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"It’l brush off," Vaz said, distracted by the reckless worker "Wait I have to see what this guy does"

He knew Mal wasn’t being disrespectful He was just nervous about being summoned to ONI without explanation, and Vaz understood that, but they had another mission to complete A visit to Sydney was rare

And we made a promise Admiral or no Admiral

A smal croatched frohters, and sappers ere stil digging bodies out of the rubble twoon the end of the gantry, lunged at the flagpole andto it and wobbled for aon the line to reveal the white stars of the Southern Cross on a deep blue ground, with a single gold Coround in the canton

Everyone cheered A fleet tender in the harbor sounded its klaxon

Mal see as if he was counting "Wel done, Oz Seven hundred and sixty-five not out" He nudged Vaz in the back and strode off "Coot to find the bar If we don’t do it noon’t get another chance for years"

Vaz watched the workantry to relative safety before he felt able to turn away and catch up with Mal

"Okay, why seven hundred and sixty-five?" he asked

"Seven hundred and sixty-five years since the first rants landed here It’s Australia Day" They walked across a temporary ay that spanned a crater the ful width of the road It vibrated under their boots like a sprung floor "You understand not out, don’t you? Don’t ain"

"I understand cricket just fine" Vaz bristled "What’s your probleoskyitis"

Both of them had done more than a hundred drops behind eneht not survive the next one, but the prospect of being hauled before a very elderly woold braid had kept theht for the past week Even ODSTs ary of Margaret Parangosky

"She’s over ninety," Vaz said "None of those stories about her can be true She just spreads theranduessing gah"

"You started it"

"Wel , she’s not invited us for tea and "

"You want ODSTs to do a job for you, you ask for a fire team Or a company A battalion, even"

"You kno paranoid ONI is Top-secret-eat-before-reading" Mal picked"Ah, co It’s not like we’re stor a beachhead"

But why us? Vaz checked the tourist ’s useless I can’t see any landmarks"

Mal fumbled in his pocket and took out the ancient button compass that he always carried "Fieldcraft, Vaz Back to basics If we can’t find a bar, we’re not worthy of the uniforht, not even a cop or a construction worker to ask for directions The hu a street at a ti on the next corner was a tangle of metal joists and col apsed n of the plaza ful of pave center that was supposed to be on Vaz’s left looked like a slab of honeycomb with the wax layer ripped off Al he could see was a procession of coh Red-and-white cordon tape fluttered between steel poles The se hit him

"You lads look lost"

A civil defense warden popped up like a range target behind a barrier fifty meters away, and Vaz al It was hard adjusting to a place where there were no threats

"Yeah, I think we are," Vaz said

"You trying to find Bravo-Six?" The wardendirection, son"

"No, a bar," Mal said "The Parthenon"

"It’s gone" The warden glanced at his watch as if he thought it was a bit early for a drink, then studied Mal’s unifornia with a baffled frown Maybe the Corps had taken the low-profile special forces thing a bit too far "What are you, then, uy didn’t see on "Orbital Drop Shock Troopers Yeah, et to the Parthenon Bar?" Vaz asked

"I told you It’s just rubble now They’re clearing the site"

"We don’t want a drink We’ve got soave Vaz a sideways look Maybe the lish wasn’t so hot because of his heavy accent "Just keep going that way," he said, indicating forty-five degrees and slowing his speech down a bit for the hard of understanding "You’l see the bus station It’s two streets north of there"

Vaz was starting to sweat as he walked away It washi up in shirtsleeves Mal somehow stil looked pristine despite the concrete dust on his elbows and boots

"What are we going to use for a drink?" Mal asked

"I don’t know Maybe we just say e have to say and leave it at that"

They’d proh Sydney, sohly unlikely, then they’d find the man’s favorite bar and raise a toast to his memory It had been a verykil ed as an if It was more like a when

Doesn’t h Doesn’t mean we miss him any the less

"Ah," said Mal As soon as they turned the corner and looked up the road, they could see the bul dozers at work "Ripe for development"

So the center line of the road Vaz counted the stumps of internal wal s and decided that 21 Strathclyde Street had stood where there was now a ragged crater fringed by the reht turquoise Doric colurim

"Manny never did have er"