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Khoth knew that Jace was crying out, NOOOOOOO! It was just over the comm in writing, but he could hear it in his ears as if it was screamed into the air. Khoth moved towards Gehenna as if to cradle her body would be to cradle Jace’s. But his mother grabbed his arm and stopped him from wading into the pile of Khul bodies where larva still squirmed and blood still burned flesh.

Why? Jace asked. Why?

And again, Jace’s voice was in the air or in Khoth’s head. He could not tell.

“An honorable death. Allowing him to take one of his enemies out with him. And then ending it,” his mother said. “Do you understand, Khoth? Do you understand?”

She was explaining what she had done and why. He realized as he heard it and took it in that she was right. She’d given the former hostage--the proud Thaf’ell--his honor back. No more a hostage. No more a bargaining chip. But a warrior who had gone down fighting to the last.

But did Jace understand? Had Jace heard what his mother had said? Or had the horror of the moment blocked out Jace’s ability to hear through Gehenna’s speakers.

Gehenna was moving then, somehow leaping up over the Khul and Thaf’ell bodies, and then rolling down the other part of the “T-shaped” hallway. Khoth is running another way to follow them, unable to get past the pile of dead as Gehenna had. His mother followed after him like a shadow. The rest of the Khul, every single one of them that he had tagged and tracked, are dead.

Gehenna--no, Jace--had killed them all. Destroyed them. Obliterated them.

Gehenna--no, Jace--was still. Silver body covered in smoking Khul blood. Khoth’s heart clenched in his chest. He wanted Jace to be saved from this. That was a vain thought. The Pilot was the vanguard of this war. Jace would see everything.

“Pilot?” Khoth asked as he approached the robot. “Jace?”

One is missing, Jace said.

Khoth paused. “One?”

Slowly, the silver ball turned towards him and Gehenna unfolded her body, but it's Jace speaking from there.

“There were 11 more to kill here. And I killed 10. Where’s the other one?” Jace asked in Gehenna’s voice.

Then there was the sound of running feet. Davies, Dr. Hayter and Typhon appear at the top of a staircase. All three of them are breathing heavily and there is a wild look in Davies’ eyes.

“Two are missing!” Davies shouts. “We killed four downstairs! Only four! You said there were five! Were there five?”

“Yes,” Jace answered. “Two are missing. Where--oh, no… one is going towards Thammah, towards the apartment building with all those people.”

Khoth tensed. “And the other?”

Jace was already moving even as they saw his response on their comms, The other is outside the Control Room’s door.

When Seconds Matter

Meanwhile, at the Tzunda Quarters, Ylore, Haseon…

Thammah shifted on the rooftop and scratched her right thigh. There was always an itch when it came to missions like this. Have to stay still? Itch. Have to stay quiet? Double itch just out of reach. Enemies approaching and must stay still and silent? Triple itch all along her spine causing her body to want to twitch. What was worse was that she knew that it was mostly psychological. If she was just hanging about, nothing to do, she could be sitting still and silent with a glass of something pleasing in one hand and the sunset in her eyes, and she wouldn’t itch at all. But now, when she couldn’t scratch without risking losing concentration, the itches were everywhere. Her thigh was but the latest.

Thammah?! Jace contacted her over the comm.

What’s up, Jace? Kill all the Khul yet? She sent back.

Just two left. One Cetix is coming to you. And it won’t come from the street level, Jace responded.

Suddenly, a map appeared of areas below Ylore. She saw a connecting pipe between the Tzunda Quarters and the Moturin Compound and there was a little blinking light moving at speed. A segmented line went from the dot to a position inside the building, in the sub-basement.

Shit! She sent, finding human swears far more useful in these situations than Thaf’ell ones, which sometimes went on for multiple lines with discussions of parentage. I need to get there!

She pushed herself up, groaning as every muscle in her body seemed to have tensed up as she’d waited--and itched--for the enemy. She mourned all of her carefully laid mines. They were useless now, except if the quarters dwellers tried to run out.

Shit! But this one she kept just for herself.

It gets worse. Check out the room it’s headed for. There are tons of vents it can escape through to other parts of the building, Jace instructed.