The Commandant nodded. 'Firing squad straight after reveille tomorrow.'

Hakon saluted. 'Sir!' He turned to the guerrillas. 'Come on you lot, move!'

They filed out. As she pa.s.sed Lieutenant Hakon, Peri, who was last in line, put her hand to her head, staggered as if dizzy and fell against him. She clutched at his lapels to steady herself and her knee flashed up, hard and fast.

Hakon gasped and doubled up, clutching his groin.

The guards at the door raised their blasters then lowered them at a gesture from the Commandant.

Painfully the Lieutenant straightened up, clawing for the holstered blaster in his belt.

'You'll suffer for that, you b.i.t.c.h.'

Peri stepped back, spreading her hands.

'What are you going to do, Lieutenant? Shoot me?'

'You'll be glad to die by the time I've finished with you.'

'Let's not be precipitate, Lieutenant,' said the Commandant.

'I warned you to be careful. Now, take them away and follow my orders.'

'Sir,' said Hakon sulkily.

'And Lieutenant?'

'Sir?'

'You will follow my orders exactly exactly, please. It's our duty to kill these people, we don't have to brutalise them.'

They were marched along endless corridors and finally shoved into an empty storeroom at the edge of the base. Flanked by two armed guards, Lieutenant Hakon halted them outside the door, and stood surveying his captives, as if reluctant to be parted from them.

His eyes fixed on Gina. 'You're not too bad. A bit skinny, but not too bad. Fancy a good time before you go?'

He grabbed her by the chin, raising her face to his.

Gina's slender body went rigid and she began to shudder.

Her big eyes stared blankly ahead.

Puzzled and repelled, Hakon released her. 'What's the matter with her?'

'She can't stand to be touched,' said Peri.

'Why not?'

'She was gang-raped by some of your troops when the first wave landed.'

'Some girls have all the luck,' said Hakon. He grabbed Peri by the upper arm, fingers biting into her flesh. 'And as for you you're lucky the Commandant is one of the old school, or I'd have made your last night one to remember.'

Peri stood motionless, ignoring the pain. 'Why don't you just obey your orders exactly exactly, Lieutenant?' Her eyes met his.

'I could have killed you back in the Commandant's office. I still could.'

She drew back her arm, hand flattened, edge level with his throat.

Hastily Hakon released her and stepped back.

'All right, get inside, all of you. Don't get any ideas. There'll be armed guards outside the door all night, and more guards patrolling the perimeter.' He stood back as they filed inside. 'I'll see you all in the morning briefly. I'll be commanding the firing squad.'

'Don't shoot yourself in the foot,' said Peri. 'And don't forget our supper.'

The door slammed behind them.

Some hours later, Peri, Kyrin and Gina were sitting around the walls of an empty storeroom munching glumly at the contents of standard-issue field ration packs. The packs held a variety of nutrient cubes that felt, and tasted, like plastic.

'Where's the smoked zargil zargil and the and the akkeen akkeen?' grumbled Kyrin.

'We did better feeding ourselves.'

'You can thank the Commandant we're even getting this muck,' said Peri. 'That Lieutenant would have spent the hours between now and dawn beating the s.h.i.t out of us that, and worse.'

She glanced at Gina. She was still shaking, although she'd recovered enough to suck on the tube of a flask of self-heating soup. Gina had been a schoolteacher and she'd led a sheltered life until she'd run into a group of enemy soldiers on their way back to barracks after a night out.

'I suppose we'd better make the best of it,' said Kyrin.

'Those poor b.u.g.g.e.rs out there will be eating it for months, maybe years.'

'I doubt it,' said Peri. 'You heard the Commandant. We're the last guerrilla group. Now we're all gone they'll be able to pacify the planet.'

Surprisingly, Gina spoke. 'They'll turn it over to factory farming to feed their armies. It'll ruin the ecology.'

Sylvana was an incredibly fertile planet, with rich soil, lush vegetation and a climate range from temperate to tropical. You could grow anything there in vast quant.i.ties, if you were ruthless enough. In time the planet would become drained, burnt out. Not that that would worry the enemy, thought Peri. They'd just conquer another planet and start again.

'Right now the ecology is the least of my worries,' said Kyrin. He'd been a farmer once, until the invasion forces had rolled across his land.

'What you reckon, boss? Any chance we'll get out of this?'

He looked hopefully at Peri, convinced she could perform miracles.

Peri nodded towards the door. 'Armed guards out there.' She tapped the plastisteel wall she was leaning against. 'We'd never get through here without explosives or power tools. And even if we did, there are the perimeter guards.'

