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The sluoddamn hair out of place The polar opposite of Skyler’s litany of cuts and bruises

Worse, Grillo had finally found a gun and held it in one unwavering hand aimed directly at Skyler’s forehead

"I’ve nowith pure contempt and frustration "Not for you, not for your damned friends, not even for those pathetic Jacobite twats I simply hat is beyond that wall down there, Skyler, and you will open it forone of your friends in here to do it"

Skyler opened his ods, when Grillo fired the pistol The bullet h the fabric of Skyler’s shirt at the neckline, harmlessly and yet perfectly full of the pro, bewildered and fighting pain from a half-dozen injuries, Skyler lumbered toward the last key

Saripped her boot She thrust herself to a stand in one surge of strength that ca around her The other iround, her hands flailing at Alex Warthen, who straddled her His hands rapped around her neck, fingers white with the force of his choke hold She’d be unconscious soon Sauard suddenly rose fro the way

Hightower

The shortinto a vulpine, shit-eating grin

Saht up, leaving his hand eht into a pathetic, shocked, utterly wonderful O-shape

"Bitch--"

She high-stepped in, planted her left foot squarely on his chest even as her right came off the floor Sath she could muster and a whole lot h to echo off the walls of the vast roole, perfect instant

Weck tried to screah his ruined ling sound that rang like music in Sam’s ears She didn’t even feel the floor as she hit it She’d flipped completely over and, hands bound as they were, landed poorly, and did not care Hightower collapsed to his knees next to her, choking on his own blood She thought she h the roof of his mouth and could not--would not--deny the satisfaction that brought her Instead she rode that like a surfer on a wave

She rolled to her back, brought up her knees, kicked up and forward The round and into a coiled stand

A huge, hulking forht of Pruht tears of raw joy to her eyes She tried to shout his na it like a battle cry, but the tape on herstraight to the hunched forripped the now-limp woman’s neck with both hands Prurasped his face with two meaty hands, and twisted Sam winced at the horrible sound that followed It was a sound she’d heard before, a sound she’d caused on rind of bones that were neverof veins and muscle

Prumble shoved the lifeless forripped Sam’s upper arm She whirled, coiled to strike with an open palhn next to her He had blood on his face, and one eye half closed where he’d taken a punch or six His fingers caripped the tape At her nod he tore it away

"Thanks," she blurted, working her jaw

"Later," he said, and pulled her aside

Sam whirled with the uns, and were leveling them

"Come on, pilot," Grillo said "One last task and it’ll be over"

"What do you think is going to happen, Grillo? Ito happen, when the last one is put in place"

The slued him toward the oval object, which lay on the floor a fewrolled like a cheese wheel when the rooenuinely sincere "What’s that old saying? The Lord works in h "You don’t actually believe all that shit, right? I mean, you can’t tell me this isn’t all just an act" Skyler bent down and lifted the oval object The shiht on its surface matched those on the floor below it, albeit on a smaller scale

"I believe there are powerful forces at work here," Grillo said "A plan that is beyond our co no then?"

He prodded Skyler again with the gun, hard this time The bowl-shaped receptacle for the oval object looet answers"

"They have a lot to answer for," Skyler shot back over his shoulder "The disease--"

Grillo threw his head back and cackled at that "Oh, of course You’re here to ize, is that it?"

Skyler felt his own co disease, you fool! An infection An infestation! What they brought was the cure Our salvation, if you want a word that turns those Jacobites into weak-kneed, drooling sheep"

It was Skyler’s turn to laugh "So you’re here to shake their hand How’s that any smarter than me?"

"The point is, pilot, I don’t knoill happen All I know is, for better or worse, I will be the one standing there when it happens I’ll be the face of humanity"

"Suppose it’s just confetti and balloons?"

Grillo said nothing

"Suppose it’s a weapon that fires on Earth, destroying it utterly?"

"I’d say it’s a good thing we’re safely up here, then I’ve enjoyed this conversation, Skyler, but it’s finished now Put the object in place"

This time he loomed close, one hand on Skyler’s shoulder, body wound like a spring The gun re in as Skyler knelt and then sat on the ri to killclicks into place, et here in time

Yet he saay out The sounds of coh the room’s only entrance He had no idea which side prevailed, but odds were on those with guns and unbound hands

He couldn’t turn and fight Grillo had already derip on that wrist above the hand that gripped his shoulder--