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"Spare parts," Jaime said with cold certainty. "They were just using him to plug the hole until they got around to dismantling him."
"How do you take apart something like a Bolo?" Shari wanted to know.
"You ever seen one of their big dismantlers?" When she shook her head, he nodded toward the Bolo. "Imagine a kind of mobile crane on six legs, rising maybe fifty meters high . .. high enough to straddle even a Mark XXXIII. Tentacles with fusion cutting torches. Arms with grippers and plasma cutters and peelers. I saw one at Logan before they brought us down to Celeste. It was straddling a factory building as big as the Barracks, slicing it into bite-sized pieces and dropping them into a Collector. I imagine duralloy would make the going pretty slow, but they've got all kinds of time. I've been wondering all along why they didn't take Hector apart instead of trying to use him as an overgrown trusty."
Jaime didn't add a second, more worrisome thought. ! *! *! sensor technology was good enough that they must know that humans ventured up here. Perhaps they allowed the suicides as a kind of safety relief valve for the camp; more likely, the handful of people who challenged Hector and died simply weren't important enough to bother with.
But what if the 1 *! *! were aware that some humans came here to talk with their captive Bolo, that those humans were trying to break whatever hold they had on the huge combat machine?
That would goad them into action if anything would. Was this beehive of activity atop Overlook Hill coincidental, or a deliberate move to block Jaime and Operation Valhalla?
Rolling onto his back, he signaled the two women, calling them closer. "Okay," he whispered. "The situation has obviously changed. We're not going to
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be able to just walk over there and climb aboard. First question Does either of you want to back out? Now's the time to do it."
"Hell, no," Alita said.
"We're not giving up now," Shari added.
"Okay," Jaime said- "I thought you'd feel that way. Next question. How do we get past the bad guys?"
"How much charge in the gun?" Alita wanted to know.
Jaime looked at the power readout on the casing above the grip- "Point two-one. Twenty-one percent."
"So low?"
"It probably wasn't at full charge when it was smuggled into the camp," Jaime said. "And just sitting in a hole for a year, we're probably lucky we have this much left."
"It should be enough," Alita said. "We can rush 'em, shoot our way through, then climb aboard. Those floaters are too big to follow us."
Jaime shook his head. "I don't think so, Sergeant. I don't know how many shots are left with twenty-one percent power, but we're going to need a fair amount of charge just to do what we have to do inside. We can't afford to waste it shooting at floaters."
"You have a better idea?" Shari asked.
Teah. I give you the weapon. You two stay here while I work my way over in that direction, northeast of Hector. I'll make a lot of noise and show myself to them. That ought to draw all of the armed clackers after me. When the way is clear, you two cross the perimeter and get on board."
"No way," Shari said.
"You wouldn't stand a chance!" Alita added.
"Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do," he said. He was imagining what would happen if the !б!*! managed to take him alive. Would he be able to force them to loll him cleanly? Or would they simply
