Part of me wanted to do just that. To get this all over and done with. My leg was hurting, and I wasn’t having any fun.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I let it out again—then I froze.

  What if more snipers were here on this side of the wall, looking for me even now?

  I held my breath, and I looked for a place to put my bomb. At last, I found it.

  There was a door in the base of the wall—several of them, in fact. One of these doors was bigger than the rest, and the snow around it was all trampled and turned to mush and ice. I moved painfully toward this door, and I put the bomb down with the push-plate right up against the door. The moment anyone opened it—well sir, they’d be blown to kingdom-come.

  My move was off-script, naturally. It was a big risk, but so was getting permed. I didn’t feel like losing my life, or Yellow-Eye’s or the giggling girl.

  The long and short of it was I didn’t much care about the mission right now. I was going to fight this war my way. If you sent James McGill into action, well sir, you took the good with the bad. Surely the officers of Legion Varus had figured that out by now.

  Hobbling away from the bomb, I headed down into the valley. Every second I fully expected to be shot in the back—but it didn’t happen. I guessed the Clavers were all looking for targets on the other side of the wall. They were Claver-Twos, probably. Smart enough to do something complicated like play sniper, but not so bright that they thought for themselves.

  I almost made it down to Claver-village. It looked like Santa’s Workshop down there, and I began to feel hope welling up when a violent orange flash filled the air behind me.

  The explosion hit me in the ass. I was thrown face-first into the snow, and I felt like something might have snapped—I hoped it was only another rib. Crawling and groaning, I reached back toward a powerful source of pain. I felt a hole in my drawers. I’d caught some shrapnel.

  Rolling onto my back, I looked toward the great wall. There was a hole in it, sure as shit. It wasn’t too big of a hole, it was only maybe thirty meters across—but it was enough.

  For about a minute, I just laid there on my back in the snow and laughed. I’d done it. I could only imagine the shock going through Claver-land right now. There was no one up on that wall other than the snipers who had plinked away and decimated my team. They had to be sounding every alarm, summoning reinforcements to the one fortification they’d stripped of troops.

  This thought made me squint and stop laughing. The Claver-Primes running this show were many things, but they weren’t stupid. They’d order defenders to shift from the other two walls to this one… and those defenders would run right through my current position.

  I was invisible, except for fresh red blood-streaks on the snow, but that might not matter. The coming troops might well walk right into me and stumble.

  Groaning, I dragged my injured self toward cover. The only cover I could locate, unfortunately, was lower down in the village.

  Getting to my feet, I stumbled and cursed as I forced myself to walk downhill into the very heart of Claver-land.

  -42-

  About two hundred steps. That’s as far as I made it before a company of Claver-Threes showed up, marching quickly upslope. It looked like they were coming right at me, meaning to arrest me, maybe—but I knew they shouldn’t be able to see me.

  My first instinct was to freeze and stand there, holding my breath until they walked by—but the path was just too narrow. Men had forced their way through knee-deep snows here, and they’d forged a walkway that was clearly delineated. There was no way one of these men—or the next group that was just now appearing behind them—wouldn’t run into me.

  Cursing quietly, I made a right-angled turn and took seven steps off the path. There, I stopped and stood, waiting and hoping they didn’t spot my footsteps.

  The company was probably part of a reserve force from the central village, posted in the heart of their base just in case we managed to penetrate the valley somehow. They were heading right toward the hole I’d blown in their wall, and it was clear they meant to plug it.

  Counting noses, I estimated thirty of them walked right past my footprints without so much as turning a curious glance. But then, mid-stream in the Claver army, one man paused.

  He wasn’t like the rest. He was lighter of build and not weighed down with heavy weapons. He was probably a Claver-Two, a man with an average brain and abilities.

  This guy stopped and looked at the strange trail leading off a few meters into the snow. I could tell his eyes were searching for the source of the anomaly. Naturally, he saw nothing.

