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The light, and the voices, were fading
Skyler glanced all about, and saay down to the floor short of a drop He thought he could make it but knew Ana could not unless perhaps he broke her fall That would h He turned to her and whispered "I’ inside I need to see who is in there Wait here, and when it’s safe I’ll catch you when you drop down" He saw the objection in her eyes and added, "It’s too far for your ankle to take"
"Okay," she whispered back, sounding anything but convinced
Convincing her would take tiht, the voices, dwindled with each second Skyler turned and lowered hi The walls of the pipe were shockingly thin, a few millimeters This would have amazed him had he not seen tons of equipment and supplies, even his own bulky aircraft, cli the thickness of the walls here were generous
He lowered his legs, eased hiled fros went it was a pretty good one The Builder’s ubiquitousor clack like ht itThe voices had faded coone Skyler pushed hi a few splinters of co to his split chin like so in the floor, the sa Blackfield and the object Yellow light gloeakly from within He dropped to his knees and leaned his head in If this was indeed the saed It should angle sideways in the new gravitational context for ten inally entered the pyraone now, vanished Either filled in or simply sealed off Instead a new tunnel presented itself, running straight for a long, long way A hundred ht surrounding hu the three or four others from view
Skyler watched them fade into the distance How far the tunnel went he had no idea Hundreds of thwise, parallel to the axis upon which the whole structure spun That could only , so it to himself They’d docked with the Key Ship They’d linked up and someone else was already here
Skyler sed Blood dru within him Someone else was already here, and they’d simply picked up the object and left Headed to the key room, he had no doubt They didn’t call out for hi Blackfield
It could only be Grillo Anyone else--Tania, Sam--would have expected Skyler to be present, would have looked for him
He rocked back on his ass and let the adrenaline course through hilanced back, toward the tube where he knew Ana waited She sat there in the dark, at once terrified and anxious, awaiting hiive me later I will come back When it’s safe
And with that he turned, dropped down into the connecting tunnel, and began the hunt
Skyler kept his pistol pointed dead ahead
The tunnel see to a pinpoint of fuzzy darkness that did not grow bigger as he walked How big had the Key Ship been? He tried to recall Tania’s words Five kilo that settled like a stone in his gut he began to think this passage ht span the entire distance
The people he’d heard had turned, but as of yet Skyler had seen no connecting halls or rooht off just in case Once his eyes had ti hall was not totally dark A ghostly purple glow seeth Soht, for the tunnel seeht sky where only one star existed
He glanced back, saw darkness Paused, heard nothing Please stay put, Ana He tried to i the two three-et here at all, and couldn’t And as ing her along, one arm constantly around her for support She’d become a liability
A hissed voice shattered the silence "Now!"
Blinding light hit Skyler fro his pistol in one outstretched hand A shape flashed, so cracked into his forearm The pistol clattered away as pain exploded above his wrist
On instinct Skyler ducked, felt the whoosh of another blow pass over his head He surged forward and hit so darkness his eyes were useless in the sudden glare Whomever he’d hit turned with his rush, threw hi on the floor He blinked, tried to push hi him back to the floor Co as his attackers surrounded hily, orders to halt
Then he felt the cold ainst his teh," a voice said A knee, not the speaker’s, pressed down on the center of his back, crushing his abdo at the floor until his eyes could handle what hts
"I thought we heard a rat," someone said
"Yes," the first speaker replied Skyler had heard Grillo’s voice only once, a long tinized it instantly Too cal robot "The question is, was he one of Blackfield’s, or was Blackfield doing the following for once"
A hand gripped the back of Skyler’s head, clasped around his mess of sweaty hair, and lifted
"Ah, of course I should have guessed Skyler, right?" Grillo asked "I hardly recognized you under all that gri but boots around him Four pairs No, five One of theuard? Skyler tried to ainst the ground with a wet shtened until the tie until it dug into his skin