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Linda followed its flight path and paled when she saas behind her

She hoped Eric and Murph’s decoy beacon was going to work becausetoward therâce The Oregon didn’t have nearly enough firepower to take them all out before they ripped it to pieces

• • •

“NO!” Locsin screarabbed Tagaan by the shirt “Get it back! I want to see the Oregon die!”

Tagaan shoved the hands away “I can’t There was a flash on the ship’s deck before we lost it They must have shot it down”

“Then turn us around!”

He lunged for the fishing boat’s pilothouse, but Tagaan stepped in his way and pushed him back

“Coon will be destroyed Even if it isn’t, it’s severely daet this supply of Typhoon to safety before the storm comes”

Locsin was shocked by Tagaan’s pushback He had never defied an order before, and the insubordination threatened to send Locsin over the edge He very nearly grabbed one of the assault rifles to shoot Tagaan where he stood, until his right-hand man continued

“You have your victory,” Tagaan said “You outwitted Juan Cabrillo Savor it And e take over the country and have factories churning out Typhoon pills, you will have whole armies at your disposal No one will be able to stop us”

Locsin took a deep breath and saw that Tagaan was right The Typhoon pills he had in hand and the search for the orchid used to htened up and told thefor home

Besides, he’d seen the last two dozen Kuyogs racing in for the killing blow The Oregon would sink, he was sure of it Cabrillo hio doith his ship, but if he wasn’t killed, he would have to live with the fact that Locsin had beaten him

But Locsin kneas even worse than that for Cabrillo The forent was pointlessly bound by an overdeveloped sense of ethics He didn’t have the unflinching long-term vision that Locsin possessed That vulnerability had been Cabrillo’s undoing, and the memory of these events would haunt him for the rest of his life It would always be the day that he’d failed to save the lives of twelve hundred souls

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From the supply drone’s camera feed, Juan could see that it flewat it froht station in the op center, was doing a re swalers that preceded the final wave of twenty-four that were nearing the ferry’s stern