k. I've seen how they work.
As an attack mounts they call for reserves inside the city and drain men
away from the other parts of the perimeter. At the height of the battle,
when they have all their forces committed across the city, I'll lead the
attack that will break through and capture the ship. That's the plan and
it's going to work."

Jason sat down then, half fell down, drained of strength. He lay and
listened as the debate went back and forth, Rhes ordering it and keeping
it going. Difficulties were raised and eliminated. No one could find a
basic fault with the plan. There were plenty of flaws in it, things that
might go wrong, but Jason didn't mention them. These people wanted his
idea to work and they were going to make it work.

It finally broke up and they moved away. Rhes came over to Jason.

"The basics are settled," he said. "All here are in agreement. They are
spreading the word by messenger to all the talkers. The talkers are the
heart of the attack, and the more we have, the better it will go off. We
don't dare use the screens to call them, there is a good chance that the
junkmen can intercept our messages. It will take five days before we are
ready to go ahead."

"I'll need all of that time if I'm to be any good," Jason said. "Now
let's get some rest."

XXVI.

"It's a strange feeling," Jason said. "I've never really seen the
perimeter from this side before. Ugly is about the only word for it."

He lay on his stomach next to Rhes, looking through a screen of leaves,
downhill towards the perimeter. They were both wrapped in heavy furs, in
spite of the midday heat, with thick leggings and leather gauntlets to
protect their hands. The gravity and the heat were already making Jason
dizzy, but he forced himself to ignore this.

Ahead, on the far side of a burnt corridor, stood the perimeter. A high
wall, of varying height and texture, seemingly made of everything in the
world. It was impossible to tell what it had originally been constructed
of. Generations of attackers had bruised, broken, and undermined it.
Repairs had been quickly made, patches thrust roughly into place and
fixed there. Crude masonry crumbled and gave way to a rat's nest of
woven timbers. This overlapped a length of pitted metal, large plates
riveted together. Even this metal had been eaten through and bursting
sandbags spilled out of a jagged hole. Over the surface of the wall
detector wires and charged cables looped an