A hundred yards away stood the third machine of the group, now moving slowly around on its legs in a small circle. The tentacles were still retracted but the turret was swinging quickly back and forth through a half-circle that faced the two captured machines. Occasionally the third machine sounded its siren.

Apparently the machine couldn't make up its programmed mind what was happening and what it should do about it. There was no reason to give the machine the time it needed. Blade motioned his third team forward at a run. As they passed down between the two captured machines, Zeron sprang down to join them. Apparently the young man hadn't had enough fighting for one day!

The third team was halfway to the third machine when it suddenly exploded into action. All four legs snapped up into its belly with a loud clang. At the same moment the machine leaped into the air, wobbling slightly. The turret swung to aim the ray-tube at the approaching people.

Purple flame darted from the rising machine. Blade heard men and women alike screaming in surprise and terror. The memories went too deep-always before the purple ray had brought death wherever it touched. For a moment the seven running figures were lost in the purple glare. Then it faded, and the seven ran on, not missing a step. The screams turned into shouts and cheers.

They reached the spot where the machine had been and looked upward to where it hovered some thirty feet above them. If it would just drop a bit lower-

The tentacles! There they were, flicking out of the front of the machine. Blade opened his mouth to shout at the seven to scatter, but they were doing that before he could even take in a deep breath. Against a war machine armed, alert, and out of reach, what else was there to do? There hadn't been any explosives ready for the expedition.

The machine seemed to stoop toward the ground, like a hawk sighting a mouse. Two tentacles flashed through the air. Their tips curled around the waist and legs of a running man. It was Zeron, the same Zeron who had wanted to see more fighting, Zeron who had been too slow or too bold to get beyond the machine's reach:

The tentacles tightened. Zeron screamed, a long, rasping, utterly horrible scream, a raw-throated shrieking rejection of a world that was letting this happen to him and of the pain that seemed to be tearing him apart.

A moment later he was torn apart. One tentacle snapped one way, one the other. With a gruesome craaaak Zeron's body tore apart at the waist in a shower of blood and fragments of bone and internal organs. The two tentacles rose high into the air, as if brandishing their horrid trophies. Then they unclasped and the two halves of Zeron's body fell down to land with small puffs of dust.

That machine was going on the hunt, thought Blade. It was time for all of them to scatter, and fast.

Before he could give any orders, a second war machine swept into sight from behind the towers of Miros. It was a hundred feet off the ground and moving at well over a hundred miles an hour.

This time people did start scattering, as fast as their legs would cover ground and before Blade could even think of giving an order. Blade himself leaped down off the turret and started running. There was absolutely nothing else to do, except run so far and fast that the machines would lose interest. Sooner or later they would. They always did. But how many of the fighters of the expedition would still be alive by that time?

Then Blade stopped almost in mid-stride, to turn and stare. The second machine was not plunging down on the scattering fugitives. Instead it was circling the first one. The first one seemed to be standing still in the air, its tentacles drooping listlessly.

Then the second machine stood on end and leaped for the sky. It dwindled with a rush and roar of air into something small and gleaming in the sky nearly a mile above. Then it plunged down on the first machine. It must have been doing more than three hundred miles an hour when it plummeted out of the sky and smashed into the first machine.

Blade went flat on the ground, hands clasped over his face, not sure that this mechanical lunacy wouldn't be as deadly to his people as the two machines could have been. If the Looters' machines were atomic-powered and these two exploded, there wouldn't be much left of the expedition or the city of Miros.

But there was no explosion. There was only an earsplitting metallic crash like the biggest of all automobile collisions, as a hundred tons of metal slammed violently together. Blue smoke and sparks filled the sky as high-powered electrical equipment died spectacularly. Then there was an earthshaking thud as the two wrecks plummeted to the ground, followed by the pattering of odd bits and pieces raining out of the sky.

Blade waited until the rain had stopped before getting slowly to his feet. He had picked up several small burns from hot bits of metal. Others lay smoldering in the grass. The two war machines lay where they had fallen, mangled and blackened hulks.

He heard someone calling his name and turned to see Anyara running toward him from the direction of the lake.

Her face was covered with sweat-caked dust but her grin spread clear across her face.

«Mazda, it was incredible. We took the two we attacked, then the other one took off. For a moment we thought it was going to attack us, but it went out of sight behind the city. We didn't lose anyone, not anyone at all. I was bringing my people over to join yours when we saw the second machine come out again. I didn't believe for a moment that they would do what they did, I couldn't believe it!» She reached Blade and embraced him wildly.

Blade kissed her, then realized that he was swaying on his feet from the sudden release of tension. His throat was so dry that he had to take a drink from his water bottle before he could speak.

«Yes, I was surprised too. But I think I know what happened. The computers-the thinking machine-that guide the war machines sometimes go-mad-when they don't understand a situation.»

Anyara laughed. «Some thinking machines! They certainly didn't think very well today, did they?»

«No,» said Blade. «At least not today.»

Chapter 17

Blade knew that the Looter machines had made mistakes that day which they probably would not make again. Nobody else seemed to care about this. Everyone was feeling too good. After a few hours Blade gave up trying to remind them of unpleasant possibilities. It didn't matter that much for now, anyway, as long as they didn't get sloppy in keeping the guards and scouts posted.

Besides, they had done well, and it had really been a memorable victory. Six Looter machines gone-four crippled and captured in usable condition, two smashed to twisted wreckage by the errors of their own computers. Only one of the people dead, and only a few minor injuries. They had won a battle, not a war. But they had won, and winning had lowered the Looters' strength a good deal and raised the spirits of the people even more.

Blade made a quick round of the sentries and scouts on horseback. Then he dismounted, stripped, and joined those who were celebrating the victory in the lake. He heard several people wishing there was some beer. But everybody was already feeling too happy to need any.

The celebration went on for a good many hours, until night fell on the expedition's camp. Then those who had guard duty took up their posts. Those who didn't fell asleep with dreams of bigger and better victories to come.

Originally Blade planned to withdraw after the first successful encounter with the Looters. But they had been so successful that he decided on a new plan. They would stay in and around Miros and wait for the next wave of Looters to move in. Blade was sure there would be another one. If it was weak or badly commanded, the people would fight. If it was strong and well commanded, they could disperse and lay ambushes.