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"Enough talk We've got to get ," Schroeder said
Clutching Karla by the are of the bowl Austin and Zavala took up the rear Schroeder's insistence that they start roup had alreen area when Grisha and histheir guns
Fountains of dirt erupted in the grass about a dozen feet behind the fleeing group
It would take only a second for Grisha and his oing He turned and threw hiround and took careful aim with his Bowen at the nearest Russian
He cracked off a couple of shots that fell short Grisha and hisno chances When Austin fired, they stopped shooting and went belly-down as well
Austin turned and saw that the others were nearly at the face of the bluff He scrambled to his feet and sprinted after theain The bullets were practically hitting the ground at his heels as he ducked the others into an opening in the face of the cliff
Karla shook her flashlight, and the batteries apparently still had a little juice left in theh the winding path When the flashlight finally sputtered and died, they had entered the area where so to see the glow froht like moths toward a flame and soon came upon the subterranean metropolis
Austin gazed at the shis
"What is this place, the land of Oz?" he said
Karla laughed "It's an underground city built of so mineral," Karla said "We don't knoho built it, but these are only the suburbs It's quite extensive"
Schroeder hushed Karla and said they could talk about it later, and then he led the way through the maze of streets until they were back at the plaza where they had first come upon the mammoths
The dwarf mammoths had returned to the plaza and were huddled around the pyra frequently as they milled around the square
Karla saw Austin reach for his gun She put her hand on his arht They won't hurt you They must have been spooked by the noise"
Austin had seen hts on missions that took him to re like the creaturesat smaller versions, from the tips of their tails to their curved tusks, of the ancient behemoths he had seen pictured in textbooks
Zavala was equally dus were extinct"