"The invaders have guns." His tone conveyed the impression that West was at fault because no weapons existed inside the mine. "Or do you want to go join him?" He nodded toward the body on the floor. Blood had stopped spilling from that body now. The essence of life had gone elsewhere and the tides of life had ceased flowing. "Yes," West said bluntly. "I want to go with him." His face had grown more black. Heat lightning was dancing in his eyes. Zen caught the impulse to say that this made two of them who wanted to join the bronze-skinned youth. He knew how to deal with this reaction. "Okay," he said. "Good bye." West blinked startled eyes at him. "Run along," Zen said. "Eh?" "I'll take over here and fight the battle you are running from," Zen continued. As if he were dispelling a mist from some hidden corner of his mind, the craggy man shook his head. "Sorry," he apologized. "However, the call is very strong. Only the sense of a job not yet done has kept me from going for--a long time." He shook his head again. "No, I shall not follow him, for another while, though I am positive that he is luckier than we are." "I agree," Zen said. Stooping, West picked up Nedra. She lay in his arms like a tired, sleeping child. Had she followed the youth? Kurt Zen had a moment of heartbreak as the thought passed through his mind before he saw that she was still breathing regularly. "Follow me," West said. The heat lightning still danced in the eyes of the craggy man as he moved across the room. The solid wall swung aside into another hidden door. "None of my people know this is here," he explained. "The combination lock is actuated only by my body." As Kurt Zen went through the door he could hear the girl still screaming somewhere. The passage was narrow. To one side, another passage led into a room where Zen caught a glimpse of some kind of electrical equipment in operation, the technical guts of the super-radar, he suspected. Ahead, West growled, a sound that came from deep in his throat. He had stopped and was staring down into a hidden opening in the wall. Zen saw that the opening, through some hidden arrangement of mirrors, revealed the interior of the big gallery where he had spent the night. Hell was loose in there now. XI Jake, Ed, and Cal were part of that hell. Each carried a smoking weapon in his hands. A body lay on the floor. Somewhere in one of the small rooms a woman was screaming. In the middle of the room stood the man who was obviously in charge of the situation. At the sight of this man, Kurt Zen felt his breath draw into his body so heavily that it whistled through his nostrils. Cuso's lieutenant! The others in the room were the Asians who had been with the lieutenant the night before. "I should have slit their throats while they were asleep and in my power last night," Zen raged.