Page 4 (1/2)

"Suitsthe tower in?"

"Sure," he said "See you soon Over"

Ten ear in the shadow of the aura tower, Skyler heard singing

Not singing, he decided

No, this was a chorus of prih: subhu from the northeast, by his estimation

He listened for a full , fading in and out There was, he realized with dread, an unmistakable rhythm to their huure you bastards out, you change again"

Kneeling in the ht attached to the barrel of his gun He slipped it into his backpack and pulled out a plastic green case Willing himself to remain calm, he thurenade launcher within

He’d yet to fire it The weapon had been recovered the saun itself, in the munitions locker of a Belém police precinct Norerous situation, but with only five rounds of amht would do hih, so he took the risk and slid the launcher module into position until it snapped into place

Skyler slipped his backpack on again and pulled the shoulder straps as tight as they would go Satisfied it wouldn’t jostle about, he focused on the sound and began to walk toward it

Chapter 4

Melville Station

27APR2283

"REMOVE YOUR CLOTHING," Zane Platz said, "and lie facedown on the floor Please"

Tania held her breath and watched, uncomfortable with the order but unable to deny the wisdolanced at one another Their surprise and disco clarity, by way of nothing nized Zane’s voice, too, which only added to their confusion

Tiested the strip-down tactic after the first batch of colonists came aboard, one month earlier With them, the order had been to simply sit on their hands and wait to be searched The process took far too long, she thought More i the video they’d found a correlation between those who obeyed eagerly and those ere spies

A request to re The idea surprised her co man Or, man, rather She’d learned over dinner recently that he was a year older than her, despite his boyish looks It was the freckles, Tania decided, that seemed to radiate youthful innocence

One of the forty individuals began to disrobe without hesitation

Zane put one hand over the microphone "Spy," he said

"Yup," Ti "Too eager to corinned and shook her head at the same time, as if she’d lost a friendly bet She wrote quick descriptions of the two on a pad of graph paper, roup By the time she looked back up, all of the candidates sent fro A few already lay naked on the deck of the curved room Only then did she find she could exhale

That first moment, when the fresh arrivals walked out of their capsule, terrified her Up until that instant, all she could picture was a strea forth from the makeshift shuttle Or worse, no one at all, but instead a bomb with a red ribbon tied around it Russell Blackfield is toying with us, she thought He needs the food, yes, but not enough to set aside his wounded ego Sooner or later he will try so more ambitious than a handful of informants At least this second shipment contained no overt surprises

There was still the raphed, too, the ies sent up to Black Level and down to Canize, vouch for theize personally to all the legitiht be effective, but she wanted to nity like this behind

Of course, she hadthe farers and creho’d died when the farhed on her, as if she bore the corpse of her former self on her back

"Are we ready?" Zane asked

"Ready," Tim said

"I’d feel better if Skyler were here," Tania said "We’re not as good at judging people"

"There’s too much to do down below…"

"I know, I’raph paper "Take the team in, and be careful"

He took it and offered her a reassuring grin Then he vanished through the door of the tiny security office

A section of hallway one level over had been designated for "colonist processing," if for no other reason than it had lockable doors at both ends, and an access tube up to the cargo bay Tania felt strongly that no one should be in direct contact with an arriving group until they could ascertain that none carried concealed weapons As with the first ship soain, if the nude bodies on the

"We’re at the door" Tim’s voice, over the handheld

Zane replied, "It’s still clear, son"

On the screen, the door at the far end of the rooroup that consisted of seven other fighters trained by Kelly Adelaide months earlier Most had either a round

The process went sroups to cabins that lined the hub hallway beyond Each would be interviewed later, the spies or miscreants sent back at the earliest opportunity

Soon only the two men marked as spies remained Tihtcliff agents’ bags and clothing were searched, and then Ti to need to hold you two for a while"