'What about the morning?'

Peri shrugged. 'We'll be under heavy armed guard again all the way to the firing squad.'

'Should have had a go in the cave,' grumbled Kyrin. 'Taken a few with us.'

'If we'd had a go, we'd be dead now,' said Peri. 'Like Marko and Brand and Lon. They didn't take anyone with them.'

'So? What do we gain by hanging it out?'

'A few more hours of life. As a friend of mine used to say, never give up till you're dead. There's always hope.'

'Yeah?' said Kyrin sceptically. 'What are we supposed to hope for? A miracle?'

'Why not?'

It was then they heard the low roar in the distance, and the plastisteel walls started to vibrate.

The roar grew louder.

'Retro-rockets,' said Kyrin. 'It's a battle fleet, a big one, somewhere close.'

Peri nodded. 'Maybe we've got our miracle after all.'

They jumped to their feet and stood listening. Other, closer sounds blended with the roar of the rocket motors. They heard the howl of alarm sirens, the sound of pounding feet, shouted orders and cries of alarm.

Then came the solid crump of laser-cannon, shaking the whole room.

'We've got to get out of here,' said Kyrin. 'One of those laser-blasts. .h.i.ts too close, and we'll be taken out by friendly fire.'

He began pounding on the storeroom door. 'Hey, you out there, let us out! We could all get killed in here!'

'No use,' said Peri. 'I doubt if they're worrying about our health much right now.'

To her astonishment the storeroom door suddenly slid open.

Lieutenant Hakon stood in the corridor, wild-eyed and trembling. There was a blaster in his hand, two guards with laser-rifles behind him 'What's happening?' demanded Peri.

'We're under attack,' said Hakon, an edge of panic in his voice. 'The base is being evacuated. It won't be possible to carry out your execution as planned.'

'You mean it's postponed?' asked Kyrin hopefully.

'No,' said Hakon. 'Brought forward.' He stepped aside and turned to the two guards. 'Don't just stand there shoot them.

Shoot them all down!'

Chapter Three.

Escape 'Wait!' shouted Peri. There was so much authority in her voice that the two guards actually waited. 'Have you got the Commandant's authority to do this?'

Hakon shook his head. 'This is a piece of personal initiative on my part.' He glared at the guards. 'Now, shoot them. That's a direct order.'

'Don't do it,' snapped Peri. 'He's giving you an unlawful command. If you obey, you'll be committing a war crime. When the other side take over, you'll be executed yourselves.'

The guards hesitated.

'Shoot them!' screamed Hakon. 'Or must I do it myself?'

He raised his blaster just as Peri spun sideways on her right foot, bringing her left leg round in a scything sweep that took his feet from under him.

As he crashed to the ground, Peri and Kyrin leapt over his body and sprang tiger-like on the two confused guards.

One fell as Kyrin's fist smashed him under the jaw. Peri dropped the other with a chopping blow to the neck with the edge of her hand.

It happened so fast that, as the two soldiers fell, Hakon was still scrambling onto his hands and knees. He fired wildly from the ground and Gina fell.

Furiously, Peri hurled herself at him, landing with both knees on the small of his back, flattening him to the ground and slamming his head against the floor with savage force. He went limp, unconscious or dead. She s.n.a.t.c.hed the blaster from his hand and jumped up.

She went over to Gina and knelt to examine the body.

'She's dead I think her heart stopped.'

Kyrin said, 'She was never very strong.'

He lifted the slight body and laid it gently to the ground in a corner of the storeroom.

Peri reminded herself that there was no time to mourn. 'Get the guards' rifles and put the bodies into the storeroom.'

Between them they bundled the three bodies into the storeroom. Peri touched the door-control and the door slid shut.

'Now what?' asked Kyrin.

'We get out,' said Peri. 'Get out and make contact with the other side.' She looked down the corridor. 'We'll go this way and try to find a perimeter exit.'

'We'll never make it. The place is full of enemy troops.'

'Full of retreating retreating enemy troops,' corrected Peri. 'They'll be too busy saving their own skins to worry about us.' enemy troops,' corrected Peri. 'They'll be too busy saving their own skins to worry about us.'

Peri was right. The endless grey corridors were filled with soldiers carrying boxes and crates and files and weapons. Acrid smoke drifted along the corridors. Somewhere, somebody was burning secret files, thought Peri.

They pa.s.sed a big open storage area with lines of soldiers grabbing crates from the shelves and scurrying away with them.