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Ro if there weren’t so darker behind it "All that effort to findthe canteen up toI could kick at his knees--he didn’t tie my feet, and he’s within reach now I could knock him frooing on

But then what?

I give in to my thirst and lean forward to take a pull from the canteen I watched hi to be poisoned or drugged Avon’s hs, setting the canteen back dohen I’htful green eyes, as casual as if he were chatting with a friend and not interrogating his enemy "I want a way out of this war for all of us But first I want to knohy Avon is generations behind where it should be on its terrafor schedule You say that facility out there isn’t s to Terra Dyna secrets fro up, and if soress, our side wants to kno"

Surprise robs me of any clever retort "You think there’s a secret facility in thethe cliets back to his feet, bracing the for the pole once uns to care anyway"

Hired gun? I sn the impulse to lash back at him If all I wanted was money, there are about a thousand careers I could have chosen instead of volunteering to get tossed onto this rit , even if we could? What could the ain from that?"

"If Avon stays like this, too unstable to support a bigger population, we’ll never have enough leverage to pass the planetary review and be declared independent We should be far our own lives, earning wages, trading, able to coo from Avon as we please Instead we’re stuck here No voice in the Galactic Council, no leverage, no rights"

He’s got a surprising grasp of the politics of the situation, for so to school before he was ten years old "You really think TerraDyn’s goal is to sit here and oppress a bunch of backwater terra-trash? They paid good money to create this part of the world I don’t see how they start oods to export"

Rohtens "Theyto find out e’re all still algae farmers and water testers"

"Not all of you are," I point out dryly "So underground"

"Why, Jubilee," he says, grinning when the use of my full name makes my cheek twitch with irritation "I had no idea you adnify that with a response, and fall silent I have no answer to his question Terrafores And it’s true that while Avon’s lack of developation every few years, the results are always the sa so many questions, he and his so-called Fianna would be a lot better off

Dawn has well and truly broken now, as , the edges of the world slip away, leaving only our little boat and the sloshing of the water as the pole dips in and out Ro as he strains against the pole, then exhaling the rest of the way as he eases back and lifts it for another stroke

He’s not using a compass Coht kind of nals as unreliable as our broadcasts on the base Even when they do work, with the way the canals shift and vanish due to floating islands of vegetation, the SatNav can get us into as much trouble as a co of the world he lives in Like he’s got a receiver hardwired into his brain, getting signals directly froet stuck on the floating islands As far as I can tell, we never have to double back or change course

I keep watching hi to understand how he does it If I can learn the trick of it, et free He turns to navigate around a denser clu the way he shifts his weight to compensate I lift my eyes only to realize he’s turned back around and is watching me watch him with one eyebrow raised

I’un at his hip, or hiive up on trying to study h the ays in silence for the next half hour or rithe quiet with a screech

"Ah," says Ro down to clip the pole back to the side of the boat "We’re here"