e,
firing up. The leader dissolved in a cloud of particles. On all sides
D- and B-class leadys were rushing up, some with weapons, some with
metal slats. The room was in confusion. Off in the distance a siren was
screaming. Franks and Taylor were cut off from the others, separated
from the soldiers by a wall of metal bodies.

"They can't fire back," Franks said calmly. "This is another bluff.
They've tried to bluff us all the way." He fired into the face of a
leady. The leady dissolved. "They can only try to frighten us. Remember
that."

* * * * *

They went on firing and leady after leady vanished. The room reeked with
the smell of burning metal, the stink of fused plastic and steel. Taylor
had been knocked down. He was struggling to find his gun, reaching
wildly among metal legs, groping frantically to find it. His fingers
strained, a handle swam in front of him. Suddenly something came down on
his arm, a metal foot. He cried out.

Then it was over. The leadys were moving away, gathering together off to
one side. Only four of the Surface Council remained. The others were
radioactive particles in the air. D-class leadys were already restoring
order, gathering up partly destroyed metal figures and bits and removing
them.

Franks breathed a shuddering sigh.

"All right," he said. "You can take us back to the windows. It won't be
long now."

The leadys separated, and the human group, Moss and Franks and Taylor
and the soldiers, walked slowly across the room, toward the door. They
entered the Council Chamber. Already a faint touch of gray mitigated the
blackness of the windows.

"Take us outside," Franks said impatiently. "We'll see it directly, not
in here."

A door slid open. A chill blast of cold morning air rushed in, chilling
them even through their lead suits. The men glanced at each other
uneasily.

"Come on," Franks said. "Outside."

He walked out through the door, the others following him.

They were on a hill, overlooking the vast bowl of a valley. Dimly,
against the graying sky, the outline of mountains were forming, becoming
tangible.

"It'll be bright enough to see in a few minutes," Moss said. He
shuddered as a chilling wind caught him and moved around him. "It's
worth it, really worth it, to see this again after eight years. Even if
it's the last thing we see--"

"Watch," Franks snapped.

They obeyed, silent and subdued. The sky was clearing, brightening e