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The positive power line came free easier than she had hoped Juliette twisted the new one into place The sound of her own breathing rattled in the confines of her hel the terminal around the neire, she realized she could hear her breathing because the air was no longer hissing by her cheek

Juliette froze She tapped the plastic dome by her ear and saw that the overflow bubbles were still leaking out, but slower now The pressure was still inside her suit, there just wasn’t any ainst the switch, could feel the sweat form around her collar and drip down the side of her jaw Her feet were so to sweat

"Solo? This is Juliette Can you hearon up there?"

She waited, turned to ain of a kink She still had air, the air in her suit Why wasn’t he responding?

"Hello? Solo? Please say soht on her hel of some silent clock in her head How ht then? It had probably taken her an hour to get down there Solo would fix the compressor before her air ran out She had plenty of ti it up Plenty of tiative ter was stuck

This, she didn’t have ti to be corroded The positive as already spliced and locked tight She tried to adjust the flashlight strapped to her hel, horrible for working She was able to twist it a little and airound wire could be connected to any part of the ht? She tried to reround, wasn’t it? Or was it? Why couldn’t she rehtened the end of the black wire and tried to give the loose copper strands a tith her heavily padded fingers She jabbed this bundle of raw copper into a cowling vent on the back, a piece of conducting metal that appeared connected to the rest of the pump She twisted the wire around a small bolt, knotted the slack so it would hold, and tried to convince herself that this would work, that it would be enough to run the da Walker would know Where the hell was he when she needed him?

The radio by her neck squawked--a burst and pop of static--what sounded like part of her na

Juliette wavered in the dark, cold water Her ears were ringing from the outburst She dipped her chin to tell Solo to hold the radio away frolassof her hel froentle curtain across her vision The pressure in her suit was gone

A different sort of pressure quickly took its place

13

• Silo 18 •

Walker found himself shoved down the square stairs, past a crew ofto weld another set of steel plates across the narrow passage He had most of the homebuilt radio in a spare parts tub, which he desperately clutched with two hands He watched the electrical coh the crowd offrom the attack above In front of hiainst her chest, the antenna wires trailing behind her Walker skipped and danced on his old legs so he wouldn’t get tangled up

"Go! Go! Go!" so The rattle of gunfire seeolden shower of fizzling sparks rained through the air and peppered Walker’s face He squinted and stor hail as a teaht their way up froe sheet of steel

"This way," Shirly yelled, tugging his struggled to keep up with the running others A duffle bag was dropped; a young enerator roo

There was already a streah the double doors Jenkins was there,the traffic Some of those with rifles took up position near an oil pu perfectly still like it had already succu battle

"What is that?" Jenkins asked as they approached the door He jerked his chin at the bundle of wires in Shirly’s arms "Is that--?"

"The radio, sir" She nodded

"Fat lot of good it does us now" Jenkins waved two other people inside Shirly and Walker pressed themselves out of the way

"Sir--"

"Get hi to Walker "I don’t need hionna want to hear--"

"C’ up the rear He twirled his arm at the elbow for them to hurry Only the uns rea steel barrels trained the sa to close the door