Calliope''s brow knit with concern, and her team tensed, instantly on edge.


    "What are they saying?" Rowan asked, turning to her. From the looks of it, these soldiers weren''t about to wave them through—were they about to be escorted somewhere instead?


    The rest of the group fixed their eyes on Calliope, relying on her trantion. She alone seemed to understand their captors. Her face grew grave as she attempted to reason with the soldiers, offering up some of their cargo as a bribe and hurrying to exin that their delivery was on a critical deadline—they couldn''t afford to be dyed.


    "And how do we know you''re not spies? Maybe you''re off to bring in back-up!" one of the soldiers snapped, suspicion etched across his face.


    "You heard me—move it! Enough with your nonsense!" barked another, brandishing his weapon. Clearly, they''d pegged Calliope''s team as enemy sympathizers.


    Before Calliope could protest further, another squad of heavily armed soldiers stormed in, uniforms entirely different, faces equally hard. Without missing a beat, the neersunched into a tirade-hurling insults and curses at the first group. The air thickened with hostility as both sides erupted into a shouting match, the tension on a knife''s edge.


    Calliope could only sigh. This was spiraling out of control. It looked like a full-on firefight was about to explode—and thest thing she needed was to get caught in the crossfire. She was running out of time.


    She shot a silent warning look to Rowan and the others: if bullets started flying, they had to lie low and stay out of it, whatever happened. Getting involved now would only make this mess even harder to escape.


    But that hope was dashed in the very next heartbeat. The two factions, unpredictably and almost in unison, drew their weapons and opened fire. Calliope and her team darted behind their truck, searching for any cover they could find. Thankfully, the two sides were so focused on trying to wipe each other out, they didn''t spare a thought for the strangers caught between them.


    "What''s the n now?" Rowan hissed, ducking behind the wheel well. "Talk about lousy luck. We stumble right into a turf war... Not even sure whose armies these are."


    They''d thought things would go smoothly-only to crash headlong into the kind of chaos you only read about in war reports.


    "Let''s just wait and see how this shakes out," Calliope said under her breath, frowning as she tried to calcte their next move. Pushing forward now would be suicidal. Better to hold back until the shooting stopped.


    "Everyone, stay alert," she warned softly. Her people might be few in number, but every one of them was more than capable in a fight. Still they couldn''t afford to reveal their hand if either faction realized dangerous her crew really was, their problems would multiply


    how


    Calliope urged her team to keep their heads down and blend in as best they could-only step in if there was no other choice. If they could sneak through in the confusion, so much the better if not well, then they might have to carve themselves a path.


    She rubbed her temples, frustration building. She despised operating in ces like this. So many


    unpredictable gangs, some r


    lunatics who barely spoke thenguage or had no regard for reason, Dealing with these people was always a


    nightmare-negotiation was usually impossible.


    The firefight raged on, bullets zinging past as Calliope''s group stayed pressed low behind the truck, unnoticed so far. After several long minutes of chaos, something shifted among the soldiers.


    "Wait-where''d those people go?" shouted someone from the front lines.


    Instantly, both factions paused, eyes scanning wildly for Calliope''s team. In that moment, their own violent feud was forgotten as a new hunt began.