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"Status?" the mayor asked

Mallory and I stood beside each other, Catcher and Ethan on the outside edges like guards

"Stable, for the moment," Pierce said "The clouds above Towerline continue to spin, but the te There’s been no precipitation in the last two hours"

"The Guard has units in the designated e to keep people calm, but with the city frozen over, people ould nor" He slid a glance to uilt in his eyes

They were going to ask us to turn ourselves over Therewith terrorists, apologies about the sacrifice, but the question would be asked

I reached out, squeezed Mallory’s hand in support She squeezed back, and her expression had gone stony Whatever fear sheit down, too Pride blosso my arht, ere in this together

"They’re thinking about the , the loved ones they can’t check in on, the property da"

"In fairness," Pierce said, "some of them are probably happy about the snow day" She looked atto keep the uilt was in her eyes, too And I didn’t give guilt a whole lot of credit these days

Screw this, I thought, and released Mallory’s hand, took a step forward She did the sa to stand beside ic prickle with concern, but I ignored it, settled aze on the mayor

"We are all aware of the situation, Madam Mayor, and of the deadline we’re under And we all knohat you’re about to ask In the interest of tiet to the point?"

I could feel randfather’s concern, too, about the fact that I’d just made des But there was no point in waiting

Lanesound of disapproval He finally put down the tablet, looked at aze back to thedifferent there A kind of respect I hadn’t seen before

"I appreciate your candor," she said

I nodded, accepting the compliment, while Ethan fumed behind me But there was no help for it

She looked at Wilcox, nodded "Lieutenant"

"Sunrise is at five forty-eight am," he said "In order to make the operation seem as realistic as possible, we propose Merit and Mallory present themselves to Sorcha shortly before that time We move in, take Sorcha down, and end this"

"No," Ethan and Catcher simultaneously said

I reached back, put a hand on Ethan’s arm "Where?" I asked

"Northerly Island," Wilcox said, looking at ood one There’s plenty of open space in the park, good visibility, room for a helicopter on standby to land"