"Shav," said one of the invisible voices.
I swung the beam back and forth, brought up my Unigun with my other hand and fired at the gaps that appeared. It was impossible to aim properly, but the gaps disappeared very quickly as the team ducked and sidestepped out of the way.
"Pattern Theta!" yelled Anubis.
That must have been an instruction for them to go low. Over the singing of the laser bolts, I heard the soft thumps of them dropping to the floor and the rustle of their uniforms as they started to leopard crawl. Most of them could still shoot while they were doing it.
"Mirabi! Cover!" I yelled.
Mirabi started shooting as fast and widely as she could, trying to cover all the possible angles now that depth had entered the battle space. I ran backwards to the table, firing as I went and used my free hand to grab the largest of the bowls of old North American-style potato chips. I gripped it by the rim and swung it forward, sending its content flying. The potato chips landed all over the floor for several metres in front of us.
"No! Halt!" yelled Anubis. The chameleon holograms were obviously built so they could still see each other, while we couldn't see them.
Some of the crisps at the edges shifted and then holograms blurred, as two of the team crawled straight into them. Mirabi and I both fired at the spots and we heard frantic cursing as they rolled backwards and sideways out of the way. I heard their boots squeaking on the floor as they started to reorganise.
Mirabi suddenly changed her aim and fired up at the ceiling. Her laser bolts cut neatly through the knots holding up the long coloured paper streamers the main room was decorated with. These fell, rippling and overlapping with each other, towards the floor.
"Watch it!"
Some of them landed flat on the floor. Others draped over invisible objects that were standing or crouching on the other side of the room that immediately started shimmering.
Mirabi and I were shooting at them an instant later. The shapes ran or dived sideways to avoid our gunfire, struggling to throw the streamers off. The other streamers on the floor moved as feet trod on them or kicked them out of the way. I shifted my fire in that direction - and for a moment - the volume of laser fire coming towards us dropped as we got the upper hand.
"Hathor! With me!" shouted Anubis's voice.
The red laser fire suddenly intensified again, from two rifles at the back of the room. Mirabi and I ducked and slid into new positions, trying to keep moving and shoot accurately at the same time. I glimpsed the other shimmering shapes getting clear of the streamers and becoming invisible again. The laser fire hurtling towards us grew as the other rifles joined in. Mirabi and I ducked down behind the table with the project members. I looked desperately around for inspiration.
"Cover!" I yelled.
Mirabi held just her hand above the edge of the table and returned fire blind as I dived towards the unopened boxes of confetti. I grabbed three of them, rolled onto my back and hurled them high into the air above the table. One of the few benefits of being a time generated clone was that I had highly developed - possibly gene-engineered - reflexes. I brought up my Unigun and shot all three of them in mid-air.
"Hax!" yelled Alex Ptah.
The boxes burst in three mixing explosions of tiny pink and blue and yellow paper circles. They fluttered down towards the floor slowly, filling the air on the other side of the room. Six chameleon holograms shimmered as they came into contact with them. For the first time, we could see all of them.
"Shield!" yelled Anubis's voice. I saw where he was a second later, as Mirabi and I jumped up from behind the table to fire at the first clear targets we'd had, as he bolted from the back of the group - all of whom kept shooting at us - across the room to a wall panel I'd only peripherally noticed before, and stabbed at the keypad.
There was a whirring sound behind. The air in the room suddenly started to move. It felt brush past the rim of my helmet and the edges of my gloves. The confetti in the air started to swirl and then move away towards the walls. Anubis, who had just disappeared again, had turned on the air conditioning system full.
"Now! Get them!" he shouted.
I ducked back down behind the table - as the incoming fire tore pieces out of it - and desperately fired at the air con grilles. The machinery was hidden inside the walls, but it was our only hope. If they threw one hand grenade over the table, we were finished. But just as I was doing this, Mirabi leaned around the legs of the table and fired at something on the other side of the room.
Whatever it was exploded with a loud bang. I realised it had been something pressurised as something else splattered with force against the other side of the table. I darted a look over it and saw that Mirabi had shot one of the pressurized paint canisters left with the powered-down decorating robot on the far side of the room. It had burst and a huge pool of red paint, several meters wide, had spread across the floor in front of the door to the stairs. Ten pairs of shimmering footprints were standing in it.
"Shav!" yelled one of the pairs. They immediately darted backwards, out of the paint, only to leave clear red footprints on the floor. Mirabi and I rose up and started shooting again. The footprints moved, dodging our laser fire, and we drove them backwards, out of the pool towards the doors. Long red streaks appeared on the floor as they tried to wipe it off their shoes, but this only made it even easier for us to see them. None of them could stay still long enough to get their soles clean before Mirabi or I were shooting at them.
"Hax it! Withdraw!" shouted Anubis. The ten pairs of red footprints swiftly backed away out through the doors, shooting back at us as they went. Mirabi and I vaulted over the table and chased after them, past the unconscious Baldr, who somehow hadn't been hit throughout the whole thing.
Laser bolts flew back and forth along the corridor. The red footprints retreated, three at a time, so three were always shooting at us, backwards towards the stairs. Mirabi and I did the same, following the ancient military drill of fire-and-manoeuvre, pressing close against the walls as we followed them out of the main room and then up the stairs.
My heart was pounding as I slammed a fresh power cell - my last one - into my Unigun. They were too good. They hadn't killed us because we were good too, but we hadn't stunned any of them. They were going to escape. I peeped around the last corner, and instantly pulled my head back as laser fire hissed past. I thrust my hand around, pressing my forearm flat against the wall and fired back. Mirabi skidded low across the floor to the other wall and flattened herself against it, partly shielded by the edge of the window. She resumed shooting and I was able to move around.
The six pairs of red footsteps - a trail of them leading all along the corridor - were crowded onto the teleporter pads. Red laser fire was coming from thin air all over it, holding us back. The touch screen was lighting up and changing colour on the control pad as an invisible arm reached over it from behind, programming co-ordinates.
"Anubis!" I screamed over the shooting.
"Cease fire!" shouted Anubis's voice. The red laser fire stopped. Mirabi did too. "Yes?"
"Where is it?" I called, still pressed to the wall. I couldn't risk giving them a clear target.
"Where's what?" said Anubis.
"My... ChronOps! In the vault! I know it was you!" I said. "The thing you stole! Where is it?"
"He was there?" said Jason Seth's voice.
"Quiet," said Anubis. "Sorry, Detective. I'm afraid you're too late. We already delivered it to our client. But don't worry. I'm sure you'll find him."
The teleporter hummed and white light swirled up around the twelve red footprints.
"No!" I shouted, as they disappeared. I raced down the corridor towards it, and then was blown backwards off my feet as the micro-limpet mine Anubis had left stuck to the back of the control console exploded, making sure we couldn't follow them.
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