Harry turned down his airmikes to shut out most of the groaning and crying around him, along with the highbred complaints of Claudia Cheng.

As soon as the rogue came back on radio he said to it: "You understand that these are not the two people I'm looking for?"

"You have made that plain. I am still intermittently in contact with the life-unit Satranji. He is providing no new information that would be of interest to you."

"You're stalling me, you b.l.o.o.d.y junkpile. I won't have it." Harry tilted up the muzzle of his carbine and blasted another twenty kilograms or so of delicate machinery, far enough away from all the naked people that none should be hit by flying fragments. He had no idea if it was anything of great importance to the rogue or not, but he could hope.

The rogue's response came in a tone of what sounded like philosophical detachment. "I had already computed such a reaction on your part was highly probable."

Before Harry could decide what to do next, the deck beneath his feet and the walls around him vibrated with some kind of explosion, or heavy impact, much more violent than anything else Harry had felt or heard since his arrival.

The small huddle of naked refugees screamed, and some of them tried to crawl under machinery in search of shelter.

Harry brushed away clutching arms, and demanded of the world: "What in h.e.l.l was that?"

The rogue had a calm answer ready. "An ED vessel identifiable a.s.ship of Dreams , the property of Winston Cheng Enterprises, has crash-landed at the other end of this installation, only about forty meters from the point where you entered. The damage to my structure is unimportant, that to the vessel is moderate. It will be no longer s.p.a.ceworthy. Can you explain this event?"

Harry hesitated momentarily. Then he said: "Partly. I'll tell you this much right away: There won't be any landing party coming off that one to attack you. They had nothing like that on board. Now you tell me something I can use."

The rogue said: "You will doubtless find the following information useful: The machine you have allied yourself with is a dedicated a.s.sa.s.sin, designed to have you, the individual Harry Silver, as its specific target. It will spare you only as long as you are useful."

"Something I can use, I said!" He called the voice in his helmet a filthy name. "That information isn't news at all." With words, and a few violent gestures, Harry started to get the people around him moving, toward the room where he had earlier discovered s.p.a.cesuits.

Before the rogue had framed an answer, there came a second crash, on the same scale of violence as the first. Harry in his heavy armor was staggered, clutched at a nearby wall to keep from going down.

A moment later Harry raised his head. Unprotected and unarmed humans were scattered all around him, trying to regain their feet. All had fallen except little Winnie, who had reestablished his clinging hold, this time on Harry's armored bulk. No one was seriously hurt, but he was going to have to try to get them all into suits and helmets. Yeah, in his spare time.

"Well?" he demanded on radio.

The rogue was of course unflappable. "A second object has just crash-landed, close beside the first. It, too, has sustained moderate damage. In this case I can make no certain identification. It might be an auxiliary of the a.s.sa.s.sin, except that certain subtle anomalies suggest a badlife attempt at deception."

Suddenly the machine was roaring at Harry again. It reported that strange fighting machines, obviously the slave-tools of badlife, were pouring out of the most recent arrival, hurling themselves into the ongoing battle . . .

Harry raised his free hand, the one not cradling the carbine, uselessly to the side of his helmet. "Go easy on my ears, you motherless, b.l.o.o.d.y . . ."

Several moments pa.s.sed before he could communicate coherently again. "Tell me if I'm wrong: this new hardware's neither on your side or the a.s.sa.s.sin's. I'll bet it's just waded in and is crunching both."

"It is attempting to do so, so far without notable success." The rogue did not sound much concerned. Of course it never did, apart from turning up or down the volume-as if, he thought, it were groping for ways to generate, or at least simulate, appropriate emotions.

Meanwhile, the little knot of human escapees cl.u.s.tering around Harry kept breaking apart, dissolving into individuals who tried to run away, then finding nowhere to run and coming together again, surrounding their lone rescuer.

Overriding outside management, gesturing fiercely at the naked people to let him alone for just a minute, he succeeded in establishing mental control of the volume in his helmet and turning it down. "I pa.s.sed through a locker room full of s.p.a.cesuits, rogue. Let's start getting these people into them."

"I do not object."

"You'd better not."

"In truth, Harry Silver, I allow you to have your way because I am gleaning a wealth of data on human behavior from this series of events. Also I approve your equipping my valuable specimens with protection."

"They're no more your b.l.o.o.d.y specimens, G.o.ddam it! You said you were giving them to me."

"That is still conditional upon your cooperation." The voice in Harry's helmet said: "Whatever the a.s.sa.s.sin machine has promised you, I will give more. Explain to me the nature of this deceptive device, or ship, whose arrival caused the second impact."

"If you mean what you say about giving me more, we've got a deal. Between you and my designated murderer, I'd rather be fighting on your side. But before I answer more questions, before I even stop trying to shoot your guts out, I want my people back. As soon as you show me convincing evidence that my two have been sent out of your reach, and the a.s.sa.s.sin's reach, that they're safely on their way to some badlife port or base-then I will help you in your fight."

