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((The Father's Day Special -- page 15 of 24))
It required pretty much all of his concentration, but Hector could sense it: a pattern.

The shivers in the air formed a ring around the party, with short lines pointing inward. And if each shiver represented a monster tunneling underground, that meant only one thing.

They were surrounding them.

There wasn't much more time to deliberate, Hector knew. They must have been pretty deep underground if the tremors were so faint, but the ring was nearly complete.

He could use his multi-train technique again. Move everyone out of harm's way again. But to what end? Where would they go? Back to the airport? That was far, and there was no guarantee it would be any safer there. Plus, it was unclear how Chort had pulled them all the way here from the airport storage room in the first place.

He could hunker down and fight. That was obviously dangerous. They still had no idea how to actually bring the monsters down. And the civilians would have to be protected again, of course. Plus, Hector was certain that the Beast of Lorent still had a few unknown tricks up its sleeve, too.

Twin thought processes allowed him to assess those two options simultaneously and arrive quickly at the conclusion that they both sucked equally.

But he had to choose.

"Everyone!" he called out, motioning wide with his hands. "Gather up! Come in close! They're coming!"

They all looked at him, some seeming confused and sluggish, but the iron barricades materializing around the party seemed to spur them closer. The Rainlords' faces were all still hidden behind their iron masks, so he couldn't gauge their reactions, but they were all clearly listening to him, at least, and Carlos and Fidel positioned themselves on different sides of the non-servants.

Roman looked like he wanted to say something, to ask a question maybe, but he held his tongue. And Voreese was the same.