Reaching into the bag, Mannimoto pulled out a fist-sized container. He twisted the top and threw it at a wall.

Naiku dove to the floor as a blue smear blossomed on the wall.

Mannimoto hauled him up and pulled another grenade free. ‘Worthless dye markers.’

‘Not necessarily.’ Toshira crossed the concrete space and took the grenade from his Corporal. ‘Miko, would the paint block sensors on a 'Mech?’

‘Yes, but radar would go right through.’

Gudmansen turned the exoskeleton. A metal foot stepped on a loose bolt and it shot across the floor and pinged off the wall. ‘Just get the 'R' mode. Got metal flake in them. Used to paint targets so we could see them and locate 'em with radar, too.’

Toshira reached up and snagged Naiku around the neck. ‘I think we need to talk.’

Let's go through it again.’ The Sergeant moved lug nuts in a pattern on the floor.

Asound interrupted him. Although it was muffled through the passage, all five Kuritans could easily make out the loudspeaker broadcast. ‘Sho-sa Theodore Kurita. Come out and surrender. No harm will come to you, Commander Kurita.’

‘They heard the same rumor we did.’ Wanabe moved closer to the opening.

Toshira shook his head. ‘Whoever they are. they were given wrong information.’

Mannimoto brushed off concrete dust. ‘Only one man here is the Prince's height.’

Everyone turned to Naiku, who looked surprised, then showed his wide smile.

‘More likely it's me,’ Gudmansen snorted.

Toshira stood up. ‘Since we can't tell which of you is the real Teddy Kurita, I guess you'll both have to stay here.’ He staved off protests with a raised hand. ‘We need you to set up things anyway. We'll just go waste some time playing with the 'Mechs until you're ready.’

While Naiku and Gudmansen started preparations. Toshira. Wanabe. and Mannimoto found one of the giant machines by the sounds and moving lights.

Mannimoto moved a block in front of the Marauderand sprayed a man-sized image on the concrete wall near a doorway. He waved a flashlight down the street, hoping to attract the Mech's attention. Then he ran to the corner and sprayed another wall.

At the same time, Toshira and Wanabe climbed stairs to the top floor of a building across the street. A twinkle near the window caught Wanabe's eye. She moved to the opening and kneeled. ‘Sergeant, shell casings. Others fought from here.’

‘Let's hope our attack plan meets with more success.’ He prepared his grenade.

They heard crunching as the Mech strode down the street. Toshira sprayed the window area with isotherm to wipe out any heat trace.

The Marauderrumbled forward, passing under the window where Toshira and Wanabe hid. The 'Mech closed on the heat-painted doorway, rotated its autocannon, and fired a burst into the building.

Wanabe, Toshira knew, had never actually seen a weapon of that size fire, and the power startled her into a crouch. Throwing a paint grenade was the furthest thing from her mind ‘Lords of the House!’

Too busy to reply. Toshira used the autocannon burst as chance to lob his grenades.

As the concrete wall crumbled from the 'Mech's onslaught, the first canister of paint hit. A blue blotch, deep and oily-looking in the low light, blossomed just behind the Marauder's canopy. Paint dripped down the sides and headed to heat sink openings.

The Mech stopped firing. It hesitated, scanning.

Two more small packages flew out the upper window and spread paint across its surface.

The Marauder fired again. A blue stream sizzled down the street and crushed the corner where Mannimoto had used the thermo-chem the second time. A red laser bolt from its other arm passed through the window above Toshira and Wanabe. Chunks of ceiling fell free and dust filled the room. A thumb-sized piece of concrete ricocheted off Toshira's helmet.

‘Maybe this thing isn't so bad after all.’

They sidestepped debris and ran to the door. ‘Ready? Now!’ Toshira called out. They pivoted, threw another grenade blindly through the window, then started down a hallway toward the back of the building.

The 'Mech outside spotted the third volley of paint. It moved its left arm slightly and the PPC spewed a neon-blue stream through the window.

The ceiling collapsed. covering the room with rocky debris. Dust poured out the window, spectral smoke in the moonlight.

Then came silence. The Marauder stood still in the street and waited.

Mannimoto scrambled up a rubble pile to the roof of another warehouse. Toshira and Wanabe quietly picked their way through wreckage down a back stair to the street. A tew minutes passed, and the Kurita mice taunted the cat again.

With paint grenades, Toshira. Wanabe, and Mannimoto harassed the 'Mechs throughout the night. Whenever the Maraudersclustered, the Kuritans set off two or more diversions at once: small fires in the streets using broken cigarettes for timing fuses, thermo-chem graffiti, burning rags dragged on long ropes. Anything to make the Mech move.

Gudmansen released the barrel she held in the claws of the industrial exoskeleton. The formed plastic rumbled down the ramp, picking up both speed and pitch. There was a doinkas it impacted another barrel at the bottom of the mechanic's pit.

She repeated the exercise several times, then clumped over to a pallet of plywood sheets and hauled them to the pit.

Toshira and Wanabe, exhausted and paint-spattered, ducked through the opening. ‘Where's Aragi?’ Wanabe leaned carefully over the edge of the pit and peered down.

‘Waiting at the site. Should be ready. Took the last load of sprayers out a long time ago.’ The metal ramp scraped across the floor as Gudmansen tugged it into a corner.

Toshira flexed his jaws, ears aching from the shrieking sound. ‘Ann! Maybe we could just make them listen to that until they surrendered.’

‘Who's surrendering now?’ Mannimoto appeared in the doorway.

‘Ooop!’ Wanabe. startled, spun around and slipped in an oily mess under the pit edge. She teetered briefly, then regained her balance. ‘Don't do that!’ She glared at Mannimoto. who smiled.

Toshira and Gudmansen exchanged surprised glances. The Sergeant looked at Mannimoto suspiciously. ‘Why are you in such a good mood?’

‘I'm having...’ Mannimoto scrunched up his face thoughtfully. ‘I'm having fun.’

Toshira nodded ‘Better than being shot in the desert?’

‘So far.’ Mannimoto moved to the wash facility. ‘What's this doing?’ He pointed to a hose pouring water into a rubble heap.

The exoskeleton legs made short scraping noises before they thudded into the concrete as Gudmansen trudged over. ‘Just an addition to the plan.’

‘Let's go. Mannimoto. Aragi's probably going crazy waiting.’ Toshira grabbed a quick drink and headed out.

On top of a three-story building, Naiku watched the glow of the coming sun. He fidgeted and peered over the edge at the alley below. He'd finished setting his equipment two hours earlier and his biggest battle now was with his own patience. An hour earlier, he'd even tried his hand at haiku. After painting his first line on the rooftop— ‘The struggle of men’— he decided that he had no gift for poetry.

A rock skittered behind him on the rough roof surface. A signal from Mannimoto to be prepared Naiku crouched ty the large vehicle batteries lined up a meter back from the roof's edge. Wires sprouted from both the battery terminals, those from the positive leading to an assortment of switches scrounged from the repair shop and arranged in a long row. The thick collection of wires from the negative terminal gathered with the bundle from the switches and disappeared down a hold punched into the roof.

Naiku looked at the switch to his left, then to his right. ‘Ah, but which way will it come? Which switch first?’ He glanced again, then picked up the one on his right.