The City Was Already on a Timer

They had barely reached the alley before a drone swept overhead, its search lamp slicing the wall and the broken pavement like a scanner. Mia clapped a hand over her mouth. Elias grabbed a metal trash-can lid from the curb and threw it with everything he had. The drone clipped sideways, smashed into brick, and exploded. In the light of the blast, he saw a man at the alley mouth. He wore a reflective emergency contractor vest, but he had no medical kit, no hose, no radio clipped to his belt. Just an earpiece and a black tablet. The man saw Elias and actually flinched. “You know him?” Grace asked. “No,” Elias said, jaw tight. “But he knows me.”