Page 351 of Mercy Written in Blood

"This is what fear does. It makes people defend the structure that imprisoned them."

Mina replied, "No. This is what you did. You made every disagreement proof of corruption."

Renji heard movement beyond the western wall. The conversation was cover. Attackers shifting into final position. Haruki's voice entered his earpiece.

"Renji."

"Yes."

"Four beneath the west balcony."

"I feel them."

"Two will breach above you."

"Yes."

"Let them."

Renji looked up. The balcony curved around the gaming floor. Dark. Empty.

"They are carrying silver."

"I know."

"You cannot see that."

"No. Ken can."

A camera turned quietly above the balcony. Haruki saw through every lens. Renji felt through every pulse. Separate methods. One field.

Isao lifted his hands.

"You believe you are protecting coexistence."

"No," Renji said.

"What, then?"

"A child."

The balcony rail exploded. Two attackers dropped through smoke. Silver canisters fell with them. Renji raised one hand. The canisters stopped in the air — not physically, the blood inside the men holding them locked their fingers closed. Renji pulled both men sideways. They struck the balcony supports before reaching the floor.

Ishida guards fired. Not at bodies. At lights above the western corridor. Darkness swallowed the entrance.

Haruki's order.

The attackers entered anyway. Gunfire filled the Casino. Renji moved towards Riku. Mina and Ryota closed around the mother and child. Accord officers fired from the north tables. The Shibata force spread through the room with military discipline.

Two vampires crossed the distance faster than the human defenders could track. Renji felt them. One moved towards Riku. The other towards Renji. He stopped the first by closing the vessels supplying his eyes. Blindness altered the charge. The vampire struck a roulette table, splintering wood.

The second reached Renji. A silver blade cut across his coat. Renji stepped inside the next movement and placed his palm against the attacker's chest. The heart beneath it was old. Strong. Prepared against interruption. Renji did not stop it. He accelerated it. One hundred beats. Two hundred. The vampire's body seized beneath metabolic demand it could not sustain. Renji lowered him to the floor. Alive. Unable to rise.

A bullet crossed where Renji's head had been.

"Left," Haruki said through the earpiece.

Renji turned. An Ishida guard had already fired. The shooter fell behind a blackjack table. Renji felt the pulse continue. Nonfatal. Good.