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A gruh for Cal He turns back to the panel, hands resting on a U-shaped mechanis gently when he turns the U When he’s satisfied, he punches a fewthe plane fly itself He even unbuckles his safety belts, shrugging out of theet ?" he asks the silence "Or are we just winging it now?"

I wince at the pun

A resounding sh the jet as Kilorn slaps a stack of papers against his knee Maps "The Colonel’s," Kilorn explains, his eyes boring intostrip near Harbor Bay"

But Cal shakes his head like an annoyed teacher with an increasingly foolish student "You mean Fort Patriot?" he scoffs "You want me to land us in the middle of a Nortan air base?"

Farley is the first out of her seat, al her buckles apart She examines the maps with sharp, deliberate hness," she says coldly She unfolds oneit under his nose "Not the fort Nine-Five Field"

Gritting his teeth against a retort, Cal takes the erly and exahs outright

"What is it?" I ask, pulling the iant, indecipherable ancient scroll in Julian’s old classroom, this map displays familiar names and places The city of Harbor Bay do the ocean coast, with Fort Patriot occupying a peninsula jutting out into the water A thick brown strip around the city, too uniform to be natural, can only be another stretch of barrier trees As in Archeon, the greenwarden’s creation of strange forests protects Harbor Bay from pollution In this case, probably fro the barrier trees like a belt, for a wall around the outskirts of Harbor Bay

Another slum, I realize Like Gray Tohere Reds live and die beneath a sky full of shtbulbs, airjets, everything and anything the Silvers themselves can’t comprehend Techies aren’t allowed to leave their so-called cities, even to conscript to the army Their skills are too valuable to lose to war, or their own free will Theit’s not the only abomination of its kind cuts even deeper How many live in the confines of that slum? Or this one? How many like me, for that matter?

I taste bile as it rises inlands, mostly mill towns, the occasional small city, and dense forest dotted with a few dilapidated ruins But Nine-Five Field doesn’t see to do with the Scarlet Guard

Cal notes my confusion and allows himself one last chuckle "Your friend wants me to land a Blackrun on a daer lands on a dotted line, the syo I saw one once, when Shade and I got lost in the woods near the Stilts It was cracked by the ice of a thousand winters and bleached white by centuries of sun, looking rew straight through it, forcing their way up through asphalt The thought of landing an airjet on one turns my stomach