"Enforced restitution labor for a period of not lessthan one year per salary grade of the apprehended party. Compliance shall be enforced with osteo-bonded monitor and time-release mycotoxin implant. Toxin counteragents only available upon completion of cer- tified production quotas," Sam quoted in a cold voice.

"The penalty for being an accessory to murder is worse."

Twist was clearly outraged by what he had seen.

Another man in that state might be murderous, but someone who was so offended by violence was hardly likely to offer any serious violence of his own. Since there was no danger, Glover found the runner's hate to be of little importance; it was a hasty, ill-informed emotion.

"I see that you are somewhat versed in local law, but what you saw will not be considered murder, since Mr. Burke is a certified corporate agent. He has been engaged in what the Hong Kong Enclave calls un- avoidable destruction of another company's assets.

The Enclave Police Agency will be properly compensated.You shall never be involved, so I fail to see why you are complaining."

"Their deaths were unnecessary."

"I shall decide what is necessary. You shall simply do as you are told. I remind you that further argument is likely to draw additional attention to us. A second incident might not be so easily overlooked."

Glover could see that Twist was not satisfied. Why should he be? Killing was a rotter scam, distasteful at best. Had time not been of the essence, a better so- lution might have been found. But Burke was the ex- pert, and he had determined that these deaths were necessary. Glover trusted his professional judgment; Burke understood that their mission must succeed.

If that meant a few innocents died in the process, then the cost would have to be borne. Glover and his col-

68.

Robert N. Charretteleagues were working toward a great good, seeking to save more than a few paltry lives. They could not af- ford to let a couple of nameless bought-badges disrupt their carefully laid scheme. But he couldn't tell that to these runners. It was not yet time for anyone outside the circle to know what was afoot.

Throughout the discussion, Rene Corbeau had lis- tened with wide eyes. No doubt he was regretting his decision to take Glover's offer. Well he might. As stiff as the penalties that Glover and his hirelings would face, Corbeau would see worse: he was the defector.

It wouldn't matter to Corbeau's masters that the com- pany transfer offer was false. Their trusted employee had believed it and acted on it. The data he had brought along as an offering would only seal his fate with Au- tomattech HK. Subsidiaries of Mitsuhama Computer Technologies were often more ruthless than their par-ent. Sibling rivalry for their parent's attention, he sup- posed; just another dirty part of corporate society.

Corbeau should have considered all of that before he jumped. Now he cowered against the wall, as if real- izing the implications of what he had done for the first time. Such lack of courage was unseemly. Glover hoped it would not compromise Corbeau's usefulness.

Burke joined them.

"The gingchat had already spotted the car and called it in. Neighborhood will be crawling soon."

Satisfied, Glover smiled at Twist.

"There, you see? There was no time for anything other than precipitous action. Standard procedure re- quires the EPA to inform sovereign corporate security if they are performing a search on adjacent property."

Glover turned back to Burke. "Did they?"

"Don't know," Burke answered."We shall find out soon," Dodger said, "for the lock is breached."

"No alarms?" Glover asked.

69.

"Never a sound."

Dodger's expression implied that he thought such a question insulting. Arrogant elf.

The elven decker opened the door, but Burke was the first in. Twist entered right behind him, gun drawn.

Perhaps he thought if he was in the forefront, he might prevent Burke from more "unnecessary" killing.

Twist would have to be very fast indeed if he expected to prevent Burke from doing anything the former SAS man set his hand to.

This was no immediate reaction, so Glover got Cor- beau on his feet and guided him through the doorway.

Dodger slung his deck and followed. As he walked, the elf finished assembling the compact sub-machinegun he had broken down for their walk from the aban- doned car.

The inside of the warehouse was cavernous. Cor- beau's footsteps echoed softly in the darkness. He was the only one of the group not wearing soft-soled foot- gear. Pools of light fought back the dark at random intervals, revealing stacks of crates, pyramids of cyl- inders, and huge cargo containers. During the day the area would have been a hive of activity. Night made it a sepulcher. With the door to the alley closed, the street sounds had vanished, leaving only Corbeau's soft footfalls and the lap of water against the concrete of the enclosed dock area to break the silence.

