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I back up silently, pushing down the impulse to panic None of the techs notice I’ht I keepmyself to walk normally, return the occasional nod or salute aimed inabout their duties

The ie is limited to the security office It’ll take theh all the necessary levels before it’sfor a way to get Cormac out before that happens No tiet him out first, and think later about what that means for me

And then, abruptly, the PA monitors crackle to life all over the base White screens pop up on every building corner, shedding an additional layer of light across the paths and intersections A voice boo me I look up--and there’s Cormac’s face, plastered across every screen on the base There’s one in Molly’s, one in every barracks There’s one in every office and docking bay

There’s one in the hospital

I abandon pretense and break into a jog Who’s going to stophere

I force open the back entrance to the hospital, startling an orderly into dropping a tray of food all over the floor Ifor Cor up a set of scrubs that looks about his size It’s the oldest deception in the book, but I’ve got nothing else, and no time to work out a better plan

When I burst into Cormac’s room, my eyes fall first on the HVout atI see is Cored away, a few pinpricks of blood h it was torn froen , electrodes scattered across the bed

I braceoveras ive

The bed is empty

Most of the other soldiers are unconscious, but one lifts her head, groggy with painat h h her haze, to tell itive went

I stumble out of the room and break into a run toward the back exit Cormac’s injured, and he won’t make it off the base before so for And even if he does, he’ll never get back to the rebel hideout without a boat It would take him hours, and in his condition he’s as likely to drown as he is to reach his people Though an exhausted corner ofback out into that swaet a few steps outside the hospital when my mouth abruptly floods with the taste of copper, the dizziness intensifying My legs quiver the way they did on that host of Cormac’s hidden facility I blink, hard, as the sibilant sound of whispering surges over the background noises of the base Separate voices--two,

Have tomy boots toward the docks All I know, all I can think of, is that I have to find Correen-eyed boy They’re in her e They’re on Paradisa They’re in the outpost on Patron He’s one of the soldiers who died in the first feeeks after she transferred to Avon His face is on every wanted poster on the base

The ghost leads her down the deserted streets of Novereen-eyed boy, with a box ofs out to touch her cheek "Don’t follow s burn, pain knifing down h the swath, but I feel like I’ve been hit by a transport One hour stretches into two, into three, and then I stop counting

If I could’ve waited, I would have But I can still see the footage fro over and over on the insides of my eyelids whenever I let the, starting to speak, and then it ju If I could’ve stolen a boat, I would have done that too But the docks were crawling with patrols, and while e was playing on the side of the docking shed

I tried to make this journey before, on s; but I was also only eight years old, fleeing the transports waiting to take e And I was found only a few kilo for et ho, ears straining for any sound behind me I can’t afford to rest for more than a few seconds My head spins, and for once I can’t tell if the lights sparking in front of h waist-high ish black water I wade and swim and when I can’t stand I crawl, until I’ain