  The rest of the dumbass Clavers kept marching, grunting and muttering to themselves as they tended to do. They were intent on reaching the wall and blocking the attacking army, which even now was coming through the dome into the Valley of Death. I could hear the sniper-fire growing in frequency. The gunners up on the walls were shooting Varus troops no more than a kilometer behind me.

  The smart guy didn’t follow his company, however. Instead, he dug in his pack and pulled out a pair of what looked like enhanced-vision goggles.

  Shit…

  The thought was clear in my mind, but I didn’t say it out loud. Instead, I dug out a pistol under my cloaking suit and lifted it in line with this overly-curious Claver. I’d lost my rifle at some point along the way—probably when I’d been blown off my feet earlier.

  The Claver pulled the goggles over his head and powered them on. I knew the game was up. At this range, any vision-enhancement would reveal my position. Even the heat of my body, glowing against the cold snowy landscape, would give me away.

  I fired a single shot, and I timed it so it came in the middle of a group of other sniper-rounds from the high walls. The sound was quieter but closer. A neat round hole appeared in my stealth suit, as I hadn’t bothered to lift it up to clear the muzzle.

  Caught by surprise, the Claver floundered and bled profusely. He had a new hole in his goggles—I’d shot him right in the head.

  It was time to move on. I hustled my wounded and banged-up self as fast as I could to get back onto the pathway. Then, I walked downslope. If only I could reach the village before the next company appeared… but it was not to be.

  Two more companies were struggling in my direction. These were coming from two different angles. One from the east and one from the west. They had to be reinforcements moving in from both of the other walls. Behind each of these companies were two more formations of similar size. Altogether, something like a battalion of the enemy was heading to this very spot.

  “Goddammit…” I cursed in a low tone.

  I had to move faster now, injuries be damned. My bones ground together in places—an unpleasant sensation, if you’ve ever experienced it.

  It was a race as masses of troops converged on my position from two different angles, but I reached the village before they reached the main pathway up to the wall.

  This wasn’t much of a comfort, however. I was now in Claver-town, their base inside the walls. The whole place was hopping with enemy troops.

  A prime approached. He had a squad of heavy Claver-Threes with him. He was heading toward the path I’d used to come down—but he wasn’t hurrying like everyone else.

  After a dozen more steps, and I saw the goggles glowing on his face. He grinned at me.

  “McGill? Is that you? Of course it is… Who else could be so tall and so obviously out of place? Do you know you’re bleeding light in several spectrums? Your stealth suit must be out of kilter.”

  He laughed. He slapped his knee, he laughed so hard.

  I lifted my pistol under my suit. I aimed carefully. I was pretty sure I was about to die, but with luck, I might take one more smart-ass out with me before I did.

  Shaking his head, the Claver heaved a sigh. “Damn, boy. You like the direct route, don’t you? Is there any way we can make a deal before every human on this frozen rock dies?”

  My pistol was up, and it was dead-on. All I had to do was pull the trigger. I almost did it, too.

  But there was something about this man… he was different. He was waiting calmly for me to make my decision. Maybe he knew I had a gun on him—but he didn’t seem to care.

  Around him, grunting and shuffling foot-to-foot, were a dozen idiot-Clavers. They were looking at him, looking around at the snow, sniffing the night air… they would tear me apart if I fired now. They’d all charge in a rage, and I doubted I could outrun them or escape their wrath. They’d sniff the ground for my scent if they had to.

  Shifting my gaze back to the one smart man among them, I saw him looking directly at me.

  “Well?” he asked. “Talk to me. It’s cold out here, and I’m getting bored.”

  Then, at long last, my mind pulled certain hints and facts together. I was hurt, a little high with stims, and not too bright to begin with—but my brain does still work, after a fashion.

  “Claver-X?” I asked. “Is that really you?”

  “Of course it is, you moron. Who else would be talking to you instead of blazing away with both barrels?”

