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He hadn't been thinking of what Gow had just done to herself, but he looked
round at the red stain on the angled wall and the collapsed shape of Gow's
suit, and thought it again.
He was about to start back down the outer wall of the temple when something
moved in the air above him. He turned and saw Yalson landing on the wall-walk.
She looked at Gow's body once, then they exchanged what they both knew of the
situation - what she had heard over the open communicator channel, what Horza
had seen in the hall - and decided they would stay put until some of the
others came out, or they gave up hope. According to Yalson only Rava Gamdol
and Tzbalik Odraye were definitely dead after the fire-fight in the hall, but
all three Bratsilakins had been there too, and nobody had heard anything from
them after the open channel had become intelligible again and most of the
screaming had stopped.
Kraiklyn was alive and well but lost; Dorolow lost too, sitting crying, maybe
blinded; and
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Lenipobra, against all advice and Kraiklyn's orders, had entered the temple
through a roof door and was heading down to try to rescue anybody he could,
using only a small projectile pistol he'd been carrying.
Yalson and Horza sat back to back on the wall-walk, Yalson keeping the Changer
informed on how things were going in the temple. Lamm flew overhead, heading
for the jungle where he took one of the plasma cannons from the protesting
Wubslin. He had just landed near by when Lenipobra announced proudly he had
found Dorolow, and Kraiklyn reported he could see daylight. There was still no
sound from the Bratsilakins. Kraiklyn appeared round a corner of the
wall-walk; Lenipobra leapt into view, clutching Dorolow to his suit and
bounding down over the walls in a series of great slow jumps as his AG
struggled to lift both him and the woman.
They set off back to the shuttle. Jandraligeli could see movement on the road
beyond the
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and there was sniper fire coming from the jungle on either side. Lamm wanted
to tear into the temple with the plasma cannon and vaporise a few monks, but
Kraiklyn ordered the retreat. Lamm threw the plasma gun down and sailed off
towards the shuttle alone, swearing loudly over the open channel on which
Yalson was still trying to call the Bratsilakins.
They waded through the tall cane grass and bushes under the whooshing trails
of plasma bolts, as Jandraligeli gave them cover. They had to duck
occasionally as small-bore projectile fire tore through the greenery around
them.
They sprawled in the hangar of the Clear Air Turbulence, beside the still warm
shuttle as it clicked and creaked, cooling down again after its high-speed
climb through the atmosphere.
Nobody wanted to talk. They just sat or lay on the deck, some with their backs
against the side of the warm shuttle. Those who had been inside the temple
were the most obviously affected, but even the others, who had only heard the
mayhem over their suit communicators, seemed in a state of mild shock. Helmets
and guns lay scattered about them.
'"Temple of Light",' Jandraligeli said eventually, and gave what sounded like
a mixture of laugh and snort.
'Temple of fucking Light,' Lamm agreed.
'Mipp,' Kraiklyn said in a tired voice to his helmet, 'any signals from the
Bratsilakins?'
Mipp, still on the CAT's small bridge, reported that there was nothing.
'We ought to bomb that place to fuck,' Lamm said. 'Nuke the bastards.' Nobody
replied. Yalson got up slowly and left the hangar, walking tiredly up the
steps to the upper deck, helmet dangling from one arm, gun from the other, her
head down.
'I'm afraid we've lost that radar.' Wubslin closed an inspection hatch and
rolled out from underneath the nose of the shuttle. 'That first bit of hostile
fire . . . ' His voice trailed off.
'Least nobody's injured,' Neisin said. He looked at Dorolow. 'Your eyes
better?' The woman nodded but kept her eyes closed. Neisin nodded, too.
'Actually worse, when people are injured. We were lucky.' He dug into a small
pack on the front of his suit and produced a little metal container. He sucked
at a nipple at the top and grimaced, shaking his head. 'Yeah, we were lucky.
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