"Probably. Nonetheless, he was talking about settling this whole planet-"

"He's most likely not too worried, since he's only settling a continent at a time. This one he figures he can mess up."

"A shame. It looks quite nice the way it is."

"I think that's the idea. A whole island continent for hunters to joyously plunder, free from restrictions and rules."

"Paradise."

"Or h.e.l.l."

"Depends on your point of view."

Machiko thought for a while as the verdant land swept under the rotors and body of the copter.

"Til, something's going on here, something more than Evanston's told us about," she said finally.

Attila nodded. "I think we should talk about that. Put the pieces together . . .".

"I'm almost afraid to."

"I don't know."

"Sure you do. It's that gift-horse phenomenon."

"Yeah. But still-it's better than where I came from."

Attila sniffed. "We'll see about that."

"What, you want to go back?"

"I didn't say that. I'm just performing my function."

"What? Being a G.o.dd.a.m.ned stick in the mud?"

"No. Being someone you can bounce ideas off of. Still, I'm ent.i.tled to my opinions, right?"

"I can think of a few other things to bounce off of you at this moment." "You'd be so lonely without me." He smiled. Needling was such a gentle revenge. Machiko knew that deep down in his m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic heart, Attila was rather enjoying it. Truth was, he was probably just wondering if he'd have to actually transform all that theory he was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with into practicality-and if the wise sage would get reduced to rubble in the process.

"Well, nothing untoward so far on sensors. You wouldn't have noticed anything, would you, with your special little nodes?"

"A great many things, but nothing that sends needles into the red."

"We'll just bank and take a look at the northwest quadrant awhile and then go back, okay?"

Attila nodded. "Fair enough."

The android didn't seem in a real hurry to get back to the fun and games of Evanstonville; he was just clearly not thrilled with being aloft, flying over unknown territory.

The wild land swept below them, a verdant carpet of mysterious life.

Machiko perused it in silence. Such a huge area. How could they possibly hope to find any sign, any clue of what was going on there in just a quick field trip?

Nonetheless, they did.

She was about to call it a day when Attila spoke up. "I hate to admit this, but I see something."

"Where?"

He gave her the navigational reading, and she checked it on her scope.

Activity in a clearing.

Small things.

Big thing.

"Whoa!" she said, pulling up short and hovering for a moment. She thought about it and then lowered to a position still within sight of the scene, but far enough away not to attract undue attention. Then she punched up sensor screens and thumbed her telescopic step-ups.

"It's some kind of big lizard being attacked by smaller creatures."

Attila nodded "I can't tell what kind, and I can't see what the creatures are."

"I have a suspicion. And if they're what I think they are, I don't want to go hovering around in that area." She pointed down to another adjacent plain.

"I've got to have a look, though."

"I was afraid of that," said Attila. "Can't we just zip over and take some pictures?"

She shook her head. "If they're what I think they are, they'll know we know about them, and I'm not sure that's good."

"Better to be safe than sorry." "And what is knowledge and the value of surveillance and intelligence?"

"Power," Attila said in a small voice.

"Exactly."

They landed.

"I want you to stay here," she said.

"Look, I may act truculent, but my job is to be by your side."

"I appreciate that, Attila. However, I need you here to keep the engines going in case we need a speedy takeoff."

"Perhaps I should go and reconnoiter and you can stay here."

"What? And let me miss all the fun? Besides, you're the reluctant one, aren't you?"

"Perhaps I am the careful one."

"Precisely. And I appreciate that. Sometimes, though, there are things that have to be done. And, Attila, this is something I have to do. This could be the key to everything."

"You could get yourself killed, too."

She shrugged. "Obviously. I also could have fallen out of my bureaucratic chair back on Dullworld and broken my neck. Now keep things revved up here. I won't be long."

She grabbed the camera, a blaster, and a weapons belt and hopped out of the copter, giving the rotors a wide berth. Quickly she loped up the gra.s.sy knoll separating the fields and then skulked through a large copse of trees. She was glad the copter was quiet; if the subjects of her quest here were as involved as she thought they were, they wouldn't have noticed the copter at its distance. She supposed they should have gotten just close enough to get a make on them and split. However, something deep inside her wanted some action, wanted to get closer. Was she being reckless? She thought not. There was something more down here than could be recorded through a telescopic lens.

And she had to see it for herself.

She made her way through the trees and underbrush, finally coming out through a glen to a perch above the clearing. Halfway through she began to hear the sounds of a most peculiar battle. Roars and snarls and cries. She could smell blood and conflict in the air.

She looked out.

Standing on its hind legs in the slight valley below, lunging and slas.h.i.+ng at its attackers, was a thirty-foot-tall beast with a tail the size of a large tree, teeth and claws the size of butcher knives.

The attackers were ten yautja.

