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too?"
    "They're probably going everywhere in Capitalia," Lorne said grimly, ducking his head a little lower to try to get the best view out her window that he could from his angle. The ships were still coming in, but they were also spreading out, and he saw several of the ones in back drop precipitously out of sight below the skyline as they headed for landing points in the western parts of the city. "Where does this car live?"
    "What?" Nissa asked, sounding confused.
    "Is it usually parked in the main car park?" Lorne clarified. "Because there's a private tunnel connecting that to the Dome itself. Right?"
    "Yes, but I'm only a second assistant," she said. "I can't use it."
    "I don't think this is going to be a morning for arguing regulations," Lorne said. "If we can make it to the car park--"
    And with a sudden thundering roar, the leading edge of the Troft armada shot past above them.
    "Pull over!" Lorne snapped as the car bucked violently in the crosswind of the spacecrafts' slipstreams. An instant later he was thrown against the restraints as Nissa slammed on the brakes, fighting the car to a skidding halt beside the curb.
    Just as a tall, shadowy ship settled on its grav lifts into the center of the intersection two blocks directly ahead.
    "Out!" Lorne ordered, popping his restraints.
    "But--" Nissa protested, pointing at the Troft ship, towering over the shorter buildings around them.
    "I said out !" Lorne said, reaching over and releasing her restraints himself. Out the windshield he could see another, more compact set of grav lifts glowing their way out of the sky toward them, apparently aiming for a spot directly in front of the big warship. Pushing open his door, he got a grip on Nissa's arm and hauled her out of the car.
    "What are you doing?" she gasped, struggling in his grip. "Let me go--"
    Ignoring her protests, Lorne pushed her down into a crouched position against the side of the car. "Quiet," he muttered, looking cautiously over the hood. Ahead, the incoming grav lifts he'd seen resolved themselves into a small transport that was settling to the pavement about fifty meters in front of the looming Troft warship.
    "Great," he muttered under his breath. A troop carrier, undoubtedly. Another minute, and they would be up to their eyebrows in Troft soldiers. "We have to get to cover," he murmured to Nissa. "Any ideas?"
    "The car park's over there," she said. "Up there on the left."
    Lorne grimaced. Unfortunately, the structure she was pointing to was right beside the Troft warship, directly beneath one of the stubby wings sticking out from the ship's flank up near the crest.
    Wings that seemed curiously lumpy and decidedly non-aerodynamic, now that he focused on them. Frowning, he keyed in his vision enhancers' telescopic setting.
    And hissed between his teeth. The wings didn't look aerodynamic because they had absolutely nothing to do with the ship's flight characteristics. They were nothing more or less than the supports for a set of incredibly nasty-looking weapons clusters: pylon-mounted lasers and missile tubes both. "Forget the car park," he told Nissa, looking around them. Most of the nearby buildings were either retail businesses or office space for the myriad of support groups and hangers-on that always collected around governmental seats of power. At this hour, with dawn only now starting to break in the east, all those buildings would be unoccupied and locked down tight.
    But the four-story structure directly ahead of them on their right had the look of an apartment building. An upper-class one, too, if the stone facing and fancy balconies were anything to go by. If they could get in there before the soldiers appeared . . .
    Too late. Even as he looked back at the transport he saw the side loading hatches swing ponderously down.
    Only it wasn't a squad of Troft soldiers who swarmed out onto the deserted street.
    It was a pack of spine leopards.
    Beside him, Nissa gave a muffled gasp. "Are