The Ork never had a chance to answer.

Automatic weapons fire punched through the curtains, stitching a line across the interior wall. Kham stood in the way of that deadly pattern. Collapsing across the table, he grunted in pain and surprise.

A second later, the perforated drapes bellied inward under the impact of a chromed whirlwind of an assassin. Sally was bowled over as the invader tumbled into the room. Slicing his way clear of the entangling fabric with his twin spurs, the razorguy launched himself at the Ork. Ghost fired a burst with his Ingram, but the bullets sped through empty air.

Kham stirred on the table and rolled over in time to see the razorguy coming for him. “Ridley, you crazy-”

“Eat this, tusker,” Ridley screamed as he sliced down and through the Ork’s upraised arm and into the meat of Kham’s thigh. The Ork howled and hit the floor in a welter of blood. Ridley didn’t spare his fallen foe a glance before vaulting over the table.

Sam had no doubt about the razorguy’s next target; he could see his own image reflected in the mirror eyes. He fumbled for his gun, knowing that even if he managed to shoot the wildman, the drug would not take effect before Ridley butchered him.

Time seemed to move with excruciating slowness. Sam watched Ridley land and absorb the shock on flexed knees. At the same instant, Sam saw Ghost beyond him, raising his Ingram. Ridley straightened, rising up from the cover the table had provided. Sally, recovering from her collision with the razorguy’s initial rush, was also rising, right into Ghost’s line of fire.

Sam’s hand closed on the grip of the Lethe. Ridley stepped forward, raising an arm tipped with silver death. There was a roaring in Sam’s ears as he watched the bloodied blade begin its descent.

The chrome arm connected, but not with Sam. Jaq yelped with pain as she swept the lethal limb away from Sam’s head with her own arm. Ridley, knocked off balance, recoiled turning his eyes on Sam’s rescuer.

The delay was all Ghost needed. First one, then the other of his Ingrams sent slugs crashing into the half-metal body of the razorguy. Ridley spun under the impact, but most of Ghost’s bullets had missed his meat. Sparking and bleeding, Ridley turned again toward Sam, a feral snarl on his face, Ghost’s next bursts sent the razorguy jerking spasmodically against the wall. He rebounded, leaving a gory smear, and collapsed to the floor.

One gun already holstered and a 25-centimeter Bowie knife replacing it in his hand, Ghost knelt by the shattered assassin.

“Tusker ain’t gonna talk now.” Ridley coughed blood but he smiled. “Not bad for an Injun, wuss. Bet you can’t do it to my face.”

“You’re in no shape to fight.”

“They’ll rebuild me, trog-lover, then I’ll eat your heart.”

“To rebuild you, they’ll need a brain,” Ghost said softly as he shoved his blade up under Ridley’s chin, through the soft tissue and into the base of his skull. The razorguy spasmed once.

The stench of excrement swept over the sharp odor of expended propellent. The room was quiet again.

“Any more?”

“There were two in the hall,” Dodger said, reslinging his Sandier machine pistol. “They have gone the way of all meat.”

“Car and driver in the street,” Sally said. A secondary explosion punctuated her words. “Now that it’s quiet again, I’m going to take a nap.” She slid down against the wall, leaned her head against the window sill, and closed her eyes.

Sam walked around the table to where Jaq was tending Kham. The Ork was a mess. Blood was everywhere. “Is he?…”

Jaq shook her head. “Not yet. His armor stopped the bullets. The bruises won’t be bothering him much. The arm is nearly severed and the major muscles of the leg cut up pretty bad. He’s going to be spending a lot of time in hospital.”

“Can’t you do anything?”

“I’m no miracle worker. He needs a doctor, and a good one at that.”

“There goes our muscle power,” Ghost said. The only sign of his recent deed was the blood covering his right hand. The knife was nowhere to be seen.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“Kham’s boys won’t run with us if he’s down. Without those extra bodies, there’s no way to pull it off.”

“What about your tribe?” Ghost’s instant stone face told Sam he’d said the wrong thing.

“They have no stake in this.”

Ghost was right, of course. The warriors wouldn’t risk their lives for someone who was not a member of their tribe. Ghost wouldn’t stop Sam from asking, but the Indian’s followers were unlikely to risk their lives to satisfy some Anglo’s idea of justice, especially if he were ignoring the good advice of their chief.

There were, however, others who did have an interest in the matter at hand and who had no need for Ghosts approval. Help from them entailed another whole set of obligations, but Sam saw no other way to get the force he needed in time to take advantage of Hutten’s departure.

“Well, Jaq,” he said. “Looks like we’ll need some of your people after all.”

50

The ebon boy in the glittering cloak raced along the pulsing paths of the metroplex air traffic control computers. He ran unerringly, headed for a destination he had visited before. Up a flight of stairs and through a shining door he went making his way among the hierarchy of subsystems and past barriers as though they weren’t there. Reaching the command center at last, he dipped a hand into the data stream and left behind a command. Then he was gone, slipping out past countermeasures that never knew he was there.

The Aztechnology airport shuttle would be delayed on the Mitsuhama pad. In its place, a Federated Boeing Commuter tilt-wing shuttle with Aztechnology markings would land at Renraku Pad 23 precisely on time at 10:42 P.M.

A stop at the transmitter controller belonging to Hadley’s Hacks made sure that the launch signal went out along with the regular traffic between the innocent Mr. Hadley and his roving cabbies. With that signal. Sam’s plan went into motion. The snatch team was headed for their destination and he needed to be there to meet them. The ebon boy spread his cloak and launched himself into the dark sky of the Matrix, soaring toward the great black pyramid of Renraku.

He circled the construct cautiously, Looking for any hint that the system was at other than normal status. Seeing nothing after three passes, he alighted near the same back door he had used during the expedition with Sam. He entered with the code he had stolen and was relieved to find the node quiet. In his excitement, he had forgotten to activate his masking program, and he did so now. Then he rested for a moment, considering the best path to the security systems monitoring Landing Pad 23.