* * * *

I got him to the third level, and we stood at the entrance of the bar
while I got myself oriented.

I had made a tactical error. Vehicles going to the strato-port stopped
on the other side of the street. And to get there, I would now have to
walk Maxwell all the way down to the end of the block to a pedestrian
cross-walk, then halfway back up the other side.

The alternative was to go down again and cross in the middle of the
block on the pedestrian level, which is what I should have done in the
first place.

But I wanted to get as far away from the bar as possible and as soon as
possible. So I shrugged and turned to my left, shoving and dragging
Maxwell with me.

As I did so, my defense mech started clicking.

Maxwell stumbled and nearly fell. I shoved him against the side of a
building and leaned against him to keep him up. The liquor had hit him
hard. If he once went down, there would be no getting him up. Not by me.

We did better after I wrapped one of his arms around my shoulder. I
could carry part of his weight and I had better control of him. I kept
him as close to the storefronts as possible, to minimize the possibility
of being recognized from a moving vehicle in the street.

It didn't do a bit of good.

They'd probably spotted us as soon as we stepped away from the bar
entrance. For all I know, they had been waiting for us since we entered
the bar.

Three of them. Sitting there in the illegally parked light passenger
sedan just ahead of us.

I saw it when we were still fifteen feet away. I saw it, and I knew what
it was, and I stopped.

The sedan wasn't really parked. It was just pulled over close against
the curb, moving slowly toward us.

When I stopped, the sedan moved up quickly even with us, and two men
stepped out.

I edged Maxwell toward a drugstore entrance a few feet to the left, but
the men from the sedan were at our side in an instant.

"Hey, friend, got a match?" one of them asked for the benefit of a
passing couple who glanced at us.

I recognized him. A deep criss-crossed scar ran from above his right
cheekbone vertically down his cheek, ending in a big dent in his jaw
bone. His lips were thick and loose.

* * * * *

For just an instant I was motionless, frozen, my right hand holding
Maxwell's arm over my shoulder, my left hand gripping the quietly
ticking defense mech.

Then I moved almost without thinking a