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The duh twenty tons even unloaded, actually left the ground and tumbled over in air when it cleared the last strip of road It slammed into the crowd of subhumans and then the side of the Builder’s structure with a noise as loud as any explosion A split second later the avalanche of rock, sand, and boulders followed, extending the sound like a thunderclap and throwing up a cloud of haze around the point of i, too, for the toll on the subhu to look at

"Oops," Ana said, when the sound died out

"Indeed"

A new sound grew as those subs not near the point of i there was soht Dozens poured out of the corner entrances to the building and converged on the cloud of debris, disappearing into its murk

Skyler remembered the mortar then It took only two seconds to adjust the aih-explosive round into the tube and pulled his ar when he’d fired an RPG into a church tohat see the defenseless No honor It was just … business

The launch tube ee silence followed before the explosion caht in the center of that dust cloud flung rock and limbs outward in equal quantity The pressure wave hit Skyler a heartbeat later, a single deep pounding noise that overloaded his eardru It was a ss went but produced exactly the desired effect Subhu over one another to reach the supposed conflagration

Skyler saw one being stumble out of the fiery cloud only to be mistaken as an intruder and tackled by two of the new arrivals Others actually tried to pull them apart He’d never seen behavior like that before

"Tio," Skyler said "Are you ready?"

Ana had been busy while he sat there and stared at the riot below As instructed she’d set aside the sniper rifle and readied her un He saw in her eyes a look he kneell by now First fro lady Bloodlust "Ready," she stated flatly

"Stay close," heup his own rifle

As the last of the subhuuards" trickled out of the entrance below their position, Skyler hoisted hied down the steep side in a barely controlled fall Each step produced a small avalanche of sand and pebbles Tenthe , and went over the edge again This process repeated six times before he cleared the last bit of road At the bottom of the next piece of sloped as the Builder facility, tentoward the nearest corner entrance on the way down, but it was still a good twenty ht

The small avalanches created by his and Ana’s descent reached the building first Rocks and pebbles clattered har a millimeter to an accumulation that Skyler assumed would be many meters deep by now, if this place had truly been here since SUBS began He tried to slow hi the wall, with only a little success In the end he did the only thing he could: turn his shoulder and wince He sle rush up and down his arrace, using an outstretched hand to blunt her i her in a tactically sound position, rifle raised He felt a h, co better than him

She jerked her head at the elboas frantically rubbing the numbness fro A dirty yellow light spilled out froht he could hear so from within

A few subhumans lay just outside Dead, or maybe just too weak to move That worried him until he recalled Ana’s observation about the lack of food or water here They’d come here, called by this place perhaps, or siet here, too far gone to survive And the building, he thought, didn’t care The Builders didn’t care

He could feel the heat pulsing off the alien structure, as if it had a heart within A ripple of fresh fear cascaded down his spine The rhyth subhumans he’d found in the rainforest near Belem That unsettled him somehow more than the swarm of creatures in the pit with theripped his own heart like a fist, he felt his feet un ailanced back at Ana to convince himself she was still with him, still okay She was, of course Her face had become the very picture of a warrior Serious, focused, and deadly He hoped she couldn’t see the fear in his eyes If she looked shein rapid bursts--behind, above, in front, behind--with her gunin perfect synchronicity

A dancer’s perfection

In hisin a white dress He saw the fabric flare out, her bare feet on the courtyard tiles, and his anxiety melted away

At the corner Skyler paused and took a deep breath This time when he looked back Ana’s eyes did ave hiency The diversion they’d created was like a countdown tiot that far and they weren’t far away from here with the prize they’d come for … he didn’t want to think about it He wanted to complete the mission and leave

So he turned the corner, raised his rifle, and went inside

Chapter Fourteen

Darwin, Australia

30MAR2285