I slid my wraparound sunglasses out of my pocket and slipped them on, tapping the button on the side to link their built-in display to the plasma rifle. Tasha, give me a thermal overlay, I subvocalized through the comm.

What was I sayink to you about alive? Tasha chided.

I’m just going to wing him, don’t worry. The infrared overlay appeared in front of me, and I could now see where the man was in the house, right through the wall. Ha! He was actually holding his gun out in front of him! This would be trivial. I centered the crosshairs on the gun, and fired.

The plasma rifle punched through the house and melted the automatic in half. There was a series of muffled explosions as the bullets cooked off, and muffled swearing as the man dropped the ruined gun and clutched at his scalded hand.

I swung around the door frame and held the rifle by my hip. “You wanna come quietly, or do I have to shoot you more?”

In a panic, the man grabbed for a pocket with his good hand.

Out of reflex, I shot him.