Page 58 (1/2)

He walked around the circular base and mentally plotted a path to the top Then, in the interest of tirabbed a root that jutted froan the ascent

Every five meters he stopped and secured his rope with a cra no concern, Vanessa had chosen the kits with the highest price tags The devices weighed nearly nothing, so little in fact he found it hard to trust their strength Skyler tested each link with a strong tug and found them utterly fixed to the surface of the spire

At thirtyand paused Every hs felt like rubber Below, Ana had begun to cliround below her, spotting her course and shouting advice on where to grab or push off She stood between two of the pondlike holes in the ground, both deep red in color

When Ana reached the rock where Skyler waited, she collapsed and splayed herself out against the wall, drawing deep breaths He gave her a sip of water and kissed her lightly

"Hey," she said, her eyes closed, "keep going"

For a second he thought she ain, more deeply The situation, and her exhausted expression, said otherwise He picked hiain

Each handhold becaloved, felt raw and close to bleeding

"November!" Vanessa shouted from the base

Fifteen minutes had passed Two months outside

Skyler redoubled his effort Soon the pillar became completely vertical, the rocks smaller and more spread out His body shook from exertion, as if he hadn’t eaten in days

A few minutes later he found himself faced with the final six-meter span The portion that went beyond steep and into inverted territory Standing with one foot on a sh an exposed root, Skyler prepared his grappling hook

He let out sixit back and forth Ana’s pace below al hook, until he called out to her to halt Skyler forced his strength into the arc of the grappler, over and over, until finally it almost came in contact with the lip of the pedestal at the top On the next arc, Skyler put everything he had into the h as he could at the last second The hook disappeared over the top and he heard the faint sound ofon the line It pulled s it fall back over the edge, but then the rope caught and pulled straight

"Did it catch?" Ana called up

"I think so," he said to her "Only one way to know"

Skyler pulled as hard as he could and allowed hirin when the rope remained firmly in place His arm still looped around the root, he cautiously slipped his foot off the rock he’d been perched on He hung there, his hands in a white-knuckled grip on the grappling rope, his ar out froave It pulled out of the earthen wall and suddenly Skyler was dangling, threewildly

A wave of dizziness and vertigo kept his hands around the rope in a death grip His eyes were shut equally tight as he waited to see if the grapple would hold When he opened his eyes, he found hi three meters out froe at the top He could see that the blue rope had carved into the dirt and stone ravel bounced off his face, punctuating the visual

He looked back to the wall until he found Ana, staring at hilanced down and saw Vanessa standing almost directly below hi out in space like he was, to him the woman suddenly seemed ih for both of the"

"December!" Vanessa shouted back

Skyler looked up once an to attach his ascender to the rope The co free and took oes," he said to Ana, and then he stood in the foot loops and let the ascender handle glide up the rope When it bit, he sat again and rocked hiained a halfmotion his muscle memory kicked in and the process became second nature

At the lip Skyler rocked himself into a stand one last time, and on the apex he let one hand off the ascender and reached over the ledge to find soers brushed an exposed rock and he clawed it, then pulled, grunting with the effort

When he crested the edge, he found hi subhulass in shape The being clutched the edge of the object with hands that were coated in black to the wrist, as if dipped in oil

At the sight of Skyler the creature let go of the alien device

The doan to rumble violently

Far below Skyler, a woman screamed

Chapter 43

Platz Station

1DEC2284

ALEX WARTHEN CIRCLED the table One hand cupped his chin, his index finger pressed against his lips He’d said nothing for al the 3-D hts?" Russell asked His shalloell of patience had run dry aonly out of his renewed camaraderie with the o, Alex had been invigorated, and had pulled in the mousey shrew Sofia Windon to help ad a decent job Better yet, whatever Alex had been saying to Grillo had finally worked Jacobite cannon fodder were due to arrive within the hour