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The facility seems to be alure in night vision goggles disappearing around the corner of a building, but though we crouch and wait, the guard doesn’t return

Keeping to the shadoe , only to find it locked tight If this were a normal facility it’d be print-coded with the latest security--but print-coding would leave a record of the people who’ve accessed the place Instead the handles are the low-tech kind, requiring manual keys I feel around the door frah for someone to have stashed a key so the wall, testing the s until we find one that Jubilee’s able to pop open with a dull thunk of her elbow against the frame

The small room we climb into is eh some kind of storeroom When we slip out into the hallway,us people were here recently Beyond the room is a series of hallways, but a faint trail of dirt shohich path is most traversed Jubilee takes point down the corridor, and I n of life My heart’s beating too fast, and I can feel a corresponding pulse in uide, for better or for worse, is gone

Jubilee stops at the first corner, easing her head out to check that the way ahead is eers to bid ain

The facility is laid out like a maze, but the paths and doors are labeled We reach a branching corridor, and I tap n with an arrow that reads MAIN CONTROL ROOM Jubilee nods; froet an idea as to the layout of this place and find some sort of records roolass panes, revealing unrecognizable equipment and fully stocked laboratories beyond them Some are occupied by white-coated scientists, and we’re quick to rab one or two of theuarantee that they even knoho they’re working for We need hard evidence

On one group of researchers, athered around a e trousers and athered around his head When one of them moves to retrieve a tool from a nearby tray, I can see that the whole top of his skull has been re pieces of his brain, laying thelance at Jubilee tells ht But we can’t help him noe both know that

Our path leads to a door marked MAIN CONTROL ROOM, and Jubilee pauses to look back atfor that vacant hint that will tell me she’s under the influence of the whispers, but I’ve never seen it happen like she has I don’t knohat I’ me sick with tension

Then abruptly the door opens, and we’re face-to-face with a startledmoment, we all just stare at each other in surprise He opens his mouth to shout an alarm, and Jubilee moves instantly She punches hiround would be comical any other time I can’t help but wonder if that’s what I looked like when she deckedthe Fianna caves

Now she and I rabs his legs, and we haul him back into the room A quick look overbank of computer screens and an unconscious scientist

I crouch to take a look at him, and as I peel back one of his eyelids, all I can see is the white of his eye "You really had to hit hi for trouble "What else could I do? I didn’t hit hi laterally" I roll the ue while he’s out

"Notthe door to prowl the roo down to study a screen "It’s got terrafor data displayed here for the last two decades Far et sent by TerraDyn" She falls silent, but I knoe’re both thinking about Merendsen’s theory that Avon’s progress, like the progress of the planet LaRoux destroyed, is being tampered with

I stay by the scientist’s side, and he doesn’t stir as I check him for weapons, then push aside his white coat toclipped to his belt All I see is an ID badge, and I’h the plastic cover of the pass Sitting alongside a card showing a serial number--no name or photo--is a tiny ident chip It’s exactly the saht down to the tiny la to remember when I last had more than a few hours of uninterrupted sleep "LaRoux Industries," I say, pushing slowly to rimace "They try to stop it, but head down below street level in Corinth and you can get anything on the black market A raider ship could outfit theh credits; LaRoux could easily say these were stolen, especially since they’re so antiquated"