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ERIC NYLUNO
313
and legs, torque and your center of mass ... and most impor-
tantly your mind.
He pulled his knees to his chest, and tucked his torso toward
his pelvis at the same time. He twisted ninety degrees and shot
out both legs and arms, and uncoiled his body. The maneuver
was called "shrimping."
John's head slipped from the Brute's grasp.
He used the monster's split second of disorientation to scram-
ble onto its back. John brought his elbow down on the base of the
Brute's neck. He swept out its elbow, wrenched the joint around,
and pushed it as far as it would go—far past the point any hu-
man's or Elite's would have snapped. John scissored his legs
wide and pushed against the floor, leveraging his body to keep
the Brute pinned.
It growled and pushed itself and John up with its one free arm.
"No. You. Don't."
John still clutched a frag grenade in his left hand. He flicked
the arming pin—reached around and under, and thrust it into the
Brute's belt—then withdrew, sweeping out its one arm holding
them up.
The Brute dropped onto the floor and screamed with rage.
The grenade detonated. It lifted them both a meter, and they
landed again ... this time accompanied by a wet, pulpy smack
as the Brute's dead hulk slammed into the ground.
The Master Chief rolled off and sprang to his feet and looked
for Blue Team.
The large pillars blocked his view, but he saw on his motion
tracker that Fred was behind a pillar down and to John's left, and
Will behind the pillar to the right. There was no tag indicating
Grace's location. There were, however, blurry motion contacts
beyond the wide arched entrance to the temple.
And there was one other thing—neither Will nor Fred checked
John's status over the COM. That silence meant trouble.
John fumbled for his fiber-optic probe, but it had been lost in
the scuffle with the Brute. He eased around the basalt pillar.
Grace lay face-first on the floor, five meters from the temple en-
trance. A puddle of hydrostatic gel and blood spread across the
floor.
John clicked the COM once, a status query.