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Ben Dill had him by the back of his collar, knee all that was holding him on the dam face, his other hand
grabbing the monstrous handgun he always carried. It went off with a crack, as the blaster above was
swinging toward him, and the man spun, fell.
Dill felt his center of gravity overbalance, was about to fall. He let his knees sag, regained his balance.
He stuffed the pistol inside his shirt, scrabbled for a hold, concrete tearing at his hand. He had a grip then,
and, dragging al Sharif's body, he went up the pipe and over the parapet.
There were two darknesses coming toward him, and he reached for the pistol.
"Sibyl," one of them said, and he recognized Gar-vin's voice. Dill took one look at al Sharif's head, most
of which was missing, and let the body drop.
"No," Garvin said. "Over the far side with him. We don't want anyone to know if we took hurt."
Dill hurled al Sharif's body over the parapet, down into the rocky valley.
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They heard shouts, saw lights coming toward them along the rampart beyond the control room.
"Ben," Garvin said, "take care of the charges. We'll sort these people out."
Dill grabbed al Sharif's pack and went, a crouching bulk in the night, into the open door.
Garvin and Lir flattened, slid the safeties off their SSWs, and opened fire. Bolts spat down the rampart,
ricocheted off concrete, exploded into bodies, and the screaming began.
"Back of us," Monique said, turning, seeing the rest of the guards running toward them, idiotically
illuminating themselves with portable lights.
Garvin thumbed a grenade, lofted it toward the first eight at the control room, sent another behind it.
After the double explosion, even his ringing ears couldn't hear any sounds of life.
Then Monique sent most of a drum across the bridge, into the second guard element.
Dill trotted out of the control room. "Anytime you want to depart's just fine with me."
On the other side of the dam, lights were going on in the guards' compound.
" 'Kay," Garvin said, changing drums. "I guess we'll take our chances on whatever's on this side, and
figure out some way to cross back over when we're clear." He touched his mike. "This is Garvin. One
Keld Ind Alf. Where are you?"
"Look down," Nectan's voice came, bone-inducted against Garvin's breastbone.
He did, saw the two boats waiting.
"Goddamned insubordinate bastards," he growled happily, pulling rope from his pack, double-looping it
around a finial on the parapet.
"Monique. You go."
"Your ass."
"That's an order!"
She gave him a foul look, but slid quickly down the rope, and a boat came to meet her. Dill followed.
Garvin let about a hundred rounds chatter down the parapet, just as, in the boat, Monique Lir triggered
the small charge of explosive she'd left just on the far side of the pressure sensor.
Jaansma slung his SSW and rappelled down the dam's rear. He let himself go too fast, burned his hands,
splashed into water to his knees, and hands were grabbing at him, pulling him into the boat.
"Row like hell," he said. "I want to get this thing over with."
The Kuran soldiers might have been sloppy, but no one could slight their bravery. The ranking noncom,
all officers down in the brief firefights, crept forward, some of his men behind him, the others across the
rampart.
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No one shot at him, and he saw no movement ahead.
He rolled the igniter on an illumination grenade, threw it far ahead. It went off, and he saw nothing but
sprawled bodies.
The two boats had reached the shore away from the control room, on the same side of the lake as the
guards' compound, when Garvin saw the flare of the illums.
"Mister Dill? Mister Nectan?"
Dill, grim-faced, thumbed the two det switches as Nectan did the same.
The four charges blew at the same time. Dill had planted his against the penstock gates, and the blast
sent them pinwheeling up, and the control room splitting apart.
The other two, deep underwater, blasted at the same time, and silver boiled up as the blast crashed
against the concrete wall.
Perhaps the dam had been improperly surveyed and laid on a fault, perhaps the contractor had fiddled
the concrete mix, perhaps over the years the dam was naturally breaking up.
The blast should have cracked the dam wall enough for water pressure to slowly tear it away. Instead, a
good third of the dam folded forward, dropping into the valley, and water avalanched, taking control
room, turbines, and the power station below with it.
The soldiers on the wall had no time to run, swept over the wall with the current.
A great wall of water, seventy-five meters high, rushed down the canyon, obliterating the guards'
compound.
There were small villages perched amid the rocks farther down. The water swept them away as if they'd
never been.
Five kilometers downstream, the canyon widened into a valley. The water rushed through it, killing
herding animals, sleeping villagers, even a scattering of Redruth's soldiers, and roared on.
Another twelve kilometers away, the water boiled into a second, larger reservoir, and another wave
rose, smashed across the lake against the greater dam. One powerhouse was shattered, the other's
controls were ruined.
But the dam held, and the city below wasn't destroyed.
" 'Kay," Garvin said, as the booming echoes of the wave died against the valley walls. "Now let's get on
back to the RP. Tomorrow we'll wander downstream, take a look at whatever damage we did, decide
whether we'll have to blow that second dam."
He turned to Dill.
"Ready?"
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"I wonder," the big man said slowly, "if I'd been in front, I would've had time to drop that asshole."
"Come on, Ben. What's past is past, who's dead is dead."
"Yeh. Yeh. Now I'll never get a chance to do paybacks for that goddamned fart of his."
The seven soldiers picked up their weapons, packs, moved away into darkness.
A half day later, after they'd maneuvered past the ruined dam, the lake draining, its blue waters now
muddy, the lake villages far distant from the water, they reached a hillcrest, and Garvin was able to see
the second dam and its reservoir.
" 'Kay, gang. Bad news. We didn't take out the second dam. We're going to do a reprise, but this time
louder and funnier."
But two E-hours later, a shot came from behind them, was echoed by two more ahead.
They were being tracked.
CHAPTER 10
Larix/Larix Prime
"You notice," Maev went on, "we're in a nice, isolated corridor, where there aren't any big or small ears.
I swept it myself before I ambushed you."
"Young woman," Njangu said, flailing, trying to sound paternal, someone far too old to have been a
recruit within this person's lifetime, "I have no idea at all what you're talking about."
"I'm not wired."
"Only the fact that I have the greatest respect for Protector Redruth and his Protector's Own is keeping
me from calling for a guard and having you taken away for mental examination. Perhaps, Commander,
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