"An accurate evaluation, snake. Now be so good as to produce the two Lieutenants and their civilian companion immediately or ..... HOLY.... !"

There was a confused scrabbling sound at the other end of the linkup.

"What's happening around them?" said Mal, eyes glued to the single magnifier. Porsupah edged him out of the way.

The sea around the three ships seemed to be boiling. A puff of white smoke issued from one of the subs, followed by similar puffs from the others. Muffled explosions followed. Water geysered heavenward in several places close by two of the vessels. The ocean heaved convulsively.

The blue-green water under the ships seemed to turn gray, then black as ink. Two massive glistening pseudopods, the limbs of some impossible amorphous sea-deity, rose out of the water on either side of the two, arching and meeting overhead. Even without the aid of the magnifier, both Mal and Kitten could see puffs of red-yellow exploding against the horror. They were carried off by the wind as though they were smoke and not the places where armor-piercing missiles impinged and shattered. Energy screens flared and died, coils overloaded. The two pseudopods formed an obscene cathedral over the crazily rocking ships, hung frozen for an instant.

Then it came down.

The waters swirled, angry and disturbed, above the spot where the two manned vessels had floated seconds before. The third was already jetting full throttle for the horizon. "Damn. Damn, damn." Kitten dug her rails against the unresisting metal of the speaker-mike, scraping the shiny tube. Porsupah remained ,glued to the magnifier, unable to tear his eyes from the site of the disaster. Already there was nothing to indicate that an unimaginable blasphemy had come and gone. The two submersibles did not reappear.

"Fast." That was the freighter-captain's sole comment. You've seen stranger things on other planets, more impressive, more awesome. Haven't you, Captain? Haven't you?

"That was necessary," came Parquit's voice over the speaker.

"I understand," said Kitten, "you son-of-a-bitch! Those men didn't have a chance. You knew damn well they wouldn't have a chance."

"I did not know for certain. As I said, the procedure was not yet perfected. The probability, however, was high. Despite the insufficient number and type of tests we ran. Our expectations were more than fulfilled."

"Goddamn you slimy, cold-blooded ... !"

"Something's happening." It was Porsupah's voice. He was still staring through the magnifier. The boiling of the sea had resumed, much closer to shore. Grinding and creaking sounds suddenly poured through several speakers. The personnel in the Tower were not reacting as though this were normal procedure.

"Nova!" breathed Mal tightly, "I think..."

Metal moaned from one speaker, a long, basso aaahhbhh. There was a tremendous wrenching sound and the building snapped like a viol string. Except for those techs well seated at their consoles, everyone was thrown heavily to the floor. Several respectable explosions followed, shaking the structure violently.

Hammurabi had regained his feet first and was already wrestling with one of the guards. The other one, still stunned from the fall, was groggily trying to aim his rifle so as not to hit his partner. Porsupah laid him out with a fast round kick behind the left aural opening.

None of the technics or operators seemed inclined to dispute the humans' ownership of the two energy rifles. Instead, they worked frenziedly at controls and switches. Completely ignoring the threatening aliens in their midst, they argued among themselves and with the equally frantic voices which babbled from numerous speaker grills.

"I can't follow all this," said Kitten as they backed towards the portal.

"Something's scared them," whispered Mal. "Badly. Something's running awry and they're scared. For a change, I concur with an AAnn situation evaluation. I'm scared too."

Another explosion shook the building. It was weaker and they kept their feet this time, slowly backing towards the doorway.

"Awry seems kind of a homogenized word for it," said Kitten, pouting.

Down on the beach still visible through the transparent walls, a mass the color of space rose fifty meters into the china-blue sky. It towered above the control center and the tallest trees. The sun flashed silver on the malevolent bulk for the first time, as though strands of some bright metal ran in streaks just under the outer skin. Pieces of masonry and duralloy beaming, twisted and dangling like string, fell from the smooth sides. The thing moved purposefully from side to side, swaying slightly.

Most of it was hidden from view.

Its intelligence was no longer a matter for discussion.

