Sunspire (The Reach, Book 4) by Mark R. Healy

refinement.  Gnarls of metal and sharp edges threatened to snag the occupants at every turn, and the way it swung gently from side to side made Talia wonder if it might upend them without warning, sending them plummeting into the abyss below.
    “Don’t worry,” Olivia said, as if reading her mind.  “It’s safe.  We haven’t lost anyone yet.”
    “It will do fine,” Silvestri assured her, and then he stepped boldly forward and assumed his place in the cradle.  Duran followed, then Talia and the others joined them.
    The cradle bobbed disconcertingly, and Talia dared not look over the side.
    “Now, keep your arms inside at all times,” Olivia cautioned them.  “It’s going to swing and sway a little, might even bounce against the walls here and there, but don’t reach out and grab anything, whatever you do.  That’s a good way to lose an arm.”
    “Thanks for the tip,” Roman said wryly.
    “When you reach the bottom, there’ll be more of our people there.  They’ll help you disembark.  From there, you’ll most likely be on your own.  Things are still pretty hairy at the entrance, and we don’t have enough people to fortify the whole area.”
    “We’ll be fine,” Zoe said.  “Thank you for your help.”
    Olivia shrugged.  “Don’t thank me.  Just do your part, next time you see someone in need.”  She raised her hand and gave a signal to the winchman.  “That’s the only way any of us are going to make it through this.”
    The cradle shuddered, then began to descend.  Olivia watched them for a moment longer, her hand gripping the door frame, her face betraying no emotion.  Then she turned and disappeared from view.
    Talia hugged Roman tightly to her as the darkness took them.
     

 
    13
    Ursie stared down the tunnel, her mood as bleak as the gloomy depths of the Skywalk itself.  She raised a hand and cupped it to the side of her mouth, preparing to call out for Knile, but then thought better of it.
    He wasn’t coming back.  That seemed obvious to her now.
    She turned and walked back toward the sweepdrone, where Tobias lounged awkwardly in the driver’s seat.  They’d been waiting here for hours – how many, Ursie wasn’t certain, but it had been a long time.  She was tired and thirsty, though oddly restless.  She couldn’t sleep.
    “I think we’re on our own,” she said.
    Tobias gurgled in his throat, then abruptly sat up.  Ursie realised that he’d fallen asleep as he’d lain there.
    “Huh?”
    “Oh, sorry,” she said.  “Didn’t realise you’d drifted off.”
    Tobias blinked.  “No biggie, no biggie,” he said, scrubbing at his face.  “Just gettin’ old, I suppose.”  He stopped, then looked at her.  “What’d you say a minute ago?”
    “I said I think we’re on our own.”
    Tobias glanced down the tunnel in the direction in which Knile had disappeared.  “Aw, heck.  Give the guy a chance.  He’ll be back.”
    “Maybe.”
    Tobias swung his legs over the side of the sweepdrone and climbed down as Ursie moved to the rear of the vehicle to check on Lazarus.  The Redman hadn’t moved or made a sound the whole time they’d been stuck there.  She wondered if the life might have finally left his body.
    “Why is he so loyal to this guy?” she wondered out loud as she stared at him.
    “The Redman?  Didn’t your friend say he tried to save ’em?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Then I guess that’s reason enough.”
    “If we hadn’t stopped to help him back at the habitat, we’d have made it out.  We’d have made it to the escape module with the others.  Now look where we are… we’re pretty much as dead as he is.”
    Tobias shuffled closer.  “Is he…?”
    Ursie watched the Redman for a moment, trying to ascertain if he was still breathing, then decided there was an easier way.  She reached out and touched her fingers against his bare neck.
    Darkness filled her mind, a great expanse of it, but far away there glimmered a