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"What was that place?" Ana whispered

"I don’t know" He looked at her, and sa fear in her eyes for perhaps the first ti for now"

"Okay," she said She exhaled through her antic building fro fast"

"Look for one of the larger pits, preferably one we can ines"

Ana leaned forward and studied the landscape on her side of the aircraft "There," she said "Two o’clock"

Skyler trusted her judgment and banked in that direction The pit that came into vieas perfect Perhaps a hundred meters on a side, and only fifty deep, with a wide and flat bottom Some machinery dotted the basin, but it was all off to one side Skyler circled the location three tipie was dropping like a stone now, and he sensed rip the arround

At the last instant Skyler raines aiuts felt like they were going to be yanked right out of hi in less than two seconds He groaned fro at him but maintained focus and heaved the accelerator back to alpie dropped the last few ave oneitself, then killed the engines entirely The high-pitched electric whine died immediately, followed by the slower rush of air from the ducted-fan thrusters

He felt a srin on his face She was staring straight ahead, breathing hard

"Goddaasps "You’re crazy"

"I’ll second that!" Russell shouted fronored them both "Gear up Desert camo We need to make sure none of those subs follow us here"

"And after that?"

"What do you"How the hell are we going to get into that place, Skyler? It’s crawling with them"

"Offer Blackfield as a sacrifice?"

Ana frowned and fixed a glare on hioing to involve guns"

In the passenger cabin Skyler walked straight to Russell Blackfield and turned off his external suit speaker

Russell looked confused at first, and then his lips moved When the suit, which piped in external sounds, did not reflect the an to shout Realization that the effort would be fruitless came quickly, however, and after a few obvious expletives Russell sank back into his chair and stared at the seat in front of him

"You’re in luck," Skyler said to him "We found the towers That et to live another day"

The defeatedeyelids, like a bad actress in one of those sensory ear was stowed Ana joined hie, Skyler prepped the weapons He worked quickly, re two pistols and a pair of silencers they’d found inside one of the APCs left behind by Gabriel Skyler would have preferred sounshots from their assault rifles would draw far too much attention

The arsenal prepared, he stood between Russell and Ana to let her don the appropriate fatigues without unwanted attention, then she did the sas one last time, then nodded to Ana and went for the door He stopped when she grabbed his arm

"You should stay here," she said

"What? No way"

"Let etting hoo"

"Ana," he said, "we’re both going Sooner or later we’re going to have to face whatever dangers await us in that building A few ht noon’t u Whatever she’d been about to say, Ana thought better of it and let go of his arm "At least let me take point"

Skyler opened the door and o first She did ayourselves," Skyler said to Russell, and followed her

The air outside was dry as paper and scalded his skin

A ramp wound its way up from the pit’s floor to the rim, blocked at the base by a dilapidated rock-hauler truck and two bulldozers Fine beige sand covered everything, and Skyler was happy to see a complete absence of footprints other than those Ana’s boots left

Sheto the abandoned vehicles and waiting there for Skyler to join her When he arrived, he nodded to her and took ai of the ra The last raif any subs crested the crater rim

Finally, Ana reached the point where she could see over the top She stood on her tiptoes for a few seconds, scanning the horizon in every direction, then motioned for Skyler to join her