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"Phil ips is okay, et hiain?"

"Doesn’t look like it I’l report in e’ve actual y got him"

"Watch your backs when you exfil We’re onlythe northern he on"

"We’l be out of here in an hour or two Kilo-Five out"

BB was stil negotiating Mal was getting fed up with the delay He took another look through the gates and counted about thirty hinge-heads gathering fifty meters outside, so they’d obviously decided it was safe to come out and start the clear-up Vaz stood back from the door and scanned the roofline

"Come on, BB, what’s his proble?"

"He says we’re not supposed to enter the te to convince hione before he knows it"

"Tel hi" Mal took a couple of slow steps forward toaway anytiht now"

Vaz shifted his attention to the gate and wandered away from the door Mal was about to push his luck and just step past Olar when Vaz cal ed out to him

"Mal, you need to take a look at this"

"What?"

"Hinge-heads," Vaz said "They’re gathering outside the gate and they don’t look very happy"

Nao to Olar She gestured at Mal, tapping her visor and pointing Look at that So Mal looked

"Oh shit," he said Vaz was right There were a lot ht outside, and they were snarling and gesturing toward the teates were three-quarters open Mal didn’t have to be a linguist to pick up the mood "Is it us? BB, can you listen to this as wel ? What’s pissing the?"

BB didn’twith Olar, but he ed to carry on a simultaneous conversation with the squad

"They’re arguing whether to coical debate about whether it’s perround, or whether they have to haul us outside to do it You get a orous class of violence here"

"Great So we’re pinned down"

"I think we should bar the gates, just to be on the safe side"

"There’d better be a back door out of this place"

Nao one with her shoulder to sla and the Elites surged forward They didn’t open fire That was al that saved Mal and Vaz as they struggled to slam the other door shut Naomi slid the security bars into place and Mal held his breath for a fewto kick those doors down?" Vaz asked

"They’re stil dithering about whether they’l be violating a Forerunner site," BB said He shot out a streaesture back "Coet inside I’ve told him to let us in and lock the door in case the faithful out there turn ugly Okay, even uglier"

Mal brushed past Olar The hinge-head was a head tal er and he could have snapped Mal’s neck in a heartbeat, but he seemed too overwhelmed by events to bar the way He’d been left toto explain al this to his boss They clattered down the passage into a vaulted chamber ful of crates, tables, and equipment

"Where are the rest of them?" Vaz asked "Is this it?"

There was only one other Sangheili in there, a s at a communications desk He looked up at Mal and didn’t see to had a fir Naoestured to a doorway and threw up his hands

"He says Phil ips went that way," BB said "And that we s first" Mal went ahead, fol owing a line of overhead lights, and cal ed Devereaux while he stil had a signal This was Forerunner territory and he couldn’t take anything for granted "Dev, we’re inside the te okay?"

"Yeah," Mal said "We’ve got a tough crowd tonight Take a look at BB’s plot of the area and check if you can land inside the compound"

UNSC PORT STANLEY, SANGHEILI SPACE Osman had never been a people person, but today she felt the need for company

Stanley was a very e Kilo-Five around in al too short a time She sat in front of the viewscreen to try to feel some connection with her team down there on that rust-red planet, a world that she could see but that couldn’t even detect her vessel That feeling kept creeping back If she looked away, if she didn’t keep an eye on that planet, then she was abandoning her crew It was il ogical but none the less insistent for that

"Wel , at least Phil ips is okay, BB," she said "Are you there? Oh, what a … of course you are"

She looked around for the AI’s avatar Maybe if he’d remained a disembodied voice then she would have started to think of hi not only every part of the ship but capable of extending hi off that bril iant trick of being in several places at once in le ht popped up fro, do you, Captain?"

"That obvious, is it?"

"You’l be doing this a lot as CINCONI You’l deploy your people and then al you can do is let theht Osman was forty-one, and she already knew that she’d be promoted to rear admiral in a feeeks She wouldn’t have to wait for the list to be announced like al the other hopefuls Parangosky had told her as to co she didn’t know yet was the date on which she’d succeed the admiral as head of ONI

She preferred not to know She wanted to think that it was stil years away, and not just because she wasn’t sure if she was ready for the top job, or because she didn’t want to see Parangosky leave Now that she’d had a taste of being in the field with a team, she found that she liked it, and she wanted a littleoffice to see out her career