Four hundred heads went up together, and what they found was a point of fire coming down at them out of a cloudless morning, growing, and the growing was the part that broke them.
The whole southern half of the gravel came apart at once. Squads shredded, evaluators lost their lanes, and a hundred people who had signed their contracts two days ago in the belief that the dangerous part came later discovered they had been mistaken.
Brittany's flames were already up her arms, and Trisha had a hand fisted in the back of the nearest recruit's shirt, hauling him behind her while she shouted at her squad to get down.
Under the north scaffolding, Pebble's head locked level. He did not stand, and not one of his four building-sized legs moved out of the dirt they were parked in, but all six amber eyes came off the recruits at the same instant and fixed on the falling thing in their staggered crown while his entire armored body settled into a stillness the lot had never once seen on him.