Harry was d.a.m.ned if he could see how any berserker locked in a battle for survival was really going to take time out to pack two living prisoners-a.s.suming it had been lying and really had them-away to safety. That might be impossible even if it tried. But he could think of no better way to proceed with negotiations.

The rogue said: "Having survived the first surprise attack, Harry Silver, l am going to win this fight."

"All right, maybe you are-if you get the right help at the right time. So?"

"Obviously I will then need to reestablish my research facility in a different place, much more distant from berserker command. Disposing of your a.s.signed a.s.sa.s.sin will not solve your fundamental problem, nor will it solve mine. You and I have this in common: berserker command will be all the more determined to hunt us both down and wipe us out."

"Go on."

"From now on, Harry Silver, you can best protect your beloved life-units by distancing yourself from them. Therefore you would be well advised to accept the invitation I now offer: after they are sent to safety, or are confirmed dead, you should come with me when I seek to relocate. Together the two of us will have marvelous adventures."

"Adventures!If you think-" Harry choked and spluttered.

"What I think, Harry Silver, is that I have begun to understand you. You are like other life-units, in that what you say you want and what you really want may not be the same thing."

One of the naked strangers was grabbing at Harry's arm, imploring him to do something. Whatever it was, Harry couldn't listen to it. He shoved the stranger away, the unclad body backpedalling to sprawl on a flat deck.

To the rogue he snarled: "So find my woman and my boy, and get them to safety."

"I calculate that to find them, we must induce the life-unit Satranji to cooperate." The rogue's continued calm, no hint in the voice of breathlessness or even excitement, tended to make the conversation seem unreal.

"Then we'll do that. Can you get him in here somehow? He must have been aboard theShip of Dreams , probably piloting. Put him here in front of me, and we'll find out what he knows."

"That may be possible. I have established communication with the life-unit Satranji, who was aboard the first vehicle to crash into my structure."

"I want to establish communication with him too. But not just yet."

"I find that interesting," the rogue a.s.sured him.

Meanwhile the group had been moving on. The little mob of freed prisoners had followed Harry as far as the chamber he thought of as the locker room. Here he had started helping them get into s.p.a.cesuits. He was relieved to find that there seemed to be enough suits to go around, with a few left over-just in case someone else showed up.

Whatever locks Harry had not earlier shot away were now standing open, courtesy of the rogue, as Harry supposed. While he began helping people into suits, the rogue relayed what it said was Satranji's latest communication.

"He observes that a battle is in progress here, and demands that I give him an explanation. So far I have provided none."

"What about the other people who were with him? Are they still in Cheng's yacht?"

"He says nothing about other life-units, and I can spare none of my units to look for them. I have a.s.sured my prize goodlife of my great concern for his welfare, and advised him on how to avoid the regions of bitterest fighting here on the ground.

"Of course, Harry Silver, I would be pleased if the life-unit Satranji could effectively fight off the a.s.sa.s.sin's units for me. Like you, the Satranji-unit carried a moderately effective weapon, but like all life-forms he is very slow. If he is caught up in the firefight now taking place, I expect he will be promptly cured of life, his potential usefulness as a vehicle of discovery in my laboratory entirely wasted. Besides that, in combat how is he to distinguish the a.s.sa.s.sin's machinery from mine?" There was a pause, suggesting thoughtful humanity. "How are you to do so, if it comes to that?"

Harry said: "Get me my wife and son, and I'll figure out some way. You're right, nothing Satranji can do is going to tip the balance in this fight. So quit stalling. Find out where my two people are. What's the son of a snake done with them?"

"The life-unit Satranji has never told me that." There was a brief pause. "He is steadily making his way in this direction, and is currently about two hundred meters from your location. With my help he has bypa.s.sed the zone of hard current fighting. He repeats that he is mystified by the fierce fighting, and again demands to be told what is going on."

"But he doesn't have my people with him."

"Certainly not. Of course his first purpose in this reconnaissance is to determine whether I am likely to survive this battle which he finds so puzzling, and his second to discover the nature of my chief attacker.

He still knows nothing of my rogue status, and is astonished by the number and quality of machines attacking me. He cannot tell their origin."

Harry, carbine ready, was walking again, with a different gait, on the move in the direction where Satranji was supposed to be. The refugees would have to get themselves into suits as best they could. He was thinking that it wouldn't do to kill the b.a.s.t.a.r.d on sight, not until there was some information about Ethan and Becky. He said: "Tell him the attacking machines are secret weapons, made by the designer of theSecret Weapon ."

"I do not understand."

"He will, and he'll believe it. It may satisfy him for the moment. Tell him!"

Half a minute later the a.s.sa.s.sin's voice was back: "He accepts the answer, and speaks with confidence of soon being able to turn over to me the two life-units he has promised. Of course that cannot be possible, unless the units in question are already somewhere nearby."

Harry was grimacing, shaking his head. "Theycan't be aboard theSecret Weapon . That's just not possible. Are you telling me he's got Becky and Ethan somehow hidden on Cheng's yacht? That's not possible either."

