emorrhages filled his brain.
The second man had time for a single scream, though he died just as
swiftly when those hands closed on his larynx.

Running in a crouch, partially on his knuckles, Brion swiftly made
a circle of the area, gun ready. There were no others. Only when
he touched the softness of Lea's body did the blood anger seep from
him. He was suddenly aware of the pain and fatigue, the sweat
soaking his body and the breath rasping in his throat. Holstering
the gun, he ran light fingers over her skull, finding a bruised spot
on one temple. Her chest was rising and falling regularly. She had
struck her head when he pushed her. It had undoubtedly saved her
life.

Sitting down suddenly, he let his body relax, breathing deeply.
Everything was a little better now, except for the pain at his
throat. His fingers found a thin strand on the side of his neck with
a knobby weight on the end. There was another weight on his other
shoulder and a thin line of pain across his neck. When he pulled on
them both, the strangler's cord came away in his hand. It was thin
fiber, strong as a wire. When it had been pulled around his neck it
had sliced the surface skin and flesh like a knife, halted only by
the corded bands of muscle below. Brion threw it from him, into the
darkness where it had come from.

He could think again, and he carefully kept his thoughts from the
men he had killed. Knowing it was useless, he went to Ihjel's body.
A single touch of the scorched flesh was enough. Behind him Lea
moaned with returning consciousness and he hurried on to the sand
car, stepping over the charred body outside the door. The driver
slumped, dead, killed perhaps by the same strangling cord that had
sunk into Brion's throat. He laid the man gently on the sand and
closed the lids over the staring horror of the eyes. There was a
canteen in the car and he brought it back to Lea.

"My head--I've hurt my head," she said groggily.

"Just a bruise," he reassured her. "Drink some of this water and
you'll soon feel better. Lie back. Everything's over for the moment
and you can rest."

"Ihjel's dead!" Lea said with sudden shocked memory. "They've killed
him! What's happened?" she tensed, tried to rise, and he pressed her
back gently.

"I'll tell you everything. Just don't try to get up yet. There was
an ambush and they killed Vion and the driver of the sand car, as
well as Ihjel. Three men did it and they're all dead now too. I
don't th