They were halfway across the floor, strung out in the dark, when Glover felt a clammy touch at the base of his skull. He shuddered. That was the warning sig- nal he had been told he would receive when magical danger to his person was imminent. He stopped, readying his defenses. Extending his senses to locate his associates, Glover spread the protection toinclude them. He was barely quick enough. As he closed the shield over Burke, he felt a spell slam against his de- fensive perimeter, clawing to get in and ravage them.

70.

Robert N. Charrette The magician who cast it hadn't been expecting a counter; he hadn't used enough strength.

Lights flooded the area. Mihn-Pao security had been alerted and had lain in ambush on the possibility that the EPA officers had tumbled onto runners targeting the facility. Half a dozen uniformed guards were on the catwalks in the rafters, readying to fire on the intrud- ers. Glover could hear more clattering to join their fellows. The hard slap of boots on concrete told him that additional forces were charging to intercept them on the warehouse floor.Burke reacted with all of his chipped speed. His Steyr AUG coughed in rapid bursts as he spun.

Three.

of the guards dropped in his initial attack, killed or incapacitated before they could fire. One of the bodies slipped from the catwalk to impact heavily on the con- crete behind Glover.

As the Mihn-Pao squad returned fire, Glover dove forward to drag the cow-eyed Corbeau out of harm's way. His back itched. There was a hostile magician out there. If Glover had to protect Corbeau, he would be unable to counter the enemy's magic effectively.

Single sharp cracks marked Twist's contribution.

Each shot shattered one of the globes protecting the lights that robbed the runners of the concealment of the shadows. They no longer fought in a building filled with artificial day. The earlier gloom had not returned, but at least they had patches of dark to hide in.

The elf joined the fray, spraying a lethal welcome into the midst of the first reinforcing squad on the cat- walks. The survivors fell back. No doubt they weresuddenly glad of Twist's destructive efforts as they re- treated into the cloaking shadows.

Darkness would do little to hide them from the en- emy magician. Glover forced Corbeau to crawl faster.

He needed to get the man to a safe place so he could concentrate on finding his counterpart. Finding a stack .

of crates that provided a nook out of the surviving guards' line of fire, Glover directed Corbeau into the recess and told him to keep his head down. That done, he crawled back to the edge of the stack.

Using only his mundane senses, Glover started to search for the enemy magician. The hostile was al- ready active and would likely spot him first if he tried active magic. His saw no sign of the enemy.

Twist was huddled in the shelter of a massive ship- ping crate. At first, Glover thought that the American runner had been wounded, but he realized that Twist was concentrating. His breathing was deep, almosttrancelike. When he had first seen the odd knots in the fringes of Twist's jacket, Glover had thought them merely superstitious claptrap, the sort of charms to ward off evil that so many mundanes thought were effective. Perhaps they signified something more.

Twist's shooting had been quite accurate. Was he some *sort of warrior adept? Glover hadn't thought that such adepts could focus their energies to improve their abil- ity with projectile weapons, but he didn't know every- thing about magic. Who could?

Twist released his concentration, spun to his left, and knelt. Cradling his gun in a two-handed grip, he eased forward until he had a line of fire around the crate that had shielded him. Head cocked upward, he seemed to be searching the darkness for a target. Glover followed Twist's apparent eyeline.

There was nothing and no one on the catwalka151at least nothing mundane. Glover shifted hisperception and saw the enemy mage. She had been standing there, invisible to the mundane eye, awaiting targets.

Before Glover could ready a spell, Twist fired. The Mihn-Pao mage jerked and clutched at her shoulder. As she stag- gered against the railing, her astral aura flickered and Glover knew she had dropped her cloaking spell.

Witchfire flickered around the mage's hand as she tried I.

72.

Robert N. Charrette to summon the energy for a spell. The light faded when she slumped to her knees.'It vanished entirely when she toppled backward onto the walk's flooring.

The loss of the mage took the heart out of the Mihn-Pao guards, and the firefight rapidly degenerated into a stalemate. The runners were pinned down, too far away from the boats at the docks to make a break.