The a.s.sa.s.sin said: "I know very little about the yacht. But the life-unit Satranji is in possession of another vessel, besides theShip of Dreams ."

"Another ship. Where? What are you talking about?"

"I loaned him a small ship in the early stage of our collaboration, and it has been an essential tool." The rogue went on to describe how, in the course of its relationship with Satranji, it had given him a small vessel called theChewing Pod , that it had captured in an earlier raid. Since then Satranji had evidently succeeded in keeping it hidden from all his human a.s.sociates.

Harry listened, pondering, while the rogue explained. There was no reason why Satranji could not have another small ship under his control, running it on autopilot somewhere in relatively nearby s.p.a.ce. He could have it following theShip of Dreams . As pilot of the yacht, he would probably have been able to keep to himself the fact that it was being followed.

Harry couldn't remember theChewing Pod 's name being on the official roster of missing ships-but that was a long list, and it was a long time since he had looked at it.

There came a lull in the fighting, with the rogue refraining for the moment from counterattack, while it tried to achieve the arrangement of life-units it wanted. The a.s.sa.s.sin's machines were maneuvering for position. The rogue reported that the berserker-bashers deployed from theSecret Weapon had proven inadequate for the job, and all or almost all of them were already reduced to junk. To anyone just arriving on the scene the battle might well seem to have concluded. The noise level had dropped to near silence.

"What do you intend to do, Harry Silver, when you confront the life-unit Satranji?"

"That can wait. Right now all I want to do is get around him, past him, and find my people, if they're somehow stuck on one of these d.a.m.ned ships. I'll demonstrate my intentions toward that rat-t.u.r.d when the time comes. If it comes. Are you trying to keep the two of us apart?"

The rogue had no immediate answer to that. All of Harry's little band of refugees had got themselves into suits. All had their helmets on and sealed, but, fortunately or unfortunately, Harry's was still the only radio that was functioning at all. As if he had given them orders, they were all following him in the direction of the docks, moving toward the damaged ships that offered the only possible means of escape.

Satranji was calling in to the rogue again, and this time it allowed Harry to listen in. It seemed that the goodlife man continually wanted to rea.s.sure himself that his giant partner was still functioning, and had at least a good chance of coming out on top in the current fight.

Harry prompted: "Tell him you want some solid evidence that the two specimens connected to me are still alive and in good condition."

"He has already a.s.sured me that they are."

"Glad to hear it. But none of your units have actually seen them."

"That is correct."

"Again, ask him who was on the ship with him. The ship that brought him here."

Harry's talk with the rogue was interrupted by another fierce outbreak of machine-on-machine violence, so for a few minutes at least the humans on board were relatively free to communicate with each other, and to some extent do what they would.

Except that just standing upright was something of a problem.

Satranji was back on radio, telling the rogue that the latest outbreak of fighting had forced him to retreat for a short distance and take shelter. But he was not going back to his ship, and would not bring his prisoners aboard the base, until he had satisfied himself as to just what was going on.

Then he does have them. Or at least he's still claiming to. Harry, listening in silence, kept reminding himself that nothing the man said could be taken at face value.

He also kept wondering what had happened to Cheng and Masaharu.

TWENTY-TWO.

The s.p.a.cesuits that Harry's little mob of refugees had put on were not designed for combat, and would offer small protection against anything worse than a lack of atmosphere. But having covered their bodies, the former prisoners were beginning to feel protected and a.s.sertive, and some were agitating for a quick completion of their escape.

Their suits' airspeakers were working if their radios were not. "Let's get going! Get us out of here!"

It was as if nothing that Harry had told them so far had really registered, nor had the sight of their fellow ED specimens, hanging on the wall. To do them justice, none of them had been able to hear any of his ongoing dialogue with the rogue.

"There's a couple of things that have to be taken care of first," he advised. Movement in the little knot of refugees was tending in the same direction that Harry was now moving, back toward the dock and the crashed ships.

One demanded of Harry: "Where's your ship?"

"Tell you what, you just run ahead and pick whichever one you like. Try and find one where the people aren't all dead. Then if you're in such a motherless hurry, just go on without me."

That earned him a small respite. But before they had gone much farther, Claudia Cheng had moved up to Harry's side. She tuned her suit's airspeaker to a low volume as they walked, and began whispering to him of the fantastic rewards that would be his if he could get her and her offspring out of this alive.

"I can't move!" This interruption came from little Winnie, whose mother had had to stuff him into a suit that was marginally too big, and the boy had good reason to complain. The child-sized suit was designed to allow various adjustments to be made by some controlling authority outside, and Harry reached over to turn off the whiner's airspeakers.

"Sure you can," he a.s.sured the suit's inmate, who was actually still capable of walking, after a fashion.

There was nothing to be done about the disparity in size.

Claudia was still pleading: ". . . I can see that this isn't going at all smoothly, and you might not be able to save everyone. But if you can get the two of us out-"

Harry cut her off. "You're high on the list of people to be saved, lady, because you've got junior here.

But you're still not right at the top."