The Burning Ground

2. Setting up the raid

“… do that, I’ll need time and quiet to shut down the Fence generators and infect the programs. So…” She tapped the maze of small, interlocking squares. “These are the living quarters. When I was watching them a few weeks ago, the Ptaks were all inside after sundown, but you can see the houses are linked together-um, these are glass arcades and they’ll be lit up like Gajul on a Feast night. A good number of the Ptaks on duty there spent half the night going from house to house, talking and partying; when they sleep, it’s in bursts of two to three hours so there’s usually someone awake. Which could be a problem because they don’t like feeling closed in, so most of those houses are more window than wall. You’ll need to remember that there are lots of eyes around. Once we reach the lake, there’ll be less danger of discovery. We’ll have trees and bushes for cover.” She jerked her thumb at the clouds. “Radio says there’s a storm front moving in. With a little luck we might have some rain up north. That’ll keep the restless inside.”

She touched the largest of the squares. “This is the building we have to get into. The Control Center. It’s shielded and there’s only one door. To get through that door, the Center’s kephalos has to recognize you and you have to have a card key. T’k. Never mind all that, my tongue got behind my teeth and I couldn’t see what I was saying. Shield means there’s something like a cousin to the Fence around the outside and across the roof of that building. The shield can recognize who’s supposed to pass through it, stop everyone else even if they have the proper ley. If you,touched it, it wouldn’t kill you, it’d be more like someone slammed you hard with a staff and you’d be unconscious for a good while. Urn, this doesn’t mean they’re expecting you people to attack, it’s more to keep out offworld agents and spies. Ptaks are like that. Overlooking them makes them nervous.”

Luca tapped her fingers on her knee, glanced from the map to Shadith’s face. “You’ve got a way in?”

“Yseyl has. In will be easy enough. It’s getting out that may be something of a problem. I already told you what I’m going to be doing, but you need to know this-the minute I start interfering with the programming, over on Ptak-K’nerol they’ll know about it and they’ll be on the com yelling for the base Exec to do something. Urn. A corn is a kind of offworld radio. No way I can block that. So we’d better be prepared to deal with aroused, frightened, angry Ptaks. And they’ll have energy weapons. Unless we’re sneaky and successful at it, some of us could be killed before we reach the hollow and the flier. I want you to be thinking about that. Hm. Energy weapons…”

Shadith shook a dull gray rod from her sleeve, a small thing, barely longer than her hand. “You see that rock where Zot was sitting? Right. Stay back and whatever you do, don’t get in front of me.” She flicked the beam setting to its finest mode, touched the sensor and sliced through the stone, then clicked on the safety. “You don’t think anything happened, do you? Khimil, go take a close look at that rock. Try to lift it and see what happens.”

The rock fell in two pieces, the inside surfaces so smooth they shone like mirrors. The mal dropped them in his astonishment, then pushed at one of the pieces with the toe of his boot. “That thing wouldn’t pay much mind to flesh and bone, would it?”

“Right. I doubt the Ptaks will use cutters like this, too much damage to their property. More likely they’ll have pulsers, sweet little things that’ll shake you into jelly without breaking the skin. I want you all to understand this before you commit to coming with Yseyl and me. All of you could end up very painfully and messily dead.”

Syon closed his bright yellow eyes into slits, wagged his head. “Vumah vumay, it’s no worse than being clubbed or shot or bored to death.”

Luca nodded. “If you really do bring the Fence down, who cares what happens after.”

“I care,” Shadith said. “I intend to come out of this alive and intact. Look, from what Yseyl told me about you all, you’re good at sliding into and out of places without getting nailed. If we have to fight, we do, but I’d certainly rather not. Now.” She bent over the map. “Once we break loose, here’s how I figure we get out…”