slammed it open.
She sailed over Havna's head as he pulled himself to his feet, and landed on the first curve of the stairway.
For a single beat, there was silence as everyone took in the changed circumstances, and then Silius gave a shout of rage and Lucy grabbed the handrail and started climbing.
As Dray ran out into the square, the night suddenly lit up.
He snapped his head upward, and couldn't help but go still at the sight above.
Bane's Class 5 ship was hovering directly over the city, the spiky ball of it illuminated in an eerie blue-white light.
The ship was as low as it could go in the atmosphere, he guessed, but even so, as high up as it was, it loomed.
Bane was off the leash he'd imposed on himself.
The square slowly went quiet as one by one people looked up and noticed the threat above them.
“Someone has Lucy Harris.” The words blasted from every speaker in the square. From the public comms systems, from people's handhelds, even from the vending machines, and a still image of Lucy laughing, eyes lit up in amusement, was suddenly on every screen. “Let her go, or I will make you very, very sorry.” Bane's words were like the hiss of a thousand furious voices.
People gasped in shock.
Then someone ran out to the small open area in the center of the square and screamed, shaking their fist up at Bane.
Some joined him, others edged away.
This was no unified crowd. It hadn't been from the start.
The military had only been able to play their dirty tricks because of the diverse views of the protesters.
“They won't know how to tell you if they've seen something or know where she's been taken, but they might tell me.” Dray spoke normally, hoping Bane was listening. Someone walked past him, toward the center of the square, and hissed at him as they passed.
Or maybe they wouldn't tell him, Dray realized grimly. They would see Bane's appearance as part of a UC strategy.
It would be hard to convince them the thinking system was acting alone.
Except, he wasn't.
Dray was with him all the way.
“He's absolutely striking, isn't he?” Cossi spoke in a quiet voice, and Dray remembered she had come out the door behind him. “How has he lit himself up like that? Where's the light coming from?”
Dray shook his head but Cossi didn't even notice, she was still looking up.
“Do we need to run? Is he going to strike the square?”
Dray lifted his shoulders. “I don't know. He hasn't spoken to me since his appearance.”
“I'll give you some warning before I strike the square.” Bane's voice was almost too calm in his ear, and from Cossi's sudden jerk, Dray guessed Bane was allowing her in on the conversation as well.
“Can I talk you out of doing that?” Dray looked around, noticed people were streaming in from all around to see Bane.
The shouting at the center had only gotten louder.
All day and through the night, there had been a sense of waiting, of small outbreaks of defiance, but a sense the big moment had yet to come.
Bane had just ensured that big moment was now.
“I've got a small team coming to join us,” Cossi said. A Tecran shouldered her as he walked past and she shoved back, then raised her shockgun, and the protester stumbled away.
Dray felt the impatience to get moving, to do something, rise up in him, but Cossi gripped his arm.
“We can't walk any deeper into the crowd without more numbers. You want to actually find Lucy, don't you? Not die trying.”
He gave a nod, looked behind her, and saw two of his own people, two of Cossi's and two of Chep's come out the door, all geared up for serious engagement.
“The Garmann still nowhere to be seen?”
“Wouldn't want them, anyway,” Cossi said. “I like to trust the people watching my back.”
Dray nodded, but he knew this was a serious issue. They couldn't have an alliance with the Garmann if they couldn't trust them to even uphold the agreement to be part of the UC delegation.
“See this Grih officer? This Bukari officer?” The buzz of a thousand angry insects cut off all other noise again as Bane took over every speaker. He switched the image of Lucy to the live feed of Dray and Cossi standing in the square. “Let them know if you've seen any sign of Lucy Harris. Do it now. This is the countdown, before I shoot down the statue of Karn.”
A time stamp came up