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The ladies would normally have ascended rather more rapidly than Al, who was best characterized as quick but not fast. With their load however, they were slower – the drone took much of the weight, but it was still awkward. As such, he assumed the tail-end-Charlie position, scanning their backtrail and the camp, initially with his naked cybereyes, and then through his rifle scope as they moved higher.
Their climb was still pretty quick – Becky was inhumanly (indryadly???) fit, while Lily was more like a flesh-enhanced machine than vice versa (at least physically speaking). Al nonetheless held his breath as they got higher, one finger on his rifle’s trigger, and his commlink with the explosives key in easy reach.