And the reality of it all suddenly came home to Bhodi in a way that no amount of training, not even the skirmish at Majestic, had managed to bring home. He was watching Li-hon-his friend and commander Nar-lex-ko-li-hon-die. And something deep and fundamental inside Bhodi rebelled and took command of him.
"No!" Bhodi shouted.
Sometimes the choice is charge the enemy or die -
Bhodi charged, and from behind Kree-tih tried vainly to protect him. In the first five steps, Bhodi took a hit in the chest armor, then another in the faceplate, nearly blinding him. He fired back wildly, his pounding strides making aim impossible. Halfway up the crater wall, his left leg tightened up again. He would not let it slow him. Clawing, crawling, he scrambled upward to the rim of the crater and threw himself over the edge. He landed on a body- B'ere'a-rolled over once and came to his knees, seeking a target for his Allison.
The target was there, crouching less than five paces away. But Bhodi froze, unable to pull the trigger. For the enemy was not one he was prepared for. It was not Warn or Bug, not Dog or Destructor. Behind the enemy's helmet visor Bhodi glimpsed a human face.
Or nearly human. The eyes gazed outward through black metal eyeshields that seemed to have been surgically inserted, and the left temple and cheek bore a pattern of silver tracings like computer wiring. Bhodi stared unbelievingly as the warrior, as though sensing Bhodi's paralysis, slowly rose to his full height.
Then came the second shock, greater by far than the first. "Too reckless," the man-machine said, and Bhodi knew the voice. "You were always too reckless."
And he raised his right hand, the hand holding the massive phaser pistol, as Bhodi tried to deny what could not be denied: that this was Mandarr, the unpredictable, the new lieutenant of the Warlord of Arr. And that Mandarr was-or once had been-Bhodi's friend, Evan Kyley.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Bhodi should have been dead, and he knew it.
But even looking down the barrel of Mandarr's high-powered weapon and realizing that in the next second it could release a torrent of energy to steal his life away, Bhodi could not make his finger close on the firing contact of the Allison. There were too many unanswered questions embodied in Kyley's presence and appearance. Bhodi could not strike him down without finding answers. Why Mandarr was hesitating, Bhodi did not know.
With the clarity that came with a cusp moment, Bhodi took in a thousand details in one glance. Kyley-Mandarr seemed to be wired into his accordion-pleated fighting suit. It was festooned with power jumpers, what looked like hydraulic lines, and tiny spiderlike electronic boxes with silver leads. Yet for just a moment, Bhodi could strip all that away and remember facing off with Kyley with infrared pistols for $3.50 a match.
It was Kree-tih and his partner that saved Bhodi, bracketing Mandarr with a crossfire that did no damage but did distract the Arrian for an instant. In that instant Bhodi dove at Mandarr, spearing him in the midsection with the crown of his helmet. As they toppled over together, Bhodi clawed for the jumper that fed Mandarr's weapon from his power belt and tore it loose.
Just as quickly, the advantage swung back the other way. With a swipe of his right arm, Mandarr knocked Bhodi off to one side. The blow would have broken Bhodi's neck had it not been for his helmet, and jarred him badly despite it. Kyley had always been stronger than Christopher Jarvis; the gap between Mandarr and Bhodi Li seemed even wider.
Rolling to hands and knees, Bhodi looked up just in time to throw his left arm in the way of a left-handed punch. At least it seemed like a punch, until Bhodi felt something stab deep into the meat of his forearm and then the sticky warmth of blood flowing inside his fighting suit.
As Mandarr jerked his hand back, Bhodi saw what Mandarr's raw strength had driven through both the armor and the suit. Strapped to the Arrian's wrist was a multi-bladed cutter with razor-sharp edges and toothlike spurs. Mandarr slashed out with it once more, a sweeping roundhouse lunge in the direction of Bhodi's chest. Bhodi leaped back, stumbled, and went to one knee.
Instead of pursuing the advantage, Mandarr took that moment to try to reattach his phaser's power jumper, which had come free at the connector instead of breaking in half. It was an almost contemptuous move on Mandarr's part, as though he was so certain of his superiority that he need not worry about granting Bhodi a short reprieve.
But the throbbing pain in Bhodi's forearm and the blood collecting in his left gauntlet had erased any reservations he had about fighting to win. Whipping his Allison up to eye level, Bhodi blasted Mandarr's faceplate until it charcoaled into permanent opacity.
"What's happening, Evan?" he screamed. "What are you doing here?"
With a sweeping motion of his left hand, Mandarr tore his helmet off and flung it to one side. Bhodi gasped, then gaped. Most of the right side of Kyley's skull had been shaved to make room for the silver wire leads and the tiny computer box above his ear to which they were connected.
"My duty to the Warlord, by eliminating you," Mandarr said, starting once more to reattach the phaser jumper.
Was Kyley so much of a machine now that the human remnant could survive in the thin atmosphere of Ehl? Or so casually contemplate Bhodi's death?
Feeling faint, Bhodi backed away, and almost allowed Mandarr to complete his task. He wondered why the Regulars had stopped firing, and cursed them for not taking the decision from him. There was a roaring in his ears so loud it was almost painful.
Then with sudden fury born of frustration, Bhodi began firing at everything on Mandarr's fighting suit that looked computerized, as though he meant to kill only that part of Mandarr and spare the rest. Snakelike conduits were sliced in half, some hissing invisible gases, others leaking steel-gray fluids. A black box on Mandarr's shoulder exploded in a shower of sparks.
Mandarr seemed almost not to notice. He calmly reconnected the umbilical, pointed his weapon at Bhodi's chest, and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened-except in that moment, the roaring in Bhodi's ears resolved itself into individual voices on the omni circuit.
"Bhodi! Where's the Sarge? We've got two of the crystals back," a jubilant Pike was saying. "Another surprise. They had them cached out here, instead of holding them in the warren-"
"They're coming out!" Kree-tih was bellowing. "Four- six-seven Warri. I need support. Where's the support?"
Mandarr was intently twisting the damaged connector, trying to find a position where it would provide good contact. Bhodi saw a tiny blue light wink on above the pistol grip, blink out, then begin to shine steadily. He could not wait any longer. As Mandarr began to turn his weapon once more toward Bhodi, Bhodi raised the Allison and aimed it at Mandarr's unprotected head.
But even as his finger was curling against the contacts, Bhodi twitched the focus downward to Arrian's chest pod. His aim was true. He hit the pod squarely, and sinuous electric-blue sparks began to race up and down the length of Mandarr's body. There was a sizzling sound, like water on a hot griddle, and then a blinding white explosion that made Bhodi flinch and look away.
When he looked back, his friend and enemy was gone, without so much as a footprint left behind to show he had been there.
A shadow flashed overhead, and Bhodi looked up numbly to see the pod sweep in a tight half-circle and drop onto the crater floor. He took a few hesitant steps in that direction, then stopped to watch as Pike and two of the Regs dragged Li-hon's motionless body aboard. Almost without thinking, Bhodi scooped up the body of B'ere'a and carried it down to the pod.