ire. Not so Rimov.

The burst hit Rimov between the shoulder blades.
There was a sharp, crackling sound as cloth and
Rimov's flesh carbonized. He fell forward, dead
before he struck the deck.

No one moved. Cordy and his men stared at their
fallen officer.

Brad didn't wait for them to recover.

"Back," he shouted to Kumiko and Scarf. "Around
the bend. Now."

Kumiko whirled and raced around the corner.
Scarf rolled back on to his feet and dashed after
her. Brad followed.

Rimov's guards were nowhere in sight.

There was a roar of rage behind them.

Cordy.

"They shot Rimov. After 'em. Shoot to kill."

The passageway was long; they would be at the
wrong end of a shooting gallery as soon as Cordy
reached the bend. The only break was a narrow
ladder through a hatch in the overhead.

"Up," Brad commanded. "Fast."

Kumiko first, then Scarf. Brad followed.

As Brad drew his legs up through the hatchway
a searing blast struck the frame, missing him
by centimeters. Brad twisted away as another
bolt flashed up through the hatch, scorching
the bulkhead from which he had just moved.

Brad shouted down. "First guy who shoves his head
through the hatch gets it burned off." Turning to
Kumiko and Scarf he whispered, "That won't hold
them for long."

"Listen, about that shooting...", Scarf began.

Brad snapped him short with an impatient gesture.
"Not now. Let's get to the utility."

They looked around. The space was almost dark;
the only light from widely spaced, low-power
neutro-lamps. They were standing on a narrow
platform, little more than a ledge, from which a
catwalk bridged a complex of girders and cables.

Brad mentally reconstructed their route before
Cordy's challenge. The portal through which they
boarded should be within fifty meters of where
they crouched. Their lives depended on the catwalk
passing close to it.

Studying the arrangement of the structures around
them and the coding on cable bundles, Brad peered
along the catwalk, first in one direction, then the
opposite.

He looked at the open hatch and shouted down. "We
demand safe conduct to our ship. Do you hear me?"

Silence.

Scarf shoved his face close to Brad.

"Are you kiddin'?" he said, his tone expressing his
disbelief. "I just killed one of their men. They're
not gonna give us safe conduct anywhere."

"I know that," Brad replied. "Even if they do
promise us safe conduct, it'll be just to get at
us. I want them to th