Mal and Kitten carried the energy rifles. Being AAnn size, they bulked a bit too large for Porsupah to handle comfortably. The Telian did borrow a dart pistol from one of the guards. He led them down the stairs, again shunning the elevator, his hypersensitive hearing and sense of smell a better detection package than any artificial sensors.

Tortured screams from stone and metal followed them as they raced through turns and down corridors.

The occasional AAnn they encountered was too stunned to contest their free passage and too scared to do anything about it anyway.

Still, now and then an armed guard or tech would realize they weren't where they ought to be and try to do something about it. The result was a series of brief running battles through the maze of structures. The first time she'd fired the unfamiliar weapon, Kitten had taken a bolt close enough to singe her left side painfully. Mal limped slightly on his right leg, where a shard from an explosive shell had penetrated. It was slight, but because he couldn't pause, the tiny trickle of blood from beneath the rough bandaging was continuous.

The monster was tearing the island down around their ears, and incongruously enough all Mal could think about for several minutes was that his companion was really splendidly constructed. Not merely athletic, but damned attractive. A burst of heat warmed his face. There was a short scream from a far corner where a guard had dropped. Kitten turned to look over her shoulder.

"Well done, anthropoid! You almost caught that one. I'm getting tired of nursemaiding you."

Well, at least it put his mind back on business.

"Any idea of how far we are from the harbor?" Mal yelled to Porsupah.

"Not yet. The thing seems to have moved inland with ease. So it's not restricted to the aquasphere. For all we know, it may be flexible enough to surround the entire island." The Tolian jumped over an AAnn in scientist's smock. The reptile's head had been split by a collapsed lighting fixture. Another crash sounded from behind them and a shudder ran down the hallway they were running along.

"That could have been the Tower going over," shouted Mal. "The thing's systematic enough to do that."

"Peot was right after all," said Kitten. "This thing's as nasty as he described it. Wonder how the good Commander is making out?"

"Let's wonder about it over brandy and pastry ... and an honest-to-gee steak ... at your Rectory," said Mal. "And concentrate on practicalities now." He slowed up.

There was a double door at the end of the corridor. Damp gray sky and green ocean were visible through the glassite material. Porsupah ran up to it, stopped, and hurried back. His comment was perfunctory.

"Automatics are out. It's shut tight."

"Emergency circuits closed," added Mal. He raised the energy rifle. Four blasts knocked the right side of the armored doorway sufficiently askew for them to slip through. They went fast and gingerly, avoiding the hot edges.

The tiny harbor lay just ahead, down a slight slope. It was drizzling slightly, large warm drops. Visibility of the cove was poor, but sufficient.

It was a mess.

"Systematic's the word," murmured Mal. "It cut off all retreat first thing."

Docks and piers had been smashed straight down into the sand and water. Metal pilings and groinings were twisted like wise. Scraps of hoverafts and regular ships, as well as two or three hydrofoils and at least one helicoptertype were visible-including the pulverized remains of their own. The least damaged of the assorted vessels was one that had been torn neatly in half, like a piece of foil.

Dull explosions continued to sound behind them, spiced with an occasional faint reptilian scream. The slight slope and high trees prevented visual observation, a state of affairs none in the small group had any desire to rectify.

The humid mist was settling fast, but several islands were still visible. Except for the relatively empty equatorial seas, one was rarely out of sight of land on Repler.

They ran rapidly the rest of the way to the beach. Not so much to reach it as to get as far as possible from the thing behind them. On close inspection the wreckage was even less encouraging. The destruction had been careful and thorough. Nothing was left that could float anything larger than half a man.

Even to a group as hardened as the two officers and Hammurabi, the carelessly dismembered bodies of the few AAnn soldiers and harbor personnel were unnerving. There wasn't an intact corpse visible. Here and there one, could discern an arm, part of a torso, a leatherine boot with the leg still in it.

Some of the grisly debris had clearly been torn, while other pieces were sheared off as neatly as with a surgical laser.

Kitten looked back over her shoulder.

"I think I'll take my chances with the devil-fish. Maybe we can make it to that nearer island."

Porsupah was peering hard into the wet mist. "That may not be necessary. There is what appears to be a still intact craft of some sort floating free out there. It must have broken loose when the monster first attacked and drifted away unnoticed."