"Is that the end of it?"
"Stay down. There's likely to be a second burst. They mostly dust us off after a ship gets away. The bastards usually do us a second time to see if they can catch us I creeping out of our holes."
In absolute confirmation of the sapper's words, a sec- j ond burst of fire hit the area. Again it stopped. The sappers left it a couple more minutes before they raised their j heads.
"Looks like they've given it a rest." "How long have they been out there?" "They started last night." "Have they been hitting the perimeter?" "Not yet. So far they've just set up a couple of firing j positions."
"Who's in command here?"
"There ain't nobody in command. The officers are all 1 too busy getting their ass off planet. The closest thing is j the field police who are going around shooting everyone they don't like the look of."
"So where do I go to hook up with my ship's e-vacs?"
"You could try the traffic control dome. That's the big one over in the center. I doubt you'll get too far, though. We heard that they had just two standards to get everyone off this rock."
"Two standards? Is that all?"
"That's when the cluster's supposed to jump."
There was less time than even Rance had imagined. The sappers were climbing out of the trench and remounting the digger.
"Keep your heads down. And watch out for the head-hunters."
Rance turned to the troopers and the saucer crew. "You all heard that. We're going to go to this dome and see if we can bullshit a line to our own battle e-vacs."
Dyrkin and the others climbed out of the trench. The saucer crew seemed unwilling to leave its shelter. Maso was about to say something, but Rance cut him off.
"Did you think it was going to be easy?"
"We're going to get ourselves killed here."
"So what else is new?"
"You conned me, Rance."
Rance turned to go. "Take it or leave it. It doesn't matter to me. Now you've got us here, we ain't going to sweat it if you don't go the rest of the distance."
He started walking away. The troopers fell into step behind him. The saucer crew reluctantly followed. In the open spaces, people moved very fast. They tended to congregate in areas of cover. Most seemed to have little to do but wait. At regular intervals, a steamer would drop into the area. Their detonations had producted an acne of craters between ten and fifteen meters across. There was a burned-out digger beside where two craters overlapped. It appeared to have been bulldozing the first crater flat when the second missile hit. The field police, identifiable by the gray tabards that they wore over their suits and the starbursts on their helmets, prowled in groups of five or six. They were constantly stopping and questioning individuals. Rance and his party moved from one piece of cover to the next, doing their best to avoid them in a way that didn't appear furtive. While they were taking a breather in the shadow of a crawler, they saw their first execution. Seven men, naked except for their facemasks and placards that hung around their necks and proclaimed them to be deserters, were forced to their knees around the rim of a crater. The head-hunters stood behind them and burned each man in the back of his head. The bodies toppled forward into the crater, and a digger moved up to fill it in.
"Deserter seems to be the key word."
"We better make sure that we don't qualify."
Dacker opened his mask and spit. "Lucky we got our topman with us."
They reached the dome without drawing the attention of the police. The pressure lock was guarded by two troopers. Rance saw this as definite good luck. Troopers he could handle.
"Topman Rance. I'm here to collect my orders."
The guards treated him to a look of battle-tired irony. "You ain't going to find out no orders in there."
"I've got to give it my best shot."
"Suit yourself." The guard nodded toward the others. "Just you, though; the rest got to stay outside."
Within, Rance found the expected chaos. Riggers were still working on the main status board, and nothing was netted. Some equipment was functioning, but some still had to be unpacked. As far as he could see, there was some communication with the cluster and with the various main units down on the planet. Controllers were monitoring incoming flights, but nothing was coordi nated. Unless they quickly got into the brain net, the evacuation would turn into a locked backup and nobody would get off JD4-1A. An overman in dress tans held down a first-line information desk just inside the entrance. He looked too young to be a combat noncom; he was probably some rear-echelon jerkoff. He regarded Rance with an expression of resigned boredom. "You want something?"
Rance pulled off his mask. "I want to get on an open line to my ship's e-vacs."
"You and everyone else. You got authority?"
Rance lied without hesitation. "I got my orders over the command channel. I was to pull out and get here as fast as possible to bring my e-vacs down."
The overman half smiled. "Your e-vacs?"
"Mye-vacs."
"Who gave you these orders?"
"How the hell should I know? I was in the middle of a firelight at the timer"
"I'm afraid that won't be good enough. Without tangible authority from an officer, you ain't going to get out of here at all."
"So check on my orders."
"Check?"
"Get on to the Ten River task force and confirm my orders."
"You're out of your fucking mind."
Rance placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward. "Watch your mouth, sonny."
The overman wasn't intimidated. "For a start, nobody's getting anything confirmed right now. And if that ain't enough of a problem, we ain't heard from the Ten River task force in over a hundred minutes. For all we know, there may not be a Ten River task force. The enemy are popping up all over. They must have been waiting for this."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"Hope the field police don't take a dislike to your face."
Rance took a deep breath. "Let's look at this another way. How many officers are there in this area?"
"There may be a couple of parties waiting for a ship, but most of them have lifted out."
"So there may be no officers at all in the area?"
"No functioning officers, that's for sure."
"And we're virtually cut off by the enemy except in the air?"
"Whatever you're thinking about, forget it. You won't get out of here without authority."
"Are there any other topmen here?"
The overman sighed and jerked his thumb toward the other side of the dome. "Yeah, there's a bunch of them over there making a nuisance of themselves."
"Just like me?"
"You said it."
"Is anybody going to stop me going over there?"
The overman shrugged. "Not me."
Rance walked past the desk. A group of five topmen were gathered around a communication console, arguing with the operator. From their expressions, they didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Rance recognized two of them. There was Benset from the Anah 5 and Kalgol from the Anah 2. They both turned as Rance approached the group.
"Hey, Rance, what's going on?"
"Just trying to get myself off this forsaken planet. Everyone I talk to seems to be a complete asshole."
"So what else is new?"
"I don't intend to get stuck on this rock."
"The Yal are going to slaughter everyone who's left behind, and that's a fact."
"There's going to be plenty left behind, too."
"I take it that none of you have any kind of authorization?"
"There ain't no authorization." "You got any ideas?"
Rance lifted off his helmet and ran his fingers through his close-cropped hair. "It seems to me that since the officers have all run, we should be technically in command here."