Page 42 (1/2)

And now, her first word from Neil The cryptic nature did little to help her anxiety

Stepping out of her roo Natalie Whatever happened now, they were in this together, and Tania found she craved the comfort of a confidante

Speak to no one

She heard the words, in Neil’s authoritative voice Me under an avocado tree, of watching ants devour a lone straggler fallen from the ed her to take on the project alone She’d betrayed hi at a natural pace, Tania made her way to Gray Level She rarely visited the section, but the layout uard ht stop her In the past few days, so between levels

Again, orders

She considered contacting Alex Warthen directly, deht made her miss Neil even more She always took such concerns to him and kneould champion her causes in front of the council

She reached roon on the wall, it was a typical station conference roo the door, she found it locked A swipe of her access card did nothing On the manual keypad below the card slot, she tapped the nued with a subtle click, and she opened the door to a roo them

"Come in and close the door," a ray hair in two tufts over each ear, and wearing square-riuely familiar

She took one step inside and let the door click closed behind her An oval-shaped table dominated the room Chairs had surrounded it, but they had been pushed to the far wall

Roughly twentymaps of the station splayed out across the surface As Tania entered, they all stopped and stared at her

She thought she had seen a few of thele one

"What’s going on here?" she asked "Who are you?"

"Karl Stro man answered

"Do I know you?"

He shot her a friendly s"

The memory jumped to the front of herout her is She looked over the rest of them, and the pieces fell into place Low-levelcrew

People ent unnoticed

"I take it that Neil did not brief you," Karl said

Tania shook her head

He nodded, once "Join us at the table We need your help"

"Help hat?" she asked, cautiously approaching the map-laden surface

"Neil wants to stay a step ahead of the enemy"

She felt her pulse quicken "What do you mean?"

"Mutiny, Miss Sharma Mutiny"

Chapter Thirty-three

Darwin, Australia

9FEB2283

In the middle of the road, Skyler dropped to his knees and erupted into a bitter laugh

The gate to Prue lay in a broken pile of twisted iron Debris littered the street in front of the building, a pair of rag-clad pickers filling burlap sacks with the choicer pieces They scattered at the sound of Skyler’s laugh

My ship destroyed, ar looted, and now this?

Skyler glanced over his shoulder at the Elevator It had never seemed farther away

Numb, he forced himself onto unsteady feet One foot in front of the other; repeat He lue entrance and shuffled down the ramp The smell of smoke overwhelmed his senses He pulled his shirt up over his mouth and nose

At the bottoun barrel The inner door leading to Pru withwall Beyond lay charred, shattered shelves and overturned plastic bins, their sides partiallyof value remained here It had been ransacked, then scuttled At the back of the garage, Skyler found Pruround, cruround around it

They’d used high explosives Skyler had no doubt who the culprit was

New goal, he thought Find Russell Blackfield and put his eyes out with a hot poker

Onelist of i on their own, for he had no will to keep going He took shelter fro across the street and doubled over from pain A pain born not of his injuries but of despair His hope of fixing the Aura, and returning to orbit, faded, stoiven him He had to turn his focus to survival now

Maybe he could go to Grillo and beg for a job piloting one of his shitty boats To come this far, only to join up with that bastard? It aledies

Perhaps he should just walk away, into the Clear, as Skadz had done Leave this ht back to the day he’dthat satchel full of pristine bills

The café Pruht He certainly knew the oell enough And he did say it here he ht that h, thefor Pruhtcliff, and that meant a potential way in

Or perhaps the old wo man Maybe she even knew if he’d survived the attack on his home

Near exhaustion, devoid of other options, Skyler did the only thing he could do: walk

He arrived very late Between the hour and the heavy rain, the streets were mostly empty Only one other shop was open near Clarke’s: a one-room card house The occupants, four elderly istered Skyler’s passing

He breathed a sigh of relief The café was open Even better, it was empty

The old Sri Lankan wo She eyed him with suspicion but flashed a toothless smile nonetheless

Skyler couldn’t recall her name He asked for coffee, plus a bun filled with soin of its contents, and wolfed it down before he was even seated Belatedly he wondered hoould pay for it

When she brought the coffee, Skyler thanked her, and said, "Do you speak English?"

"Little," she said

"Have you seen Prumble? The fat man?"

Her eyes narrowed The smile rearage was attacked I have to find out if he survived"

"I no know hiht