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"It’s okay," Tania replied Please stop talking

"She cae after the disease took her parents, took everyone she knew except Davi Her brother was the grounding force in her life, you know? They grew up together, riding in Gabriel’s fleet Can you ie I was in university You were probably studying aboard a space station, for God’s sake Those tere riding through a de they both survived, much less escaped They could have fled But instead they brought Skyler to rescue us"

And at the saive Skyler up to save the rest of the colony Tania felt a fah her and this time she allowed it to run its course The past she couldn’t change The future, though, was another matter and there was still work to do She let the conversation drift away fro the basics of the Helios’s navigation syste the coastline of Venezuela and Guyana, avoiding the mountains where Doppler indicated a vicious storm When Belem finally caed, uneven row of dirty teeth jutting upward from low, cotton-ball clouds It was midday, hot and rainy below

"Weird," Vanessa said

Tania glanced at her

"No response fro lunch, maybe"

A comment died on Tania’s lips when she noticed the wisp of sh the dense clouds below Vanessa saw it at the sa approach and angled the aircraft for a flyby

The s the path of the thin, almost invisible Elevator cord Tania followed the line upward and spotted a lone cli rhythmically She watched it for a few seconds until the motion became apparent: down

As the Helios drew closer the wisp provedbelow, and it was right where the ca her nails into the arliray and white soup And then they dipped in, and her view beco torrent of cloud like static on a dead screen This ended as quickly as it had started, and the city caulfed a section of slu a row of charred homes closest to the wall The fire had started there, Tania noted, and spread north in a cone In the heavy rain the licking tongues of yelloere almost totally obscured by thick smoke The tendrils rose black and oily in places, paper white in others and ray morass that see overhead

Bright flashes of light caught Tania’s eye, rapid winks froo she would have not understood, but now she knewthe wall of Ca of fireworks

Vanessa brought the aircraft in low over the ca the speed above 150 kilo a safe distance from the invisible thread of the space elevator She banked steeply as they flew over, giving Tania a clear view of the entire camp from just a few hundredsupplies back and forth to the defenders on the wall A crowd huddled around the medical tent, another by the tower yard where Tania knew the munitions closet to be

On the wall, every few ht of subhumans that poured in from the city and even the rainforest to the east Bodies of those shot trying to approach the camp were everywhere, and a few even lay within

Tania craned her neck to take in an to turn for another pass "It’s safe to land, I think," Tania said "We’ve got to help the to verts"

The note of the electric ed as thrust was redirected out the tiny vertical ports Vanessa spun the craft about As the calanced down at the swollen river below People were swi limp, arms outward Not people, she corrected herself More subs Just like in Colorado, they were of a sudden single-et to the Elevator and not the alien object in the Helios’s cargo hold What then? And what had triggered their sudden, all-consuoals?

She pie Were they back already? Prize, or prizes, in hand? There were no other aircraft within the walls that she could see, but maybe they’d been forced to complete the journey on foot, or by truck Tania tried the radio again while Vanessa focused on lining up Helios with the colony’s single landing pad Again no response came

"If anyone can hearsite is safe"

Silence Then, a crackle A thud "Tania?"

"Karl," she said Relief spilled out into the name, perhaps a little disappointment, too She’d hoped for Tim "Karl, thank God"

"Whenyou fly over we realized we’d left the coripped the transhtly "Can we land?"

"It’s safe for now, far as I knoay I’ll send a squad over there just to be sure You saw the subs, I take it?"

"Hard tohappened in Colorado"

A slight pause "Then you succeeded, too?"

"We did" She fought to keep her voice level "Skyler’s back, then?"

"No," he replied "It’s just that the Elevator did that twang-effect twice, so we knew both objects had at least been recovered There was a weird shock wave after the second time a few minutes later Came from the east, where Sky went Scattered birds from every tree I’ine ould cause that, but the fact that it hit here fro big "Right, okay We’re almost down Hold the fort, huh?"

"Count on it"

"Is Tiht Zane needed a break"

"It’s okay, I understand" She clicked off and shared a glance with Vanessa The subs were attacking despite the presence of an object Tania felt a now-faht

"Do you think they’re trying to get up the Elevator?" Vanessa asked cautiously "To the other ones, I mean?"