Cadmann said, "Too right. But who? Someone not much use in a fight—Carolyn. She rides. Let her take the horses."

"She tends to panic," Zack said. "Oh—"

"Exactly. No room for her in Geographic! She's not a lot of use in a fight. But she can run. Send her."

"I will tell her," Carlos said.

"Why you? Oh. Well, okay. How's the big surprise coming, Zack?"

"We have a thousand liters of liquid hydrogen in each of the four storage tanks. It isn't enough, but it's all we can spare. We'll have to wait and see."

"What's the situation on the grendels?"

"Up to ten an hour. Best guess is that will double every couple of hours until the wave hits. When Minerva Two comes down, she stays down. We should power the fences soon. The main wave hasn't found us yet, but one grendel got through the north fence half an hour ago."

"Being fixed?"

"Already done. Now, you hook up Minerva Two for power, but you load the cargo too. Those fences can't hold up forever—"

"Soon as the fences go, the Minerva goes too. We've been through this. You'd better get over to the dam." Cadmann shook Zack's hand hard, then glanced up as a hypersonic shriek split the sky: Minerva One, returning for another load.

Zack sighed. "You know, Cadmann, there's just been no time. No time at all. I... you could have taken the Colony away from me, and we both know it."

"That's bullshit."

Zack seemed to be searching for something else to say. He gave up and turned, leaving Cadmann and Carlos.

"Virtues of the warrior," Carlos murmured.

"What are you babbling about?"

"The virtues of the warrior, since ancient times: Protection of the Innocent, Courage in Battle. The greatest of them was Loyalty to the King."

"The king." Zack's dejected figure reached the dining hall and disappeared inside. "I guess he's the only king we have, at that." Cadmann laughed. "Come on. We've got a lot more to do, before we're through today."

The communications shack was busy. Marnie and Jerry were monitoring communications, coordinating thermal graphs from Geographic. Wedges of color showed the forward progress of the grendels.

There was no "wave." There was a growing density of heat sources along all the streams on Avalon, ruby red along the Miskatonic, with a gap around the Colony. The gap was filling in as grendels moved into open territory.

"How long now?" Carlos asked soberly.

Marnie switched her throat mike off to answer. "Twenty hours tops."

Jerry nodded optimistically. "It's going to get right down to the wire, but I think we can hold that long."

Gunfire sounded: several guns at once. Carlos watched one of the video screens. Baby grendels danced in the corn stubble—three, four.

We won't have bullets forever.

Carlos looked sour. "They're getting larger."

"They would be," Jerry said. "Ye gods, the growth rate—I worked it out myself and didn't believe it."

"They've got a hell of an incentive to grow."

Cadmann broke in on the chatter. "Get the Bluff for me, would you?"

"No problem." The holo stage cleared, and Jerry answered the line.

Cadmann clicked on his throat mike. "Is Mary Ann there?"

"One minute."

The stage was blank for about thirty seconds, and then Mary Ann was on. "Cadmann." She looked tired, but not depressed, not frightened.

"Mary Ann. This may be the last opportunity. Tell me again you won't go back to Geographic?"

"No one knows the Bluff like I do. I'll have to show everybody where things are. If Sylvia takes care of Jessica, I'll be happy."

"Yeah." He paused. "I'd feel better if you got out of there."

"No. No. They need me here to show them where things are. If the grendels kill everybody here, there won't be anything to come back to. I'd rather be here."

"All right. I just had to ask."

"I just had to answer." She chuckled. Cadmann clicked the line off.

Outside the communication shack, the smell of fear and smoke and baby grendels roasted by flamethrowers mingled. The stench hung in the air like a shroud.

He and Carlos walked over to the fence above the Miskatonic. Carlos pointed at a black form wiggling up from the water below them.

It twisted its head slowly, questing, as if it could smell them. It tried to climb the rise, but slid back down into the rushing waters.

Over to the south, fire lashed from a Skeeter. A meteor raced at ground level toward the river, lost direction and finally stopped.

"Cadmann? Carlos?"

Sylvia. The wind stirred her hair ever so gently, and it ruffled in a halo around her face. She seemed so incredibly young, so beautiful. She turned, exposing the papooseka backpack that held Jessica.

Terry glided along beside her, carrying Justin in his lap.

She stepped back, framing the four of them with her hands as if taking a holo.

Cadmann closed his eyes and felt the old hunger race through him. The very real possibility that he might never see her again made it almost unbearably intense.

She hugged Cadmann, then reached up and kissed him gently. "For luck," she whispered.

Carlos stood quietly, his hands at his sides. Sylvia had to take his arms and put them around her. She whispered something to him that Cadmann couldn't hear, and then kissed him hard.

Cadmann turned away, embarrassed. Terry studiedly held Justin. Their eyes locked, and Terry raised his eyebrows.

When she had finished, she took Justin from Terry and stepped back again. "My three favorite men in all the world," she said soberly. "God bless and keep you. Keep each other."

She knelt by Terry and kissed him. At first it was a peck, then it became desperately hungry. Justin began to cry.

Sylvia pressed the child to her chest. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks. Without another word, she turned and ran to the Skeeter pad.

Cadmann hesitated, then said, "I'd like to ferry her over myself. Do you mind?"

"Not at all." Terry's voice shook. He stared at the ground and wiped at his face with an unsteady hand.

Stu was running the Skeeter shuttle. Cadmann grabbed his arm and swung him to the side. "Stu—why don't you do us both a favor and grab a cup of coffee?"

"S'all right, Cad. I can keep going for a while—" He glanced at Sylvia, and then back again. "Oh. Right."

Cadmann held the door for her, then hurried around to the pilot's side. He performed all the checks and instrument adjustments automatically. She made no sound until they lifted off, then sighed audibly.

"I might have known that it would be Carlos," he said.

"You understand, don't you?"

"How could I not? I just wish..."

"Don't say it, Cad. We've been through all of it already."

They could see Camelot clearly from their perspective. The angles and swirls, the rectangles of the home lots, the rolling parks. The schematics of their dream. A dream that had become a nightmare.

"Cadmann. Are we going to make it? I mean, any of us?"

"The answer is yes. We've made mistakes, bad ones. Not surprising—no one has ever dealt with an alien ecology before."

"But Cad—"

"No buts this time." He set the Skeeter down on the asphalt surrounding the dam. Minerva One waited there for them, her sides scarred with exhaust heat, the water still steaming around her. Cadmann twisted in his seat. "I swear to you—Justin and Jessica are going to live. They're going to have a place to grow up. They will inherit this planet. My solemn oath."

Sylvia melted against his chest, her face only inches from his. He bent to kiss her, felt his senses swim with her taste and touch and smell.

"You're our only hope, Cadmann. Please."

He bussed Jessica and then Justin, as if both were his own children.

And if there were any justice in the world, they would be.

Sylvia climbed down out of the Skeeter, and closed the door behind her.