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And then he saw the third file This was his George Her George Lukas knew it Doing the ht if he were still alive He had died just over three years earlier, had worked in Mechanical, had never married

He ran the ID search, and the picture confirmed his fears He was a handso at the camera, calm, relaxed It was hard to hate the man Difficult, especially, since he was dead

Lukas checked the cause and saw that it was investigated and then listed as an industrial accident Investigated He reot its new sheriff Her qualifications had been a source of debate and tension, a wind of whispers Especially around IT But there had been chatter that she’d helped out on a case a long tio, that this hy she’d been chosen

This was the case Was she in love with him before he died? Or did she fall for the memory of the man after? He decided it had to be the former Lukas searched the desk for a charcoal, found one, and jotted down theto occupy his ti to know her better It would distract hi him back He relaxed, pulled the keyboard into his lap, and started digging

22

• Silo 17 •

Juliette shivered from the cold as she helped Solo to his feet He wobbled and steadied hi

"Do you think you can walk?" she asked She kept an eye on the e doard them, wary of whoever else was out there, whoever had attacked hiotten her killed

"I think so," he said He dabbed at his forehead with his palm, studied the suided hiasoline stinging her nose The black undersuit was still daainst her skin; her breath billowed out before her; and whenever she stopped talking, her teeth chattered uncontrollably She bent to retrieve her knife while Solo clutched the curved outer railing Looking up, she considered the task before thes were exhausted fro and cold And Solo looked even worse Histo and fro He seenizant of where he was

"Can you make it to the deputy station?" she asked Juliette had spent nights there on supply runs The holding cell made for an oddly comfortable place to sleep The keys were still in the box--maybe they could rest easy if they locked themselves inside and kept the key with them

"That’s how many levels?" Solo asked

He didn’t know the down deep of his own silo as well as Jules He rarely risked venturing so far

"A dozen or so Can you make it?"

He lifted his boot to the first step, leaned into it "I can try"

They set off with only a knife between them, which Juliette was lucky to have at all How it had survived her dark pull through Mechanical was a htly, the handle cold, her hand colder The si utensil had become her security tote she must always have with her As they ainst the inner railing each time she reached over to steady herself She kept her other arroans

"Howhis footing and then glancing nervously up the stairway

Solo grunted "Shouldn’t be any" He wobbled a little, but Juliette steadied him "All dead Everyone"

They stopped to rest at the next landing "You made it," she pointed out "All these years, and you survived"

He frowned, wiped his beard with the back of his hand He was breathing hard "But I’one All of theap between the stairs and the concrete The diht darkness She pinned her teeth together to keep then of life Solo staggered ahead for the next flight of stairs Juliette hurried beside him

"Hoell did you see hi he was just like ht she heard hi more of the steps She looked back at the door they were passing, the interior dark, no power being leached fro sohost behind?

She powerfully hoped so They had so o, even to the deputy station, ed in silence for a level and a half, Juliette shivering and Solo grunting and wincing She rubbed her arms now and then, could feel the sweat fro to steady Solo It was nearly enough to warry by the tioing to si to burn and keep itself war to need to stop," she told Solo He gruood to have the reward of a rest to cli they were countable, finite At the landing of one-thirty-two, Solo used the railing to lower hiround, hand over hand like the bars of a ladder When his butt hit the decking, he laid out supine and folded his hands over his face

Juliette hoped it was nothing more than a concussion She’d seen her fair share of theh to wear helht the for Solo but to rest

The proble was that it made her colder Juliette stoht sweat she’d worked up froainst her She could feel a draft cycling through the stairwell, cold air fro over the chilled waters like a natural air conditioning unit Her shoulders shook, the knife vibrating in her hand until her reflection beca in one place would kill her And she still didn’t knohere this attacker was, could only hope he was below the," she told Solo She looked to the doors beyond him, the s dark What would she do if someone burst out at that very ht could she hope to put up?

Solo lifted his arm and waved it at her "Go," he said "I’ll stay"

"No, you’re coether, blew on theth to continue She went to Solo and tried to grab his hand, but he withdrew it