nd
working. They blew out all four of the Tenth N.U.N.I.'s barracks; the
Tenth and the Zirks are trying to defend the cavalry barracks. Some of
our Kragans managed to slip around behind the cavalry stables. They're
leading out hipposaurs, and sniping at the rear of the cavalry
barracks."

"That'll give us some cavalry of our own; a lot of these Kragans are
good riders.... How about the repair-shops and maintenance-yard and
lorry-hangars? I don't want these geeks getting hold of that equipment
and using it against us."

"Kormork's outfit are trying to take back the lorry-hangars. Jarman's
got a couple of airjeeps and a combat-car helping them."

"... won't be one of us left by this time tomorrow," Keaveney was
wailing, to Paula Quinton and another woman. "And the Company is
finished!"

"We'd better get him a drink, or a cup of coffee, general," Mordkovitz
suggested. "With a knockout-drop in it."

Colonel Cheng-Li, the Intelligence officer, seemed to have somewhat
the same idea. He approached Keaveney and tried to quiet him. At the
same time, a woman in black slacks and an orange sweater--the one
whose pursuers had been overrun by the Kragans at the beginning of
the fighting--approached von Schlichten.

"General, King Kankad's calling," she said. "He's on the screen in
booth four."

"Right." To avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, he slipped his
geek-speaker into his mouth before entering the booth. Kankad's face
was looking out of the screen at him, with Phil Yamazaki, the telecast
operator at Kankad's Town, standing behind him.

"Von!" The Kragan spoke almost as though in physical pain. "What can I
do to help? I have twenty thousand of my people here who are capable
of bearing arms, all with firearms, but I have transport for only five
hundred. Where shall I send them?"

Von Schlichten thought quickly. Keegark was finished; the Residency
stood in the middle of the city, surrounded by two hundred thousand of
King Orgzild's troops and subjects. Since Ullerans were bisexual, the
total population, less the senile, crippled, and very young, was the
military potential. Sending Kankad's five hundred warriors and his
meager contragravity there would be the same as shoveling them into a
furnace. The people at Keegark would have to be written off, like the
twenty Kragans at Jaikark's palace.

"Send them to Konkrook," he decided. "Them M'zangwe's in command,
there; he'll need help to hold the Company farms. May