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A minute later, Cole pulled the free end of the wires up to hih to get to the edge of the snow

He checked the other end of the wire toout

Riggs grabbed one of his boots before he could get very far Cole look-ed down at the black visor peering up at hih his helmet, his voice muffled and distant "Don’t die before I can kill you" He shook the utility knife at him for effect

Cole s all the way up on top of the metal belly of the Firehawk

The surface had already iced up,Cole’s boots slip as he tried to rise to his feet Coupled with the vertigo of the sideways flurry, the slickness made him feel unstable and a tad nauseous His brain wanted to lean into the snow, but there was no wind to hold him His stomach flipped; he sank back to his hands and knees and decided to stay there, the survival pack dangling off one side of his back

Cole kept one end of the ound tight around his glove and played the rest out behind hie of the white, fluffy snowbank that led up to the ship’s belly The thick flurries in the airfuzzy, but it see forward, the large flakes piling up fast

Riggs was right: they didn’t have veryquick, they were going to freeze to death in a large Navy-built coffin

Cole crawled toward the snowbank, reaching it just as thedown to the side He pressed one gloved hand into the whiteness and felt the solidity of wet pack, not the dry stuff he feared he’d find He crawled into it another meter until his knees crunched in the stuff, and then his boots He worried about the dizziness, his head still reeling froave hi up

Before he could, he saw soloves was inside a boot print Cole lifted his hand and looked down at the i even more turned around He looked over his shoulder, back at the bare h the snow--the parallel furrows created by his knees as straight as the wire trailing through theht

When he looked forward again, the mystery resolved itself: out of a thick flurry of snow, he saw a boot a fewinside that boot--and a twin next to it Together, they supported a humanoid wrapped in scraps of fur to the top of its head Black goggles poked out of thedown at him

Cole reached one arm to the man "Mortimor?" he shouted inside his helht of not just finding living beings out there, but possibly the very person he thought he’d heard during the crash, the last person he thought he’d ever ure nodded his head as if he’d heard Cole

But the gesture nal to whoever had crept behind him, because that’s where the blow to his neck ca the h a few inches of snow The iht and the biting cold Cole squeezed his eyes shut and tried to bring his hands up to close his helh in a direction they didn’t nor ripped off him

Whoever it was barked out orders to soe accent: "Check foryou can, fusion fuel first"

"Why we still raiding?" so outta here soon?"

"And leave this lovely weather? Hell, no Now getYou’ll be buried in an hour"

Several pairs of boots stoh the fuselage and into his hels, but the person on his back twisted his arasps As Cole fell silent, fighting to breathe past the pain, he heard more sounds: the crunch of snow as so up the drift Cole tried to peer ahead, to see who it was, but his visor was open too wide to hazard even a glance

"Take this one to the sled I’ll help Saul"

The person on Cole’s back released him Before he could move to close his visor, a new set of powerful hands--ed forward; he dug his toes into the snow in protest He tried to snap his visor shut by whipping his neck, but it had already frozen in place

The ht as they crunched down the bank of snow They marched for what seemed a hundred meters or so Cole heard ht, conserving his energy

When they stopped walking, one of his escorts let go of his left arm Cole didn’t hesitate; he spun in that direction, back around the guy holding his right ar soft, causing his other arm to come free He reached up and sla

The blow to his sto the world into focus He doubled over So him Cole fell to the snow as several people crashed down on his back, beating him unconscious

5

Anlyn screamed She ran out of the co an anguishing and perfect view of the fiery destruction beyond

The corridor beneath her feet tre for her as she collapsed to her knees

"Nooo," she whimpered She covered her face with her hands so she wouldn’t have to see, but the flashing lights and warning alarlass around her, sliding through the cracks in her fingers and ha home the reality of the loss--of the so many lives destroyed

"It came from the Rift," someone in the co orders, dei ice--the frozen heart of the depressed wrapped in a flaeance

That didn’t come from the rift, she told herself She knew Bodi, her ex-fiancée, was responsible It was an act of sabotage, designed to spare only her It stunk of hi lackeys to sacrifice their lives

Anlyn looked at her palh the transparent visisteel--she could see ships darting out from their stations She watched the cloud of debris

Edison wrapped his arht valiantly to not break down She felt like a Wadi canyon with its base eroded by the wind Her shoulders shivered as if they threatened to topple off her body Outside, all her hopes were scattering in a billion pieces So many noble, valiant believers had been reduced to dust Thinking of the in the corridors--it made the ridiculousness of herA little princess, spoiled and spouting prophecy, journeying to the Great Rift because of soh tiates already weakened by despondency Anlyn sobbed into Edison’s fur She heard his lance drop, felt hih the tears, she watched a pointless fleet of e for clues The only good they did was to hat reness

ѻѻѻѻ

"We caught so on vid," Bishar said softly

Anlyn tore her eyes away fro she’d been staring, transfixed, into the blosso cloud She wiped her face and looked up at Bishar, then pushed herself from Edison’s lap She took a few steps away fro to look less like the child she suddenly felt