"Turn off the lights, now!" whispered Elena, her voice trembling.
Stefano tried to get up, but his knees felt like cotton. "They'll kill you if you stay here. Go through the back door."
"Shut up! You don't know what you're up against," Elena retorted, reaching into the drawer of her operating table. She took out a small, pen-shaped device. "This is a short-frequency signal disruptor. Hold this near your neck."
Heavy boot steps hammered against the ceramic floor in the front room. One, two, three people. Stefano could feel them through the vibrations in the floor, picked up by his neural sensors.
"Doctor Elena, we don't want to damage this pretty place," a man shouted from behind the medical room door. "Give us the asset, and you can go back to pretending to be an honest civilian."
"I'
