Just when her knees began to hurt from kneeling, another explosion jerked her eyes up and out over the blackening gulf. There were spotlights aimed at a 45 degree angle out over the canyon from an above balcony. Two of them crisscrossed at a prescribed point in the air and something that flew past it. A sparling mass as wide as her thumb streaked across the beams, prompting her to squint. It was an involuntary thing the way her eyes tracked the lump of glittery gold like a cat to a laser pointer. This most certainly wasn’t a firework, she concluded.

It gained altitude till she reluctantly was forced to rise, holding Shannon’s head like a child with her dolly, and step out onto the smooth cold balcony tile to get a better view. Even then, she had to crane her neck over the raili...

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