Chapter 62
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Chapter 62

A bag suddenly blocked Amnon’s vision, and his wrists were bound to each other.  Then, with a harsh jab in his spine, he lurched forward.  Unable to see where he was going, Amnon received several jabs to his back to keep him going.  It was one thing to be captured, but it was a whole…

Chapter 61
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Chapter 61

Amnon Saxe sprinted away from Katherine’s transport and aimed for the thickest grouping of people.  It wouldn’t be impossible for the guards to pick him up from a crowd, but it would be a lot harder than if he headed for the fringes of the plaza.  His chest pounded and his nerves were on edge….

Chapter 60
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Chapter 60

Evan carried Lillian out of the Processing Unit’s room, past the guards still incapacitated by the door, and out to the floor’s main passageway.  It was then that he began to realize that building was no longer empty of activity.  There was the sound of a low beehive in the atrium below.  Evan risked a…

Chapter 59
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Chapter 59

Amnon pushed the transport to its limits across the outskirts of the city, through the snaking neighborhood streets, all the way to the center of the plaza.  Every moment forward caused Katherine’s anxiety to increase.  The plume of smoke she saw when she exited the tunnel had divided several times as the city center drew…

Chapter 58
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Chapter 58

The smell of musty, wet dirt hit Katherine in a pungent wave.  It stopped her breathing momentarily as if her body rejected the impure air.  Katherine’s mind’s eye immediately invented a vision of the tunnel as covered in a carpet of black and green mildew crawling with any number of space bugs.  She was only…

Chapter 57
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Chapter 57

Evan paused when he stepped into the Central Processing Unit lobby.  The ceiling went higher than any building in Athens, Kansas, and every surface reflected a pristine gloss.  Much to his surprise, there was no one in the lobby to stop him, so he walked briskly toward the opposite side of the space where a…

Chapter 56
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Chapter 56

“What is that?” Keetha asked staring wildly at Evan. “The princess.  She’s… we’re trying to keep a low profile.” “That’s probably a good strategy.”  Keetha grabbed Evan by the shoulder and tugged him to follow her.  “Look around the corner and tell me what you see.” Evan did as she said and what he saw…

Chapter 55
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Chapter 55

Amnon Saxe remained vigilant in the pursuit of the pressure point to make the torture stop and show the way out of Saw Yatha’s cruel mind game.  Katherine Gold lay in a clump near him. “It’s so hot,” she moaned for the umpteenth time.  She was not wrong.  The temperature had grown unbearable the further…

Chapter 54
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Chapter 54

It did not take long before Evan’s exhaustion and Lillian’s weight to encourage him to reassess his strategy.  The path to the other side of the Processing Unit seemed to get longer with every step, while its peril grew faster. To their right lay the building, its tall, sleek facade providing the only protection from…

Chapter 53
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Chapter 53

Evan nodded, and they decided that Keetha would use her uniform and credentials to draw guards and soldiers away from the termination center.  While at the same time, Evan and Lillian would limp to the rear loading dock.  If all worked well, Keetha would meet them back there and escort them across the plaza to…