"That doesn't bother me as much as the air situation. It looks like Michael will run dry first. His fire patterns show he's trying to conserve ammunition."
"That's a plus."
"I don't know. What I'm afraid of is having to offer terms so we can save the people across the way. I think that's what he's doing now. Trying to hold on till we're ready to trade his outfit for ours."
Mouse glanced at a depressing visual from Blake's shade station. The station was surrounded by a tide of emergency domes occupied by men waiting to be evacuated or sent into action. The encampment grew steadily as Hawksblood's men and Twilight's miners filtered in. Dee could lose his war and still win a Pyrrhic victory.
Mouse looked over at charts listing the various crawlers and their status. "Cassius, we're going to be in trouble no matter what. We don't have enough crawlers to get everybody out."
"So don't be proud. Ask your neighbors for help. Have Blake call the City of Night and Darkside Landing and beg for help if he has to."
"We've tried once. They say they won't risk their equipment if there's fighting going on."
"Keep trying, boy. I'm looking it over here. I'm going to try one more big push, then see what Michael is willing to dicker about."
"Don't deal. Not unless there's no choice."
"Of course not. I saw the trap that got your father into."
Mouse summoned one of the techs. "See if you can find Mr. Blake. Ask him to come down."
Blake joined him a half-hour later. Pollyanna accompanied him.
"Mr. Blake, could you try Darkside Landing and City of Night again? You can tell them the fighting will be over before they can get their equipment here."
The worn wreck of a man in the wheelchair showed a sudden interest in life. "Really? You've finally got them?"
"Not exactly. We're going to try one more push, then negotiate if it fails."
Blake protested. Boiling anger resurrected the man who had ruled the Corporation till the impact of the Shadowline War had driven him into hiding.
"My feelings exactly," Mouse agreed. "I don't want any of them getting away. But we may have no choice. It could be negotiate or let the men in the Shadowline die."
"Damn! All this slaughter for nothing."
"Almost. We could console ourselves with the thought that my uncle isn't getting what he wants, either. In a way, even if he negotiates his way out of the Whitelandsund, he'll have lost more than we have. He'll be on the run for the rest of his life. He used nuclears. He served the Sangaree. Navy won't forgive that. They'll confiscate his property... "
Pollyanna had been rubbing Mouse's shoulders. Now her fingers tightened in a surprisingly strong grip. "You negotiate if you want. You make a deal for the Legion. You make a deal for Blake and Edgeward. But don't count me in, Mouse. Don't make any deal for me. August Plainfield got away once. He won't again."
Mouse leaned back, looked up. Her face betrayed pure hatred.
"You been drinking snake venom again?"
She squeezed so hard his shoulders ached. "Yes. I drink a liter with every meal."
"Wait." Mouse indicated the boards.
Cassius was starting his attack.
"Sir, he's sending in everybody this time," one of the techs reported. "He's even stripped the crawlers of their crews."
Mouse stood up. "Mr. Blake, find me a crawler. Anything that will run. I'm going out there."
Fifty-Six: 3032 AD
Cassius found himself a laserifle and climbed the crater ringwall.
The fighting was close, grim, and positional. Rock by rock, bunker by foxhole, his men flushed Dee's and drove them back. Man by man, they broke the Sangaree defense. The Legionnaires invested all their skill and fury. Dee nearly fought them to a standstill.
What had Michael said to make his people so damned stubborn? Cassius wondered.
"Wormdoom, this is Welterweight. I've got my hands on a prime chunk of ringwall rim real estate. Give me some big guns."
"You've got them, Welterweight."
Finally, Cassius thought. A break. He ordered all the artillery possible into the position Ceislak had seized.
The nets resounded with chatter about furious counterattacks and dwindling ammunition stocks. Cassius decided to join Ceislak. The man's position had to be held. It provided a platform from which the interior of the crater could be brought under fire.
He studied the fighting from the rim. It took time to fall into patterns. He had nothing but weapons flashes by which to judge.
"I think that last one was their last counterattack," Ceislak told him. "We're ready to finish them." Gesturing, he indicated the far rimwall. Heavy weapons flashes had begun to appear there. Legionnaires were coming over from the Shadowline side. Ceislak's bombardment had broken the stubborn defense of the ringwall.
A dwindling number of enemy weapons flashes indicated failing powerpacks and munitions supplies on the other side.
"Looks like we might manage it," someone said.
Walters turned slowly, wondering who had broken radio silence. One of a pair of figures, just joining the crowd and barely visible in the backflash of Ceislak's weapons, raised a hand in greeting.
"It's me. Masato. I said it looks like we've finally got them."
"That's Michael Dee down there," Cassius growled. "He'll still have three tricks up his sleeve. What the hell are you doing here? You're the last Storm."
"It isn't a private war," was all Mouse said by way of defending his presence.
Cassius turned back to the crater. The boy was his father's son. There would be no talking him out of staying.
A flash illuminated the face of Mouse's companion. "Damn it, Mouse! What the hell's the matter with you, bringing a girl out here?"
Pollyanna reminded him of that niece he had lost during the Ulantonid War. He felt strangely avuncular and protective. He was startled by an insight into his own ambivalent feelings toward Pollyanna. Tamra had meant a great deal to him.
The flashes on the far rim showed the Brightside troops making good headway. Michael's people seemed to be running out of ammo fast. Good. "Looks like we won't have to offer terms."
Mouse stuck with his previous contention. "She has as much right to be here as anybody. Her father... "
"Was I arguing? I've heard all about it." He caught a ghost of something in the timbre of Mouse's voice. The little slut had gotten her hooks into another Storm. "Let's stick to business. It's time to find out if Michael's ready to give up."
Michael contacted him first.
One of Cassius's officers called on Command One.. "Sir, I've got Dee on a public frequency asking to parlay with Colonel Storm. What should I do?"
"I'm on the rimwall right now. Tell him he'll be contacted as soon as possible. And don't let on about the Colonel. Understand?"
"Yes sir."
With Mouse and Pollyanna tagging along, Walters descended to his crawler. He ran through the command nets, ordering his officers to keep the pressure on hard. Several units reported the surrender of individual human, Toke, and Ulantonid soldiers.
One commander reported, "Their munitions situation is so desperate they're taking small arms ammo from their troops and saving it for Sangaree officers."
"Good old Michael," Cassius said. "Really knows how to make and keep friends."
He started to signal Dee, suddenly stopped. "I just had a nasty idea." He went across the command net again. "Wormdoom. Gentlemen. I want a radiation scan on that crater. These guys used a nuke on us once before."
In two minutes he knew. There were two radiation sources not identifiable as tractor piles. They were nowhere near any of Dee's heavy units.
"Looks like my dear old uncle was going to close the pass after he made terms with Father."
Cassius smiled. "He's in for a surprise."
"He'll be asking merc terms, won't he?" Mouse asked.
"Of course. But he's not going to get them. If I end up dealing at all. I'm going to be against the wall hard before I let Sangaree get out."