“Back up,” she ordered Koss. “Rejoin with Santangelo.”

The Shandra was already accelerating in reverse. Heather laid down a spray of laser fire just over the heads of the people who were shooting at her troops. The line of pulsing light gouged into the brick wall behind the attackers as the water in the mortar flashed to steam. Heather hoped that she wasn’t violating the spirit of the no-engagement rules by making the defenders keep their heads down.

“Any casualties?” she asked over the net.

“Negative,” Koss answered. “Nothing hurt but my pride.”

“You’ll survive. Rejoin, regroup and we’re out of here.”

That was when the defender on the roof of the warehouse behind her shot straight down with a flamer, not aiming for the carapace of the Spider, but for the pile of mines that now lay beside Heather’s feet. Against a Spider’s superior heat efficiency, a single flame attack couldn’t do much. Multiple heavy explosions nearby, on the other hand… if her ’Mech was crippled, the mission could be lost.

Heather hit her pedals hard, taking the Spider straight up, using the jump jets’ full power. A ball of flame from exploding ordnance roared after her.

The leap brought her level with the roof of the building where the man with the flamer stood. The look on his face, she thought, was priceless. He must have thought that thirty tons of angry ’Mech was about to land on top of him. He ran. Heather dropped back down, cushioning her fall with jets, and wheeled her multilegged ’Mech into a sprint out of the alley.

“Fire in the hole!” she heard as she landed, and brown dust and white smoke erupted from the warehouse as the militia squad’s demolition charges did their work.

“All secure, no casualties,” Santangelo reported. “Got a little hot on your side of things?”

“You could say that,” Heather replied. “Someone in Kittery is thinking. That string of mines wasn’t meant for Koss on the Shandra—it was bait for me.”

“It looks like you were a bigger fish than they expected,” Santangelo said. “Next on the list?”

“Next on the list,” she confirmed.

“I’ve got the shortest route outlined on the map.”

“I don’t like that route,” Heather said. “They know where all the warehouses are as well as we do. Better, probably. And by now they for damn sure know where we are. They can figure out where we’re probably going, and they know our quickest path from one site to the next.”

“So what’s our solution?”

“Bypass this next one, hit number five on the list instead, then backtrack to four. Keep ’em guessing.”

“I’m all in favor of that,” agreed Santangelo. “Give me a sec… there. I have location five highlighted, and a couple of possible paths illuminated.”

“Take ’em both. Me and you with the Fox go up one, the militia squad and the Shandra up the other.”

“Splitting your command? That’s what nailed General Custer at the Little Big Horn.”

“That, and five thousand Sioux,” Heather said. “The Kittery Renaissance doesn’t have any five thousand foot soldiers, and we need to keep them guessing. Let’s go.”

“No sign of the intruders,” Hansel reported. “They should have been here by now.”

He had antiarmor missiles aimed down the street in front of the fourth warehouse, with support lasers hidden in the houses along both sides of the street the ’Mech would be forced to come down in order to attack this location. He’d catch the Paladin’s troops in a cross fire and cut them to pieces.

He had to. He’d scrounged pretty much every piece of heavy antiarmor the Kittery Renaissance possessed in order to concentrate it in this spot. Today’s activities weren’t supposed to have involved ’Mechs at all, not until the end, at which point the arrival of a ’Mech would mean that they were supposed to retreat.

But so far today, nothing was going according to plan.

Back at the command center, Cullen Roi followed reports from other locations.

“We’ve spotted opposition in two locations,” Norah said. She indicated them on the map. “It could be they brought in a bigger force than we initially thought.”

“It could be,” he said. “What I want to know is why they’re heading that way at all.”

Norah pointed at the location of the fourth warehouse. “Maybe they don’t know about this one?”

“I don’t think so. I think they’re being cagey.”

A fifth cache location lit up on the map. “Ah, here they are.” Cullen called up the scene commander on the radio. “What’s your situation?”

“We’re under attack by about a squad, supported by a ’Mech and vehicles.”

“Can you hold them?”

“For a few minutes.”

“Hold them as long as you can. I’m bringing up reinforcements.”

Cullen keyed the net to Hansel, who would be waiting now at his ambush location for an attack that wasn’t going to come. “Go at once to the fifth location, Donnitz area. Leave slow units behind if you must. The enemy is there. Engage them. All units, expedite relocation of supplies. That is all.”

He looked at the clock. The riots hadn’t been supposed to start for hours. Well, he’d just had his morning ruined. Some other people could have their morning ruined, too.

Chamber of Paladins, Geneva

Terra, Prefecture X

20 December 3134

In the Chamber of Paladins, Jonah sat listening to the three-sided conversation between Anders Kessel, David McKinnon and Tyrina Drummond. Drummond seemed to have memorized every word of the governing protocols of The Republic, though Kessel and McKinnon seemed determined to catch her in a misstep. Jonah’s own memories of the previous election were not overly sharp—by his memory, the assembled Paladins had done little more than confirm Devlin Stone’s chosen successor by acclamation.

The three Paladins were still talking when the small door off to the side of the Exarch’s podium swung open, admitting Damien Redburn himself to the chamber. A silence fell as one by one the others in the room became aware of Redburn’s presence. The Exarch spoke into the quiet.

“You’re all welcome here today, and I won’t keep you long from doing the work that you have to do. You have my best wishes for a successful outcome.”

The Exarch paused and looked at the small group of men and women who represented all of The Republic’s Paladins save two—the currently absent Heather GioAvanti and the never-seen Ghost Paladin. Then he continued, “Clearly, with an absent Paladin, no binding vote or formal deliberations may be held. I imagine, though, that each of you has plenty to say. Perhaps you should commence discussions.”

Kessel stepped forward. “We’ve already voted to do that, Exarch. Just ironing out a few procedural kinks.”

“Well, that should be the job of the facilitator. Have you chosen a facilitator?

A slightly embarrassed silence descended over the chamber.

“When something is done only once every four years, it’s easy to forget protocol,” Redburn said gently. “Choose a facilitator and begin discussions. Hopefully Paladin GioAvanti will arrive shortly.”

There was another silent moment, then Otto Mandela’s booming voice: “I nominate Tyrina Drummond as facilitator.”

“Seconded,” said Jonah Levin.

“No!” Kessel objected.

“You may take a few moments for debate,” Redburn said with a sigh. He had hoped this, at least, would go smoothly.

Drummond stared ice at Kessel as he spoke. “With all due respect to Paladin Drummond, what this process requires most is free and open debate. Paladin Drummond’s demeanor has been known, on some occasions, to be somewhat… brusque. Intimidating, even. I’m afraid that’s not what we need in a facilitator.”