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ERIC NYLUND
189
imagine." She turned to the Master Chief. "Or is it you I have to
thank for this daring operation, John?"
The Master Chief found he had no words to answer. He also
bristled at her casual use of his given name... but he could for-
give her that. She had always used his name—never his rank or
serial number.
He noticed the fist-sized crystal clutched in her hand. It had a
thousand facets and emitted a brilliant blue light the color of
sapphires and sunlight on water.
"Thank anyone you want, Catherine," Admiral Whitcomb said.
"Throw us all a party if that'll make you happy... once we're out
of here." He clicked open his COM. "Polaski, get down—"
Sergeant Johnson set his hand on the Admiral's arm and nod-
ded toward the far wall.
"What is it, Sergeant?" The Admiral's voice died in his throat.
The Master Chief's motion tracker flickered on his heads-up
display, but there was no solid contact... nor did he see any-
thing across the entire three-kilometer-wide cavern. Had it
picked up a camouflaged Elite? No, the dust in the air would
have certainly given it away.
"No one move," the Admiral whispered.
John saw them, then. He saw them all.
He had missed them before because he had thought it was the
haze in the air rippling, the dust, maybe the distance causing a
miragelike image. He hadn't thought it possible for so many
Covenant to be so still.
On each level of the twelve tiered galleries that circumscribed
the gigantic room stood Covenant soldiers. They crowded the
balconies with Grunts, Jackals whose energy shields popped on,
snarling Elites, and several pairs of Hunters with fuel rod can-
nons glowing green.
The whine of thousands of plasma weapons charging filled
the air like a swarm of locusts.
No one moved. No one breathed except Locklear, who ex-
haled a long and heartfelt expletive.
John tried to count them all. There had to be thousands—on
every level. A battalion at least, maybe more. They wouldn't
even have to aim. All they had to do was shoot and fill the space
with needle shards and boiling energy.