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overpower him and drag him off to the Collector? "But we've got to save the power gun for the repair job. Frankly, I don't see any other way to do it."
"The way to do it, Major," Alita said firmly, "is to stay together and watch one another's backs. We loll as many of those damned machines as we can from right here. Make them come to us and burn them down as they advance. When we've cleared out the dangerous ones, we move in." She paused, staring at the distant, laboring machines. "What I'm wondering is whether we're even going to need codes. Some of the cluckers are inside Hector's perimeter. Maybe they switched off his defenses."
Teah, and maybe they have their own personal IFF," Jaime said. "We can't take the chance."
"Right," Alita said. "So we run for the perimeter and give him the codes, just in case. We shoot our way through. If the gun's charge runs dry, there are rechargers onboard the Bolo, and plenty of power. We'll make do. But you're not going to go off on some damned-fool macho-martyr stunt, you hear me?"
"Yes, sir, Sergeant, sir," Jaime said, smiling.
Alita must have realized what she'd just sounded like, telling off a superior officer. "Uh . .. sorry, sirў"
"Don't be. You're right." And she was. With his plan, there'd been too great a chance that the machines pursuing him would kill him before the women got past Hector's security perimeter ... or that the !*!*! would only send one or two of their number after the unarmed human diversion. Alita's plan gave them the best possible chance. "We go together. Alita? How good a shot are you?"
"Seventy-eight on my last quals."
"Pretty good. Beats my seventy-three. Shari? Have you ever fired one of these things?"
She shook her head. "I never liked guns."
"So you programmed Bolos for a living. I can
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understand that. Okay, here's the way we'll play it, then. Alita, you're the best shot, but I want to take the gun first. You know more about Bolo hardware than I do, so I'm expendable and you're not." She started to protest, but he held up his hand, silencing her. "That is an order! I'm not being macho. I'm trying to give us our best chance to do what we have to do. The machines are going to concentrate on the guy shooting at them, which means I shoot and you move. You keep an eye on me, though, Sergeant. If I go down, you'll have to recover the weapon and keep going. That also means, if I'm wounded, no heroics to recover me, okay? You two are the Bolo experts. You have to get inside. I'm just along to provide the muscle. Right?" "Right," Alita said reluctantly.
O J
"I don't like the idea of leaving you," Shari said.
"Believe me, neither do I. But that's the way it's got to be. Okay, are we all set?" Both women nodded. "Good. Spread out. We can't afford to bunch up and make an easy target. You two stay low and stay out of sight. Once they start closing on me, you two should have a clear shot at Hector. Now movel"
For the past 312.6 seconds, I have been aware of three humans working their way toward my position. Though none have revealed themselves directly, I have heard their whispered conversations, their breathing, and their heartbeats, and I can track them easily enough by the plumes of their body heat rising from behind the rubble they are using for cover. One, which I deduce with 82% probability to be Major Graham, is moving north along my port side at a mean distance of 113.4 meters. A pinpoint source of low-grade radiation moving with his heat source is, I calculate, a hand weapon with a small mag-fission power source operating at approximately twenty percent of expected capacity.
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The other two sources, moving toward my front, are Technician Barstoweўa 69% probabilityўand, at a much lower probability, no more than 42%ўSergeant Kyle, who at one point was my crew chief. Their conversation and subsequent movements suggest that they are attempting to approach me.
The 1*1*1 machines surrounding me on the hilltop do not appear to be aware of Major Graham or the others. This is good, for most of the machines are equipped with powerful electrical discharge capacitors that can kill or disable a human as effectively as a lightning strike, and the human contingent, then, is seriously outmatched both in numbers and in weapons.
My other self is aware of the humans, of course. I wonder if he is going to warn the 1*1*1.
