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Skyler focused on Kantro’s ship, now approaching the pad He could see the pilot through the cockpitEven as Skyler watched, the pilot hefted a pistol in one hand and fired toward the back of the cockpit The craft tilted to one side and started to drift

Subhu frantically, each gunshot lighting up the creatures’ furious faces

Just , the craft tilted back violently, overco It moved back in the other direction too fast, and this ti adjacent to the Elevator tower Sparks and debris showered down

Guards on the landing pad began to break for for shelter

Somewhere behind him, Skyler heard the sound of hydraulicalar to fire

"Shit!" he hissed Nightcliff would rather have flao yard than let the erratic ship daine sound rah-pitched whine and the aircraft tilted forward, then back

Skyler caught another glimpse of the cockpit, and saw no one at the helm now He opened the barrack door and stepped out into the et a better view The uniforan to spin and loose altitude Just five ht and the engine noise dropped to nothing

Skyler knew then that the vehicle would crash, on the south side of the yard It if landed on its belly the daht not be catastrophic, but those inside would be shaken up pretty badly

He took a few steps toward the scene, then paused He glanced north and saw the old Platz ht of it trapped him between two choices: rush to help the people on board the craft, exposing himself in the process, or use the crash as a diversion to continue his ht be a friend, but Skyler didn’t relish the idea of fighting a bunch of subhuoons Sooner or later so in the yard, and he’d be apprehended Mission over

"The Aura is everything," Prumble’s voice echoed in his head "You did what you had to do"

The erratic vehicle tilted again and its starboard wing slapped into the ground It fell like a stone the rest of the way, s into the paved surface with the torturous sound of an to rush out the doors of nearby buildings The squad of guards eed froround and collided with a low building south of the yard It came to a rest there, half-embedded into the structure A cloud of dust and debris filled the air around it

The rear cargo hatch was open There were people inside, lots of theed They swaralloped on all fours

Skyler ran north, the sounds of shouting, screaunfire at his back He wanted no part of it, and besides, it was ten times the diversion he needed

That an aircraft had lihtcliff’s yard uninvited was one thing That it had done so with a cargo bay full of subhumans was sheer insanity Kantro, or the pilot,in for help; otherwise Nightcliff would have shot them doell before they reached the fortress

"Not hts on the otten in the rush of adrenaline A figure e in front of hiown Skyler shouldered his way past her and she toppled to the ground in a surprised yelp

She shouted for hi over his shoulder and saw a subhu toward her The once-human creature tackled the poor woed from A cry of surprise, then pain, came from within

Another subhuan to gallop toward hi, with a face so calm, so serene, that Skyler almost tripped

Resolute to conserve his bullets, Skyler faced forward and ran as hard as he could The mansion came into full view He threw himself onto a feeble chain-link fence that surrounded it and cli backward, directly into the face of the scrawny subhu it hite-knuckled hands, and that same, eerily serene expression on its face

It whispered souessed, frolanced down and saw that she wore the tattered remnants of an environment suit

Recently afflicted, then One of Kantro’s crew He looked at her faceto reain, louder "Play with me"

"Not today A bit busy"

"Play with me," she rasped, and shook the fence Her eyes darted up

She began to cliht

Beloin, Australia

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The Platz family les and brilliant white walls, looked near collapse

Scraps of plywood covered everyBlackweeds The front door, two slabs of thick wood four meters tall and at least as wide, were held closed by a thick rusty chain wrapped in a figure eight around the wrought-iron handles A padlock the size of Skyler’s hand said visitors were not welco fence behind hiht of the massive door A shabby piece of plywood loohad once framed the entrance Or so he hoped

He jumped and went shoulder first into the wall of thin wood An elbow shielding his face, Skyler crashed through the feeble barricade in a shower of splinters and fragreeted hi as he landed on his back

Skyler’s head rocked backward and cracked against the dusty stone surface He griun to the ready froap he’d created, and counted The alien-created disease drove the infected to chase huht, leap through the hole in about five seconds