“I’m sending three dirigibles,” Julia said. “They’re already halfway to you. The truth is that I expected such an assault from the Yun People and prepared for it ahead of time. This weapon—I want it. I want Maddox alive. More than any of this, reaching the assault vessels and learning Leviathan’s secret is critical.”

  “I’ll guard Maddox with my life,” Ophir said.

  “Good,” Julia said. “Because your life depends on his—do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, Grandma,” Ophir said.

  That was the last of the communication. Possible desert activity or jamming devices caused the screen to show blizzard conditions.

  “I lost her,” Mara said.

  Ophir nodded to the two men. They released Maddox.

  He rubbed his cheek where he’d been struck.

  “Sorry about that,” Ophir said. “Tricking Grandma can be difficult.”

  Maddox nodded stiffly.

  “Sir,” a Honey Man soldier said. “We’ve found people alive in the vans. Some of them are stirring.”

  “Should we take a look?” Dravek asked Maddox.

  Maddox raised an eyebrow.

  “Maybe one of ours made it to the drop pods,” Dravek said.

  “We’ll be right back,” Maddox told Ophir.

  With that, the two men left the grounded air vehicle to see if Eddings, Gricks or Hern might have made it to a pod.

  -56-

  To Maddox’s astonishment, Gricks and Hern were stacked in a Metamorph van, their wrists and ankles shackled.

  With his monofilament blade, Maddox freed both men. He got both to open their eyes, but that was it. They stared blankly at nothing, unable or unwilling to speak.

  Maddox and Dravek transferred the two to their van. This one lacked a heavy machine gun on top. It had two seats in front, three rows in back and room for equipment behind that.

  Dravek sat in the shotgun seat. Maddox drove. Both Gricks and Hern lay on the floor between the rows. The rest of the van was filled with military equipment and gear.

  “Too bad we didn’t find some mortars,” Dravek said.

  “We do have grenade launchers now, though,” Maddox said.

  Six ex-Metamorph vans left the killing ground. Nineteen people rode in them, most as unaware as Gricks and Hern.

  After nine kilometers of speeding past dunes, boulders and rocky terrain, the six vans parked in a semi-circle. It was nearly two hours until dawn. Ophir and Mara climbed out of one van, Maddox another. The rest of the drivers remained in theirs.

  “Mara can’t wake up our living dead,” Ophir said.

  “Why do you call them that?” Maddox asked.

  Ophir indicated that Mara would answer.

  She wore desert gear, looking tiny beside Ophir. Her helmet hid her hair while goggles covered her eyes.

  “The Yun mind fusion did something to their brains,” Mara said. “It’s like a shut-off switch was thrown in them. I’ve tried to reverse that in several men. One went into a seizure and died. The other two—” She shook her head.

  “Will the men recover from their brain freeze over time?” Maddox asked.

  Mara shrugged.

  “You don’t care, or you don’t know?” Maddox asked.

  “Don’t know,” Mara said.

  “That means we have a total of nine people to do this,” Maddox said.

  “Maybe I should have Grandma launch some nukes after all,” Ophir said. “They could land in patterns that ring our general area. That might disrupt the mind fusion or whoever rules it.”

  Maddox thought about the idea. “That’s a possibility, but…”

  “What would you suggest?” Ophir said.

  “That depends on a few factors,” Maddox said. “How badly do you want to go back to the South Pole Highlands?”

  “Very,” Ophir said.

  “Without having acquired the ancient weapon or longevity treatment?” Maddox asked.

  Ophir gave him a searching stare. “Are you saying you made all that up to get out of the Highlands?”

  “That can’t be it,” Mara said. “The weapon site is real, as the mind fusion believes in it.”

  “What about the longevity treatment then?” Ophir asked Maddox.

  “It’s all real,” Maddox said. “Getting the items into Grandma’s hands is another story. So let me ask you again: do you want to return to the Highlands if you fail to produce the desired items?”

  Ophir appeared to think about it. “Where else would I go if I don’t go home?”

  “To the North Pole,” Maddox said.

