I stopped and froze, something piquing my psy-empathy. I wasn't what one might call an 'Empath,' but you learn a technique or two under the tutelage of the Inquisition. Old Terrans would call it 'intuition' or something vague like a 'feeling,' but I knew what it was. Beyond that, I could see it with my eyes. There were many nobles glancing our way, but a few on the waiter's staff either looked at us directly or made certain not to look in a way that seemed too suspicious. It brought a chill down my spine. 

"One more dance?" I asked Emmaline with liquid cadence to my voice, pulling her back out onto the balcony, gently. 

"What?" She asked breathlessly, eyes widening. The sound of her voice made my heart tremble. Emperor but that was a good kiss. I could tell the prospect wasn't wholly unwanted in her eyes, but it warred with confusion on the sudden turn of events. I closed the door and pulled her close to it so we weren't as easily spied on. 

"Something's wrong." I warned her. "Something..." 

The night behind her was dimly lit, as it was opposite from the Banquet Hall's main drag. There were many buildings, yes. But beyond the large botanical garden were smaller streets and three to ten story buildings ubiquitously scattered along the landscape until they congregated with the larger structures of the main city. There were many lights, but not entirely bright. I saw another light turn on for the briefest of moments, and my mind yelled at my body as I realized it had not been a light, but a glint of something in the rays of the moon. I knew what it was in my body before I could conceptualize it in my head. 

"Down!" I ordered, but Emmaline needn't have heard me as I took the liberty of pulling her below the vine-enshrouded balustrade. Just at that critical moment, a las-shot cauterized the stone where our heads had been. It was eerie, seeing it and not hearing a thing, or even being unable to see the source as it was fired. It was shot by a longlas, equipped with a suppressor that hid the location of its shooter by nullifying the flash and severely reducing the noise. Standard procedure for any sniper in the Astra Militarum was to find a new location after every shot, and most civilian assassins utilized kinetic sniper rifles. Still, we couldn't trust whoever attempted to kill us to go by the handbook. 

Vaguely, I realized Emmaline was on top of me. Were it a different circumstance I would have liked the experience, but as it were we had a situation. 

"Are you ok?" I asked her just the very moment she asked me, our voices mingling in the suspiciously quiet night air. 

"I am," I said just as she gave a shaken 'Yes, I'm...' 

"We need to go through the gardens." I told her, gently moving her to lay to the side, my back guarding her body from any shots, though I hoped we were still out of their visual. I took her hand in mine and gave her a nod. We had to move quickly. She returned the nod, resolve in her eyes. It made me smile. I had chosen my teammate well. "Hold on to me." 

She did as she was bid, and with a quick movement, I hoisted her up and leaped off the balcony. We had two stories to drop, and I used my admittedly mediocre psychic powers to slow our descent on the second half of the drop. My feet hit the ground a bit harder than I would have liked, but nothing was broken and no further shots had been fired. She got to her feet and was about to make a quip, but the tall hedges began to shudder from some movement beyond what we could see. 

"Six of them," She whispered, her eyes very far away. 

"Together?" I asked, retrieving my pistol and pulling back the hammer. Damn, I did not want to lose my cover with gunshots ringing out.

"No, two man teams." She reported, and at my insistence we both backed up and fled into a different corridor of green, hurrying as quickly as we could manage in our current dress. Perhaps we made it twenty meters before the brush quaked and shook, and two men leaped out to bar our way. We pulled up short as the foes watched us in the gloom, ominously watching us as if trying to ascertain if we were the correct prey. One man had his left eye replaced by a set of bionics Lazarus could appreciate. The other looked like a short Ogryn, brutish and large, but undeniably a standard big man rather than an abhuman. Both wore carapace armor and stun batons, as if they had relieved a few adeptus arbites of their equipment. Briefly, I felt Emmaline's hand touching my own.

[i]Are they after Hadrian Drakos or Blasius Deckard[/i]?  

A prudent question. But one we did not have the luxury of finding out. 

[i]I'm not sure, but they have unfortunately found Inquisitor Drakos of the Ordo Malleus[/i].

I put my gun back in its holster, and the two watched with a dark chuckle. They carried their stun batons as if they had used plenty of bludgeoning weapons before, moving with a confident swagger. I was not certain if Emmaline knew much of that particular armament, but a stun baton's name gives a misconception of its viciousness. They could certainly stun, but I had bore witness to an arbites use one at maximum power on rioter's arm. The limb was hopelessly damaged beyond repair. One hit in the head or anywhere vital and we could very well be dead.

"You giving up, eh? Smart." The balding man with the eye snickered. His thin nose and nibbling mouth made me think of a city rat. 

I turned from them and handed Emmaline my force staff, who blinked when she caught the haft of the thing in her hands. 

"Be extremely mindful with that," I informed her carefully. Her psychic powers far outstripped my own. "In my hands, it's a formidable weapon. In yours, well, there might be extensive collateral damage if you're not entirely in control." 

Once I had hammered it home to her, I turn to the approaching thugs and, with a gesture of my shoulder to move my cloak aside, I reached for my sword. I could hear their chuckling as I retrieved my 'antique sword,' but as I pulled it out, their laughter died on their lips as they noticed the embossed skull on the hilt and the broad blade of what was undeniably a power sword in my strong hand. I activated the weapon, the blade bursting into life with a dim light, sparks racing across the length of it. My slug thrower might not be entirely effective against carapace armor, but my power sword, well... 

It could cut into the armor plating of a Chimera.