It was hard to resist the urge to punch Toni in the back of the head, regardless of the protection his helmet offered or of the fact that doing so could cause them to crash. In the end, Lucien held of not for either of these reasons but out of hope that if he performed well, Uncle might help him settle things with Cassie. It was a dim hope, and he really didn't know what sort of aid the old scientist could provide. Uncle, however, had pulled out an amazing number of rabbits out of his magicians hat in the past. 

There was no comment to make at Toni's urgings. This was Lucien's job, and he was going to do it the way he thought best. He also did not want to dwell on the amount of time it was going to take to climb the tower, other than that the longer he took the more it would annoy Toni. Still... even though they were far enough from the desert to escape its dryness, the heat hadn't lessened so much that he had any desire to stay outside longer than he had to. The caves might be cool, but at least there was moisture! Lucien made sure the shotgun and pry bar were secured across his back as he made his way to the access ladder to start the long climb upwards. The winds buffeted him the higher he went. A steel cage arrangement was encircling the ladder's length for safety, true, but a fall against it would still cause any number of bruises or breaks even if it did stop him from plummeting too far. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to climb as high as he dared. Even though the structure was made of steel, he could feel it teeter in the higher gusts of wind that swirled about the higher elevations.

When at last he got up as far as might go, he paused to catch his breath. He could see the landscape all about them from there, and here and there Lucien could make out pockets of vegetation that had survived around the town. There was no way to call it could have been called beautiful. There was still too much desolation and ruin left of what once had been the human's great civilization for that label, but he had to admit it was breath-taking. So many years had been spent in the caves that he never knew what the world might look like from on high. The change of perspective was a new experience for Lucien. From the tower's tip, he could see the truck stop's parking lot and tiny figure moving about. Down below, the small figure of Toni sat perched upon his bike, arms crossed and impatient. And towards the opposite direction-

"Fuck," he whispered to himself. Quick as he could, he dug Uncle's device from his pack, hastily dropping several other items in the process. They didn't matter right now, though. The paper protecting the adhesive was ripped off and the electronic package slammed against a nearby access panel of some sort. Lucien turned and waved excited to Toni, pointing off in the direction he had been looking. "Toni!" he tried to call down, "Extermination teams! Hover skiff! Hover skiff!"

It was only because of his altitude that he had spot the two craft, lightweight hovercraft that zipped along faster than most human vehicles. Lucien knew each of those craft would carry at least five Androids, all bent on extermination or capture of the humans. He also knew that they were coming from behind a rise in the landscape. Neither Toni nor the scouts on sentry would see them in time. "Dammit, Toni! Androids!" And he tried again to point in the direction of the oncoming attackers. Unsure of Cassie's brother understood or not, he turned back to the device and, removing the blocks, flicked both toggles before letting himself drop down the ladder chute with hands and boots pressed hard along the outside to try and control his decent.

The explosion that followed hastened that decent. If Lucien had paused or taken the steps down as carefully as he had ascended them, he would have been caught in the core of the blast and been killed instantly. Instead, the expanding pressure forced him downwards faster. His young body was jolted against the safety cage several time on the way down. Pain blossomed in his elbow, ribs and head as the uncontrolled descent turned into an outright fall. The landing was the worst. The cracked concrete seemed to rush up to him and then slam his body hard, and Lucien was quite sure he heard a few ribs snapping. Overhead, thick plumes of smoke rose high into the air for all to see, Androids and humans alike.

Lucien was unaware of any of it. He knew pain and he knew danger, and he had to warn the others as quickly as possible. Gasping in agony, he began to try to crawl in the direction of Toni. His warnings were hoarse whispers for all that he tried to shout through the deafness that hummed in his ears. Lucien, stunned and bleeding, could only keep uttering the words, " 's a trap... Toni... Get out of here... It's a trap..."