“Because of the idiot voice lock he has on it,” she snarled. “I was fighting him through channels trying to get it removed for security reasons when this mess blew up. Now he’s dead and there’s no way we can bypass the lock.”

Hosato experienced a moment of frustration; then he quelled it. With effort he forced himself to abandon the hope of using the terminal and concentrate on the Central Computer Building. If that was where they would have to attack, that was that. Railing against facts didn’t change them.

The others waited in silence as he pored over the floor plans, respectful of an expert at work. Time and time again he checked a measurement or an angle, then shook his head.

“I’ll have to think on this overnight,” he announced at last. “There’s got to be a way.”

“Any ideas at all?” Rick asked.

Hosato shook his head. “Frankly, right now it looks impossible. I can’t see any way two people can crack that layout.”

“Two?” Sasha queried.

In response, Hosato cocked an eyebrow at the Hungarian, who cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“What your friend here is trying to say, Sasha, is that you shouldn’t count on me for a fight,” he said. “You’re welcome to whatever equipment or weapons I can supply, and I’ll advise you as best I can, but I’m simply not a man of action. I’m sorry if you think less of me for that, but that’s the way I am. When the actual mission starts, I’m a cheering section and not much more.”

“That’s all right,” Sasha assured him. “You’ve been more than enough help already.”

“Say um Hosato,” Rick interjected. “Maybe this isn’t the time to bring it up, but Sasha and I have been talking, and…”

“Yes?” Hosato prompted.

“Well, we think that she should go along with you on this mission. Even with her disability she can shoot better than I can, and—”

“—and she can’t pilot a ship, while you can,” Hosato finished for him. “I know. I’ve been figuring 'all along that Sasha would be my backup.”

The Hungarian shot him a look of surprise and suspicion. Hosato ignored it and continued.

“That’s why I’m trying to come up with a plan for two. The Hungarian stays here, and you pilot the ship, which leaves Sasha and me for the assault. By my count, that’s two.”

“Three,” said James, breaking his silence. “I’m going too.”

“James—” Hosato began.

“I’m going,” the boy said firmly. “My father started all this, and I’m going to help finish it. Besides, I can beat the voice lock.”

“What?” Sasha exploded into life.

“I said, I can beat the voice lock,” James stated calmly. “It’s keyed to open for either of two voices. One was Dad’s, the other’s mine.”

“Sasha, can we use a recording of his voice to do the job?” Hosato asked.

“No,” the boy answered. “The lock involves a series of three random questions that have to be answered within a given time span. It was designed that way to prevent someone using a recorded voice to force the lock.”

Sasha looked at the Hungarian. “Could you teach him what to say to change the program once he springs the lock?”

He sighed. “I could try, but it’s a lot to teach him in two weeks.”

“Why 'two weeks'?” Rick interrupted.

The Hungarian slapped his forehead in mock astonishment.

“That’s just like me!” he announced viciously. “Here I’ve been worrying about it all the way back here, and then I forget to show you.”

He rummaged in his pocket for a moment and fished out a folded piece of paper.

“Here,” he said, passing it to Rick. “Read this. Mc. Crae Enterprises is announcing its revolutionary new line of security robots. According to that release, demonstrator sets will be available for shipment to interested customers within three weeks.”

“And it will take us a week just to get there,” Rick moaned. “Hosato…”

He stopped. Hosato was sitting with the layout maps in his hands, a vague smile on his face.

“What is it?” Rick asked.

“I believe the man has a plan,” the Hungarian observed.

“You’re right.” Hosato smiled. “Just an outline right now, but I think the details can be worked out. Sasha, you and James are going in with a tour group. Once you’re in the complex, you get to Turner’s office, activate the terminal, and change the program.”

“And what will you be doing in the meantime?” the former security chief asked archly.

“Me?” Hosato’s smile broadened. “I’ll be creating a diversion.”

Hosato watched the Ravensteel robots from his chosen place of concealment in a cluster of boulders up the slope from the ore vein. For nearly five hours now he had sat motionless, studying the machines as they labored at their task.

Below him the giant machines gouged and sliced monstrous hunks of ore from the exposed vein, lifting them into the waiting transport machines. As each transport in its turn was filled, it turned and began its trek back to the Ravensteel complex, another lurching forward to take its place at the fill point.

From his vantage point Hosato could see the long, broken line of transports trundling over the horizon, and its sister line of transports returning empty for another load.

“The tour ship is approaching,” Rick’s voice came in his ear.

“Acknowledged,” Hosato replied.

The Hungarian had been true to his word. Though not accompanying them, he had been more than generous in providing them with equipment. The surface suit Hosato was currently wearing was a vast improvement over the bulky affair he had tried to don in the Mc. Crae sand crawler. Its built-in communications system allowed him to maintain constant contact with Rick, waiting in the ship, while its close fit allowed him a freedom of movement he would not have believed possible in a surface suit. Most important, he could wear his invisibility suit over it.

Having received Rick’s signal, Hosato broke the seal of his Ninja suit. For this job, he wanted to be seen.

On the ground beside him were two tripod-mounted rifle blasters, more gifts from the Hungarian. Hosato picked one up and carefully eased it forward. The robots were still rumbling about their programmed tasks, unaware of his presence as he chose his first target and settled the cross hairs of his weapon on it.

He gently depressed the two firing lugs, and the weapon responded, a pencil-thin beam of energy darting forth, momentarily locking marksman and target together. At the other end of the beam, his target robot, the one farthest away of those visible to him, ground to a sudden halt.

Hosato waited several seconds, then triggered the weapon twice more in rapid succession. His second target, a robot at the ore face, imitated the first, jolting to rigid immobility. The third, loading a large chunk of ore onto a transport, went amok. Lurching forward, it rolled over the waiting transport unit, crushing it like a toy, and headed blindly into a rock formation. There, its forward momentum stopped, it began to slowly dig itself into the side of the abutment.

Hosato did not pause to watch the results of his marksmanship. He was busy firing sporadically but carefully into the robots below him. Then he rose and stepped from his hiding place, standing boldly in the open as he surveyed his handiwork.

Hosato smiled at the carnage. Nearly fifty robots had been seriously disabled or destroyed by his assault. About half a dozen robots still partially functioned. To be specific, though their movement might be impaired, their internal units that maintained communications with the central coordinating computer back at the Ravensteel complex were still fully active, as were their camera units. He had listened well when Rick outlined the operational modules of ore robots and their internal arrangement.

Terribly sloppy, instigating an attack and then failing to complete the carnage, particularly failing to break the enemy’s communication chain. It’s just the sort of blunder you would expect from a professional security guard suddenly assigned to play soldier.