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the brawl with Jubal's wing, but he'd also wound up in command, something
which had seemed hopeless just a few days before. Then, just to put the icing
on the cake, one of his scouts had stumbled across Tellor and his marines. The
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scout had been looking for Mara and McCade; after all, Jubal or no Jubal, they
had a score to settle with those bastards. So here comes a pack of marines
willing to pay him for doing exactly what he wanted to do anyway! What could
be better? Yako chuckled deep inside. In spite of Tellor's efforts to gloss it
over, you didn't have to be a military genius to see that he'd been ambushed,
stripped of all his weapons, and left to make his way on foot. If Tellor
failed to find McCade and kill him, Claudia would have his ass. Yako found the
prospect quite appealing.
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"What's so funny?"
Yako looked up, startled. He wasn't sure that he'd laughed out loud. Tellor's
eyes were narrowed, as if he somehow knew the laughter was directed at him.
"Nothing special, Major," Yako replied. "Just a joke someone told me earlier
today."
Tellor nodded, but continued to watch Yako suspiciously, until the little man
grew so uncomfortable he decided to take a nap. Anything was better than
Tellor's unwavering gaze. A few minutes later Yako was asleep, dreaming about
a monster who wouldn't stop staring at him, and a man named McCade who was
supposed to die but wouldn't.
McCade watched the preparations with a jaundiced eye. He'd flown gliders
before, but usually they were towed into the air behind an aircar, not
launched off the side of a seven-hundred-foot cliff. In front of him two
skeletal-looking ramps swooped down the steep hillside to end at the edge of
the abyss.
People were climbing all over the durasteel structures making sure that recent
storms hadn't damaged them. Meanwhile a white glider sat poised at the top of
each ramp. They were pretty craft, made out of lightweight duraplast, and
gracefully shaped. So much so that the energy weapons mounted under the long
slender wings and behind the canopy looked foreign and out of place. McCade
prayed they wouldn't need the weapons. Flying a glider after so many years
without practice was bad enough, but having people shoot at you while you did
it, well, that was just too much. However, it seemed like he didn't have much
choice. It turned out the gliders were two-place craft, which meant they'd
have to leave
Mara behind, and do their own flying. And while Alexander had flown just about
everything else, he'd missed gliders, and Phil's experience was limited to
aircars. So McCade and Rico would have to get behind the controls and hope for
the best. He looked up toward the sky. At least the weather was right.
The wind had died down to a gentle breeze, and here and there, the sun peeked
through the eternal overcast.
There was the shrill sound of a whistle, and turning toward the sound McCade
saw the inspectors had scrambled down off the ramps, and were gathering around
the gliders. Rico waved in his direction and shouted, "Come on, ol' sport, all
aboard the Deadeye express!" With a jaunty wave Rico climbed into his glider,
settling himself behind the controls.
Forcing a grin McCade climbed up the path leading to the launching platform.
Off to one side he saw
Phil give Mara one last bear hug, before lumbering over, and climbing in
behind Rico. Earlier, while saying his good-byes, McCade had noticed Mara's
eyes were red. Phil hadn't said anything, but apparently there'd been a
parting of the ways, and not at his request. If so, McCade wasn't too
surprised. In order for the relationship to succeed, one of them would have to
make a very large sacrifice. While he hadn't complained, Phil's variant
physiology made life on anything but an iceworld distinctly uncomfortable.
And, in her own way, Mara was just as tied to her world. She had an almost
mystical understanding of it. Besides, she clearly wished to continue her
studies with the Walkers, and that would be impossible if she left.
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As he climbed onto the platform Alex was there, shaking hands and exchanging
hugs with various friends, turning mischievously as McCade arrived. "Oh,
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