They were just about to move, when an unfamiliar voice at their backs said, “Rocket, muya. Dig the party atmosphere.”

Sinunu was faster than Flak on the spin. She did a pirouette that dropped her almost prone, the H amp;K leaping into her hand like a live thing.

Reflexes jacked to the max, she put the whole picture into focus.

A small figure stood behind her, at a distance of approximately ten meters, gray duster flapping gently around her ankles, her dark skinsuit looking more like dolphin hide than synthleather, Her face was a gentle V-shape, with five data-jacks lining her right temple.

To her side, Sinunu could hear the telltale whine of Flak’s Vindicator start up as he too slipped into a defensive posture.

But before they could start the rock and roll, the little one in front held up one hand, palm outward. “Keep it chilly, compadres. I got invites to this bash.”

Then, faster than even Sinunu’s jacked reflexes could see, de Vries was standing between them and the intruder. “Stop,” he said.

There was a tableau that lasted almost two heartbeats-nearly an eternity-before Sinunu felt Flak relax his stance.

De Vries smiled. “My apologies. I should have warned you that she would be meeting us.”

Flak stood up to his full height, and even though short for a troll, he still towered over the rest. “De Vries, this is getting serious. You’re footing the bill here, but if you don’t keep us on the scan, someone’s going to get hurt.”

De Vries smiled. “Once again, I apologize. This is a companion of mine, Short Eyes. She’s been with me for almost two years. She is my personal secretary, of sorts. She’s been here throughout the day, keeping an eye out. She has become very good at what she does, and seems to have a natural skill at detecting vampires.” De Vries turned to the young woman and Sinunu caught his smile. “After all, she picked me out of a crowd, and I was actually doing a passable job at staying hidden.”

The one called Short Eyes smiled back, showing uneven, grimy teeth. “Gotcha all right. Get ‘em all if they get too close.”

Sinunu shook her head at whatever the private joke was between de Vries and his chummer. Now was not the time, nor the place.

Flak grunted, and Sinunu’s face pulled into a scowl. Short Eyes smiled at them and said, “Tension’s high. I can do without the stimuli.” Then she laughed.

“She will not accompany us inside,” de Vries continued as if Short Eyes hadn’t spoken. “Once I realized how this was going to work out, I thought it best if no harm came to your man in the Matrix. He’s a bit vulnerable out here, and there’s no else one to guard him. Without him it’s unlikely many of us would get out alive, sot figured Short Eyes could stay here with him.”

Sinunu turned to Flak, about to object, but the dark look on the trolls face stopped her.

“Listen, de Vries.” Flak said. “We got this down to a science. We got no need of, or desire for, anyone else to come along to frag this up.” He turned to Rachel. who was just stepping out of the van, “No offense, Rach, but enough’s enough.”

Rachel smiled, and said, “None taken.”

De Vries stepped close, and said something Sinunu couldn’t quite catch.

“All right.” Flak said finally. “You made your point. She stays.”

De Vries smiled again, “Excellent. Then I would suggest we get underway. As your Sandman said, we have precious little time.”

With a jerk of his head, Flak directed Sinunu back toward the wall. When they were out of earshot, Sinunu touched his arm. “You gone whack, completely?”

Flak looked at her. “No. He just asked me how many times any of us have heard him approach. He said the little one will know if any of those vamps come within a hundred meters of the van.”

Sinunu shook her head. “What, she got some special vampire sniffer? This is just over the edge, Flak.”

Flak nodded. “It’s way borderline, but de Vries says that’s something close to what she’s got. Says she can pick out vamps sometimes before he can. I got the feeling he doesn’t even know how she does it.”

Sinunu was about to say something else, but Flak raised his hand. “Let it ride, Sin. You’re wasting your breath.”

They had made their way to the front of the van again, and Sinunu pulled herself together. She would be on point for the first part of this run.

Flak looked at Sinunu, only his eyes visible now that his hood was in place, No words were needed. They had worked together too long for there to be anything but perfect communication between them. With the possible exception of Sandman, Flak was the only male Sinunu trusted. After the things that had happened to her at White Oak, that trust had not come cheap.

She turned and surveyed the scene before her. The stone and wire fence stood almost four meters high, and was topped with concertina wire. Every ten meters, she could make out the distinctive outline of chain-mounted miniguns topped with motion sensors. All of which hung low, obviously deactivated. Above each, mounted on long metal poles, were the orange floods.

Sinunu knew they were at the rear of the compound, a direct one-eighty from the front gate. She also knew this was where the compound’s best defenses were concentrated. She just hoped that whoever de Vries was trusting on the inside had taken care of things as promised. If not, then this was going to get real ugly, real quick.

She strapped her bow to her back and bounded across the shallow ditch, and up to the closest rock section. The rock was mostly jagged volcanic, and she scaled it quickly.

As she went up, the flood directly above her went dark. Cresting the top, she got a view of the first fifty-meter expanse they were going to have to cross. She was glad Sandman had been able to deactivate the miniguns. The space was uniformly flat, with absolutely no cover, and nothing to stop the miniguns from laying down an incredible lethal crossfire. Across the distance, she could see the second fence. The far one was completely mesh, and was sure to be electrified.

As she started to swing over, a crawling instinct made her freeze, hugging the top of the rock wall, the concertina wire digging into the small of her back.

Just to her left, about thirty meters out, something moved. She watched it out of the corner of her eye, and for just a moment, she couldn’t figure out what it was or what it was doing.

As it moved closer, she felt a sense of unreality, as well as something very close to shocked amusement. It was a dog. That much should have been obvious, but it was the distended head that had her confused. The thing was wired up, some tech contraption attached to its head. Then she realized that the creature was busy chasing its own tail. At any other time it might have been funny.

Growling viciously, the animal moved like a dervish anxiously snapping at its tail with each spin. It wasn’t until it came a little closer that Sinunu realized that it had obviously caught its tail more than once. The tail was a ripped, bloody mess, mangled with each bite the dog delivered.

She shuddered, suddenly afraid. What had they done to this animal to make it mutilate itself like that?

Suddenly, the dog straightened, growling low in its throat, and sniffing in Sinunu’s direction. Moving silently, she slipped the crossbow off her back and was just starting to aim, when the dog barked once and began to charge her, a dirty brown streak covering the dusty ground in space-eating bounds.

Moving as quickly as possible, she took aim, when a swirl of what she had mistaken for dust condensed directly in front of the animal. It was de Vries.

Without a hitch, the dog changed its angle of attack and leapt for de Vries’ throat. As it reached the top of its arc, something seemed to sprout from its throat, a barbed cybertongue that swept in a right curve straight for de Vries’ head. With a graceful sidestep too fast for even Sinunu to follow, de Vries ducked the lashing tongue and snagged the dog out of mid-air, one-handed.