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She swung viciously and the runted through clenched teeth, his eyes unfocused The impact wrenched the bar frohtened as Gabriel turned to see her He thrust an ar the fabric of her pant leg

Run! Skyler thought, and ht be Skyler’s last, and he took it The knife was still in his hand, and he flipped it around and plunged it into Gabriel’s side, just above the waist The h, and the blade’s tip failed to push through

"Motherfucker," Gabriel said as his attention swung back

Skyler stabbed again This tirim satisfaction as the blade buried itself up to the hilt in Gabriel’s thigh He felt it slide throughscrape as it slid off bone

Gabriel grunted, winced, and then Skyler twisted the knife

"EIIAAHHHHHH!" the ht have heard it, if not for the cacophony of grinding , Skyler had just enough focus to lurch his knee upward The move toppled Gabriel into the dirt, and the ain as he rolled on top of it

Skyler staggered to two feet He knew he could not fight anymore He could barely colow eht traced along its surface A tent, poles and ropes and all, draped across the obelisk’s base, along with various other debris

Skyler held a hand out to push back on the tower, a technique he’dIt bathed hilow It pushed hi to craay Skyler fell backward and justsensation raced up and down his arm

The tower did not pause It continued to drift forward, and pushed Gabriel aside like a toy The ht sudden focus to Skyler’s mind Despite the chaos around hi aura tower and over to Gabriel He ripped the knife out of the ripped it with both hands

Gabriel sensed the blow about to fall and raised one aring the blade into theman pawed at the hilt of the knife weakly for a brief second, then slumped to the dirt, lifeless

Fro metal, and he saw the hint of another tower there, or rather the shiht on its surface The alien object moved in unison with the one Skyler had just crawled away froo containers near the camp’s center, and shoved the massive metal box aside as if it had beeninto view

All Skyler could do was to curl into a fetal ball and wait for the towers to pass hian to thin a little then, and he saw ht disappear into the distance Confused, Skyler caroup of towers, this one shihtly different angle to the first set

As the fog receded, so did the sounds of battle, leaving behind a hauntingSome of that would be from people suddenly outside the protective auras, the towers once protecting theone

He knelt for a minute in the center of camp, near the Elevator, unsure what to do Debris littered the ground Bodies lay everywhere, so A woman wandered in a daze He smelled smoke, and blood, and churned earth A voice in his head screas wouldn’t move His hands shook uncontrollably He looked down at theed to soht enough that his fingernails drew blood, and willed calnore all the injuries he’d suffered

When he cracked his eyelids again, he saw things with a bit uilt hit hi of her first Tania, he corrected himself She’d saved hiiven him his chance "Tania!"

"Here!" A weak voice, soh followed the words, and for a split second he wondered if the Elevator’s aura had failed as well

He stu her na had all but vanished, and he finally saw her, hunkered down just inside the clied scaffold built to lift cargo to orbit, had come doith only one car attached, the one Tania rode The other arms of the vehicle were empty, and three were now badly bent

The personnel car itself was tilted to one side and bore a long scrape across its surface

Skyler came to the door Tania reached out for him and he took her hand

"The towers," he said sharply "Tell hts?"

"My God," she whispered, "your face"

"That handsome, eh?" he sputtered more than said She was okay Despite the towers’ abrupt departure, the aura provided by the Elevator still held

Tania laughed in relief, a pained sound Tears were on her cheeks

"Are you okay? Can you walk?" he asked her More people were behind her, croithin the dark space "We should survey the carimaced and shook her head "Twisted , Skyler? Did we lose them all?"

"I don’t know yet Most, I think Some colonists were surely left outside the aura Stay here I’ll coo--"

"I have to," he said, too stern Tania nodded, a grave look on her face

He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and walked away to survey the camp

Chapter 23

Belém, Brazil

6MAY2283

SKYLER CUPPED HIS hands over his mouth and roared, "Everyone to the Elevator! Now!"