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Cole looked around for Dani, or a sign of Edison, but found none of the latter and wasn’t sure he’d recognize the former in a crowd The blue planes thatdetails too fine for their unpracticed human brains

"Where’s Edison?" Cole heard one of his friends ask the guards--

There was no reply

The guardsaround them as they were escorted across the shiny floor of petrified wood Cole tried to get a glilass, but all he could see was crowds of people and ht ofstairs and to a platfor the them Protectively

Behind the crowd, a transparent tube ran the length of the platfornizable to Cole as soroup waited in a tense hush, Cole wondering if the silence was due to their presence

After a few e that slid to a noiseless halt The glass tube parted in several places with the pop of a pure vacuu a whiff of air, then the transport’s inner doors opened and disgorged an array of colorfully garbed Drenards

Their escorts kept theht to switch places

Cole watched these new arrivals startle at the sight of the into sideways stares A shiver ran up Cole’s spine; the raw nu like the few he’d gotten used to in the rooms above

Then it occurred to Cole that they were this planet’s eneined what sort of stir it would cause to lead two Drenard captives through Grand Central Station in New York He remembered what he’d felt when he first saw Anlyn in the Darrin systelanced at Molly, whose eyebroere down, her forehead wrinkled in thought

Once inside the transport, they were given plenty of roo away from the platform, the vehicle slid to a stop at one station after another, repeating the process of unload, load, gape Cole felt like a specilass test tube

After a half dozen or so stations, however, he went fro radually roups of Drenard youth, as if thousands of field trips were converging on the sanificantly larger than the feuards serving as their escorts The young females were just a bit smaller than Anlyn, which shocked Cole It occurred to him that he didn’t even kno old Anlyn was, nor if she was even officially a Drenard yet

Molly turned to one of the guards and raised her hand "Will we be perfor mental silence

"No more questions," was the response Cole could see Molly’s shoulders sag as she bit her bottoed and widened his eyes Already, this was not feeling like the best idea

They stopped at a fewat each one as the vacuu extra air between the door’s seals When they arrived at the next one, and every passenger on the transport started crowding toward the door, he figured it for the end of the line

The guards confirroup up as the last of the children trotted up the steps By the ti Drenards had already exited the building Cole could see the one wall as they were herded into lines and loaded into land vehicles similar to buses but with aerodynaround The lea beyond theape at the display, enjoying their reaction even though he was nowhere close to iuards waved them toward the door To either side, s at the colors beyond, too excited to even notice the huer children held up a recording device of some kind Cole assumed these kids hailed froest day of their lives, he thought

Then he wondered if everyone else had heard hiroup found thee shuttle alone As soon as they’d seated the the walls, the vehicle lurched intooff in a different direction fro unwanted," Coleunwan--?"

"Silence!" the voice rang harsh in Cole’s head, and he noticed Molly flinch as well Hearing hi if he’d ever raised his voice with Molly before--ain It sounded awful Alien

More silence ensued, and the bands, with all their latent potential, hts bubbled up, one of the Drenards would force the, Cole found, required i that cah the glass of the domed vehicle as they drove out toward the hot side of the planet, trying to lose hihts

••••

The temperature in the shuttle rose noticeably as they drove across the desert They followed a es taking therow deeper and wider as they snaked toward the twin suns In the other direction, they petered out to alood number of kilometers, the shuttle turned parallel with the ter them far away from the crowds of other hopeful Drenards

Cole and Molly sat with their shoulders pressed together, each trying not to think too loudly Heavy gusts of ould occasionally rock the raphed Through the , Cole folloisps of fine dust as it hurried after the violent winds The pent-up power outside the shuttle grew ferocious as they inched closer to the dual suns

It wasn’t long before Cole felt naked with just a tunic on Defenseless Another gust slammed the shuttle and everyone swayed in tiaiety from the station and the excite in the opposite direction Left alone was a single transport pushing sideways through the wind and filling with a sense of dread

Losing himself in his new assessment of the inhospitable land, Cole didn’t see the squat building until they were nearly upon it The driver parked on the sunward side, out of the wind Even so, an angry breeze whistled into the shuttle as the doors cracked open As he filed out into the cool air, Cole could hear it battering the rear of the s through his hair Everyone’s tunics flapped noisily in the persistent blow as they hurried inside, and above all these sounds, Cole could hear an eeriefrouards took up positions by the entrance, on either side of an old, large stain that spread out from the door and across the carpet The two officials waved the group further inside

"This shelter is for alien use only," one of theht "It has been closed for many of your years; it was reopened for your coo You will rest for one of your nights, and then gear up and depart on the Rite"

Heads nodded to affir continued: "The rules are few and simple Do not follow one another Do not assist one another Choose your own path and capture your own Wadi Thooo If, in the extremely unlikely event you come across one of our youth that has wandered over this far, please do not interfere with his or her quest The only advice you will get from us is to stick to the shadows, capture your Wadi Thooo, and try to return safely"