"He's fine," Skyler said firmly. "He's just not yet over what happened on Argent, that's all."

"I understand that," Lathe said. "The fact remains that he's become a little ... unpredictable."

"He's fine," Skyler said again. "Besides, he's got a lot of specialized skills that none of the rest of us have, not to mention being our best pilot. We may need him."

Lathe shrugged. "Okay, it's your call. In that case, are you sure you don't want a larger group yourself?

We do have those new six-man drop pods.""I'll theoretically have Kanai and Phoenix to draw on," Skyler said. "Besides, I don't want to leave Plinry any more undefended than it already is. If this works, the Ryq are likely to be very unhappy with us."

"There's that," Lathe agreed soberly. "We'll need to make sure we've got something in place before we

go."

"I'll get Haven and De Vries to cover that," Skyler said. "But since you mention the six-man pods, let me go ahead and take Flynn, too."

"You want Pittman or Braune, too?" Lathe asked. "They know the area, at least a little."

"No, Flynn will do," Skyler said, looking innocently over at Mordecai. "If I can't have Mordecai, I can at least get his bag of bizarre tricks."

"There's nothing bizarre about any of them," Mordecai protested mildly. "It's all simple, clean combat

technique."

Lathe suppressed a smile. If there were any two blackcollars in his group that were a study in contrasts,

it was Skyler and Mordecai. Where Skyler was big, bluff, and pleasantly garrulous, Mordecai was small,

wiry, and seldom spoke.But when he did, he was usually worth listening to. "You've been very quiet, Mordecai. What do youthink about all this?"

"I was just thinking about a possibility neither of you has mentioned," the smaller man said. "Namely that this could be nothing more than a ploy to split us up and send us charging off in all directions."

"To what end?" Skyler asked.

Mordecai shrugged. "They've tried twice to beat us as a group," he said. "Maybe they think breaking us into smaller chunks will help."

"If they do, they're going to be sorely disappointed," Skyler rumbled. "Even with Caine's trainees aboard

we didn't exactly constitute a major assault force last year in Denver."

"I know," Mordecai said. "I'm just saying that if we do take this on, it may be the last mission for some of us."

"Maybe even for all of us," Lathe said quietly.

There was a moment of silence. "Well, no one promised we'd live forever," Skyler said at last. "I vote we go for it."

Mordecai half lifted a hand. "Agreed."

"Thank you," Lathe said, nodding to each in turn. "All right, we've got six weeks to prepare before

Lepkowski and the Novak get back. Let's get started." * * * Six weeks later, to Galway's quiet relief, Lathe, Caine, and a group of blackcollars boarded a shuttle at the Capstone 'port and headed into the sky to rendezvous with the massive Nova-class warship waiting for them. An hour later, the Novak left orbit and headed for the stars."Hor long?" Taakh asked as he and Galway watched the departure on the tracking monitor."About eight and a half days," Galway told him. "More, if Lepkowski has other stops to make along the way."

"Then it is tine to go," Taakh said. "Our Corsair rill take three and a hakh days. Re nust 'e there ren they arri'e."

"As you command, Your Eminence," Galway said with a sigh. After all the months he'd spent on Earth

and Khala, first locating Judas and then overseeing his training, the past six weeks had seemed to fly by. Now, once again, he was going to have to leave his wife, his home, and his world. He wondered if he would ever see any of them again.

CHAPTER 2.

With a jolt of shattered bolts, the drop pod released itself from the descending shuttle, throwing the five men inside into instant freefall. "Oof!" Flynn grunted as he gripped the straps holding him to his section of wall.

"Steady," Skyler warned, eyeing the young man closely in the dim light. "It's supposed to feel this way."

"Yes, thank you," Flynn managed between clenched teeth. "I'm okay."

"First time's always the hardest," O'Hara said soothingly. "Just take it easy and breathe through your

nose.""I'm okay," Flynn repeated. "It just feels like-well, we are falling, aren't we?""That we are," Skyler confirmed, watching the softly glowing altitude gauge. Another thirty seconds, he estimated. "But not for much longer."

"After that it'll be time for fun with hang gliders and mountain air currents," Hawking put in.

"Just remember that without a chute slowdown we're going to be coming in a lot faster than usual when

we pop," Skyler warned. "The gliders are designed to take the extra speed and stress, but be ready."

"I just hope Reger hasn't upgraded his security system since the last time we were there," Hawking muttered. "Dropping in on the man uninvited could prove hazardous to our health.""I thought you said you and Jensen installed the system," O'Hara said blandly. "How does one upgrade from perfection?"

"Good point," Hawking said dryly.

Skyler looked over at Jensen. But the other was gazing straight ahead, apparently lost in his own

thoughts.

A light on the altimeter flashed red. "Get ready," Skyler ordered, getting a grip on the release as he watched the gauge. "Five seconds ... three, two, one."He squeezed the release; and with a violent jerk and an upward rush of icy air, the drop pod's floor disintegrated. The wall sections came apart at the seams, flinging the five men attached to them into the

night sky.

For a few seconds Skyler clung tightly to his straps, watching the stars and the dark ground tumble crazily around each other. Then, with a snap of spring-loaded connectors, the wings of his hang glider extended themselves from both sides of his pod wall section. There were a few more seconds of vertigo, and then the glider leveled itself and he found himself hanging beneath the stars and his own gray canopy, swooping through the frigid air.

He took a deep breath, sternly ordering his stomach and inner ear to behave themselves as he looked around. He'd warned the others to expect a rough ride, but even he hadn't been quite prepared for just how rough it had been.

But he could see four other dark silhouettes blacking out the stars. Apparently, they'd all come through it

all right. "Report," he said into the mike curving around the side of his cheek.

One by one, the others checked in. "Good," Skyler said when they were finished. "Everyone turn due east -".

"Skyler?" Flynn cut in. "I think I've got a problem."

"What kind?" Skyler asked, frowning again at the other silhouettes. One of them was definitely dipping beneath the others.

"I'm not getting much lift," Flynn said. "I seem to be crabbing to the right, too."

"I see you," Hawking said. "Looks like your glider didn't completely deploy."

Skyler swallowed a curse. Five klicks over mountainous terrain was not the place for an equipment

malfunction. "Can you get to him?" he asked.

"I've got him," Jensen put in before Hawking could answer. "Hold as level as you can, Flynn."

"Trying."

Across the distance, Skyler saw one of the silhouettes make a tight curve and head back toward the

sinking glider. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I'll start with the whack-it-with-a-hammer approach," Jensen said. "If that doesn't work, we'll have to try something else."

The two gliders had come together now, merging into one oversized shadow far below the others.

Across the night breeze, Skyler heard a dull thud as Jensen slammed his nunchaku into the glider rib connectors. "Well?" O'Hara asked.

"Nothing," Jensen said. There was another thud, then two more in rapid succession. "Not looking good,"

he said grimly. "I guess it's papoose time. Flynn, I'm going to come over you and hook us together."