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I bow htly I can’t seeers unwind Below er slips on a trigger, a single gunshot will end all hope of peace

I flick the switches that will end the transalaxy, but I leave the loudspeaker in place, lifting the trans to come do It’s tio There are stairs leading down inside the tower, andas I descend, my footsteps the only sound Jubilee’s at the bottom of these stairs Badly injured, certainly Perhaps dead by now My ers fumble with the lock from the inside until I can open the door and step out into the open

"Mr Cors out from the swamp, and I know it--Commander Towers herself I cranethe fence, which was torn to pieces in the battle So out of the swa to flank the h they hang back in the shadows of the buildings, crouching low and keeping out of sight, I can see a hundred of the Fianna at least, the whites of their eyes showing against the uns still trained on me "Stop," I call "We need to tend to our wounded, and talk"

Our wounded I can see Jubilee just a fewin the mud Every muscle in my body wants to run to her, to throw myself down at her side Suicide, she’d called it, the plan to run across the battle to reach the tower She gotthis fragile balance and let that sacrifice be for nothing

"Please," I whisper, and though it carries toward the soldiers in the silence, es up into my throat It’s Sean One side of his face is bloody where a laser clipped his ear, andso warlike Our eyes lock, and despite the distance, I knohat’s in his gaze Blood and betrayal, Fergal’s ghost and Sean’s cutting grief standing between us "What did that mean? That we turned to the iveness in his tone, but the fact that he’s talking to me at all--the fact that he listened--lih h Sean’s features and he takes a step back, turning to find McBride some distance behind him Sean’s eyes drop to the Gleidel in McBride’s hand, and as their eyescracks in my heart

"You’ve been lied to, all of you" I hardenforward past Jubilee It’s torture not looking back at her, and I force aze up, to finish this I can still see the desperation on her face, the pain, as she stared up atthe ceasefire by awith suppressed rage "No one is going to take the word of a traitor like you" He’s beyond reason now--I can see it in his jerky movements, hear it in his voice

"Nobody needs to believe un, McBride We’ll check the readout and see how ht" Because I know, and he knows, that if he refuses to let us see the data on his Gleidel, he’s announcing his own guilt

A ripple of confusion runs through the crowd, and I cling to that--it means some of them do doubt him Some of them want to believe ust he’s been trying to hide for years burning openly now "Avon will rise from the ashes of this war, and you were always too weak to be the spark, Corht, but they could still serve our cause They were kindling for the flames, and that was an honor" His lips creep into a stiff rictus of a smile "You can still serve, too"

In slow motion I see his arm start to lift, and a vision of the next thirty seconds plays out in unfire start up on each side once again I see bodies cru the Gleidel down again with a grunt of effort He knocks McBride off balance, but only for a er, rip, twisting an ar hiun at his temple

"Someday," McBride hisses, "you’ll understand why I--"

The shriek of a laser rips the air, and my heart stops; the whole world stops But it’s McBride, not Sean, who drops to his knees He’s dead before he hits the ground, a neat, round hole sed down by the ar, to couns lift, and the world holds its breath Then I realize where the shot caun in her left hand, her right ar to this oneaway as I drop to theinto me as I wrap an arm around her, but alive