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There were screams behind us Not all the creatures were affected by the holy iteh to buy us those few instants we needed to s to safety

Bubba helped ed s We were in the shade It felt glorious, heavenly As the burning of : "… expected anything to happen until dark They’re using the power of the full ured it would happen after ical I’d assumed the same, and I should’ve known it wasn’t necessary It didn’t really matter all that much that the moon was on the far side of the planet It was still full The poas still there Oh, it was inally more difficult to control--but that problem had been ained Da you have a plan, that you didn’t just drag me down here so that you could die beside your buddy here"

I glared at hieoned my weary brain We needed to tip the balance in our favor There had to be a way

And then I had an idea, an absolutely wonderful, workable idea I started s "Bubba, where’s my rifle?"

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"Talia has it She’s the better shot"

"And where’s Talia?"

"Right here" Her voice ca,wall She wore the rifle slung across her shoulder with an ease that spoke of plenty of experience

"Set the weapon up on top of the wall, aiet for you"

"Right"

She cla on her belly on the roof I watched, shivering from a sudden chill that probably had more to do with nerves than the fact that the sun was rapidly sinking in the West The eneiven up a cautious approach in favor of an all-out charge The gunfire was alrenade dropped in front of rabbed it, turned, and flung it over the wall as hard and fast as I could Judging from the screaure strode up I’d worked with Roger Thomas in Mexico He was a handso blue eyes Even at the end of what had to have been a really rough day, his trousers had a crisp crease and his posture was perfect His entire attitude spoke of command

"Graves, you really kno toabout the expression botheredoff alarm bells in the back of my head The whole tiain, there hadn’t been a lot to sain but kept my voice pleasant and neutral and watched him very closely

"Hey, Thomas, where’s Chuck? I need to brief him"

His features darkened, but it was odd, as if the ainst the expression, e of expression look stilted and uncoordinated "Chuck’s down Flanders is in charge He sent me here to pull you and your people to cover the breach"

My people--all three of the for me to make the call