"What's that?" I asked, grinning. I was delighted with the results of my belt-fed baby.

She gave a "playful" punch on the arm, my old buddy. I yelped in pain.

"Where's an uninjured place on your body?" she asked.

"That's a very good question. I think tumbling down the airstrip eliminated all of those."

"Same here," she said. "But you can still make a great pumpkin pie." She kicked at the disgusting remains on the ground.

"Shall we find the top of the mouse house?" I suggested.

"After you, Fly."

In battlefield conditions, a proper gentleman goes ahead of the lady. If she asks, anyway. I was happy to oblige; but the nose of my machine gun actually preceded both of us.At the very top we found a prize.

The door wasn't even locked. Inside was a room full of computers hooked into a new collection of alien biotech. This stuff gave off a stench, and some of it made mewling sounds like an injured animal. I wished Jill could be with us, plotting new ways of becoming a technovivisectionist.

"Got to be it," said Arlene.

I had trouble making out her words, not because my hearing was impaired, but because of the noise level.

My machine gun contributed a good portion of it. So did Arlene's shotgun. And there were several explo- sions. A nice fanfare as we blew away unsuspecting imps and zombies tending the equipment.

I picked up a fibergla.s.s baton off the body of an ex- zombie guard and used it to bar the door. I expected more playmates along momentarily. The idea didn't even bother me; not so long as I could buy us some time.

Arlene waved the smoke away and began fiddling with the controls on the main console. She frantically started flipping one push-switch after another, look- ing for the one that would kill the field.

"There has to be a way of doing this," she said, "or finding out if we've already done it.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Well, what if the aliens wanted to fly to Hawaii?"

I nodded. "I can just see a pinkie in one of those Hawaiian shirts."

"d.a.m.n! I wish we had Jill and Ken with us."

"Defeats the whole purpose, A.S. They're ready and waiting, forty thousand up, ready to blow for the islands as soon as we cut the b.l.o.o.d.y field."

"Most of the switches require a psi-connection to activate, and I can't do that!"

By now there was a huge contingent pounding on the door. The fibergla.s.s bar was holding them ... so far. These sounds did not improve Arlene's psycho- logical state or aid the difficult work she was trying to do.

"I'm not getting it," she said. "I'm close, but I'm not getting it. d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n . . ."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Hold the door. Hold the door! I'm sure there's one special b.u.t.ton, but how will I know it even if I find it?"

As if to mock her, the entire panel went dark right then. She looked up and saw . . .

Me. Me, her buddy. Fly Taggart, technical dork, first-cla.s.s. In my hand I held a gigantic electrical cord that I'd sliced in half with my commando knife. I knew that knife would come in handy one day.

"When in doubt, yank it out," I said with a smile.

She tried to laugh but was too tired for any sound to come out. "Did you learn that in VD cla.s.s?" she asked.

I was saved from answering her because the door started to give way under the onslaught. Then the shred of a feeble plan crept into my brain. I ran across to the windows and smashed them open.We were forty stories high, looking straight down on concrete, but it seemed better to open the windows than leave them closed.

"We took the energy wall down, at least," I said over my shoulder. "Jill's got to notice it's gone and tread air for Hawaii."

Arlene nodded, bleak even in victory. She was thinking of Albert ... I didn't need alien psionics to know that. "The War Techies will track her as an 'unknown rider,'" added Arlene bleakly, "and they'll scramble some jets; they should be able to make contact and talk her down."

"Would you say the debt is paid?"

I didn't have to specify which debt. Arlene consid- ered for a long time. "Yeah," she said at last, "it's paid."

"Evens?"

"Evens."

"Great. Got a hot plan to talk us down?" I asked my buddy.

She shook her head. I had a crazy wish that before Albert was blinded, and before Arlene and I found ourselves in this cul-de-sac, I'd played Dutch uncle to the two love birds, complete with blessings and un- wanted advice.

But somehow this did not seem the ideal moment to suggest that Arlene seriously study the Mormon faith, if she really loved good old Albert. A sermon on why it was better to have some religion, any religion, lay dormant in my mind.

Also crossing my mind was another sermon, on the limitations of the atheist viewpoint, right before your mortal body is ripped to shreds. Bad taste, especially if you delivered it to someone with only precious seconds left to come up with a hot plan.

She shook her head. "There's no way," she began, and then paused. "Unless . . ."

"Yes?" I asked, trying not to let the sound of a hundred slavering monsters outside the door add panic to the atmosphere.

Arlene stared at the door, at the console, then out the window. She went over to the window like she had all the time in the world and looked straight down.

Then up. For some reason, she looked up.

She faced me again, wearing a big, crafty, Arlene Sanders smile. "You are not going to believe this, Fly Taggart, but I think-I think I have it. I know how to get us down and get us to Hawaii to join Albert."

"And Jill," I added. I nodded back, convinced she'd finally cracked. "Great idea, Arlene. We could use a vacation from all this pressure."

"You don't believe me."

"You're right. I don't believe you."

Arlene smiled slyly. She was using the early-worm- that-got-the-bird smile. "Flynn Taggart. .. bring me some duct tape from the toolbox, an armload of computer-switch wiring, and the biggest, G.o.dd.a.m.ned boot you can find!"