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Sosty, just to remind the workers that he was the best at it And sometimes he’d kick them out completely and take an entire shift, which is exactly what happened each time the oil neared the fill line inside a barrel There was so the last possible drop of oil into a barrel and sealing the top

One barrel of oil probably would be enough to impress General Blair, Aaron knew But tould blow him away Unlike the watered-down chicken fat that the Quillitary had been using for years, this viscous oil would last a very long time The desert heat wouldn’t make it evaporate, and the vehicles wouldn’t needseneral soAaron a key role in their plan of attack on Artimé

Finally the moment came when the second barrel could hold not one more drop Aaron carefully placed the lid on top and sealed it He couards to load the barrels of oil into the back of a Quillitary vehicle

As they did so, Aaron watched like a hawk over their every move out the door and to the vehicle Just as they were finished, Liah priest

The governor looked at Aaron "All finished with the oil, then?"

"For now, at least," Aaron said He squinted in the sunlight, which seehter without Quill’s wall, and looked around It had been weeks since he’d gone outside The enormous as completely toppled as far as he could see in both directions, and the rubble had been pushed down the hill and sed, and actually rather nice And while Aaron had hardly noticed the outside work because of his other preoccupation, he now felt terribly exposed

"The breeze is pleasant," Liam said "It’s much cooler now, don’t you think?"

Aaron’s heart palpitated "I suppose," he said

"Have you been down by the water yet?"

"No"

Lialanced nervously at Aaron "It’s nice The water is war, but it tastes terrible Word is that you can actually eat the, ah, the ani about that? Gondoleery was telling people about the sea ani around by the aroups to the water to show them how to catch the, ah, the food"

"Fish," Aaron ht--fish I wasn’t familiar With the name for them, I mean" Liam clasped his hands in front of hiet over the fright of seeing it everywhere"