“I’ll make it.”
“Where’s Sharp?”
Silence.
“Damn it. Okay, you all know what to do. Find Sharp, see ifhe’s alive. Search the house and grounds. All bodies. tranked or dead, getclocked to TAC-HQ. Make sure there aren’t any weapons left lying around. Moveit!”
“Well done. Colonel.” said Delaney.
“You’re hit.”
“So are you.”
“Yeah, but I’ll be okay long as I don’t drink any beer,”said Cooper. “Did you get your man?”
“No. dammit.” said Delaney. “I had a shot. but I was just asecond too late. He clocked out on us.”
“Well, we might get lucky and track him down through one ofthe prisoners, but he’s probably long gone.” said Steiger.
“We’ll have some of Bryant’s people on Octavian and Antony.just in case.” said Andre.
“Where’s Darkness?”
Who the hell knows?” Delaney said. “He saved my ass backthere and then just popped off, like he always does. But he said things at thepalace were under control.”
“We’d better get back to the house and check on how it wentwith Lucas,” said Andre.
“Cooper, why don’t you clock out with your wounded and getyourself and them some medical attention?” Steiger said. “I’ll take over here.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you all back at the house,” said Steiger. “Gotell Travers we pulled it off before he dies of an anxiety attack.”
Andre and Finn clocked out while Cooper hurried to check onhis wounded. Steiger stood alone in the atrium. He took a deep breath and letit out slowly. I’ll be damned, he thought. We did it.
“Steiger ….”
He turned around. One of Cooper’s men was standing by amarble column about twenty feet away, holding a disruptor.
“What is it, soldier?”
“It’s payback time, you bastard.”
“Simmons!”
As Simmons fired. Steiger made a flying dive to the left.The deadly blast from the disruptor barely missed him. He rolled and came upwith his laser in his hand. Both men fired at the same time.
“Now.” said Lucas, and Caesar and Calpurnia suddenly materializedbeside each other on their bed. Lucas heaved a deep sigh of relief. Andell wasright on schedule. He laid his weapons on the bed and bent to remove the warpdisc from Calpurnia’s wrist, then went around to the other side to get the onethat Caesar wore.
As he started to remove it, he heard a voice say. “Freeze.”
An invisible fist grabbed a handful of his insides andstarted squeezing. His laser and his stunner were both on the far side of thebed.
“Don’t try it.” Hollister said. “You’ll be dead before youget your hands on ’em. Just straighten up slowly and keep your hands at yoursides, where I can see them.”
Lucas knew his only chance was his thought-controlled transponder.All he had to do was concentrate and..
“Move away from the bed.”