I slid into the seat, flipped back the cover of the command control console. The Cancel key was the big white one. I pulled it down and let it snap back, like a clerk ringing up a sale. A pattern of dots on the status display screen flicked out of existence. Mallon was safe from his pet troll now. It hadn't taken me long to carry out my orders. I knew what to do next; I'd planned it all during my walk out. Now I had thirty seconds to stack the deck in my favor. I reached down, hauled the festoon of quarter-inch armored cable up in front of me. I hit a switch, and the inner conning cover--a disk of inch-thick armor--slid back. I shoved a loop of the flexible cable up through the aperture, reversed the switch. The cover slid back--sliced the armored cable like macaroni. I took a deep breath, and my hands went to the combat alert switch, hovered over it. It was the smart thing to do--the easy thing. All I had to do was punch a key, and the 9 mm's would open up, scythe Mallon and his crew down like cornstalks. But the scything would mow Renada down, along with the rest. And if I went--even without firing a shot--Mallon would keep his promise to cut that white throat.... My head was out of the noose now but I would have to put it back--for a while. I leaned sideways, reached back under the panel, groped for a small fuse box. My fingers were clumsy. I took a breath, tried again. The fuse dropped out in my hand. The Bolo's IR circuit was dead now. With a few more seconds to work, I could have knocked out other circuits--but the time had run out. I grabbed the cut ends of my lead wire, knotted them around the chain and got out fast. VIII Mallon waited, crouched behind the revetment. "It's safe now, is it?" he grated. I nodded. He stood, gripping his gun. "Now we'll try it together." I went over the parapet, Mallon following with his gun ready. The lights followed us to the Bolo. Mallon clambered up to the open port, looked around inside, then dropped back down beside me. He looked excited now. "That does it, Jackson! I've waited a long time for this. Now I've got all the _Mana_ there is!" "Take a look at the cable on my ankle," I said softly. He narrowed his eyes, stepped back, gun aimed, darted a glance at the cable looped to the chain. "I cut it, Toby. I was alone in the Bolo with the cable cut--and I didn't fire. I could have taken your toy and set up in business for myself, but I didn't." "What's that supposed to buy you?" Mallon rasped. "As you said--we need each other. That cut cable proves you can trust me." Mallon smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "Safe, were you? Come here." I walked along with him to the back of the Bolo. A heavy copper wire hung across the rear of the machine, trailing off into the grass in both directions.