“What?”

“Heat shimmer. Bearing zero-seven-five true.”

Will and Lexa crawled up onto the ridge to lie beside Jock and look out through their own binoculars at the road below.

“I see it, too,” Lexa said. “But something—tell me. Do you think they heard our little sound show?”

“I certainly hope so,” Will said.

“And if they heard it,” she persisted, “then they know where that supposed ’Mech of ours is?”

“Can’t bet that they don’t,” Jock agreed.

“Then about thirty seconds after they get in range, we’re going to get hit hard.”

Will thought a moment. “You’re probably right. Do either of you know the max range of the Steel Wolves’ biggest?”

“Their best bet for capturing a ’Mech would be infantry,” said Lexa. “And that means a range of—ah, damn, I knew I should have stayed awake more during basic training—no more than a hundred meters.”

“That’s no good,” Jock said. “They can’t afford the time to send up the gorillas. It’ll be rockets.”

36

Red Ledge Pass

Bloodstone Range of the Rockspire Mountains

Northwind

June, 3133; local summer

The report came back to Nicholas Darwin from the sensor operator in his Condor tank: “Target in range.”

“Very well,” Darwin said. “On my command… stand by… fire.”

Columns of smoke and fire lit up the night sky to the right and to the left of Darwin’s tank and arced away to the east, as the Valiant Arbalest long-range missiles of all the Steel Wolves’ Condor tanks spoke as one. The multiple separate columns first converged in the darkness of midheaven, then slowly descended to a point. That point suddenly grew brighter, like an expanding ball of incandescent gas.

Nearly a minute later the sound of rolling thunder came echoing from the distant hills.

“Well,” said Star Captain Greer over the private command circuit, “if the Highlanders somehow failed before to notice that we were coming, they certainly know it now.”

“They were bound to find out,” Nicholas said. “And they have found out in the worst way—by losing a ’Mech. Move out now. Resume tactical column.”

The order echoed through the links.

“Losing signal,” the communications operator said. “Sir, the radio propagation is terrible through here.”

“It will only get worse,” Nicholas said. “Pass to all units: Continue west, do not allow the Highlanders to slow you down. Maintain visual contact with the friendly beside you.”

We have an appointment to keep on the far side of the mountains, he added to himself. He would not let Anastasia Kerensky down.

“Forward, Wolves!”

The road to Tara lay through the black shadows in the valleys of Red Ledge Pass. Ahead, smoke rose from just below the crest of a ridge.

“Our orders were to locate the enemy and report,” Jock said.

“We’ve done that,” Lexa said. She was sitting on the hood of their vehicle, some three kilometers back from where an empty bit of ridge line had recently become smoking vapor. “I thought that sound was going to blow out my eardrums.”

“Just be glad that their aim was good,” Will said. “A miss could have nailed us all the way over here.”

“And I suppose you thought about all that in advance,” she said.

“No, not really,” Will admitted. “I didn’t think of it until after we popped those fake footsteps.”

Jock nodded soberly. “So do you know which way they’ll be coming?”

“Yes… well, no. Not exactly. I have a best guess, though.”

“Why not radio it in?” Lexa asked.

“Because for one thing, radio reception is no good through here,” Will said. “And for another thing, we don’t want the Steel Wolves listening in when we make our report.”

“Then we’d better hope that someone with landline communications saw the explosion and called it in,” Jock said.

Lexa glanced upward at the night sky as Jock spoke. “They may have done better than that,” she said.

There was a whistling sound, and a momentary darker shadow passed across the night. A second later, a man in powered jump armor marked with the insignia of the Northwind Highlanders scooted out of the sky.

“What was that flash and bang?” he demanded as soon as the dust of his landing had cleared. “I’ve been assigned by Colonel Griffin to scout forward and find out what the hell.”

“Well, you can take this back with you to the Colonel,” Lexa said. “We have the Wolves located. They’re out to the west of this spot, somewhere in missile range, and they’re down one rack of ammo per long-range shooter.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes,” Will said. “They’re coming through the mountains on Highway 66.”

“Great,” said the man in jump armor. “I’ll take that word back to the Colonel. Oh, one more thing. Better be careful. I was told they’ve got a hell of a big ’Mech, and it’s not too far from here. Have you seen it?”

“Seen it?” Lexa asked. She laughed. “We are it.”

37

Red Ledge Pass

Bloodstone Range of the Rockspire Mountains

Northwind

June, 3133; local summer

“Better you than me,” said the infantryman in jump armor. “I’ll take your message back to the Colonel.”

“Thanks,” said Will.

“And if I were you I’d be moving out of here soon. There’s probably going to be hell’s own horde of Wolves coming through here before very long.”

Will nodded. “Sure.”

The infantryman in jump armor took off, rising from the ground in a long flat arc. The jets of his suit made a fast-fading blaze of light against the night sky. A distant observer, knowing no better, might have taken it for the path of a meteor.

Will and his two companions watched his departure in silence. Lexa was the first to speak.

“He’s right. We should go. But—”

“Aye,” said Jock.

Another drawn out silence followed. Finally Will said, “I think we ought to get at least a look at the Wolves before we run.”

“Yeah,” said Lexa. “I think we should.”

“Aye,” said Jock again. “But how are we going to do it?”

“Same as before,” Will said. “We take the Fox as close as we can without getting burned; then we get out and walk.” He thought further, and added, “One of us’ll have to wait on the road with the Fox’s hover jets running. We might need to get out in a hurry.”

Lexa and Jock nodded agreement to the plan, such as it was, and they soon had the Fox armored car back on the road. With Jock at the wheel, they drove to within a few hundred meters of the timberline. At that point the road ended except for a footpath—not much more than a blazed trail, and one that would have been useless in the dark if Will hadn’t known the way.

Will took his Gauss rifle from the Fox. Lexa hesitated briefly, then set aside her laser rifle in favor of the heavy particle gun she’d brought with her that morning.

“More firepower,” she explained.

“Can’t hurt,” Will agreed. “Jock, you get the armored car pointed back down the way we came, and keep it warmed up and ready to go.”

Lexa and Will took the footpath up to the timberline and across the bareface, then belly-crawled the last few meters. Will said, “This is as far as we ought to go. Any nearer the road and we’ll be out of cover. We’re looking at a blind turn down there as it is—anyone coming through won’t actually be within range until we’re almost on top of them.”

“Maybe you’re looking at a blind curve,” said Lexa. “For all that I can see, this entire mountain is as dark as the inside of a goat.”

“I’ve been here before. That’s the secret. I used to take parties of rock climbers through Red Ledge in the summertime, back before the HPG net went down and the offworld tourists stopped coming.”