They could have been members of her old pack. But, then, Predators had no particularly variable fas.h.i.+on consciousness. They pretty much all wore the same kinds of clothing and armor. They were using spears and other manual weapons to deal with the creature, although a couple stood in the background with plasma pushers. This was a baiting game, clearly, not particularly in therealm of honorable.

She'd somehow expected to see Predators here and was glad that her hunches were paying off. It was good to have that knowledge. However, the beast provided the biggest surprise.

She'd never seen it before. She recognized it from books.

It was a tyrannosaurus rex.

So that was one of the things that the big DNA factory had been up to. It made a lot of sense. She'd heard that the biotechnology was available to bring back monsters of the past not just from old DNA, but from actually building DNA patterns according to specifics. She had just never seen it in use before.

Hard to imagine it done on a more dramatic level.

This was a ferocious beast, carnivorous savagery gleaming in its beady eyes. Blood rivuleted from cuts in its side and front, and a spear poked from its neck. However, all those p.r.i.c.ks and nicks seemed only to have enraged it further.

The Predators appeared to be actually on the verge of retreating-or of using their stronger weapons. Clearly, they had bitten off more than they could chew.

She took out some binocs to have a closer look. Ranged it over the warriors . . .

And stopped on one.

Oh, G.o.d.

Shorty.

She tried to correct the focus, but it was sharp as a pin. A little bigger, a little more battered, but all the armor and other visuals aligned-this was the Predator who hated her.

Too bad she couldn't have killed him when she had the chance.

What was more, he seemed to be gesturing and carrying on as though he were in charge, orchestrating this odd exercise against the dinosaur. And not having a very good time, from the looks of it.

They were going to have to kill the beast, no question, and then immolate it or something; presumably the Hunters were operating secretly here, just as they always had on populated planets, and they wouldn't want their presence known. Should Evanston find one of his T-rexes dead from a spear wound (or blaster burns), he'd certainly have a better take on the mysterious things happening on his world.

Her mind was spinning with conjecture and speculation.

So much so, that she hardly heard the sound of the leaves rustling, the snapping of a twig.

Nonetheless, something deeper alerted her: a rising of her hackles, a deeper instinctual alarm.

She turned and saw the Hunter behind the tree. Instantly, she realized how lucky she'd been. Doubtless, if they'd realized they would have had to deal with intelligent prey, they would have worn their cloaks. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d might have sneaked right up on her But then again, after living with them, after working with them, she rather doubted it.

Anyway, it gave her warning. The fact that he wasn't there to make friends was immediately apparent. He had his own blaster and was raising it to fire.

She was fast with her own, but not fast enough.

Nonetheless, at the same time, she was able to jump back and away. The edge of the jagged spout of energy caught the bore of her own weapon, and she let it go. It slammed against a tree and exploded. She rode the force, tumbling down a hill. Leaping to her feet, she used the momentum of her fall to give her a head start.

By the time the Predator swung around to shoot at her again, she was well away, running through a batch of tree boles.

She weaved helter-skelter.

Dodged.

Bark exploded next to her. She could feel the burn of the weapon's blast but did not take a moment to look back. She dived behind the bole of another tree, careful not to allow the vines growing at its base to impede her. Just down the glade, sunlight poured through an opening that she'd come through to get her view of the proceedings on the other side of the hill. If she could get through there, she'd have a clear run for the copter. Attila, seeing her coming, would be ready to take off immediately, and they'd have a chance ....

She leaped down the hill.

Ran into the clearing.

All the while behind her she heard the sounds of cras.h.i.+ng pursuit.

She wondered if she should stop and make her stand. She had a pistol, and she could hide behind a tree. If worst came to worst, she could use the knife in her boot. The Hunter had a blaster, and even if they got off the ground, theoretically he could take a successful shot and destroy them both.

One of Machiko's talents was for quick, good decisions. Had she still been running with the pack, had she still been in that honor-is-everything frame of mind, doubtless she would have spun around and attacked her attacker.

However, her gut instinct was that her best hope for survival was to run for the copter.

Besides, life was just getting good.

She broke through into the clearing, began running for her life. Machiko noted to herself that next time she went on one of these little jaunts, she was going to bring along a radio unit. She just hadn't intended to leave the copter-this was supposed to be only a quick reconnaissance. Anyway, she had to live now with the realization that she couldn't contact Attila.

Which was unfortunate, in light of the fact that when she stormed down that ridge pell-mell, there was no sign of copter or Attila. She hardly paused. She kept on running. Across the clearing were more woods and cover. If she could make that, there was a chance.

The thought pounded in her head, though: What happened to Attila?

A blast ripped a fiery divot just to her right side. She zigzagged, dodging any other burst. In doing so she caught sight of the Predator, pounding into the sunlight, armed and ready for anything. Hardly a sight fiercer in the universe, and this was no ground on which to fight the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

Her lungs aching, she hurled herself toward her objective.

She expected to feel the blast of a bolt in her back at any moment. No, she thought. No, came the voice of the warrior in her.