  “I’d be a pariah there.”

  “Not if you hired out to the tribunes as a Honey Man specialist.”

  “Turn traitor to my people?” asked Ophir.

  “I’m trying to understand all the options,” Maddox said. “I need to know as we’re running out of plays down here.”

  Ophir tugged at his lower lip. “I understand. You fear Grandma’s repercussions. You doubt that we can win through even to the weapon site and want to run away to the north.”

  “I’m trying to decide what gives us the best percentages to surviving,” Maddox said. “Is it trying to beat the Yun mind fusion and reach the ancient weapon site? Is it trying to flee to the North Pole region? What?”

  “The North Pole is thousands of kilometers from here,” Ophir said. “Even if we could achieve such a miracle, how do we defeat the Leviathan assault vessels if we fail to snatch the ancient weapon you promised?”

  “Using ballistic missiles and whatever space force the North Pole people have,” Maddox said. “Remember, Leviathan is only bringing three assault vessels to Gath.”

  Ophir spat at the sand. “We’re wasting time talking here. We lack fuel to reach the north, so that’s out. Likely, Grandma can track us and nuke us at her leisure.”

  “Cogent points each,” Maddox admitted. “Mara, what can you tell us about the mind fusion? I have a feeling you know more about it than any of us.”

  Mara glanced at Ophir.

  He nodded his permission.

  Mara breathed deeply. “I don’t know much. The mind fusion is dormant now. It has been ever since it launched that mind blast back at the firefight.”

  “Have you tried to use your telepathy to figure out what it is?” Maddox asked.

  Mara shook her head. “I’m afraid to try. It would notice, I think, and come after me in retaliation.”

  “That makes sense,” Maddox said, who’d been playing a hunch that a telepath would know more about the Yun. “Look, it’s always better to know one’s enemy. The more you know about him or her and the more you know about yourself—as old Sun Tzu said, Know yourself and know your enemy and you will win every time. We have to know who and what the mind fusion is if we’re going to outwit it, find the weapon site and find out what’s going on.”

  “That makes sense to me,” Ophir said. “I want you to try, Mara.”

  She swallowed audibly. “The other witches are dead. That’s what the men call us. The Old Ones say we have the talent. I have the talent stronger than most. Gallant Ophir has always backed me, and I’ve tried to back him because of my gratitude. What you’re asking—I’m frightened to try.”

  “We need to know,” Maddox said. “If ever there was a time to find out, this is it.”

  Mara stared at him. “You have a touch of the talent yourself, don’t you, Captain?”

  Ophir looked sharply at Maddox.

  “I wouldn’t call it a talent,” Maddox said. “I have something else.”

  “What else?” Ophir asked. “Can you read my mind?”

  “No, nothing like that,” Maddox said. “I judge you by your actions, your words and mannerisms. That gives me more than I need to know you. But none of that matters here. We’re allies of the moment. One of the things that I try to do is give the other person what he wants, if I can. That way he’ll cooperate with me as much as possible. We’re both looking for something. I don’t know what you want, Ophir, but if it’s in my power, I’ll give it to you.”

  “And in return,” Mara said, “you want your freedom. You want to leave Gath.”

  “Of course, I want to leave,” Maddox said. “That’s well known.

  “Even if you—” Mara gasped.

  “What is it?” Ophir asked her.

  Mara and Maddox exchanged a glance. What did she read in that moment? The captain sensed she knew too much. But he also hoped—

  His right hand fell onto the butt of his holstered pistol. There was another way to end this.

  “Maddox feels that the prize is near,” Mara told Ophir.

  Ophir studied her closely and then nodded.

  “Let’s get back to the critical issue,” Maddox said. “Mara, can you find out what this Yun mind gestalt is exactly? From the little I can tell, now’s the time to try.”

  Mara nodded. She closed her eyes and touched her forehead with her gloved fingertips. She didn’t make a sound but stood still as the seconds ticked away. Was she scanning? Was she questing with her mental power? How did her telepathic power operate?

