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 Possibly. We were set up to be as independent of Twilight as possible. There
wouldn t be much traffic. He ll eat heads when he gets back and finds out.
 Thanks, Colonel. We ll make you comfortable. I hope this won t last much
longer.
 It shouldn t. You ve won. Before the blast. That s what makes it so
senseless. You lost a lot of men, but it didn t change anything.
Storm went to the war room to check the daily reports from Mouse and Hakes
Ceislak. The Fortress was quiet. There was good news from Helga s World.
Ceislak s engineers had sapped a tunnel into Festung Todesangst. His men were
occupying the upper levels.
Where was this Beckhart, this friend of Cassius who had promised to land
Marines as soon as the Legion established a bridgehead? He seemed to have
vanished from the universe. And Storm wanted Ceislak on Blackworld.
He went on to Blake s penthouse.  Mr. Blake, I want to make a direct strike
at Twilight.
 I ve told you that s impossible, Colonel.
 Hear me out. That blast out there was a setup. That bomb had to come from
their mining inventory. That means there was collusion by somebody up high in
Meacham Corporation. And it means that Hawksblood has lost control. He
wouldn t try anything like this. If he makes it back from Brightside, he ll
end up dead or in a cell. They re not playing by the rules anymore. I m
telling you we ve got to quit before they eat us up. The scenario I see is
this: Richard will be the scapegoat. He ll probably get killed trying to
escape after he  orders somebody to put a bomb in on Edgeward itself.
Blake looked baffled.  Colonel, I absolutely refuse to allow you to endanger
civilians.
 I don t think you understood me. The civilians are in danger now.
Korando cleared his throat.  Mr. Blake, pardon me for butting in. I think
you d better give the Colonel s suggestion more thought. That nuclear was a
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storm warning. We can t ignore it. We d better be ready for anything.
Logically, the next step would be a move against Edgeward. They have to get
rid of witnesses. And it s the only way they have left to get control of the
Shadowline. You can t bet they won t do it. They ve already gone further than
any of us would have believed possible a month ago.
 Right! Storm growled.  You people are going to be up to your ears in Confie
snoops when this gets offworld. Personally, I want to keep you around to
answer their questions. Mr. Blake, believe me, I know the man responsible for
this. We slept in the same room for ten years. If you give him time, he ll not
only destroy you, he ll get away with it. You know that. When you get down to
it, it s not that much of a jump from Frog to Edgeward.
 You think it s Dee?
 Absolutely. And backing him is a Sangaree Head named Norbon w Deeth. And the
Norbon seem to be top dog among the Sangaree Families.
 Sangaree? Blake was baffled.  What have they got to do with this?
 It s too complicated to explain. Take my word. This confrontation was
engineered from offworld. It started when Dee murdered your man Frog. If we
don t scratch and claw, it ll end up with the Sangaree in complete control of
Blackworld s mining industry. And they won t leave any witnesses to testify
against them.
Blake slowly shook his head.  I ll consider what you ve said, Colonel.
 Don t take too much time. They won t. By now they know their attack failed
and they re being overrun. That bomb was probably meant to go off somewhere
else, making the whole thing work. They ll do something, just to find out if
it blew at all, then to cover it up. You ll find me in the war room.
Storm went back downstairs, settled into a chair facing the big board. The
confusion of the previous week had begun to disappear. Unit lights had
appeared throughout the territory Cassius had occupied. There was a big
concentration a hundred kilometers west of the junction with the Twilight
supply line. Cassius planned to sit there and wait for the Meacham people to
come in and surrender.
Had this been a normal merc war it would have been all over but the prisoner
exchange. Richard could do nothing to dislodge Cassius. His logistics were too
precarious and there was no shade where he could assemble sufficient forces.
But if Michael had Meacham s ear, war would break out Darkside as soon as
news of the Brightside defeat reached Twilight. Michael had cast the dice. He
had no choice but to escalate his bets.
Storm issued orders. He wanted a new board set up to represent the Darkside
territory between Edgeward and Twilight, and wanted all available personnel
planting observation devices on likely approaches to the city.
How would Michael avoid the mutiny that was certain when Richard s men found
out what had happened in the Shadowline?
Simple. He, or whichever of his sons it was who had taken Mennike s place,
would destroy shadow generators while returning to Twilight, cutting
communications with and abandoning Hawksblood s forces. It was a harsh move,
but Dee-logical.
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