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didn't see if he made it out or not. They were waiting for us, and we were
overmatched. What more can I tell you?"
Struggling with the possible truth of it, Rand said nothing. But a
suspicious look had begun to surface on Rook's face. "A whole lot more," she
told Wolff. "How did you escape, Colonel?"
Wolff shrugged. "I was luckier than the others. That's the way it is."
Rook snorted. "From what I hear, that's the way it always is with you."
"What are you insinuating?" Wolff seethed, flashing her a cold look.
Rand gestured Rook to back off. He took two steps toward the table and
slammed his hand down. "Just tell us where you were attacked."
Wolff's hand went out to steady the bottle. "If you're thinking about
trying to go out there and find him, forget it. You won't make it."
Rand showed his teeth, then relaxed. "Look, we've got an Alpha fighter
hidden nearby. If there's even a chance that Scott's alive, you better believe
I'm going out there to find him."
Mention of the VT seemed to bring Wolff around somewhat. He lifted the
bottle but set it down without pouring. "Even a fighter might not be enough."
Wolff gave Rand an appraising look. "Yes, Scott told me that you'd seen action
together. But we're up against a hive, not a Scout patrol."
"It's still worth a try."
Wolff thought a moment, then said: "All right, I'll lead you out there."
"Great!"
Wolff stood up and went for his jacket. "We'll leave immediately."
Rand swung around to Rook. "Let the others know what I'm up to. We'll
get Scott back!"
With that he rushed from the room, Wolff a few paces behind him. Rook
stood dumbfounded for a moment, then followed him to the doorway. "What am
I-your personal messenger or something?" she yelled to his back. But he didn't
turn around. "Rand!" she shouted again, fuming.
Rand showed Wolff where the Alpha was hidden, but the colonel insisted
they recon the area on Cyclones before bringing the Veritech into play. The
fighter, Wolff insisted, would stir up the entire hive; it was simply too
precious a commodity to risk, even for the life of a valued friend.
Rand saw the logic of it, disturbing as it was, especially after Wolff
had led him to the hive.
"The place is a fortress!" Rand exclaimed, keeping his voice low. "I've
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never seen anything like it."
Wolff regarded him from behind the dark glasses, obviously pleased by
Rand's shocked reaction. They were at the edge of the clearing now, suited up
in Cyclone armor and armed with hand blasters. "It's just one of many," Wolff
said. "There's a chain of these things that runs clear to Reflex Point."
Rand swallowed hard, discouraged. "It was around here that you last saw
Scott?"
Wolff nodded and lowered the helmet's faceshield. "We'll search the
perimeter first." He motioned Rand off to the right. "Stick to the woods, and
I'll meet you on the other side. I only hope there's something left of Bernard
to find."
Rand refused to allow the thought to register. He turned and was about
to move off when the ground began to tremble. Wolff drew his blaster and
pivoted through a 360, searching for some sign of the Invid's egress point.
Rand managed to get his blaster unholstered and aimed in the same general
direction as Wolff 's.
In a moment the Invid Trooper showed itself, rising up through the earth
and underbrush just outside the clearing. Wolff and Rand hit it full power,
but neither of them was successful at directing a charge to any of the
creature's vulnerable points. The Trooper seemed to sense their helplessness
and opted to kill them with its claw rather than cannon fire. It had one of
its pincers raised for a downward strike, when someone behind the two men
stunned it with a Scorpion delivered to the head.
Rand turned in time to see Rook's red Cyclone's rearwheel landing in the
clearing. She slid the tail end of the mecha around and shouted through the
externals for Rand to jump on.
"I told you you weren't leaving me behind," Rand heard as he raced to
the Cyc. "And it's a lucky thing for you two that I decided to follow."
As Rand straddled the Cyclone's rear seat, he realized that Wolff wasn't
behind him. Over his shoulder he glimpsed Wolff waving Rook off. "Get going!"
Wolff told them. "I'll make it back to my mecha!"
Rook wasn't about to sit around and argue. She toed the Cyclone into
gear and sped off almost before Rand had secured an adequate handhold behind
her. Meanwhile, the stunned Invid had come to life and was spewing a
horizontal hail of annihilation discs into the trees. The Trooper pursued
them, its shoulder cannons blazing. Rook pushed the Cyclone through a series
of twists and turns, dodging explosions, plumes of fire and dirt.
Rand was thinking they were in the clear when the carapaced head of a
second Invid appeared in front of them, pushing itself up from the soft forest
ground, an unearthly land crab. Rook tried to launch the Cyclone over the
thing before it completed its rise, but the Invid got one of its pincers free
just as the mecha was directly overhead. Rand felt the jolt as the alien's
claw impacted the mecha, and the next thing he knew he was on his butt in the
grass, dazed, Rook similarly postured nearby. The Cyclone was nowhere in
sight.
Rand shook his head clear and raised the helmet faceshield. "We've gotta
find the Cyc," he shouted to Rook. "Split up."
Rook got to her feet; Rand waved her the okay sign and disappeared into
the brush.
Splitting up was a bad idea, Rand told himself fifteen minutes later.
The woods were thick, impenetrable in places; he had started working circles
to fix his location, but he soon lost track of his own center-along with Rook
and the missing Cyclone.
He was close to the hive clearing again, removing his helmet, when he
heard sounds of movement close by. Rand turned, glimpsed Colonel Wolff, and
almost called out to him. But something made him pull himself into concealment
at the last moment. Wolff had holstered his blaster and looked as though he
were waiting for a delivery of some kind. A Human-size figure was walking
toward Wolff, but it was still too far off for Rand to get a good look at it.
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And even when it finally approached Wolff, he didn't know what to make of it.
Rand had his H-90 aimed at the thing now: It was taller than it had
first appeared, perhaps eight feet tall, bipedal and suited up in bulky
dark-colored battle armor. The creature's head-if that was indeed its head and
not some kind of helmet-reminded Rand of a snail's foot. He told himself that
it had to be an Invid. It certainly matched Scott's description of them, but
Rand had for so long come to think of the aliens' ships as the creatures
themselves that his mind refused to accept the idea.
Then Rand saw the Invid soldier hand Wolff a carry pack of Protoculture
canisters.
He was tempted to kill them both-alien and traitor-but knew as the rage
spread through him that he wanted Wolff to know who was taking him out when
the moment came.
Rand lowered the weapon and silently began to work his way toward the
conspirators. There was an outcropping of rock behind Wolff; Rand made his way
to the top of this while the Invid walked back to the hive. Wolff had the
Protoculture and was about to return to his Cyclone when Rand surprised him.
"So the hero's a traitor," Rand said from the outcropping, his blaster
aimed down at Wolff. Wolff had been quick to raise his own weapon, but Rand
went on, undaunted. "No wonder the city's full of laughing soldiers-it's so
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