"I'm coming with," she said.

"All due respects, ma'am-if you insist, I won't argue. But it isn't going to be very nice."

"I know. As I said, I've read your record. I assume that some of it actually represents your own experience. Let's go."

To give the colonel credit, the choppers were warming up on the field. "Through here," she pointed. We stepped into a briefing room. Forty men and women were just settling into their seats.

"Ten-hut!" someone shouted. The colonel waved them back into their seats. "Major Anderson will brief you."

I slid the disk into the terminal and punched up the appropriate frames. I put them on the overhead screen. I took them through the entire sequence of frames. I showed them the attack on Family. I described it in the most graphic detail possible, every death, every child.

I glanced up a couple of times. Their faces were gray. Good. It was working. I wanted them to know what they were up against. I went on. I showed them what I'd discovered about the base camp of the renegades. "See here-that's me, sitting in this Jeep. Now, watch. When I leave, this worm crosses the road and goes up the hill. Notice, there's a human being riding on its back. That's the Tribe leader.

"Now, here-if we backtrack from this morning, you can see where their camp is. I have my own suspicions why they attacked the peninsula, but we won't know until we interrogate. My guesstimate is that the trucks carrying the attack party won't get back to their base until sometime between midnight and one. Even if some of their trucks went ahead, the last one--the one that would have certainly waited for this worm here--can't possibly get there before then. We have just a little less than two hours to get into position.

"What I want to do is put the choppers down here-on this field about five miles away. We'll split the team into two parties. One team will circle around and come in from the north, the other will come up from the east. I want to put a Jeep with a torch here on this road to the south, and that should box them in neatly. Squad leaders, you'll fly with me. We'll go over details in the air."

I looked up, and realized these men and women were terrified. I'd done my job a little too well. I needed to bring them back now. "How many of you have ever seen a worm first hand?"

A few of them raised their hands, not many.

"How many of you have seen a worm in combat?"

Two hands.

"All right, look-I'm going to tell you some things you need to know. First of all, you have the advantage. You'll know what's going on. They won't. There's going to be a lot of confusion out there tonight, but you'll have the night goggles, so you'll be able to see clearly. You'll have the torches and the AM-280's and the grenade launchers. Any one of those alone would be enough to do this job. I know. I've killed worms using all three of those weapons.

"Next, I want to tell you something about this particular tribe of renegades. They're terrified of the United States Army. I know. I was with them for almost a year." That sounded wrong. "Under cover," I added. "I needed to find out how they tamed their worms. And I found out. What I also found is that they did the job a little too well. Their so-called tame worms are also afraid of battle. They'll run from you.

"Now-who's terrified?" I looked out over the room.

Three hands.

"Bullshit. I know there are more of you than that who're shitting in your pants. Let's see some hands."

Four-no, five more hands went up.

"Good. Thanks for being honest. All right, now-who wanted to raise his hand but was afraid to look like a fool?"

More hands went up.

"Who isn't sure if they should raise their hand or not?"

Some more hands went up. More than half the people in the room.

"Good. Okay, now those of you who still haven't raised your hands, all those of you who should have raised your hands and haven't?"

A few more hands. We were getting there. There were some smiles now. Good. They were starting to relax.

"Now all the rest of you who haven't raised your hands-who's lying about being afraid?"

Two more hands popped up.

"If you haven't raised your hand yet, raise your hand." The last four hands went up.

"Good. Look around." I raised my hand. Colonel Wright raised hers. "Everyone with their hand raised is terrified. You're supposed to be terrified tonight. If you're not, you shouldn't be going on this mission. I don't want your death on my conscience.

"Listen up: I don't want you to be brave. I don't want you to be heroes. I want you to do your job. It'll be very easy, if you follow instructions.

"So here's the mission objective: burn the worms.

"That's the job. The worms must die. Now, I know there's probably some value in capturing a tame worm. What I want you to know is that I'm not interested in capturing these tame worms. These worms are to be burned, no matter what.

"Now, let me put that in plain English. It is very likely that some of these people may stand between you and the worm to keep you from burning it. Don't hold your fire. Take them both out.

"What we are dealing with is a Tribe. Their identity is completely and totally derived from the worms. They perceive the worms as gods. Their gods must be destroyed if we are to destroy the Tribe. Yes, you have your hand up?"

A tall black man stood up. "Sir? How are we going to handle prisoners?"

I met his gaze coldly. "Easy. You're not taking any."

"Sir?"

"Lieutenant, are you familiar with Paragraph Twelve?"

"Uh, yes sir. It specifies the conditions under which the military may invoke the Termination Act."

"That's correct."

His expression turned thoughtful. I could see him realizing the impact of the moment. Very likely, he and his companions would be executing enemies of the human race tonight-including a number of two-legged ones. He didn't look happy. "I got it." he said. He sat down.

"Thank you. Any other questions?" There were none.

I checked my watch. "Forty minutes. It'll be close. Colonel Wright says I can depend on each and every one of you. Good. Follow your orders and you'll do fine. Colonel?"

She shook her head. "I have nothing to add. It's your show, Major."

"Thank you. All right, move out-"

She nodded to me, and we followed the troops out to the choppers.

There were eight Jeeps in all. Each one had a torch mounted on its nose. Each one had a man with a grenade launcher and two more with AM-280's.

The rifles were a viable weapon against the worms only from head on. You needed to drop down as low as possible and shoot upward through the mouth. The bony brain case of the creature was not as thickly shielded from below. It was possible to destroy the cerebral cortex with a well-aimed shot. The laser-sight of the rifle made a well-aimed shot possible. It was not recommended for those of dubious courage.

There was a full wing of twelve choppers. Every qualified person on the base wanted to be in on this mission. Colonel Wright, concerned about unpleasant surprises, had authorized the expansion of the mission. I wasn't unhappy about that.

The choppers unloaded the ground teams and the Jeeps at the landing site, then moved off to wait until we were in position. They would come in from the sky with spotlights and skyball flares. It was going to be very bright here, very soon. Colonel Wright was also on the phone to Denver, trying to get a solar mirror pointed our way on short notice. It would give us a tiny local sun.