going to walk all over them.'
The few small knots of hard-faced mercenaries they saw were a little more encouraging. Most sat cleaning their weapons and ignoring all attempts by officers of the militia to get them drilling or to indulge otherwise in the irrelevancies of military discipline. They, at least, seemed to grasp the seriousness of the threat they were facing, and they looked far from happy about it. Reave was also well aware that any number of them mightchange sides the moment the raiders reached the outer limits of the city.
A team of sweating epsilons struggled to manhandle some incredibly ancient energy cannon onto a peoplemover. Reave strolled over to it and, while the others waited, ran a hand over the discolored and pitted steel. 'The Draan could have made this. It ought to be in a museum.'
The militia captain in charge warned him off. 'Either help us push the sucker or get the hell away from it.'
Reave walked away. 'I'm glad I'm not going to be here when they fire that monster. It'll probably vaporize everything for a mile around.'
The one thing that remained uncertain was transportation. They had no solid plans for a means to get away from Krystaleit and on to whatever their next port of call might be. It was the subject of conversation as they crossed the city.
'I suppose there's no con that we can run that might get us the tank back,' Reave mused.
Billy shook his head. 'I've been thinking about it. I can't come up with anything that isn't going to draw attention to the fact that we've got contracts on us.'
Reave grimaced. 'I guess we have to play it by ear and hope we can hitch ourselves a ride.'
Renatta was hung over, and her previous euphoria was rapidly disintegrating. 'And what happens if we can't?'
Billy and Reave both looked at the Minstrel Boy, who stopped in his tracks and vehemently shook his head. 'Not a chance in hell. Don't even think about it.'
Billy and Reave were among the few who knew about the Minstrel Boy's lizardbrain implant and his ability to find his way though the nothings with more accuracy than routinely medicated humans and even to set courses for far-distant points of reality when treated with the right drugs. They also knew how much pain the effort caused him.
The Minstrel Boy continued to shake his head. 'There is no way in the world that you are going to fill me up with cyclatrol and get me to lead you through the nothings.'
Renatta looked from one to the other of them. 'What's going on here? What's he getting so bent out of shape about?'
Reave gave her half a glance. 'Don't worry your pretty little head about it.'
Renatta snarled at him. 'Don't give me that shit. I want to know what's going on.'
Billy answered. 'The Minstrel Boy has an implant. If it came down to it, he could get us through the nothings.'
Renatta looked suspicious. 'I thought anyone could find their way through the nothings if they shot themselves full of enough cyclatrol.'
Billy shook his head. 'It's real hit-and-miss crazy even if you don't go mad first. I should know. I've tried it enough times.' He nodded at the Minstrel Boy. 'Him, he's different. He can really do it.'
The Minstrel Boy scowled. 'But I'm damned if I'm going to.'
Renatta faced the Minstrel Boy. 'What's your problem? Why won't you lead us through the nothings? You must have done it before.'
'Yeah, I've done it before. That's why I'm not going to do it again.'
'What's wrong with it?'
The Minstrel Boy looked at her coldly. 'You try it.'
'He's says it's traumatic.'
'Traumatic isn't the half of it. I don't think my sanity would take it.'
Reave temporarily put a stop to the conversation. 'Maybe the question won't arise.'
They reached the nearest of the tunnels that led to the exterior platforms and discovered that leaving the city would not be as simple as they had thought. The tunnel had been sealed and iron bulkheads had been swung into place like massive metal plugs. It would take a nukeling to move them, and even then the result would not be guaranteed. A sign informed them in the dour Gothic script of official Krystaleit that there were just two tunnels open to the platforms and the nothings and that even then, access both in and out was severely limited and subject to the approval of the defense forces.
Billy voiced everyone's misgiving.'This isn't looking good.'
Renatta looked frightened. 'Suppose they don't let us out?'
'Then I guess we stay. There's always a chance to desert once the actual fighting gets started.'
'That's hardly a consolation.'
The closest of the open tunnels was guarded by a squad ofmilitia, some in field gray and some in the fatuous bronze armor. There was also one of the troopers, a tall, metallic figure in his arcane battle armor. No officers appeared to be around, and the four would-be deserters walked boldly through. They must have exhibited sufficient confidence for the militiamen to assume that they were on legitimate business. It was only when they were some yards into the tunnel, fingers crossed that their bluff would not be called, that the armored trooper slowly turned with soft shrieks of metal against metal and shouted after them in a deep, electronically enhanced bellow.
'You there! Halt! Stand where you are or lethal force will be used.'
The four of them stopped dead in their tracks. The metal figure crunched forward down the tunnel on steel boots.
'You have been scanned and identified by the Datron. You are under contract to the city. If you go any farther, I shall treat it as a breach meriting capital foreclosure.'
The DNA Cowboys and Renatta glumly turned and walked back toward Krystaleit and its war. Reave halted in front of the trooper.
'So what happens to us now?'
'I'll overlook this attempted breach if you immediately report to your units.'
The Minstrel Boy folded his arms. 'It's like I already told the bureaucrat, we don't have a unit. We were never assigned to one.'
'So you elected to leave the city?'
'Something like that.'
'If you don't have a unit, you should report to the Master of Free-Lancers.'
Reave nodded resignedly. 'Where do we find him?'
'A temporary headquarters for unattached contract warriors has been set up at the Victory Cafe'. You know where that is?'
Reave nodded. 'We know where that is.'
Billy shook his head as though he could not believe what he was hearing. 'A headquarters in a tavern?'
The armored trooper inclined his head slightly. The Minstrel Boy got the impression that he was smiling behind the blank mask of his helmet.
'It seems apt. Besides, the space was donated to the defense effort.'
The Victory Cafe, and indeed the whole of the Bluecat, had changed in the short time since Reave and the Minstrel Boy had been there. All but the most dogged of the prostitutes had left the plaza around the cat idol, and the streets had emptied of the usual pleasure seekers. Martial music had replaced the usual boom-boom from the clubs and gin joints. Armed patrols tramped the lanes and alleys on watch for possible fifth column attacks, and a long line of prospective purchasers waited outside Churchill's Weapons. Reave was certain that he recognized some of the girls from the Rising Sun among them. All the people in the city were taking the threat of the raiders very seriously and were arming themselves rather than just relying on the organized militia to protect them. The Minstrel Boy noticed that, unlike a lot of places, the soothbooth he had visited after the munchkin attack was still open for business, although it did not have any customers. As they passed by, Reave nudged him in the ribs.
'If she was so smart, how come she didn't see all this coming?'
The Minstrel Boy shrugged. 'Maybe she knows something that we don't know.'
'You really think so?'
