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Halloran directed his attention back out the window, wondering if his pep talk had done any good. "Couple of very obviously gutted buildings to the southwest...
"The Tyler Mansion," Deutsch nodded, marking locations on his map. "Used to be very nice gardens and orchards surrounding the main house before the war. I su...
"Looks like you could hide an armor division under all that shrubbery. Any chance the Trofts could have taken the place over?"
"Probably, but it's hard to imagine how they'd do that without an obvious battle. That wall's not just decorative, for starters, and Tyler's bound to have he...
"That reminds me-we should find a secure phone and check in before we go anywhere else. See if the spotters have anything in the way of Troft movement correl...
"If they haven't found anything in four months they're not likely to have anything now," Deutsch pointed out, folding his map. "All right, though; we'll be g...
"Right." At least, Halloran thought, he's got something besides simple win-loss criteria to mull over now. Maybe it'll be enough.
Only as they were heading down the darkened stairway toward the street below did it occur to him that, in his current state, talking to Deutsch about self-sa...
* * *
Ilona, it turned out, was a walking magcard of information on the Tyler Mansion.
She knew its outer appearance, the prewar layout of its major gardens, and the sizes and approximate locations of some of its rooms. She could sketch the sto...
Still, he'd been taught how to make inferences from the physical appearance of structures, and even given that his data was second-hand he was able to form a...
And the picture wasn't an especially encouraging one.
"The main gate is shaped like this," Ilona said, sketching barely visible lines with her finger on the tabletop. "It's supposed to be electronically locked a...
Briefly, Jonny tried to calculate how long it would take to punch a hole through that much kyrelium with his antiarmor laser. The number came out on the orde...
"Not on the gate itself, but there are two relief carvings flanking it on the wall. About here and here." She pointed.
Sensor clusters, most likely, and probably weapons as well. Facing inward as well as outward? No way of knowing, but it wasn't likely to matter with twenty c...
"As far as I know, nothing."
Jonny frowned. "He's got to have some defenses up there, Ilona. Five-meter walls haven't been proof against attackers since ladders were invented. Um . . . w...
"Nope." She was emphatic. "Nothing but flat wall all the way around the grounds."
Which meant no photoelectric/laser beam setup along the wall. Could Tyler really have left such an obvious loophole in his defenses? Of course, anything comi...
And then a pair of stray facts intersected in Jonny's mind. Tyler had built his mansion along Reginine lines; and Jonny's late teammate, Parr Noffke, had bee...
He had. The day of the trainees' first modest test, the one Jonny had afterward nearly broken Viljo's face over. Our wall lasers, Noffke had commented, point...
And then, of course, it was obvious. Obvious and sobering. Instead of four lasers arranged to fire horizontally along the walls, Tyler had literally hundreds...
And almost undoubtedly the Trofts' planned deathtrap.
Jonny swallowed, the irony of it bitter on his tongue. This was exactly what he'd wanted: some insight into how the aliens expected to stop him . . . and now...
He became aware that Ilona was watching him, a look of strained patience on her face. "Well? Any chance of getting through the gate?"
"I doubt it," Jonny shook his head. "But we won't have to. Up and over is a far better bet."
"Up and over? You mean climb a five-meter wall?"
"I mean jump it. I think I can manage it without too much trouble." In actual fact the wall's height was the least of their troubles, but there was no point ...
"What about the defenses you said might be there?"
"Shouldn't pose any real problem," Jonny lied, again for the Trofts' benefit. He didn't dare appear too naive; it might arouse their suspicions. "I suspect T...
She nodded, and as she launched into a listing of rooms, hallways, and staircases, he knew she was satisfied with his spun-sugar theory. Now if only he'd sim...
And if he could figure out a way through it.
* * *
His internal clock said ten p.m., and it was time to go.
Jonny had been of two minds about choosing a nighttime rather than an afternoon breakout. In the afternoon there would have been people beyond the Tyler Mans...
Those were the reasons he gave Ilona. One more-that the aliens might not risk letting them even get to the wall in broad daylight-he kept to himself.
He was lying on his back on the table, hands folded across his chest; Ilona sat beside him, her knees pulled close to her chest, apparently contemplating the...
Taking a deep breath, Jonny activated his omnidirectional sonic weapon.
There was a tingle in his gut, a slight vibration as the buried speakers brushed harmonics of natural body resonances. Straining his ears, he could almost he...
The full treatment was supposed to require a minute, but Jonny had no intention of giving the Trofts that much warning. He didn't need to knock out the senso...
The upper hinge of the door literally exploded, scattering solid and semisolid bits of itself in a shower to the floor. Beside him, Ilona yelped with surpris...
"You said ten-thirty," Ilona growled. She was already at the door by the time he got his balance, peering cautiously outside.
"I got impatient," Jonny returned, joining her. "Looks clear enough; come on."
Stepping past the ruined door, they headed out into a dimly lit hallway. Enhancers on full, Jonny scanned the walls and floor quickly as he led Ilona in a qu...
They were nearly on top of it when Jonny spotted the slight discoloration in the wall that indicated a disguised photocell at knee height. "Detector!" he sna...
It stopped being ridiculous at the end of the hall.
Jonny paused there, at the threshold of a large room; but neither a complete stop nor a full-speed sprint would have done him a scrap of good. Flanking the h...
Stepping back into the hallway would have been no more than a temporary solution. Shoving Ilona back into that modest protection, he bent his knees and jumpe...