Great Sky River
Chapter One
Something was after them.
The Family had just come straggling over a razor-backed ridge,
beneath a pale jade sky. Killeen's shocks wheezed as his steady lope
ate up the downgrade.
The red soil was deeply wrinkled and gullied. Crosshatching was
still sharp in the tractor-tread prints that cut the parched clay.
There had been so little rain the prints could well be a century
old.
A black-ribbed factory complex sprawled at the base of the slope.
Killeen flew over the polished ebony domes, sending navvys scuttling
away from his shadow, clacking their rude dumb irritation.
Killeen hardly saw them. He was watching spiky telltales
strobe-highlighted on his right retina.
There: a quick jitter of green, pretty far back.
It came and went, but always in a new place.
There, again. Far behind.
Not directly following them, either. Not a typical Marauder
maneuver. Smart.
He blinked, got the alternative display. The Family was a ragged
spread of blue dabs on his topo map. He was pleased to see they kept
a pretty fair lopsided triangle. Cermo-the-Slow was dragging ass
behind, as always.
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