Mario and Millicent Kent
By now the light was about the same color as the ash and clinkers in the bottom of a Weber Grill. The U.S.S. Millicent Kent was leading them in a set of slightly diminishing circles.
Context
The supposed tripod-hunt in the E.T.A. woods: Millicent Kent walks Mario in a slowly tightening spiral while working up to her confession and lunge — the predator's path is an inward circle. (Bonus: "clinkers" in the adjacent sentence — the burnt-fusion-residue word Hal will etymologize at p. 524.)