  Maddox didn’t know. He’d dealt with telepaths in the past, and he imagined they operated on various principles. His was an intuitive gift. Did that mean it was telepathic? Perhaps only in the sense that he’d been able to detect telepathic mind assaults and had been able to protect himself from them.

  Abruptly, Mara raised her head. Then her knees unhinged.

  Ophir caught her, helping her to remain standing.

  “I’m sorry,” Mara said, as she straightened.

  Ophir brushed himself where she’d touched him.

  Mara turned to Maddox. “I have a sense of what’s going on. I saw a Metamorph watching us. He’s way over there.”

  She pointed.

  They all looked into the night in that direction, seeing nothing unusual.

  “He’s hiding behind a large dune two kilometers away,” Mara said. “I doubt you could see him from here. He has a rifle, a long-range weapon. He’s hoping we come in range of him. He…he’s grotesque with two brains in his head. They grew side by side. His skull is much different from ours, like two halves pushed together, each half containing a brain. He’s normally part of the mind fusion. It reaches far back, for hundreds of kilometers, maybe more. His kind is linked mentally in a way I don’t understand. When they’re in unity, when they’re all awake—that was the mind fusion we dealt with.”

  “They’re all one in a gestalt?” Maddox asked.

  “Not quite,” Mara said. “I detected a guiding intellect, although I’m not sure where the guiding intellect is. The mind fusion doesn’t sense us the way we sense its individual components. It must have sensed the dirigibles, though. The guiding intellect surely is the operative or decision-making…entity. Although the fusion is weak right now, some of the individual pieces watch us. I’m sorry I can’t explain it better than that.”

  “You’re doing great,” Maddox said. “Did you sense the weapon site?”

  “I did, along with radiation sensors. There is a pit maybe a hundred kilometers from here. That’s where the excess radiation comes from. It doesn’t come from the sun. The pit is a scar, a wound, from some ancient war. There was something else, though.”

  Mara shuddered, hugging herself. “It was an oily, ancient and evil mind. It was asleep or terribly wounded, lingering. Does any of this make sense, Captain?”

  “I’m the one you should be asking,” Ophir said.

  Mara dipped her head. “You’re in charge, Gallant, but Maddox understands these things. He’s an explorer and has gone to many strange places.” She looked at Maddox with adoration.

  Ophir frowned and shifted, perhaps angrily.

  Maddox realized the man was jealous, which was odd. He was sure the Honey Men were all decadent and depraved, rutting like dogs with anyone that would unite with them. Why would Ophir care how Mara thought about him?

  “You said you detected the weapon site,” Maddox said. “How far is it from here?”

  “Twenty-two kilometers.” Mara moved her gloved index finger back and forth, and then pointed. “That way. There are dangers ahead. I think we must fight our way through.”

  “What about our sleeping men,” Dravek said. “Did you sense anything about that?”

  Maddox turned. He hadn’t heard Dravek approach. The two men nodded at each other.

  Mara looked at Dravek and then Maddox. “You two are remarkably similar. It is uncanny, and yet you are different. You are each unique.”

  “I’m his clone,” Dravek said with an edge to his voice.

  Mara stepped up to him and put a gloved hand on Dravek’s cheek. “You’re more than that.”

  Ophir grunted, and it wasn’t a happy sound.

  Mara stepped away from Dravek. She lowered her head before Ophir. “We should be leaving, my lord. The sun will be up soon. It would be good to reach the weapon site before the sun shines.”

  “Is the weapon site underground?” Maddox asked.

  “It is,” Mara said. “And there are guards. I also think the only way we’re getting out of the desert is through there. That was the sense I received from the minds. They’re waking up and groping for the fusion linkage. The mind blast severely tested their operative abilities. They’re not used to using the gestalt like that. The mind fusion is new and growing. It may be a threat to all Gath. I don’t know if the ancient evil underneath is prodding it or what.”

  For a moment, Maddox pictured a gigantic, oily, whale-sized creature with tentacles, a Yon Soth. Had the Yon Soth reached this spiral arm? Undoubtedly, as they were all over the galaxy. Was he about to face one of the dreaded ancient entities again? It wouldn’t surprise him if some of what was going on here had a Yon Soth origin.

