“Wait a minute, Hector.” The colonel paused as Geb, one of the older Imperials and Nergal’s senior engineer, raised a hand. “There’s nothing I’d like better than a shot at them, but how will it help?”

“A fair question,” MacMahan acknowledged, “and I’ll try to answer it, Geb. It may sound a bit complicated, but the underlying concept is simple.

“First, some of their people are actually more vulnerable than we are. They’ve always been more involved in world affairs than we have, and we’ve been able to identify more of them than they have of us. We know where several of their Imperials are, and we’ve got positive IDs on quite a few of their Terra-born. More than that, we’ve identified the terrorist groups they’re currently working through and positively located several operational centers and HQs. What that all boils down to is that even though the bulk of their personnel are far better protected than we are, the ones who are actually outside the enclave are more exposed. We can get to them more readily than they can get to us.”

He looked around his audience and nodded, satisfied with the intent expressions looking back at him.

“What I propose is an organized assault on their exposed points in order to make them react the way they always have when things got hot—by pulling their Imperials and important Terra—born into the enclave to protect them while their hard teams try to trap and destroy our attack forces.

“But,” he said softly, “this time that will be the worst thing they could possibly do. This time, they’ll let us through the door right behind them!”

For a man with an inexpressive face, Colin thought, Hector MacMahan could look remarkably like a hungry wolf.

“How so?” Jiltanith’s voice was flat. She had herself under the tight control Colin’s presence always provoked, but she was asking a question, not raising an objection, and it was clear she spoke for many of the others.

“As I say, the background maneuvers’ve been a bit complicated,” MacMahan replied, “but the operational concept itself is simple, and my own position as the CO of Operation Odysseus is what may just make it work.” Jiltanith nodded tightly, and he glanced at the other council members.

“As ’Tanni knows,” he continued, “I was placed in command of Operation Odysseus, a USFC operation to infiltrate Black Mecca, two years ago. The brass knew it wouldn’t be easy, and we’ve had too many leaks over the years to make them happy. We, of course, know why that is: Anu hasn’t been too successful in infiltrating USFC, but he’s penetrated the senior echelons of the intelligence community deeply. But because of those leaks, the whole operation was made strictly need-to-know, and I determined who needed to know. Which means I was able to put two of our own Terra-born inside Black Mecca. One of them, in fact, is a deputy commander of their central action branch. And, people, he’s on the ‘inside’ in more ways than one. He’s established as a valuable, corruptible mercenary, and Anu’s people co-opted him five months ago.”

A rustle of surprise ran through the command deck.

“Now, all of you know we’ve been feeling out Ramman and Ninhursag,” he went on, and Colin watched the older Imperials’ reactions to the two names. Ramman and Ninhursag were the southerners who’d been in clandestine contact with Nergal’s crew for the past two centuries. Ramman had been one of Anu’s inner circle, but Ninhursag had been one of the rank and file, a senior rating in Dahak’s gravitonic maintenance crews, brought out of stasis little more than a hundred years ago for her expertise as a physicist. So far as the northerners knew, neither of them realized the other had been in contact with them.

“We’ve always been cautious about relying on anything we got from them, but ’Tanni and I have compared all the data either of them gave us to what we got from the other, and so far everything’s checked. Which means either that they’ve both been straight with us, or else that they’re being worked as a team. Personally, I believe they’ve been straight. Ramman’s terrified of what Anu may do next, and Ninhursag is horrified by what he’s already done, and the fact that they’ve both been kept outside the enclave and away from Anu’s inner circle may indicate that they’re not entirely trusted, which could be a good sign from our standpoint. Would you agree with that assessment, ’Tanni?”

“Aye,” she said shortly.

“But whether he trusts them or not,” MacMahan went on, “they’re valuable to him; he’d’ve wasted them long ago if they weren’t. So we can be certain they’ll be called back in as soon as the shooting starts, and that’s what’s important. Once they go through the access points, they’ll have the current admittance code for the portals.”

He paused again, and this time Colin saw most of the council members nod.

“As we all know, Anu changes codes on a fairly regular basis. We’ve never been able to pick them up from outside, but ’Tanni’s sensors can tell when they reprogram them. So if Ramman or Ninhursag can get the current code out to us, we can at least be sure whether or not it’s still current.”

“All right,” Geb said. “I can see that, but how do they slip it to us?” The question was well taken, but he was frowning in concentration, obviously hoping for an answer rather than raising an objection.

“That’s the tough part,” MacMahan agreed, “but I think we can swing it.

“Once Ramman and Ninhursag have the codes, they’ll each leave a copy at a pre-arranged drop inside the enclave. Our people inside Black Mecca don’t know each other, but I believe both are important enough to be taken south—one of them certainly is, though the other may be marginal. Assuming we get both inside, each will make a pickup at one of the two drops. Neither Ramman nor Ninhursag will know the other is making a drop, and neither of our people will know about the other pickup, so even if we lose one, we ought to get one out.

“That’s the critical point. Once we’ve pushed them inside and gotten our hands on that data, we’ll ease off on our attacks. Anu will almost certainly do what he’s always done before—shove his ‘degenerates’ out first to see if they draw fire. When he does, our people will give us the admittance code. Hopefully, we’ll have two separate data sets to check against one another.

“If the code checks out, and if we can be ready to move before Anu changes it again, we can get inside the shield before they know we’re coming.

“Their active Imperials outnumber ours heavily, but if we get inside at all, we’ll have the advantage of surprise. If we hit them hard enough and fast enough, we should be able to take them or, at the very least, do enough damage to panic their senior people into sealing their hatches and lifting off in their armed parasites to get away from us and provide some fire support for their fellows. To do that, they’ll have to move their parasites outside their shield and lower it to get shots at us. And if they do that—” the colonel’s millimetric smile was fierce “—Colin tells me Dahak will be waiting for them.”

A hungry sound hovered just below audibility in the hushed command deck.

“And that,” MacMahan finished very, very quietly, “will be the end of Fleet Captain (Engineering) Anu and his killers.”