Dan dropped his jaw and opened a radio link to Salome Ward. "They're running, Major. Time to close the back door."

"Roger." Her voice dropped a dozen degrees. "O'Cieran, take them."

O'Cieran, hidden with his men in the jungle behind the Panthers,silently acknowledged the command. He sighted his inferno launcher on the back of Kamekura's Panther."This one's for you, Patrick," he breathed, then pulled the trigger and filled the night with burning 'Mechs.

* * *

The dawn's light, seeping through a narrow rift in the clouds, brought some warmth to the nightmare scene of broken 'Mechs and charred buildings. Dan shuddered. Just because we don't see any more of them doesn't mean they aren't out there. If not for that damned prank.. .

He pointed the Valkyrie'sleft hand at the OverlordClass Drop-Ship, the Lugh."Jackson, all spare parts for the non-jumpers go in the Lugh.Everything for the jumpers goes in the Nuada Arget-lan.Standard Procedure for combat jumps."

The Tech waved his hands, then turned to direct his astechs. Dan looked over at the UnionClass DropShip, the Nuada Arget-lan,and opened a radio frequency to it. "What's the word, Major?"

Frustration threaded Salome's voice. "Janos confirmed the appearance of a JumpShip at the nadir point. He's bringing the Cuin, so we'll only need six hours to reach it. He'll keep Pacifica between their incoming DropShips and his pirate point so we won't have interference. He says he'll be ready to jump as soon as we hook up."

"Good." Dan squinted against the sting of sweat. "What about loading some of these Pantherson board? Has O'Brien figured out what that will do to the Lugh'sflight profile?"

"Hang on." Dan heard Salome relaying his question to the Lugh'sflight officer. "He says we can pack two or three of them. I'd suggest we take three of the ones O'Cieran burned. No real damage to them."

"Roger." Dan looked up and spotted Brand, Lang, and Baker helping to load some equipment cases into the Nuada."I'll get my lance moving three Panthers.What's the latest on Patrick?"

"Fitzpatrick's flyboys have the Machalfway to the Cuwith no interference. Patrick's lost blood, but the doctor has reinflated the lung. Says the Colonel will be fine if he'll rest."

"Best news I've had all day." Dan closed the link and flicked on his external speakers. "Lieutenant Brand, take your lance-mates and see if you can march three of the burned Panthersinto the Nuada."He glanced at the clock ticking down on the right side of his viewplate. "Hurry it up, though. We've only got two hours before we have to blast off this rock."

* * *

Choking back his nausea, Dan pulled himself through the Jump-Ship right behind Salome. He pushed off hard from the bulkhead and floated up through the corridor running along the K-F drive. Red signs warning of the liquid helium tanks surrounding the jump drives flashed as he floated past with Cat and Salome toward the Cucamulus'sbridge. God, I hate zero-gravity,he thought testily.

Deep in the heart of the Cucamulus,the three MechWarriors floated into the ship's Command Center. Instruments and tactical readouts filled the dark, spherical walls with flickering monitor screens and flashing data displays. Work stations occupied every centimeter of the circular walls, with crew members laboring at almost every one of them. The MechWarriors drifted in through a hatch in the spherical roof and grabbed onto the hatch's edge just long enough to cancel their freefall.

Dan smiled. Every time I come into this place, I feel as though I've been shrunk and dropped into the middle of a computer.

Floating exactly in the center of the room, Captain Janos Van-dermeer sat in his command chair. Supported by nothing but the invisible lines of magnetic fields, the chair spun and swirled as he pressed buttons on the two arms. At their entry, a light flashed at the Captain's right hand, and the chair turned him around.

Dan carefully joined Salome and Cat in saluting. "Permission to come aboard."

"Granted." Vandermeer smiled warmly, then frowned and pointed to a tactical display of the Chara system. A dotted yellow line showed the trajectory of the Kurita DropShips coming in toward Pacifica. The line split off and slowly curved toward where the Cucamulusglowed on the chart like a green arrow.

"We have company, my friends. You must have made someone very angry."

Dan nodded. "That we did."

Behind him, Lieutenant Brand entered the command center and drifted over to a scanner station beside the one where Cat had settled in. Brand adjusted the controls and punched information into the computer. He pulled back and whispered something to Cat. The big, black man nodded silently, then Brand turned.

He frowned. "I make it eight Slayerscoming in hot."

Vandermeer turned his chair. "Branson, does that match your estimate?"

The petite, raven-haired scantech turned and nodded. "On the mark, sir. ETA, two hours."

Vandermeer steepled his fingers. "Shall we scramble your fighters, or . . ."

Salome shook her head vehemently. "Negative on the fighters. O'Cieran recovered information from the Pantherbase camp that indicated the operation was meant to destroy the Kell Hounds. That's the only purpose for it. It would have worked, too, if the Panther Sho-sahadn't been early off the mark."

Vandermeer nodded at Dan. "The day you spared for Jones is what surprised them?"

Dan nodded. "Better them than us." He watched the line depicting the fighters grow closer. "You're planning to jump out before they get here, aren't you?"

The Captain nodded, then turned his glance up at Salome. "If they intend to destroy you, wouldn't it be safe to assume that they've made plans against our escape? They could easily have covered all the Steiner worlds within range."

Salome nodded slowly. "That's a fair assumption. What do you have in mind, you old fox?"

Vandermeer ran a hand over his head, patting the white hair back into place. "Just a little trick, my dear, to make them think we misjumped." His chair spun quickly, then locked in, facing away and down from Salome and Dan.

"Mr. Harker, load Jump Plan Four into the computer. Jump countdown of 10 on my mark." He spun the chair again and shouted at a large blond man hunched over a console. "Mr. Garrison, jettison the spare helium, the oxygen in Tank 3, and the debris from the agro-domes."

"Aye, sir."

Dan found Vandermeer smiling at him again. "Mark, Mr. Harker." The Captain opened his hands like a conjurer innocently suggesting he had nothing up his sleeves. "In ten seconds, they will believe the Kell Hounds are no more."

Dan smiled. "The helium, oxygen, and debris will make them think that the ship destroyed itself?"

Vandermeer nodded enthusiastically.

Salome frowned. "But won't the Kurita ships waiting at other stars—"

The jump rippled and melted all reality. The muted lights within the command center flared to life with the intensity of strobes. The colors melted together into a kaleidoscopic vortex of hue and abnormal shapes. Dan's stomach roiled in sympathy with the visual display, but something in Salome's half-asked question worried him more than the physical discomfort.

"—see us arriving and know we're still alive?" she said, a moment later.