Bogard seemed to shift between obstacles, the shapes oozing around it as if they did not exist. A mirage, like heat rising off a flat surface, looked like that, rippling and indistinct. Bogard made no sound, disturbed nothing, passed through like a breeze. Derec had not known such movement was possible. Then he realized that Bogard's amalloy body was twisting and distorting and reshaping constantly to accommodate its passage. He glanced toward Ariel, but he could not see her face through the night veil. He imagined her staring at Bogard, impressed and a little frightened.

Bogard stopped a few meters from a break in the tree line.

"Wait," it said, and oozed slowly forward. It returned in less than a minute. "The boundary is a perimeter sensor. There is no physical barrier, but the sensor will trigger an alarm. It is possible that it can also release a mild electrical shock, but it seems unlikely. Please wait one full minute, then follow me out."

Bogard faded through the underbrush again. Around them, the forest hummed with rhythmic, organic sounds. Derec's pulse pounded in his ears.

"Now," Mia said quietly and he started.

They came out of the trees at the edge of a cleared strip of land. Across from them stood prefab barracks in neat rows. Walkways ran among them. A larger structure dominated the center of the compound-a kind of community center, Derec thought-and glowed more brightly than any other building, most of the windows illuminated from within.

Bogard was wrapped around a post. At five-meter intervals stood identical posts, each with a knobby crown-the sensor array-and all of them giving false readings back to whoever monitored them. Bogard was using its body to deflect and reroute connecting signals.

"Make sure you pass below one-point-seven-five meters," Bogard said. "I am maintaining a carrier signal above that height."

Mia crouched low and sprinted across the invisible boundary. Derec and Ariel copied her and hurried after. A few moments later, Bogard was among them, a silent, lithic presence.

"All right," Mia said. "Take your sectors of the camp, do your search, and rendezvous at the main building. Bogard, do the perimeter, secure what you can, guarantee us a way out."

Bogard vanished.

"I wish it wouldn't do that," Ariel said.

"Go," Mia said and scurried away.

"Good luck," Derec said.

"Be careful," Ariel answered. tactical parameters, standard field sensor perimeter, motion sensor capacity damped to ignore thirty kilograms and below, internal monitoring at entries and exits only, two human patrols walking perimeter equipped with nightvision, limited to infrared only, armed with stunners, garage containing five unmodified terrain vehicles, no surveillance, six barracks, three unoccupied, three containing eighteen individuals each, one barracks provisioned with supply of lethal weapons, three blasters and eight projectile rifles, all personnel in barracks currently asleep, monitoring links fed to each barracks, connections to perimeter sensors, patrols, and main building, generator housed in main building supplying camp power, dedicated line to feed shock field keyed to perimeter sensor, thirty-thousand volts, zero amperes, non fatal charge, direct line disconnected, monitor connection to barracks' disconnected, patrols tranquilized, UTVs depowered by removal of battery packs, internal security nullified, external security unknown, potential estimated low threat

I must locate Senator Eliton

Primary responsibility, automatic reset

I must locate and secure Primary

I must locate Senator Eliton

First and Second Law violations minimal, camp secured, risk potential low, competency level, Daventri, Mia, sufficient, competency level, Avery, Derec, sufficient, competency level, Burgess, Ariel, unknown, tentatively assigned sufficient based on available data and observation, threat manageable

I must locate Senator Eliton Aside from the barracks, the camp contained a communal shower, a communal mess with its own kitchens, and a supply shed. Ariel had checked the shower and mess. The supply shed did not appear locked.

She had passed two guards not fifteen meters back who had been tranquilized-by Bogard, she hoped-and she had removed their stunners and tossed them into the trees, over the range of the perimeter. She did not know where Bogard was and wished she did, but she did not risk calling for it.

She adjusted her grip on the stunner. The blaster nestled against the small of her back, but she did not want to pull it yet. If it came to that, then they would probably have to bum the entire camp down, and she did not know if she could do that.

She pushed open the door of the shed and a light winked on inside. She pulled it shut immediately, pulse racing, and surveyed the camp, waiting for a rush of angry Managins. When they failed to materialize, she slipped quickly into the shed.

On one wall hung a variety of hand tools, most of them worn and dirty from use. Against the opposite wall stood boxes of pamphlets. She opened one and pulled out the slim sheaf of paperlike plastic, amused at the novelty.