  “Right. Sorry. I’m… I’m not in perfect condition.”

  “Heh. I’m not surprised. Why are you even here?”

  I pointed back over my shoulder, but I soon realized that he couldn’t see the gesture. Taking a chance, I pulled my stealth-suit over my head and pointed back toward the breached wall.

  The dumbass Clavers reacted immediately. They surged upslope toward me with a single mind between them. They wanted nothing more than to destroy this intruder who’d appeared in their path.

  Claver-X shouted at them, beating them with his fists and shoving them back. “Stand-down! Stand-down! No one is to kill this giant slack-jawed ignoramus until I order it, or he kills me first. Got it?”

  Sullen and confused, the beastly men shuffled in the snows, showing me their teeth and glittering eyes as they moved to encircle me.

  “I don’t think there’s much to talk about, X,” I told him. “We’re not all going to die—just you are.”

  “Let’s trade information first,” Claver-X said, walking up to me. “You go first. Talk—and you’d better make it fast and make it good.”

  I shrugged. There weren’t any secrets left to my mission, as far as I could tell. “I’m here to destroy your wall. I already did that part… and now Legion Varus is flooding into the breach. You Clavers don’t have a chance. There isn’t enough of you to stop us.”

  Claver-X rolled his eyes at me. Like every one of his kind, he seemed to think I was dumber than a fencepost. “McGill, that part is obvious. But what are your masters going to do about the invasion ships racing in on your flanks?”

  “Uh… what?”

  “Dear Lord…” Claver-X muttered. “Here, catch my feed.”

  He flicked at his tapper, and mine lit up. I accepted the transmission, even though it was a breach of protocol to do so. You couldn’t trust an enemy not to send you a virus on the battlefield. Under the circumstances, I’d decided it was good idea to take the chance.

  A shot of the star system flashed up. A lot of unknown contacts were streaming toward Ice World. Legion Varus was soon going to have company.

  The ships were marked in yellow, and Dominus orbited the planet, and she was marked in red. That was correct from Claver’s point of view—after all, we were the enemy. Dominus was bigger than the invading ships, but she was badly outnumbered.

  “Who the hell is that?” I demanded.

  Claver-X snorted. “Who do you think it is? Hit yourself on the head a few times. Maybe that will shake something loose.”

  “Uh… Armel’s saurian legion?”

  “Close, but no cigar. Keep guessing.”

  My mind swam, and I tried to think. Claver-X could have just told me, of course, but that wasn’t how he liked to operate. He enjoyed teasing people and pissing them off—just like the rest of his brothers.

  All of sudden, it came to me.

  “It’s the Tau, isn’t it? They’re after the coins, just like we are. No one else knows where we are.”

  Claver-X pointed a black-gloved finger at me. “Bingo. My brothers called them here for help—but I’m starting to think they might have other intentions. They aren’t answering our hails.”

  “Really? Huh… you want to know what I think?”

  “Not really… but tell me anyway.”

  “I think you Clavers are the dumbasses. Don’t you know they’ve been trying to find your gold ever since the Tech World campaign? You called them for help, and then showed them the way to your vault, like an idiot a flare up his butt. You brought them out here, and now they’ll screw both of us and take the money for themselves.”

  “I think you’re right,” he said glumly.

  I found this funny, so I laughed in his face. “You boys are too clever for your own good, aren’t you? So, is this why you’re out here talking to me?”

  “That’s right. At this point both of us stand to lose everything.”

  I tried hard to think clearly. It wasn’t easy to do. “You really think they can take Legion Varus? A bunch of Tau?”

  He nodded his head. “Of course they can. Count those ships—there must be damn near fifty of them. If they carry a thousand Tau each, they outnumber your troops and mine combined by two to one.”

  “Huh… I guess it could be like you say. I guess we should clean you boys out and cart all those coins out of here as fast as we can.”

  “No dice, thief. We’re not that stupid. We’ve set up teleportation routes. We’ll take the coins out of here to a new safe spot.”

