“Yes, I know, darling. I know you tried.”

His own eyes blurred. Beneath the filth and ruin, he knew her scent. And realized — much too late — what it meant to him. He held her tighter than he knew he ought to, not wanting to let her go.

“It’ll be all right. I love you. I’m here and I’ll take care of you.”

Dena sighed. “You are here. You are…” She held onto his arm. “You…”

Her body suddenly arched and she shivered. “Oh, Gordon!” she cried. “I see… Can you… ?”

Her eyes met his for a moment. In them was a light he recognized.

Then it was over.

“Yes, I saw it,” he told her gently, still holding her body in his arms. “Not as clearly as you, perhaps. But I saw it, too.”

18

In the corner of the outer room, Heather and Marcie were busy with their backs turned as they worked on something Gordon did not want to look at.

Later, he would mourn. Right now though, there were things he had to do, like getting these women out of here. The chances were slim, but if he could see them to the Callahans, they would be safe.

That would be hard enough, but from there he had other obligations. He would get back to Corvallis, somehow, if it was humanly possible, and he would try to live up to Dena’s ridiculous, beautiful image of what a hero was supposed to do — die defending Cyclops, perhaps, or lead a last charge of “postmen” against the invincible enemy.

He wondered if Bezoar’s shoes would fit him, or if, with badly swollen ankles, he might not be better off barefoot. “Stop wasting time,” he snapped at the women. “We have to get out of here.”

But as Gordon bent to pick up Bezoar’s automatic from the floor, a low, gravelly voice spoke. “Very good advice, my young friend. And you know, I’d like to call a man like you friend.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t split you open if you try to pick up that weapon.”

Gordon left the gun lying where it was and stood up heavily. General Macklin occupied the open doorway, holding a dagger in throwing position.

“Kick it away,” he said calmly.

Gordon obeyed. The automatic went spinning into a dusty corner.

“That’s better.” Macklin resheathed his knife. He jerked his head at the women. “Get away,” he told them. “Run. Try to live, if you want to and are able.”

Wide-eyed, Marcie and Heather edged past Macklin. They fled out into the night. Gordon had no doubt they would run in the rain until they dropped.

“I don’t suppose the same applies to me?” he asked wearily.

Macklin smiled and shook his head. “I want you to come with me. I need your assistance out here.”

A hooded lantern illuminated part of the clearing across the road, aided from time to time by distant lightning and an occasional moonlit glint at the edge of the rain-clouds. The pelting drisk had Gordon soaked within minutes of limping outside after Macklin. His still-bleeding ankles left spreading pink fog in the puddles where he stepped.

“Your black man is better than I’d thought,” Macklin said, pulling Gordon to one side of the circular, lamp-lit area. “Either that or he had help, and the latter’s pretty unlikely. My boys patrolling the river would have seen more tracks than his, if he’d been accompanied.

“Either way though, Shawn and Bill deserve what they got for being careless.”

For the first time Gordon had an inkling of what was happening. “You mean—”

“Don’t gloat yet,” Macklin snapped. “My troops are less than a mile from here, and there’s a Very pistol in my saddlebags. But you don’t see me hollering for help, do you?”

He smiled again. “Now I’m going to show you what this war is all about. Both you and your scout are the sort of strong men who should have been Holnists.You’re not because of the propaganda of weakness you grew up in. I’m going to take this opportunity to show you just how weak it makes you.”

With a vicelike grip on Gordon’s ami, Macklin shouted into the night.

“Black man! This is Genera] Volsci Macklin. I have your commander here… your United States Postal Inspector!” he sneered.

“Care to earn his freedom? My men will be here by dawn, so you have very little time. Come on in! We’ll fight for him! Your choice of weapons!”

“Don’t do it, Philip! He’s an aug—”

Gordon’s warning collapsed into a groan as Macklin yanked his arm, nearly tearing his shoulder out of its socket. The force threw him crashing to his knees. His throbbing ribs sent shock waves rolling through his body.

“Tsk tsk. Come now. If your man hadn’t already known about Shawn, it means he got my bodyguard with a lucky shot. If so, he certainly doesn’t deserve any special consideration now, does he?”

It took a powerful effort of will, but Gordon lifted his head, hissing through gritted teeth. Overcoming wave after wave of nausea, he somehow managed to wobble up to his feet. Although the world wavered all around him, he refused to be seen on his knees next to Macklin.

Macklin awarded him a low grunt, as if to say he only expected this from a real man. The augment’s body was aquiver like a cat’s — twitching in anticipation. They waited together, just outside the circle of lamplight. Minutes passed with the rain coming and going in intermittent, blustery sheets.

“Last chance, black man!” In a blur, Macklin’s knife was at Gordon’s throat. A grip like an anaconda’s twisted his left arm up behind his back. “Your Inspector dies in thirty seconds, unless you show! Starting now!”

The half minute passed slower than any Gordon had ever known. Oddly enough, he felt detached, almost resigned.

At last Macklin shook his head, sounding disappointed.

“Well, too bad, Krantz.” The knife moved under his left ear. “I guess he’s smarter than I—”

Gordon gasped. He had heard nothing, but suddenly he realized that there was another pair of moccasins down there at the edge of the light, not fifteen feet away.

“I am afraid your men killed that brave soldier you were shouting for.” The soft voice of the newcomer spoke even as Macklin spun around, putting Gordon between them.

“Philip Bokuto was a good man,” the mysterious voice went on. “I have come in his stead, to answer your challenge as he would have.”

A beaded headband glittered in the lamplight as a broad-shouldered man stepped forward into the circle. His gray hair was tied back into a ponytail. The craggy features of his face expressed a sad serenity.

Gordon could almost feel Macklin’s joy, transmitted through that powerful grip. “Well, well. From the descriptions I’ve heard, this could only be the Squire of Sugarloaf Lodge, come down alone out of his mountain and valley at last! I’m gratified more than you might know, sir. You’re welcome, indeed.”

“Powhatan,” Gordon gritted, unable to even imagine how or why the man was here. “Get the hell away, you fool! You haven’t a chance! He’s an augment!”

Phil Bokuto had been one of the best fighters Gordon had ever known. If he had barely managed to ambush the lesser of these devils, and had died in the process, what chance did this old man have?

Powhatan listened to Gordon’s revelation and frowned.

“So? You mean from those experiments in the early nineties? I had thought they were all normalized or killed off by the time the Slavic-Turkic War broke out. Fascinating. This does explain a lot about the last two decades.”

“You’d heard of us then,” Macklin grinned.

Powhatan nodded somberly. “I had heard, before the war. I also know why that particular experiment was discontinued — mostly because the worst kinds of men had been recruited as subjects.”

“So said the weak,” Macklin agreed. “For they made the error of accepting volunteers from among the strong.”

Powhatan shook his head. For all the world it seemed as if he were engaged in a polite argument over semantics. Only his heavy breathing seemed to give away any sign of emotion.