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The realization hit him as he reached the dockyard: The newcoe armada of combat vehicles without any aura towers to protect them No other explanation made sense There were deep implications his brain desperately wanted to analyze, but the roar of tires on the tortured road behind hiate and down a steeply sloped asphalt road that led to trampled shore The murky Rio Guamá stretched more than a kilometer wide here, still swelled by the rainy season A line of trees on the horizon marked the far shore, too far to swi wooden docks stretched out fifty meters over the water, as far as Skyler could see Two- and three-story warehouses, all broken s and weathered walls, backed the cru structures

Corpses of watercraft filled the spaces between docks Many were cargo ships and flat barges, faded logos of international produce companies still visible on their sides The rest were smaller, recreational, likely borne down the fast river over the years only to snag here on the piers Amassed around the boats were islands of trash, dead trees, and other debris The setation per and churned his stomach

Skyler slohen his feet met the wooden slats of the dock Many of the boards were black and rotten, and he guessed the h He chanced a glance back and saw the beast careening down the raular black shell of riveted steel An anti-riot car, he guessed It looked like it had been painted black recently, with hints of an FNSP logo--national police--underneath A shielded turret topped the vehicle, and Skyler could see soled to keep his ailed toward a gap betarehouses just as the buzz froun shattered the quiet of the shore Shards of rotten wood filled the air around hih-stepped the last few

His heart raced, blood pulsing in his ears His breaths came in short bursts as the rush of the narrow escape swelled through him Skyler vaulted himself over a stack of blue plastic fruit crates and kept running, angling toward the wall of the next building over He calance in, only to find it a horrible rottingfor shelter when he stepped into view The smell of the place forced hi around the back of the building, dancing around abandoned skid-steers and electric forklifts

Shrieking tires and anxious shouts were heard behind hi Skyler’s hopes for a farcical end to the chase He let his pace dip so that he could get his breathing under control Everything stank, worse than even Darwin’s choked shoreline The odor brought tears to his eyes

He ju by the faded coveralls Nothing but bone and so now Bodies were everywhere in the urban places Skyler had visited, but once in a while he saw one that still disturbed him They were a hard reminder of the billions that died in the first months of the disease

He heard footsteps somewhere behind, and took the next corner to put hi the brownish river now Guessing his pursuers would flank hirimy wood A hard three-count later, he rolled back around the ith his gun at the ready

Thearound the decayed body of the dockworker

Skyler lined up the red dot of his holo-sight on the ht made his aim virtually flawless, and the poor fellow collapsed on top of the body that already lay there Onea fellow i he’d never done before The sound of approaching footsteps et away So Skyler set aside his instinctual urge to search the body, stood, and ran

Moving quickly again, he dashed along the backside of the warehouses, scaling one chain-link fence and ducking through a gap in another Near the end of the dockyard he heard shouts off to his left, over a series of ragged grunts

Then caht their presence would be so welcounfire, Skyler left the dockyard and bolted straight into the dense slu fear

Chapter 8

Melville Station

29APR2283

TANIA COULD NOT look Zane Platz in the eye

He sat across the ers like his older brother had soround, theoretically Nothing had co The first clinificant shipo, a critical milestone in the colony’s survival But the cliround Instead Tania had seen Karl thrown violently across the screen, then a hand deactivating the cae filled the screen: "Connection lost"

"So has to be done, Tania," Zane said, in a quiet and pitiful voice

People, Karl had said, not subhumans People It couldn’t have been a mistake

"Tania …"

She kept her eyes on the comm "What did he mean, ‘Who are you people?’ What people?"

Zane ran a hand over his tired face "We’ve been over this many times"

"Suppose Blackfield snuck an aircraft in and has taken over? They could be on their way up"

"The controller still shows red The clirimaced "What other explanation is there?"

Zane broke eye contact at that He stared at the table in front of hi at his tee of his nose and winced "I should have a lie-down"

Tania studied him His face contorted in pain for a few seconds, then he seemed to relax "Okay We can talk later," she started

"My headache can wait," he grumbled "This decision can’t"

"Maybe it’s the Builders," Tiainst the wall by the closed conference roo cup of tea in his hand "Maybe they look like us, like people"

Zane did a half turn in his chair "You’re worse than she is"

"I’ himself, "we can’t continue to sit here and speculate endlessly It’s been two months since we had a solid shipment of consu to brown--"

"I know," she said

"So down there, and we need to act--"

"I know, dammit!" She looked up at his under thes, but most of all she saw his plea for someone, anyone, tothe decisions to his deceased brother, Neil In many ways she had, too, and she wondered if Zane saw the same plea in her eyes She turned back to the screen "The cliate, or rescue thelum expressions

"Worse," she added, "we can’t evacuate"

"Not to Belé silence followed Until now, no one had voiced that option Tania forced herself not to speak until she could control her voice "Returning to the Darwin Elevator is a last resort, agreed?"