IDENTIFYING AND ANALYZING WILDERNESS SPOOR the title read. Ariel leafed through it quickly. A wildlife guide. She checked through others-CLEANING AND DRESSING OF INJURIES IN THE WILD, CAMPSITE ERGONOMICS AND ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS, PERSONAL HYGIENE IN UNMODIFIED TERRITORY-impressed despite herself at the evident attention to the details of living outside an urban environment.

She followed the line down to the end. On top of each crate one of the pamphlets had been placed in an attached sleeve. Except the last one.

Ariel pried the lid up and found another stack of pamphlets. These contained a picture of Clar Eliton below a banner that declared ELITON FOR TERRA FIRST. She pulled one out and opened it. Mia reached the first-floor veranda of the main building at the same time as Derec. They sat next to each other below one of the few unlit windows.

"Anything?" he asked.

"No. Where's Ariel?"

"I don't know. I thought she was over there." He pointed toward the west end of the enclave. "This is the last building."

"That we know about."

He shrugged.

Mia began crawling along the veranda, keeping below the windows. Derec followed.

The veranda encircled the building. At each window, Mia risked a quick look inside, then continued on. Derec trusted her that she saw nothing important in any of these rooms.

They climbed the stairs to the second floor balcony on all fours.

Immediately, they heard voices.

Mia moved carefully but faster than Derec could match and still keep quiet. He caught up to her beneath a broad window. Voices came from within and when Derec looked up at the opening he, saw that, instead of a solid surface, it was only screened. Mia knelt before it, her head just above the sill so she could see in.

"-a mess. Should've stayed arrested-"

"-not my style-"

"Style be damned!"

Derec felt his scalp tingle; he recognized the voice. He raised himself up to Mia's level.

The room was large and comfortable, with heavy divans and thick armchairs scattered about. Lamps cast conflicting though warm and pleasant shadows over the tables and walls and the three men facing each other in a loose triangle.

Agent Gambel held a glass. Across from him stood Bok Golner, still in his black fatigues, scowling at the man seated before them. Derec's unease multiplied at the sight of Senator Eliton, sitting in a low chair, a drink at his elbow, dressed in an evening jacket.

"It shouldn't make any difference at this point," Gambel said. "We have the robot, the TBI have seized four Spacer warehouses containing contraband, and Phylaxis has been shut down under a warrant based on illegal service to contraband robots. The Spacers are looking worse and worse. All we need to do now is drop the last bit of evidence on Taprin's desk and there'll be a general outcry to throw the Aurorans off Earth."

Eliton sighed wearily. "I don't know what you think this accomplishes. Anything could undo the whole thing, like finding him" he stabbed a finger at Golner "-here, when he ought to be in jail with the rest of his goons."

"I don't do that," Golner said.

"Do what?" Eliton demanded.

"Serve time in an institution. I already did that once."

"You should remember how to follow orders," Gambel said.

Golner's face reddened. He opened his mouth to speak.

But the door opened behind him, and suddenly Bogard was in the room with them.

"Shit," Derec hissed. Several things happened.

Eliton stood abruptly, knocking his drink off the table.

Golner drew a weapon and began to turn. Bogard touched Golner's hand, but the Managin flinched away, letting the pistol fly. He ducked under Bogard grasp, so fast that Derec almost could not follow his turn as he twisted around Bogard's left flank and bolted for the door.

Gambel dropped his glass and reached for his sidearm.

Mia threw herself through the screen, weapon drawn. "Bogard!" she cried.

Bogard, reaching for Golner, hesitated.

Eliton dropped to his knees and came up holding Golner's pistol.

"Thank god!" he shouted and shot Gambel.

Bogard's entire body seemed to unfold and suddenly refold around Eliton.

Golner staggered from the room.

Mia ran to the doorway, leaned out, and fired twice.

Derec got to his feet.

It all too place in a few seconds.

Derec stepped into the room and went to Gambel. His face was distorted, the eyeballs pulped and oozing-the effects of a heavy stun at nearly pointblank range. Derec looked away.

"Time to leave," Mia said. "Bogard, do you have the senator secured?"

"Yes, Mia."

"Don't let him out unless absolutely necessary and not on his command. Clear?"

"I understand, Mia. "

"Escape route."

Bogard swept out of the window and down the outside stairs.

"Platoon!" Golner shouted from somewhere below. "Compromise! The perimeter has been compromised!"

"Move," Mia urged Derec.

They followed Bogard down to the ground and hurried across the enclave. Behind them, people were spilling from two of the barracks.

"Where's Ariel?" Derec asked.

Ahead, they saw a figure running to intercept them, barely a shadow against larger shadows. She waved and Derec knew it was Ariel.