"Risky," Tbv-ohnor said quietly from beside her. "Enough metal around us in the stairway—certainly enough in the underground structure itself—that we'd be completely cut off from Elder communication."

Klnn-dawan-a felt her tail twitch as a horrible thought struck her. Cut off from Elders meant they would also be isolated from their fsss organs. If their bodies were destroyed down there, it wouldn't be simply a matter of being raised to Eldership. They would all be dead.

"But, then, that's what we came here to see," Tbv-ohnor continued, stepping cautiously through the doorway. "Everyone: inside. You three"—he flicked his tongue at three of the warriors—"stay up here. Use this room for cover and have the Elders target your shots for you—maybe we can turn the poor visibility to our advantage. You two: come with Searcher Klnn-dawan-a and me." Taking Klnn-dawan-a's arm, he headed down into the cool darkness of the stairwell—

And abruptly Klnn-dawan-a was thrown off balance as the thundercrack of a shock wave hammered them from behind.

Her free hand flailed for balance, caught the guide rail fastened to the stairwell wall more by good luck than deliberate intent. Tbv-ohnor tightened his grip on her other arm, and she managed to stay on her feet. "Keep moving!" Tbv-ohnor shouted. "They'll be back any beat."

Together they stumbled down, the two warriors close behind them. The stairway ahead faded disconcertingly into the gloom, but as Klnn-dawan-a's lowlight pupils widened, she found there was enough light filtering down for her to see the end.

From above came another thunderclap, sounding almost as loud as the first had in the close confines of the stairwell. Klnn-dawan-a grabbed the guide rail again, and as she did so, her sensitized sight caught a rapid multiple flicker of reflected light against the walls: the warriors in the entrance chamber, firing at the Human-Conqueror warcraft shooting past overhead.

"Looks like another door at the end there," Tbv-ohnor said as the last reverberations faded away. "You think it'll have the same type of opening mechanism?"

"We can hope so," Klnn-dawan-a said, grateful for the warrior's obvious effort to take her mind off the danger. "Odd, though—that outer door didn't seem very secure. Not like something the Human-Conquerors really wanted to keep intruders out of."

"Maybe this is the secure one," Tbv-ohnor said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "See if you can open it quickly; if not, we'll burn it."

"Right."

Klnn-dawan-a squatted down beside the door; and as she studied the mechanism, she heard a new set of footsteps hurrying down the stairs behind them. "Warrior First?" one of the three warriors Tbv-ohnor had left in the entrance chamber called down. "Report from the Elders: one of the warcraft has landed and is discharging Human-Conqueror ground warriors. Commander Thrr-mezaz is dispatching the Stingbirds and more warriors."

"Understood," Tbv-ohnor said grimly. "Keep me informed."

"I obey," the warrior said. Turning, he hurried up the stairs again.

"Looks like we've sliced open a real maggot-filled kavra on this one," one of the warriors standing beside Klnn-dawan-a muttered under his breath.

"Looks like it," Tbv-ohnor agreed. "The Human-Conquerors don't want us down here, that's for sure."

"You wouldn't know it from their locks," Klnn-dawan-a said. Standing up, she released the latching mechanism—

And with only a single high-pitched squeak, the door swung gently open.

"Troop carrier's on the ground, Colonel," Crane reported as he sat at the situation monitor. "No opposition yet. Aircars still reporting minor laser fire from the target zone; no damage."

"What about the copters?" Holloway asked.

"Spotter Two reports they're prepping for flight," Crane said. "At the moment they're still on the ground."

"Probably going for a simultaneous jump-off," Takara muttered.

"Most likely," Holloway agreed, restlessly fingering the short-range radio comm in his hand as he studied the panoramic view of the village and target zone being relayed via comm laser from the spotters' nose cameras. The enemy force had definitely made it to the tectonic station; the laser fire coming at the aircar overflights showed that much. The question was, had they gotten inside yet?

"The copters have lifted," Crane reported. "Heading northward, treetop height. Spotters tally six of them; one appears to be carrying a belly payload."

Six of the Conquerors' deadly combat helicopters, against three moderately armed Peacekeeper aircars and one troop carrier. The smart thing to do, Holloway knew, would be to order his people back aboard and get them out of there while he still could.

But that would mean abandoning the tectonic station to the enemy. A place with no military value whatsoever... unless it was in fact the hiding place for one of CIRCE's components.

And if it was, his job above all else was to keep that component from falling into enemy hands. Even if it cost the lives of his entire command.

He raised the comm and clicked it to the Copperheads' channel. "Copperheads: launch."

"Yes, sir," the calm voice of Lieutenant Bethmann acknowledged. A moment later, quiet and almost harmless-sounding in the distance, Holloway heard the rumble as the two Corvine fighters shot from concealment into the air.

Takara moved a step closer to his side. "You're taking one hell of a risk here, Cass," he murmured. "I hope you realize that."

"We have to take a stand somewhere, Fuji," Holloway said. "We're taking it here."

Takara seemed to digest that. "If you're looking for a showdown with those copters, I recommend we try to draw them out here into the mountains," he said. "The Corvines seem to have the edge in target ranging and blind-corner maneuvering—"

"I said we're taking our stand here."

A muscle in Takara's cheek twitched as he stepped back. "Yes, sir."

Holloway looked back at the monitor. "Tactical overlay," he ordered.

"Yes, sir." Crane keyed in the overlay, and a multicolored vector graph appeared superimposed on the nose-camera composite. The six enemy copters were hauling bear for the tectonic station, all right. Holloway did a quick mental calculation—

"They're going to beat the Copperheads there," Takara said tightly. "Probably by a good minute."

And a minute would be all it would take for those six copters to methodically slaughter every one of the Peacekeepers deploying from the troop carrier and possibly take out the aircars as well. Holloway clenched a hand into a fist, torn between the military necessity of driving the enemy away and his own instinctive protectiveness toward his troops—

And then, only a few hundred meters from their goal, the six red vectors abruptly shortened and shifted direction. "Copters slowing," Crane snapped. "Check that: faltering—looks like they're going to land right there in the trees. No; there they go again. Veering east... now veering east and south."

"I'll be dumped to a desk job," Takara said, a note of incredulity in his voice. "They're running back home."

Holloway let out a silent sigh of relief. He'd gambled his irreplaceable Copperheads and won.

Or at least hadn't yet lost. "Maybe their commander thinks like you do, Fuji," he said. "Trying to lure the Copperheads into range of his ground-based weapons."

Takara threw him a slightly uneasy look. "I trust you're not going to take him up on the invitation."

"Don't worry," Holloway assured him. "I'm not interested in any high-noon showdowns. If I can push the Zhirrzh out of the tectonic station, I'll be happy."

Takara grunted, looking back at the copter vectors, now definitely heading back toward the village. "Doesn't say much for their commander that he'd just abandon seven of his troops out there without a fight."