slingshot as he surveyed his work.

"I'm fine," Skyler assured him, looking up at the stars overhead. Paral-dart guns meant Security, and

Security meant high-flying spotters. He wondered how much of the brief battle they'd seen. "Let's get inside."

Kanai was waiting inside the front door, and together they went back to the house's well-stocked library.

Reger was seated in a large chair near the center, with a couple of bodies on the floor behind him and two uniformed Security officers posed stiffly against one wall. Standing watch over the whole thing was Hawking. "Any problems?" Skyler asked as they joined him.

Hawking shook his head. "Most of them were conveniently grouped in the dining room, standing guard over the house men. The roamers were a little more trouble, but not much.""Good." Skyler turned to Reger. "Nice to see you again, Mr. Reger.""The pleasure's all yours," Reger countered sourly. "Skyler, isn't it?""Yes," Skyler confirmed. He nodded toward the Security men. "Who are your friends?""Nobody in this room qualifies as a friend," Reger retorted. "What the hell are you doing here, anyway?"

"Making trouble," Skyler said, looking at the Security men. "And you are ...?"

"General Avral Poirot, Denver Chief of Security," the older man identified himself, his voice as stiff as his posture but calm and professional for all that. "This is Assistant Chief Colonel Pytor Bailey. I see tonight's drop was personnel, not equipment. My mistake."

"Mistakes happen," Skyler said. So even with their new nonchuted drop pod's faster descent, Security had still spotted it. That was useful to know. He hoped Lathe's zip line insertion on Khala had worked out better. "So was this just a social visit?"

Poirot snorted. "Please, Commando. The very fact that you're in this room proves our suspicions of

Reger and his Resistance connections were right."

Reger swore under his breath. "Oh, that's wonderful," he ground out. "Just wonderful. Thank you, Skyler, thank you so very much."

"A temporary problem only," Skyler assured him. "The general and colonel are about to graduate from the third type of person to the fourth."

"What?" Reger asked, frowning.

"Never mind," Skyler said. "Private joke. Would you be so kind as to show Hawking where you keep your Whiplash supply?"

Reger shook his head. "I don't have any.""None?" Skyler asked. "I would have thought you'd be-""You thought wrong," Reger cut him off. "Phoenix has it all."Skyler looked at Kanai, noting the hard set of the other's mouth. Part of the argument he was having with the organization? "Then I guess we'll have to go get it from them," he said, turning back to Poirot.

"What are your spotters' orders, General?"

Poirot looked at the others, perhaps wondering if cooperation would violate his loyalty-conditioning.

"They're to stay at high altitude and watch," he said. "Though of course they'll have heard my warning.

They're probably trying to contact us right now, preparatory to calling in reinforcements." He raised his eyebrows. "If you'd like, I could get on the comm and send them away."

Skyler smiled cynically. "Of course you could."

"Really," Poirot assured him. "What's Whiplash?"

"Nothing you need concern yourself with just now," Skyler said, walking over to them. "Pleasant

dreams." His hand snapped out to slam a punch behind Bailey's right ear and then backfist Poirot behind

his left.

Both men dropped without even a gasp, Skyler catching Poirot beneath his arms as he fell. "Well, don't just stand there," he said, turning back to the others. "We'll take the Security cars-might as well listen in on what they're up to while we drive."

"Are we taking both men?" Kanai asked.

Skyler looked down at Bailey's crumpled form. He had no problem with giving Whiplash to both men, certainly, but blatantly kidnapping two senior Security officers might stir up more trouble than he really wanted just now. Besides, if Phoenix had been doing its job, they would have built up personality and operational profiles on all of Denver's Security officers, and it would be better to leave one of them here than to have the Ryqril bring in a complete unknown from Dallas or San Francisco to take over. "No,

just the general," he told Kanai. "Get out there and see if you're going to have any trouble starting the cars."

"So that's it?" Reger growled. "You come into my house, bounce a bunch of Security men around, and

then just leave?"

"You're welcome to join us," Skyler offered as he hoisted Poirot up onto his shoulder. "If not, I'm sure you can explain this to the follow-up group."

"You leave me so much choice," Reger bit out as he reluctantly got to his feet. "Where do you propose

we go?"

"Let's start with a place where we can keep General Poirot quiet and incommunicado," Skyler said. "I trust you and Kanai have some idea where Phoenix's safe houses are?"