  I shook my head in return. “You’re lying. This dome is blocking teleportation and gateways. You can’t go through your own barrier—we checked. What’s more, if you dare drop the dome, all kinds of hell will rush in here from Dominus. They’re just waiting for a chance to nail you.”

  Naturally, I was lying too. As far as I knew, the Gray Deck techs up on Dominus weren’t ready to launch breakfast much less any attacks right now—but old X didn’t know that.

  We stood there and glared at each other for a second or two. We were both feeling distrustful.

  “Okay,” Claver-X said at last. “This brings us back to my initial question. What do you want, McGill? What kind of deal between your folks and mine can bring this unpleasantness to an end? Sure, my side is trapped here—but if you take the coins, the Tau will swoop right down here and confiscate them in turn.”

  “I don’t rightly know what I can do about any of this. I’m here to do a mission, and it’s done. I think I’ll just die and let the next James worry about it.”

  “Aw, come on. You’re not a quitter, boy! Talk to me. Let’s make a deal.”

  All Clavers loved deals. It was a critical part of their overworked DNA. It occurred to me that a deal might be worth striking right now—or at least it might be worth trying.

  “Okay…” I said. “I’ll talk to Graves.”

  I lifted my tapper, but Claver-X was suddenly on top of me. He put a hand on my wrist, but I broke free.

  All around me, a dozen snarling, ape-like Clavers clustered close.

  “Hold on,” Claver-X said. “Let’s think this over. Let’s come to a private agreement before we talk to anyone else.”

  The sounds of fighting were now loud up on the slope behind me. Legion Varus was marching into that narrow gorge, but even with their wall broken, the Clavers were putting up a good fight.

  “Men are dying back there even now,” I said.

  “That’s right, and that’s an awful thing. Think, boy. Every man that dies, McGill—that’s one less man that could be used to stop the Tau. You know I’m right. Talk to me and talk to me fast.”

  I turned back in his direction. I squinted at him. He really wanted a deal, and he wanted it now.

  But why? I wracked my foggy brain until I thought I had it. “You want something to tell your side, don’t you? They’ll want a deal to stop the shooting as well.”

  “Of course. A simple ceasefire will do. That’s—”

  “No,” I said. “My commanders know they have you in a tight spot. They’ll want to press into Claver-town. They won’t want to delay and let you build up your defenses. Here’s the deal: You pull back right now. Abandon that big broken wall of yours. Fall back to the village and the other two walls. Then, we’ll talk.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe, but as things stand, you’re all going to die anyway. Either Varus will kill you or the Tau will. But if you retreat and turtle-up down here, we’ll have time to negotiate. There’s no way to cut a deal in the middle of a pitched battle. My officers won’t listen.”

  Claver-X chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I can’t simply order the troops on the southern wall to withdraw. There are other Claver-Primes around. They’ll want to know what’s up.”

  We locked eyes. “You’ll have to blow your cover. You’ll have to come clean. Tell your brothers who you are—then suggest a better path.”

  “With nothing to offer them? They won’t listen, McGill. You know that.”

  He sounded tortured now, and I knew why. He was trying to figure a way out of this, and he wasn’t seeing it. What’s more, I knew his brothers. They wanted to kill him, as he was an aberrant version of their own genes. They hated him just as much as they hated me—probably more.

  “How about this…” I said. “How about we split the coins, fifty-fifty?”

  He blinked at me. “What? Are you crazy?”

  “Fifty-fifty, or we both get squat. Talk to them—talk to your crazy relatives.”

  Claver-X rubbed his neck. He hissed. He paced in the snow—but after about a full minute of that crap, he made a fateful call.

  -43-

  I don’t know exactly what Claver-X told his relatives, but it didn’t seem like they were happy about it.

  A full company of Claver-Threes appeared in the village. They poured like insects out of their underground barracks—from the same holes where I’d seen them emerge before.