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seemed to walk on the balls of their feet in a light half-trot most of the
time. He checked slightly at the sight of Patsy.
"Who goes?" he called.
Stationers not on essential duties were supposed to be in their cabins. Then
he recognized her and smiled.
One taken by the na Marid was a prestigious victim and here she was, walking
alone. He started towards her, speeding up as she dodged around the corner.
The warrior was stopping and turning even as Joat keyed the diaphragm open.
His speed was awesome, but she had triggered the hand-cobbled device at the
same instant the panel came down. Behind her there was a click that meant Seld
had cut in the damper. For the next few minutes, security records would show
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an empty corridor. Safe, unless a human observer were
324
Anne McCaffny fef S M. Stirfotg
looking. Even checking the files would show recording errors, normal enough
considering the havoc the Kol-
nari had caused the station computers.
The darts struck the Kolnari as his finger was tighten-
ing on the trigger of his own weapon. A hundred thousand volts flowed through
the thread-thin super-
conductor wires behind them. He convulsed.
K-tash. Hot air blossomed away from the plasma rifle aroundarod ofsun-hot
violence, literally sun-hot; it was an ultra-miniaturized, laser-triggered
deuterium fusion pellet focused by magnetic fields. Normally the pirate's
muscle and reflex would have been enough to hold it steady on his aiming
point. Now the superheated gas slewed his lifeless body around and the
substance of the walls sublimed away, the beam chopping through syn-
thetics and conduits and the empty chambers beyond.
There was a hiss and cherp-cherp-dierp of pressure alarms as theouter hull was
punctured.
Joat winced. That was -not part of the plan. "Quick,"
she said in soft urgency. Dropping down into the cor-
ridor and grasping the pirate's weapon, she heaved it up.
"Here," she gasped, wobbling under the burden of the clumsy thing. Between
them, Seld and Joat got it up into the duct. Then she bent and grabbed one of
the
Kolnari's arms. She heaved and her heels skidded. The juddering, twitching
body was heavy, far heavier than a man dressed only in a belt and briefs ought
to be. Patsy darted back.
"It's not hm? she said.
"It'll do for starters," Joat said with a grunt.
"C'monr
Together they dragged the body to the airlock around the corner and cycled it
through.
"Meet you at N-7a x L," Joat panted, trotting back to the open diaphragm.
"Need that stuff on the list."
"I'll be there," Patsy said.
THE QTY WHO FOUGHT
325
"H will work," Joseph said reassuringly. "At least once," he amended. "Joat is
an odd child, but any con-
traption she claims will function, will function."
Amos nodded dubiously. / have never found reason to doubt you in matters of
violence, he thought. That was fomforting. On the otnbr hand, no man was
infallible, and even Joseph was an amateur at war.
They were in the lower-equatorial park, near the
central core of the station's upper globe. For a wonder, there were no
surveillance cameras here. By Central
World law, there had to be such places in any substantial habitat Most of the
inhabitants being law-abiding types, SSS-900-C's was in the park. It was
fairly large, several hundred hectares, with part of the station
water-reserves deployed as lakes and ponds. Currently it was in night-
cycle, and the Kolnari seemed to find that fascinating.
Amos could understand that. He had found it heartbreakingly like, and yet
unlike, Bethel. The scents were strange, greener, and fresher than the arid
hills of the Sierra Nueva estates, milder than the irrigated lowlands. Strange
birds N or was it small animals? N
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chirred and rustled in the undergrowth. He was an out-
doors man, but these were not the fields he knew.
"They come," Joseph said. "To stay," he added.
He moved off into the shadows of the bushes, bent low, moving with a skill he
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