Reger shot a look at Kanai. "Personally, I wouldn't trust anything those amateurs set up," he said. "But I

have a couple places of my own that should work. Assuming we get there in one piece, then what?" "Then we go look up Anne Silcox," Skyler said grimly. "And find out what the hell she and her group are doing." * * * Between the drag of the crosswinds and the weight of Flynn's glider still tethered beneath his, Jensen wasn't quite able to make it over the final row of hills he'd been aiming for. Instead, the two men landed on the northern slope of one of them, fifty meters below the crest.

It was just as well they hadn't gotten any farther.

"So that's Aegis Mountain," Flynn murmured from beside Jensen as they lay flat on their bellies at the

top of the hill.

"That's the place," Jensen said, a prickly sensation crawling across his skin. At the bottom of their ridge, perhaps half a klick away, a wide highway wound its way through the mountains, disappearing around

hills in both directions. Away to their left, on the far side of the highway, a black mountain with a wide

metal doorway set into its base rose majestically against the night sky.

And filling most of the space between the road and mountain, nestled right up against the slope, were the lights and domed buildings and perimeter wall and huge sensor-controlled laser cannon of a full-scale Ryqril military base.

"Good thing we didn't have any more altitude," Flynn said. He was obviously trying to sound casual, but even in a whisper Jensen could hear the tension in his voice. "That base is bigger than I expected.""I know," Jensen heard himself say. "It's bigger than I expected, too."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Flynn turn to face him. "What?"Jensen nodded toward the base. "It's bigger than it was last year," he said. "A lot bigger. Come on, let's get out of here."

Carefully, they backed down the hill until they were well below the summit and out of range of both prying eyes and line-of-sight autotarget lasers. "You think they've gotten into the mountain?" Flynn whispered as they crouched together in the shadows at the base of a tall pine tree.

"I doubt it," Jensen said, playing the image of the encampment through his mind. "All the equipment I could see under the entrance overhang looked like heavy tunneling and metalwork machinery. That would suggest they're still trying to cut their way through the various doors. Besides, if they'd broken through I'd think they'd have flown a few flag officers in for the occasion, and I didn't see any of those sawtooth-edged rank banners flying anywhere." He grimaced. "But they sure seem to have decided to up their ante on the project."

Flynn was silent a moment. "Maybe they know about Whiplash," he suggested.

"And are hoping to find data about it?" Jensen shrugged. "Could be. Either that, or their war with the

Chryselli is getting more desperate than we thought and they're looking for something-anything-to tilt the odds back in their favor."

"I suppose that qualifies as good news for our side," Flynn said doubtfully. "Provided they don't actually

find some nice superweapon in there."

"If we'd had any superweapons, we sure as hell would have used them," Jensen pointed out, gazing up at

the stars peeking through the pine tree's branches. "But it's all academic, because they're not going to get in."

"I hope you're right."

"We're going to make sure I'm right," Jensen said firmly, straightening up. "Come on."

"Where are we-?"

He broke off as Jensen's hand flicked warningly toward his mouth. There had been the sound of

movement over to their left ...Jensen's shuriken pouch was in his left coat pocket. He drew one of the throwing stars with one hand as he signaled Flynn to stay put with the other. Shifting the shuriken to his right hand, he eased his way to the next tree over, and then the next, his senses stretched out in full combat mode. The sound came again -.

And from around a clump of bushes, a Ryq stepped into view.

Jensen felt his breath freeze in his throat. Had their gliders been spotted? Or had he and Flynn tripped

some defense sensors he'd missed?

But the Ryq didn't seem to be searching for anyone or anything. On the contrary, his pace and posture were almost casual, certainly not the intense look of a soldier searching for suspected intruders. A sentry, then, walking his assigned territory with the low-level watchfulness of a warrior who hadn't run into any trouble for weeks in a row and wasn't expecting any tonight.

Under other circumstances, Jensen would have been more than happy to stay out of the alien's evening entirely. Unfortunately for the Ryq, his meandering walk was taking him straight toward the tree where Flynn was crouching. Hefting the shuriken in his hand, Jensen did a quick check of the rest of the area.

And as the Ryq half turned to face his direction he hurled the weapon straight into the other's throat.

With no sound except the muffled thud of his impact, the alien collapsed to the ground.Flynn was standing over the body when Jensen got there, nunchaku at the ready. "I think he's dead," the boy whispered, his body trembling slightly with adrenaline reaction.