  “Gallant Ophir,” Maddox said, “I suggest you lead the caravan with Mara’s aid.”

  “I’m in charge,” Ophir said. “Is that understood? I make the decisions.”

  “I do understand,” Maddox said. “I was only making a suggestion.”

  “You’re coming back with me to the Highlands to show the longevity treatment to Grandma Julia. I’m her cherished grandchild. I won’t fail her.”

  “I’m coming back with you,” Maddox said, wondering what that was all about.

  They returned to their separate vans, climbing in.

  “Did you catch that last part from Ophir?” Dravek asked.

  “I did. It’s nothing to worry about. We’ll take one step at a time, doing what we must at the right moment.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Dravek said.

  Maddox started up the van, putting it into gear.

  -57-

  The caravan of giant, balloon-tired vans raced across the silvery landscape. They startled giant jitterbugs that flew away in swarms. Lizards, some as long as Maddox, scuttled out of the way. One time, a lizard chewed on something so green gore stained its jaws.

  The kilometers slipped away one by one, as the caravan headed for the ancient weapon site as recorded in the Moray’s ship log. There were no more glittering sand particles and the silvery desert color had vanished. The moons had sunk below the horizon. In the darkness above, the stars shined like gems. Soon the sun would rise and heat the landscape, turning it into a burning cauldron that would sizzle even those in the vans.

  How was it possible that ordinary humans moved so effortlessly through the heart of the cannibalistic Yun People territory? Was it because of the slaughter that had taken place near the grounded air vehicle and drop pods? The battle had been ferocious. The air-vehicle cannon had exploded many black vans. Anti-personnel weapons had riddled seemingly endless Metamorphs. In truth, the Metamorphs had taken devastating losses tonight, larger than any recorded in legends or oral traditions. The guiding intellect that had moved them as pawns was silent. That hadn’t occurred in the memory of the oldest Metamorph.

  Most of the remaining Metamorphs slept because the mind fusion usually compelled them to exhausting work. That included increasing the underground tunnels and chambers or digging for treasures that none of them comprehended.

  Perhaps a third of the two-brained Metamorphs remained awake. They were different from the ordinary ruck and had tasted of Highlander honey, which had expanded their already overdeveloped brains. They were successful experiments. Primitive cannibals hadn’t performed the experiments in the depths of the desert. So, who had?

  There were deep laboratories under the sands. There, an alien creature used ancient automatons to run its experiments. Did the creature do this all the time? The answer was it hardly ever did the experiments anymore. The alien creature slumbered for long periods, at times for years on end.

  In the legends of the Yun People, the alien was an evil god. When it woke, it demanded so much. The alien experiments had produced the two-brained Metamorphs.

  Some of the two-brained watched the passing caravan from behind dunes or boulders. They did not raise their long rifles and fire because no command came for them to do this.

  Singly, the two-brained struggled in the desert realm, more primitive in the survival art than the lesser Metamorphs were. But when linked in gestalt with each other they rose to a great intellectual height, having greater analytical ability than any genius on Gath.

  They were the servants of the dark god under the sands. Tonight, the god slept. The mind fusion had shattered, the two-brained not yet attempting true linkage with one another. Thus, the caravan of humans continued its way, even Mara unaware that this was a unique opportunity in the desert annals.

  ***

  Maddox drove the van.

  He was the di-far. Perhaps his ability to take a people’s course out of one track and set it on another for a different destiny had something to do with all this. His power worked even here in the Scutum-Centaurus Spiral Arm.

  Maddox drove with terrible urgency; certain he needed what was at this ancient weapon site. How could it help against Leviathan attack vessels? Maybe that was the wrong question. What could three Leviathan attack vessels do from Gath orbit? No doubt, they had antimatter-tipped missiles or bombs. Likely, they could send those warheads at precise points on Gath. Realistically, they could give an ultimatum to those on the planet.