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Taking out Captain Chase would be a huge blow for the trodairí, and a triumph for us I know at least two dozen Fianna ould shoot her without hesitation and sleep just fine tonight If I came back with her body, my people would love me for it

I let my breath out slowly, and randfather’s pistol tucked in my waistband But that way is a pit, one my sister couldn’t escape once she fell into it

I’ve heard irl than any ten other trodairí put together They claim she’s the only one unaffected by what the soldiers call Avon’s Fury Probably because she doesn’t need to fall back on that thin excuse to co to the stories, she practically ele-handedly cleared out the resistance cell on the southern edge of TerraDyn territory How the soldiers under her command are the fastest to respond, the first on the scene, the fiercest fighters How she skins rebels alive just for fun

I wasn’t so sure about that last one until I sa she looked at un on her But at least one of the stories is true My cousin Sean nearly got his head blown off by her platoon a week after she took command, and when I asked hily hot He had that part right If only she weren’t a murderer-for-hire

My best hope is to force her to tell et me inside for a look around--then split At least I’ll have a head start when the hunt begins

I tear my eyes away and concentrate once h the water, reen lahter, with every hts of the base, but I know this is not a victory The soldier in the botto to kill me and escape when she wakes; and if the rest of the Fianna discover I have her, they’ll stop at nothing to kill her Our ceasefire will be over, my people forced once more into a war they cannot hope to win

I have to work fast

This tied shards that don’t fit together and slice at herto cli her arainst the plastene

She wants to let go and drop to the ground But when she looks down, her h, that soft-eyed hint of disappointrease, a bullet hole in his head

The sergeant shouts at her again to give up and this ti a word that will later earn her a week digging trenches

There are too o

I’VE GOT THE HANGOVER FROM HELL My head’s pounding; how ht? Except that’s i after I was finally accepted into basic training It was technically three weeks shy of al for et into the e, they finally caved and bent the rules What was three weeks? Odds were I’d be dead within the year anyway Might as well let the cannon fodder have a few beers first

But once was enough It wasn’t the drinking or even really the hangover that gotThere, all it meant was that I didn’t make the best first i partner pinat less than one hundred percent could mean death And I’ve never had more than a few drinks at a ti the contents of round sways underthe way my eyelids feel like they’re lined with sandpaper The first thing I see is the blank, slate-gray expanse of Avon’s unchanging night sky I try to sit up and fall over sideways,the floor shudder and sway; ony rips uply cheerful voice somewhere above and behind me "If you capsize us, I don’t really fancy your chances of swi boat"

I liftbacklit over me

Ro like gravel, "your friends won’t have the pleasure of stringing me up from the rafters at your little hideout"

Ro in as he pushes us off a clu poles the natives use "We don’t hang soldiers," he retorts with exaggerated outrage "We burn theiven the landscape It’s quite a special occasion"

I snort, using the sound to disguise the creak as I test the strength of the boat rib I’ the boat is, the rib doesn’t give But being tied up is the least of my proble by starlight, the e’re trained to do in survival situations The swa oing Even the occasional spires of rock thrusting upward look alike They’re sharp as razor blades; Avon’s only had wind and water to erode theical tietation shift so rapidly that from day to day, the same patch of swamp can look entirely different I have no idea where we are And being lost, on Avon, is deadlier than being a soldier in the middle of a pack of bloodthirsty rebels