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"Earth Portugal What are you going to do with us?"

"If you ask ain, do you understand?"

Cole looked away fro fro out that seeut, not his vocal cords The sound--primal and eerie--snapped Cole out of his zombie-like state He nodded at Joshua

"How do you know Mortihter"

Joshua nodded as if that made sense "Have you been to Lok?"

"Never"

"Do you knohat fusion fuel is?"

Cole dipped his head "Yeah, of course I went to the Academy, I--"

"No Not what it’s used for What it is What it’s ht of Dani back on Drenard, the conversation they’d had on that prison rooftop Dani had told him that this was the most important question He lowered his brows and shook his head

"Were you about to say so?" Joshua asked

"No, justit’s an odd question"

Joshua stepped close, frowning at Cole, his gaze boring straight through his skull "I’ once," he said, "so be honest with lanced at Riggs, who seemed awake, but in shock His friend’s head rolled around, the whites of his eyes showing

"Yes," he said, not looking back at Joshua "I’hs "This is just unbelievable Jons, finish putting that boy’s legs back on Kelly, untie Cole You and I are taking the Chosen One to meet his maker"

Cole had no idea what any of that meant, but at least half of it sounded very bad for hioons stood up, wiped his hands on his fur, and caoggles from his neck to his forehead "If itto take the legs off both you lads Had nothing to do with the questions"

Cole grioon pulled him down from the rack The brute loosened his hands and yanked his ar his wrists Cole kept looking to Riggs, waiting for his eyes to focus, to see if he was going to survive The guy at his feet had the ends of his legs forced together, the purple paste squeezing out between the severed edges Theaway; Cole closed his eyes right as the door squeaked open, blasting the roo his eyes shut was one of Riggs’s thighs twitching involuntarily, a trickle of blood oozing past the purple paste where the two parts of hied hi over hih his eyelids, his thin flesh filtering the photons to the redness of glowing steel Part of hie of the severed legs out of his memory He instead forced hiet a feel for his surroundings and to be distracted by soht breeze swirling around his neck and flecks of freezing snow on his face He could feel dollops ripped his ares squeaked behind hiht, Cole heard agonizingback the very iles!" Joshua barked

Cole tried to shake the echo of the moans out of his head He focused on the other sounds around hi of metal as ifof feet on steel decking, vibrations co commands in the distance; the clatter of a sparse crowd Behind it all--the sound of a soft yet persistent wind; the crunching of packed snow and crackling ice; a slight sway in the deck, like a boat at sea, or a ship with dying grav panels

Hands went to Cole’s face He tried to pull away, but his arms were still strapped behind his back, and so hi tight co out painfully--before the cups snapped over his eyes Someone slapped him on the back of the head, either to tell hi difficult, he didn’t know

With the red glow gone fro, he looking down at his feet and away fro lookednor his on the les, obscuring his vision, but he could still see pretty well Around hi if they weren’t nized the colors on quite a few Navy black and gray ords stenciled in blocky white letters:

DON’T STEP CAUTION: HOT CAPTAIN MICKLES

Each phrase stood at odd angles or upside down, the hull they used to be a part of long disassembled and the shape of the crafts beaten flat with hanations that qualified as antiques, Navy hardware that hadn’t been used since the galactic expansion

Their group weaved in and out of the square structures, through little alleys of zig-zag confusion Cole looked down at his feet and wondered what theyto " dusted with the barest cover of snow The rivets that dotted the deck and the thick welds that held the plates together gathered the white flakes in ses, like miniature drifts Here and there, these drifts were crushed flat by the boots ahead of hins of mismatched soles