The priority arrow directed her to the next preselected target, but Linda could not find the blur of refracted light that she expected. She wondered if the marksman had followed the contrails of her first two bullets back to their hide and simultaneously spun around, his beam rifle ready to fire. If so, her next shot would be her last, because a particle beam was every bit as deadly as the 14.5x114mm high-velocity, armor-piercing round her own weapon fired.
	...
	She switched to her next target and glimpsed a blur diving behind a low outcropping of shale. She put a round in four centimeters from the edge, drawing a spray of stone flakes. An Elite with a fist-size hole in his backplate rose and staggered away. A few centimeters of brittle shale was not much protection from firepower that could punch through a meter-thick concrete wall.