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"My God They let you back in the city?"

The grin on Skadz’s face almost touched his ears "For now And at least I stayed in Australia for a proper walkabout You had to fuck off halfway around the world"

"All right, ladies," Prumble interjected "Save the weepy reunion nonsense for another time We have much to discuss Skyler? Would you start?"

Sam listened with rapt attention as he recounted the last two years How they’d fled aboard part of Anchor Station, and met up with Zane, who’d taken Hab-8, a facility supposedly still under construction Skyler alluded to difficulties in getting the colony up and running, but didn’t elaborate She knew from his tone that there must have been some major problems

Then he spoke of what they’d learned about the Builders They had a space elevator in Brazil, but with a much more limited aura Instead, the aliens had provided a number of small towers that created pockets of aura and could be h the possibilities that hts ahen Skyler detailed how an errant explosion had soroups to various parts of the planet He’d tracked one set to Ireland and found so incredible there

When he described it, and how it made their space elevator vibrate when he re similar," she said "In Darwin’s Old Don When I picked it up it caused the space elevator to shudder for a moment, too"

A new voice, barely a whisper, broke in "Hi Uain since Just the other day"

"That was us," Skyler said, "both times Found the one in Ireland, and another here in Brazil"

"This is great news," Tania Sharroups of towers fled Belem So Daras the fifth location, and you have it! That only leaves--"

"Hold on," Sam said "I picked it up, but I don’t have it Grillo took it, and where it is now I have no idea He never speaks of the thing"

The couilt swept through Sa to stop Grillo in the first place

"Grillo," Skyler said "Yeah, we’ve heard about his rise, his alliance with the Jacobites Um, Blackfield is with us over here House arrest, and he’s been talking"

Prumble cleared his throat "In a few est we reed," Skadz said "Let’s keep it siht?"

Skyler and Tania explained what Kip had already alluded to before A new Builder ship, massive in size, had arrived in orbit a feeeks earlier Inside it was a room that had slots for each of these objects Keys, Skyler called them, for the Key Ship Tere still unaccounted for Skyler would lead a team to find one, and Tania the other

"Hold on," Sa with here? What are these ‘keys,’ and why is an immune required to install the about, Sa out the bloody Jakes"

"But--"

"He’s right," Skyler said "No one knows, Sa happened One of us had to go along and help"

"Well, are they some kind of weapon?"

"At this point we simply don’t know," Tania said "We don’t knohat the point of the room is, why an immune must be present, or ill happen when all five objects are installed" She let that sink in "But we’ve all talked through the possibilities and decided that we can’t just ignore this We can’t wait I have … infor that the next Builder event, in just under a year, will be the last, and there’s reason to believe we have even less time than that Skyler, tell the the tale from anyone else she would have chuckled with disbelief An aura that fucks with tih …

"If either of the re objects is within such a doet out as quickly as possible, or we may well be too late"

"Exactly," Tania added "The nature of this rooainst a timer now We need to act i to do is gather these objects and install theht word," an older man said Zane Platz, Sam assumed "Nevertheless …"

The implication of their words crashed down on Saet that thing back from Grillo, like yesterday Move it up to that Key Ship soet it to Belem We can haul it up from here"

"Oh, sure We’ll just nab it and pop over to Brazil Easy as pie We don’t even knohere Grillo is keeping it He ht have destroyed it, for all we knoouldn’t put it past him"

"Er," Kip said, his voice a whisper "I can help there Frohtcliff It had been in Lyons, but Grillo recently moved it here"

"Any particular reason?" Skadz asked

"No idea, but I can speculate" When no one objected he went on "Be aware that he knows there is e ship that arrived A Sister Jennifer, I don’t know her, reported this I was listening in She made no mention of his room inside, however

"Since then there’s been a, well, a schism of sorts, within the Jacobite ranks A faction led by Sister Haley that now openly questions Grillo’s rise, his motives and conviction I’m not sure howI suspect he feels Nightcliff is the easier place to defend, should his detractors becoressive"

"Ah hell," Skadz said When Sam looked at him he frowned "The bloke’s already worried so to ed him to silence with a wave of his hand "Perhaps, perhaps not Kip, do you knohere in the fortress the object is? Can you get us in? Provide a e I’ll do what I can, but the vault itself is beyond my capability"