"It's the same now. We could sneak away. Let the government have the cycler. Just make do. And Treya's not terrible, like Allemagne, even with the provisional government and all. I might never have much here, but I would have enough.

"You know what?" She grinned at him. "I resisted that urge on Allemagne. I took the mad chance and here I am! And now, another mad chance comes along. I could resist. Or I could jump."

They had reached the platform. Dim auroral light glowed at the top of the steps. They went up cautiously, watching the skies for any sign of the aircar. Nothing was visible; there was no sound except the sighing of the wind through the streets.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Max said, "Maybe we won't have to turn tail after all." They stood at the foot of the hill upon which perched the monastery. From here the place appeared mountainously huge and Rue could see that nearly all its windows were dark. Only a band near the top shone defiantly. Once, Rue supposed, when the cyclers came every few weeks, this would have been a very busy place.

They jogged through the shadows toward the long sweeping roadway that ran up to the monastery's gates. Max pulled Rue into a doorway just before they reached the road. "I don't like it," he said. "This is too perfect a place for an ambush."

"Well, what do we do?"

"Watch and wait, I think. What we need is to find cover where we can see if anybody's moving down here."

"How about there?" She pointed to a building across the street. It had wide archways leading into a courtyard and a tower with prominent balconies. Max squinted through the gloom at it. "Perfect. You'll have to be our eyes and ears, though."

They checked the road; nothing was moving so they darted across and into the courtyard.

"Right," said Max. "Now all we have to do is—"

"Don't move! Put your hands up." It was a woman's voice and it came from behind them.

Rue's heart sank. She exchanged a stricken look with Max, then they both raised their hands.

"Turn around."

The woman who stepped out of the courtyard's shadow was dressed in a black skinsuit; her hair was tied back to cascade down her shoulders. She was pointing a snubnosed pistol in their direction.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Answer quick."

"Uh, we live here," said Max.

"That's not what I asked."

"Look, we don't want any trouble," said Max. "I—"

"Kami!" shouted the woman. She levelled her pistol and then Max was tackling Rue and they went down as she heard the pistol fire. "Run!" Max shouted in her ear, as Rue tried to get to her feet.

Rue stood up and practically ran into the dark-clothed woman. "This way!" the woman said, grabbing Rue's arm.

"Wha—"

"Do you want them to kill you? Come on!" Then Rue was being hauled into the darkness of the building. Max stood gaping for a second, then jumped when another shot sounded from somewhere nearby. He ran inside too.

Only now did Rue realize that the woman had fired past them, not at them.

"You're the two whose aircar got shot down east of here," said the woman.

"Yeah…" They were moving deeper into the place and it was now too dark for Rue to make out more than an outline of the stranger. Max's hand found Rue's shoulder and he held on tightly as they went. Behind them light welled up in the outer rooms.

"My name's Corinna Chandra," said the woman. "I'm with the search team that's looking for you."

"Who do you work for?" asked Max suspiciously.

"I'm a nun with the Permanence Order," she said. "I work for the compact."

They found some steps and went down them. When they reached the bottom, Chandra let Rue and Max go by, then closed and barred a heavy door behind them. There was a moment's silence, then bright overhead lights flicked on. Rue had to close her eyes against the glare. She heard Chandra saying, "This is Green Two. I've got them. We're coming in."

Rue opened her eyes a squint. They stood at one end of a long corridor that stretched away, apparently to infinity. Chandra grinned at her; Rue was amazed at what she saw. If not for the catsuit and the pistol, Corinna Chandra might have been anybody's aunt or older friend. She had iron-gray hair, and the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth suggested she was in her late forties. She looked like she would have been at home in a library— certainly not in a gunfight.

"Come," she said, gesturing down the tunnel. "These utility ways don't go all the way to the keep. We'll have to rendezvous with our team and get up there before the soldiers find out we've taken this way." She started to jog away down the tunnel.

The lights overhead flickered; a cloud of dust suddenly appeared far away down the long tunnel and moments later a loud bang! left Rue's ears ringing. Then the lights went out completely.

Another series of loud reports made Rue crouch with her hands over her ears. Then bright lights reached through swirling dust and pinioned her and the others.

"Hands up!" shouted a man from somewhere behind those lights. Rue saw Chandra reluctantly drop her pistol and raise her hands.

THEY WERE MARCHED back into the courtyard, where at least a dozen men dressed as soldiers waited. Rue, Max, and Corinna Chandra were ordered to kneel, their hands clasped behind their heads. The whole scene seemed a bit unreal to Rue; it was like something out of a movie.

The leader of the squad walked up and inspected each of them in turn. Satisfied, he nodded to his men. "It's them. Let's make this quick and get out of here." He stepped aside and the men raised their weapons.

"Remember, this is live!" said a strangely familiar voice from somewhere overhead. The soldiers reacted to the words as though they'd been shocked, jumping back and raising their lights and weapons.

Rue craned her neck to look up and behind her. Perched on the wall of the courtyard, monocle gleaming in his eye, was Blair Genereaux. Beside him on the wall sat a powerful looking portable inscape transmitter. Its indicators glowed warmly.

"Yes, folks, it's a real paramilitary execution and it's happening live and on the inscape net!" continued the newshound, seemingly unperturbed at all the guns aimed in his direction. "If you're really lucky, you'll get to see this reporter killed as well. But before this happens, let's shed a little light on the killers. Let me open up our recently declassified military personnel database…"

Rue glanced back down in time to see the blood drain from the squad leader's face. Then the man cleared his throat, turned to his men and said in a stilted voice, "These are not the criminals we are after." A moment later he was fast-walking out of the courtyard. His men stared after him for a moment, then followed in confused haste.

Blair hopped down off the wall and brushed dust off his pant leg. He grinned as Rue ran over to hug him.

"Well, folks, seems there's no story here after all," he continued in his announcer's voice. "But stay tuned to the visual feed, just in case.

"Hi," he said in a more normal tone. "Glad I found you guys."

"But how?" asked Max.

"It wasn't hard, actually. I've been camped out in the monastery for days now. I figured you'd have to come here eventually, so I'd wait and interview you when you arrived." He grinned. "When the alarms went off and a bunch of people dressed in black started running out the gates… well, let's just say I came to a logical conclusion and followed some of them."

"Well, good for you!" She kissed him on the cheek. Blair's smile grew even broader.

"I can't believe they just left," said Corinna Chandra, staring after the departing troops.

Blair laughed. "Power of the press. The provisional government couldn't get away with overt murder. These guys know they'd have been the patsies if they'd gone through with it and it got onto the net."