The security team didn't advance; they were unwilling to face Burke's deadly accurate fire. At least there were no alarms. Likely the Mihn-Pao team leader had no wish to lose face in the corporate community; to call for help against such a small invasion would not be good for Mihn-Pao's public image. The corporation's concern for its image was one of the reasons he had chosen to acquire his transportation from them; they were less likely to report the theft than any of the al- ternative sources. Mihn-Pao's obsession with image was serving the runners now, but it was a fleeting ad- vantage. Even without an alarm, there would be more troops. Time was on Mihn-Pao's side.

A sudden burst of lambent energy cut the darkness, sizzling past the elf's hiding place and boring a hole in one of the pillars. It was too focused and rigid for magical energy; a new, lethal technology had entered the fray. Glover drifted his astral form free to locate the danger. From the far end of the structure, anotherMihn-Pao squad was advancing. They were led by a burly ork enwrapped in the bristly cocoon of heavy armor and a gyro-stabilized gun mount. His silhouette was misshapen beyond the offensive distortion normal for his kind, made hunchbacked by the massive back- pack he wore. His burden was the power pack that fed his high-energy laser weapon. The laser, though heavy due to the coolant jacket sheathing its barrel, swiveled quickly under the ork's direction. Glover returned to his body as another bolt tore through the boxes behind which the elf sheltered. Dodger scrambled backwards, .

73.

seeking new cover. Glover smelled burned hair mixed with the scent of wood smoke and something even more acrid. Small flames played in the charcoaled edges of the hole the laser had drilled through the crates.Mihn-Pao had played a trump that Glover and the runners could not easily counter. Armor would protect the ork from the runners' guns, but Glover could take out the gunner with his magic if he had a clear line of sight. Unfortunately, that meant the gunner would have a line of fire as well. Glover was quite sure the ork would be faster.

Burke signalled for his attention. Glover softly spoke the words for the spell that would let him hear Burke's words. He didn't like what the former SAS man had to say, but he saw no reasonable alternative. He nod- ded, and Burke was on his way. Glover started to tug Corbeau out of his hiding place.

Seconds later, Burke opened fire from the flank of the advancing reinforcements. Glover gave the Mihn- Pao troops a second to engage, and shouted for the others to join him in running for the boats. Just as they reached the boats, the survivors of the first Mihn- Pao squad spotted them and opened fire. Corbeauwas hit as he stepped into the boat. Blood splattered the coaming as he collapsed over it. Glover jumped in af- ter him, terrified that the man had been killed.

Twist and the elf returned fire as they converged on the boat.

They must have gotten the shooters, since no more fire raked the boat.

Glover was relieved to find Corbeau only wounded.

As he searched for the craft's first aid kit, the laser crackled again. A scream of pain rose from some- where near where he had last heard Burke's Steyr.

There was more gunfire, but only from one side.

Burke's weapon was silent.

The Mihn-Pao guards would be continuing their ad-

74.

Robert N. Charrette vance. They would be cautious; they couldn't know where the runners waited. Several stacks of brilliant orange cylinders screened the two groups, but onlyfor a minute at best. Not enough time to get the doors open and the boat clear. Even if Twist was a warrior adept, they would not get out alive without Burke.

They were trapped.

New gunfire raked the dock and boat, forcing the runners to duck. The first of the reserve squad had arrived. The laser gunner, slowed by his heavy load, would soon be upon them. The elf returned fire while Twist struggled to unmoor the boat.

What a rotter! For a chance impatience, the run had soured. Corbeau would die here and it was Glover's fault. He could not have harmed the cause more if he had tried. It was unbearable. There had to be some- thing that could be done. He started to pant as his panic and anger fought for dominance within him.

As his chest rose and fell within the confines of his ar- mored jacket, he felt a hardness rubbing against his skin. Bright Lord! He was an idiot whose poor mem- ory disgraced his calling.

Burke had bought them some time at the cost of his life. Such a sacrifice could not, would not, be wasted.

Glover stripped open the velcro fastening of hisjacket and reached under the neck of his shirt, groping for the cord. His frantic fingers found the talisman and pulled it free. His desperate animal self cried for him to unleash its power, but his rational mind knew that the object held no power of its own; the amulet was just a focus, a way for him to amplify his call and enhance his control. Hyde-White had been righta151with a firefight raging, he needed the concrete object as a core for his concentration. He intoned the word of re- lease over and over. He willed the guardian spirit to act, focusing on the Mihn-Pao team and naming them his enemies.