Chantal left the plaza with the drive pressed close. Her boots kicked up ash that glittered like tiny constellations. Behind her, the battlecruiser’s engines bellowed; the city’s lights snapped, then bloomed into a pattern of fires that traced the edges of the skyline.
Someone else wanted what she held.
"On the ground. The beacon’s still hot," she replied, voice low. "I can see movement in the northern corridor. Two guards, maybe three." chantal del sol icarus fallenpdf
He laughed, not unkindly. "Always the moralist." Chantal left the plaza with the drive pressed close
She remembered the face of the person whose life had been traded for the drive: an engineer who’d whispered coordinates into the void and died for a chance at a fairer map. "Because someone has to keep the lights on for those who can’t pay for them," she said. "Because there are maps that show more than property lines." Someone else wanted what she held