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From somewhere nearby Pru into a pillow Multiple people, he realized

"First things first," Prumble said He hauled hiiven the layout, was on his floor He crouched and tapped a button on the floor next to it, s as the barrier slid aside

Skadz stared up at hihn sat next to hirinned "You didn’t think you could ditch me that easily, did you?"

Chapter Thirty-Three

The Key Ship

2APR2285

Skyler’s body teetered on the verge of giving up He felt like solued a line of pure fire to his chin, like a ha at his shins, his knees Worst of all, each step they forced hiony froed and clattered on one long, lazy journey through his intestinal tract

So had popped or torn when Grillo’s men had held him to the floor and cuffed hied nylon straps about his wrists, so tight his hands had beco teeth where his arainst one another, cursing hi ties were zipped Relaxation brought no inal relief, much less a looseness that could be exploited

The hallway curved upward ahead at an almost imperceptible slope Given the enormous size of the ship--ship, station, whatever the hell it was--Skyler guessed the circumference must be three times that of Black Level or any of the other Platz-built stations

Every twenty meters or so a perpendicular hallway jutted off to Skyler’s right

Only one hallent left, back toward Ana, though it ended only forty lowed faintly purple

Purple A hue he’d seen before, a hue he’d been enveloped in The shade sent a chill through hiht of that glow triggered so in him The barest whisper of a plan It trickled in slowly, his brain under siege from seven other directions If he could somehow shove Grillo inside one of those purple fields, maybe Warthen and Larsen as well, then he’d have hours to finish the task he’d come here to do before they could even turn around and run back out Assulow ca smacked into his shin He’d been so laser focused on Grillo’s back he hadn’t realized they’d come to some kind of room, the portal to which was raised like a bulkhead A faint white glow calanced inside as he stepped through, assessing the situation out of a mixture of instinct and habit He discarded the alien oddness of the place and focused on details An exit, directly across Another, to his right, halfway up the sphere Soonally from the floor to the lip of that portal Beyond he could see enough hints to know that the key rooaze swept past the head of Grillo and his elite guards, past a crowd of armed Jacobites who stood within, and into the terrified eyes of Tania Sharht then and there

The sight of Skyler, bound, chin and neck caked with blood and sand, hair uished the candle within her That flame did flicker, dipped precariously to the barest whisper of blue flame in an endless void

But then she saw his eyes Had he simply stared at her, she would have abandoned the few fine shreds of optimism within her and let the candle wither, sputter, die

He did not stare at her, though As he stepped into the rooaze leveled toward her, yes, but it stopped only for the briefest of instants, then continued on He noted the tape across her mouth, her seated position on her hands Vanessa, next to her, in the same state He studied with the same almost callous calculation Each person in the roouards Their faces, their weapons, their postures She could see it in his stony expression That analysis His apparently innate hardwired ability to take in a scene and digest it with all the war aavailable to hier

Another captive marched up the stairs behind hie of disappointment, the diminutive form of Ana Or worse, Blackfield Yet neither appeared to be with him, a detail she forced aside For now all that mattered ho did stand behind him

Tania saoman who stood a head taller than Skyler and towered over Grillo Despite the short dyed-black hair, Tania recognized her instantly

She would have smiled if the duct tape smashed across her mouth would allow it Her candle danced back to life

Skyler had no fucking clue what to do

Tania and Vanessa, bound and gagged as he was No sign of Pablo, which gnawed at his already-stressed gut Pablo would never have willingly left Vanessa’s side Either they held themuch worse had happened

San of Skadz, though Skyler wasted less worry there Skadz ht simply have decided to stay in Darith Prus, only one path seemed the reasonable choice: do whatever the hell Grillo wanted

Buy time, for himself as much as Ana He alirl was, in the end, still the wild card

He buried with extreh him when Tania’s face appeared before hiive Grillo any more buttons to push in order to secure cooperation The slumlord had plenty of those already, whether he knew it or not

"I assuuely with his left hand at the space between Skyler and Tania He’d pulled a pistol froh

No one replied No one could, mouths taped Grillo went on "Good Now, one of you immunes better volunteer to finish this job, or I’ll have no choice but to implement soht shift to one foot, his body deciding before his brain, ready to step forward before anyone else could Nobodya cue fro rooht arm raised with mechanical smoothness, the pistol pointed toward Tania, seated a few meters away She recoiled, shrank away Vanessa, next to her, rerunted as loudly as the tape on his un lowered