Ling's voice broke into the circuit. "Why don't we just take them with us?"

Justin narrowed his eyes. Citizen Ling asks too many questions."We are to leave them here because to take them with us would necessitate moving the whole lab. The Chancellor believes it is better to steal the eggs than to pay for the goose's upkeep. That is beside the point, however. Keep yourselves ready for a fight, but you are not to murder those who have been overcome by the gas. Understood?"

Verbal confirmation came from everyone as the Ganjubucked through its first impact on the atmosphere. "Jumpers report to the jump bay. Mech Warriors finalize all facets of your preparation. This is it, gentlemen and ladies." Justin smiled cruelly. "This is the beginning of the end for Hanse Davion."

* * *

Sparks showered and shot from Yen-lo-wang'slegs as the 'Mech strode through the NAIS facility's electric fence. Justin pointed toward the darkened road that ran off to the west. "Kwok, Ivanov, head off that way and secure that approach with your Ravens.Livinsky, watch our backtrail to the Ganju.When the team comes out, it will be your responsibility to buy the time to get to the ship if we have trouble. Make sure your Vindicatoris in position to do just that.”

“Roger, Justin."

Marching the Centurionover to the three-story glass and brick building, Justin saw an individual on the roof wave his hands in an "all clear" sign. Justin nodded, bringing the Centurionup to the building. They've pumped that gas in for five minutes. Everything should be under.

Justin took one last look at the holographic display the 'Mech provided him of the whole area. The Prince and my father are to be congratulated. This place is hidden in plain sight. It functions like a normal electronics plant—an electrified fence for night security and a checkpoint for daily visitors—but it's not built up enough to attract unnatural attention. That a 'Mech company is billeted close enough to react to a raid seems like careful planning on the part of the plant's owner instead of any governmental attempt to protect it.Justin smiled. It's just too bad we knew where to look.

He punched a button on his console, opening the Centurion'sfaceplate. He unsnapped his cooling vest from the couch and released his left-wrist cable from the couch's arm. He stuffed the cable back into its compartment and snapped it shut. Unplugging the sensors from his neurohelmet, he shoved it back up into place, then zipped up his jumpsuit.

Before he slid from the command couch, Justin opened the compartment below it. From there, he withdrew a needle pistol and shoulder holster. He donned them immediately, adjusting the holster to fit snugly beneath his left armpit. Feeling around in the compartment carefully, he found the other item taped to the compartment's roof. He pulled it free and stripped the tape from it.

Candace's holodisk for the Prince.The item, barely twelve centimeters in diameter, could contain over an hour of holovid message on its bottom rainbow surface. The blue and white crest of St. Ives had been emblazoned on the obverse, and the bold labeling made Justin uneasy. I will have to be careful with this or someone will wonder why I'm leaving it behind.

Justin slipped it into the slender pocket on his jumpsuit's right thigh. He pulled the jumpsuit hood up over his head, then reached behind the command couch to another storage area. From there, he pulled one of the mirrored facemasks Alexi and his men had already donned. Tightening it into place by pulling on the straps, Justin crossed to the Centurion'schin and leaped the one-meter gap to the lab's roof.

Justin caught up with the other eight commandos at the doorway leading down into the lab. It already stood open, and two men had reached the bottom of the stairs without injury. Silently, the others followed, tension winding inside them like a viper.

Justin watched the two pointmen move into the brightly lit corridor. He found himself tensed against the sound of gunfire. When neither man evaporated in a hail of plastic flechettes or bullets, Justin started breathing again. Both men signaled that the corridor was secure.

Justin smiled as he stepped into the passageway. Lab Techs lay in the corridors as if it were naptime in a nursery school. Halfway up the corridor, a number of fluids puddled into an oily slick where a Tech had dropped a tray of samples. As the puddle neither smoked nor bubbled, Justin simply ignored it.

He pointed to the doors up and down the corridors. "Fan out in pairs. Eliminate dangerous situations—shut off burners or boiling things and don't go wrecking anything. Use the cameras you were issued to document anything interesting. Scour this level and look for the stuff our scientists showed us as being a clue to a myomer experiment. Let's do it fast. We don't want to take more time than necessary."

The black-clad Maskirovka agents spread out like living shadows through the facility. Though the third and second levels were filled with wondrous machinery, none of it yielded their quarry. On the first level, though, back in a lab tucked in a corner, Ling reported success.

Aside from the two people posted at the door, the team crowded into the small lab. Standing over the snoring body of a white-haired researcher, Ling pointed at a thick, black bundle of myomer fibers. Two meters long, it was anchored at one end to a steel I-beam and attached at the other end to a piston-like, spring-loaded tensometer. A digital display on the piston reported the tension to be at 4,000 kilograms.

Justin glanced at Alexi. "That's a finger flexor. That's muscle four times as powerful as the fibers on my Centurion!Can you imagine what a full arm muscle or leg muscle could do?"

Alexi shivered. At a nod from Justin, he worked the piston's controls and reduced the tension to nothing. The myomer fiber fattened as it grew shorter. Alexi unhitched it from the piston, then shook his head. "Justin, this stuff is so light. Using this, we'll be able to add more weaponry to our 'Mechs."

Maximovitch, poking around in a container of holovid disks, laughed aloud. "Looks like I've got documentation on two series of tests run with this stuff, as well as the notes on its development."

Justin nodded. "Good, Georgi. Take them." Justin directed one other commando toward Alexi. "Li, I want you to carry the muscle. We had planned to cut it up, but that's when we thought it would be heavy. The rest of you form up out in the hallway and head toward the front of the building. It's time for us to get out of here."

Justin waited for the others to leave the lab before he crossed to the container Maximovitch had rifled. He pulled Candace's holodisk from his pocket and dropped it in with the others, then cried out as a horrible, high-pitched wail screamed through his skull.

Both hands went to his ears, but the sound died quickly enough for him to hear a needle pistol being cocked. He turned slowly to face Anatol Ling and stare down the barrel of the agent's pistol. Raising his hands, Justin let steel fill his voice. "What is the meaning of this, Ling?" I hope someone picks up the broadcast and comes to investigate.

Justin's distorted image pendulumed back and forth across Ling's curved faceplate as the agent shook his head. "The squeal was a jammer, Xiang. No one can hear you." Waving the gun's muzzle, Link forced Justin back and away from the holodisk collection. "Well, well, what have we here? Treason on the part of the Duchess of St. Ives?"

Justin stared at the pistol. Ten meters between us. I can cross that distance before he gets a second shot off, and the needles don't have the mass to stop my charge."You're working for Romano Liao, aren't you?"