The Burning Ground

5. Into the valley

The wind shifted and a spatter of rain caught Shadith in the face. She wiped her eyes clear and moved forward again, running bent low, two steps behind the child Zot who was ghosting along as silent as the older locals. It was a dreary night, heavily overcast, the wind erratic, sometimes there, sometimes not, the rain a weak but steady drizzle, just enough to make them all uncomfortable and the footing difficult. A grand night for sneaks, though. The Ptaks were inside where they were comfortable, warm and dry. No one would be out in this unless he had to.

She straightened when she reached the darkness under the trees at the edge of the Drill Field, took the disruptor case from Yseyl, and watched with amazement as the Pima fern shimmered into a patch of mist and trotted toward the flier. Little gray ghost? I was closer than I knew Digby will skin me bald if I let this one get away. Nine dealers down the drain, so Cerex said. Didn’t know what hit them. I can see why.

Yseyl used the stunner. The field burned against Shadith’s reach, like touching nettles it was. Twice. A sense of quick purposeful activity. Then a lull while she waited.

Shadith tapped Luca’s arm, pointed.

The rain was coming down harder as Luca, Wann, and young Zot ran toward the flier; even though they lacked

Yseyl’s gift, in the darkness they were only visible if the watcher knew where to look. When they reached the flier, there was a sudden flare of pale grayish light, a moonlight through clouds effect as Yseyl opened the hatch. Three dark shapes crossed the light, then it shrank and vanished as the door swung shut.

A moment later Yseyl was back. “They’re in and ready,” she muttered. “I gave Luca Cerex’s stunrod in case there’s trouble.” She took the disruptor from Shadith. “Your job next.”

They reached the thorn hedge without trouble. Even the nightbirds were huddling in their nests.

Bending over the cutter to shield it from the rain, Shadith shortened the blade and used millisecond bursts to slice through stems of the thornbush so they could clear a narrow path through it, angled so the cut wouldn’t be easily visible from a short distance off.

When the six of them were inside the hedge, standing up to their ankles in sloppy mud, Shadith reached through the building. The strengthening rain hammering against her arm, she touched Hidan’s shoulder. “I read two. You?” she murmured.

+Two. In the place with the big windows.+

“Right.” Shadith leaned toward to Yseyl. “Third window from the end. There.” She pointed at one of the storeroom windows. “Center the hole over that.”

Yseyl activated the disruptor.

Because the Ptaks felt no need to provide visual clues to the shield round the Center, to the eye nothing seemed to be happening-and Shadith’s reach only gave her a vague sense of agitation. She closed her eyes and scanned the field again. With the additional concentration she could read faint ripples in the field plane, flowing about a circular opening the size of her hand. This is going to be a problem: tWhen I scan, I can’t see t e.window; when.I see the window, I can’t read the field.

Hidan gasped.

Shadith swung round to face xe. +What?+ she signed, making the signs large so they’d be visible.

+A hole in nothing. I can thin it growing.+

Interesting. +Tell me when it stops growing.+ She took the climbing pole from the break-in kit she’d clipped to her belt, gave it the prescribed twist, and held it away from her as the memormel took its primary shape. When the form was stable, she set the base on the ground and waited.

+Now.+

“Is the whole window clear?” She pitched the words to carry above the hiss of the rain.

+Yes. By at least a handspan.+

+Good.+ She lifted the pole. “Hidan, warn me if this thing gets too close to the edge of the opening.”

The pole touched the glass. Holding her breath she opened the jaws of the clamp on the end and began easing them toward the sill. Inch by inch, down and down until the jaws touched the wood. She glanced at Hidan.

+Still clear.+

“Good. If the pole gets less than a handwidth from the edge, stop me.”

Hidan nodded.

Glancing repeatedly at the anya, she clamped the jaws on the sill, began tilting the pole downward, slowly slowly slowly-until the base end was jammed into the mud. She let out the breath she was holding, nodded her thanks to Hidan, and triggered the lockdown plate. When a hefty shove at the pole failed to move it, she wiped the rain off her face, stepped into the first half-stirrup, then went running up until she could touch the glass.

A suction cup in the center of the wide pane, four quick slashes with the cutter; a shove, and-the way was open.

Syon eased the pole into the empty storeroom, propped it in a corner and squatted beside it, a rifle across his knees, his eyes on the window.

Shadith pulled the knitted cowl over her head, smoothed it down, checked to make sure her eyes were clear. She glanced at the other hooded figures, squeezed the latch and eased the door open, slipped out into the hall and ghosted down it.

Shadith was several steps beyond the doorless arch that led into the workroom before the two techs noticed her. She stunned them, ran to Avo’s office, located the keybook Vourts had used, and hurried back to the station with it.

While she leafed through the pages until she found the one she wanted, Khimil and Nyen dragged the techs away from workstations, tied their wrists and ankles, gagged and blindfolded them. Hidan stood guard at the door, sweeping round with xe’s thinta, ready to whistle a warning if anyone came.

Shadith entered the Exec’s override and began the tedious process of making sure none of the base cardkeys or access codes would breach the shield and open the door; the accretions were even worse than she’d suspected and tracking down all the files was a pain, though it did give her a feel for what she’d have to claw through when she began working on the satellite programming. Outside, the rain drummed against the windows, the wind wailed and whooped round the corners. Inside, Nyen and Khimil’s boot heels were loud on the composition floor as they hurried about, gathering everything flammable they could find and dumping it on and around the other workstations. They spoke now and then, voices subdued.

At first all these sounds were distracting, but as Shadith worked her way deeper into ithe Ptak system, they faded until she was no longer conscious of them.