn't moving. Anyone with basic training could've made it."

"And she's modest!" Cade said teasingly, and Adlai found herself drawn to his side. "I couldn't have made that shot."

"You can barely shoot at all," Tess pointed out dryly. "Okay, what's on those computers and why are they so important? Are you going to tell us, or are we going to have to guess?"

Cade rolled his eyes. "When I was bartending," he said. "I overheard the Red Night members talking about how they communicate. Each member is assigned a number, and each member only talks to two people, the one before and the one after, except when they're at a designated meeting place, like the bar I worked at. If we figure out who Jamison was talking to, we can start going down the line and finding all the members, not just the leaders."

He tugged the computer out of the bag Slate had stuffed it in, set in on the center of the table in the squad room and turned it on. When the lock screen popped up, he pulled out a slim thumb drive, slid it into the USB port on the computer, and waited. The screen remained still until, suddenly, it wasn't. The lock screen disappeared, and the home screen flashed up.

"Okay," Cade said, typing in a string of commands. "He's got a whole bunch of encrypted files on here. I'm guessing those are what we want, since everything else on this thing is unprotected."

"You can decrypt it, right?" Ripple asked.

Cade rolled his eyes. "Please," he said, a bit huffily. "Give me some credit. Yeah, it's got several layers of encryption but... Okay, I'm in."

"You're kidding, right?" Ripple said flatly.

"Nope," was Cade's cheerful answer. "Okay, it looks like there's some good stuff on here. Most importantly, though, the members on either side of him are..." He pulled up two pictures on the screen across from them. "Both of them are filthy rich, but not as influential as Jamison or Nash. And, from these communications, neither of them is part of the leadership."

"Okay," Ripple said, studying the pictures. "Cade, leak this intel to the Rangers. Make sure they can't trace it back to us. We keep focusing on the leadership, cutting the head off the snake, metaphorically speaking." She paused. "Well, mostly metaphorically. Let's let other teams worry about the underlings."

"Okay," Cade said. "Just to be clear, I shouldn't tell them how we know all this, right?"

"Right," Ripple agreed. "They can chase their own tails for awhile. Might take them off our scent, who knows? Slate, get us up in the air. Who's next?"

***

A day later, the whole Inner Network, and six targets crossed off. They'd gotten lucky; two of their targets had been meeting up for coffee, so they'd gotten one more than planned. According to Cade, who was watching all communications coming and going to the members they'd identified, the Red Night was running scared. Seven leaders down, including Nash, and dozens of regular members eliminated by the Rangers after their team kept feeding them new information.

They had been travelling at Aether, so, eventually, it became inevitable that they would need to find someplace to refuel. They were carrying enough fuel for another two days of galaxy hopping like they'd been doing, but they couldn't refuel in the air.

So Ripple landed them in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere, back on Earth. Slate and Tess were given the job of checking over all their flight systems, just in case. Cade remained ensconced in the squad room, working away on the computers of all six of the men they'd taken out, and Adlai was at a loose end when Ripple came to fetch her.

"Come with me," Ripple instructed her. Adlai shrugged her jacket back on. For this op, she and everyone else were in civilian clothes, and her jacket was actually borrowed from Ripple. Made of red suede, it hugged her body in a way she quite liked, keeping her warm while still being practical. It also had a half-dozen-odd pockets and two knife sheaths on the inside of the lining.

Ripple led Adlai out into the field they'd landed on. Waist high grasses blew softly in the wind, and a few early wildflowers poked their heads up at the weak sun. Ripple walked a few paces away, then paused. "There's a reason I landed us here," she said, cool as ever. "Target number seven lives just past that forest. He goes hunting every evening, and we need him alive. He's higher up in the leadership than anyone else, and a notorious recluse. He's one of the few remnants of the original Red Night."

Adlai nodded. "So, we're waiting for him to come this way?" she asked.

Ripple nodded. "While the others get their jobs done, you and I are hunting our hunter. According to what little information we have, he should be here in about five minutes or less."

Just as she said that, a figure emerged from the woods. The man hesitated, then kept coming. When he drew closer to Adlai and Ripple, he called, "You guys crash? Need some help?"

Ripple called back, "Thanks. That would be much appreciated."

The man drew nearer, and Adlai got her first good look at him. He was in his seventies at least, dressed simply, and he carried himself like a soldier. He bore an old-fashioned hunting rifle that must have been at least a hundred years old, but he wielded it like it was the newest plasma gun.

When he was within touching distance, he asked, "What happened?"

Ripple smiled, and Adlai was shocked. Ripple was actually smiling. What weird alternate reality had they landed in? "I'm not sure," Ripple said, her voice trembling. "We were just flying along and, all of a sudden, our engines just stopped. I don't know what went wrong!"

"Sounds like you just ran out of fuel," the man said kindly. "Let me give you a hand. I'm Callum Day, by the way."

"I'm Ripple," Ripple said, still smiling. "And this is my friend Adlai. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Day." And then she gave Adlai a slight nod and sprang into action. Adlai moved, drawing her stun gun, and, as Ripple got out of the way, shot Day straight in the chest.

For a second, he looked shocked, then he toppled over into Ripple's waiting arms.