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“Aye, aye, Cap,” Arenades of his own, pulled the pink plastic strip-pins, rolled the live grenades through the gateway, and scooped his gun back up The doubled detonation was deeper than the first one had been, but not as loud Even before the echo faded, A soldier ducked through the gateeapons blazing

Prax hesitated He was unarmed The enemy was just beyond the threshold He could stay here and tend to the gut-shot e that wouldn’t leave him was Katoa’s still body The dead boy wasn’this head down, Prax scuttled through the doorway Holden and Wendell were to his right, Amos and the other soldier to his left All four were crouched, weapons at the ready Sroaned in protest, fighting to clear the air

“Well now,” A queer”

The room was built on two levels: an upper catwalk a meter and a half wide, and a lower floor two e led away at ten o’clock on the lower level, and a door on the upper level stood open at one o’clock The pit below them was chaos Blood soaked the walls and had sprayed up to stipple the ceiling Bodies lay on the ground below the equipe s Inch-thick slivers of ice or glass glittered aen bath was tipped on its side, the alar it had locked down A massive blot array—easily two hundred kilos—lay at an ile, a child’s toy thrown aside in the ecstasy of play

“What the hell kind of ordnance are you packing?” Wendell asked, his voice awed Froe at ten o’clock caunfire

“I don’t think this was us,” Holden said “Co floor A glass cube like the one they’d seen before stood in shattered glory Blooda pistol lay in the corner Prax looked away Mei was here He couldn’t lose focus Couldn’t be sick

He kept going on

Holden and A Prax trotted along behind them When he tried to hold back, let Wendell and his coently pushed hi the rear, Prax realized In case soht of that

The passageway opened out, broad but low Industrial loadingidle, stood beside pallets of foam-coated supply boxes Amos and Holden moved down the hall with a practiced efficiency that left Prax winded But with every turn they reached, every door they opened, he found hio faster She was here, and they had to find her Before she got hurt Before so happened And with every body they found, the sick feeling that sout

They moved forward quickly Too quickly When they reached the end of the line—an airlock four ine that there was anyone behind it A at his side as he tapped at the airlock controls Holden squinted up at the ceiling as if soround tre

“Was that a launch?” Holden said “That was a launch!”

“Yeah,” A pad out there Monitors aren’t showing anything else on it, though Whatever that was, it was the last train outta here”

Prax heard so It took hi his body move without hi them with his clenched fists She was there She was just out there, on the ship lifting away from Ganymede He could feel her like she had a rope tied to his heart and every moment pulled it out of hier When he ca over A into his belly He pushed up to see the airlock receding slowly behind them