“They can fire down on us from the walls,” he said in a low voice.  “There’s no cover out there—­they’d wipe half of us out before we could get in.”

“We can come around from the pass,” Manning said.  “There’s plenty of cover from that direction.”

“And more fortification, too!” Rynason snapped.  “Just remember, Manning, that city was built as a fortress.  We’d have to come from the Flat.”

Manning paused, frowning.  “We’ve got to take them anyway,” he said slowly.  “Damn it, we can’t just stand here and wait for them to come out at us.  What are they doing, anyway?”

Rynason regarded the older man for several moments, almost amused.  “Right now,” he said, “they’re probably having a conference—­with the Outsiders.  That’s where the machine is, remember.”

“Then the sooner we attack, the better,” Manning said.  “Marc, get the main party on the hand-radio—­tell them to get here as fast as they can.”  He turned for a moment to look out across the Flat at the city.  “And you can promise them some action,” he said.

Stoworth dropped the radio from his shoulder and threw back the cover.  He switched on the power, and static sounded in the dry air.  He lifted the mike ... and a voice cut through the static.

“Is anyone picking this up?  Is anyone there?”

It was Mara’s voice.

Rynason knelt beside the set and took the mike from Stoworth’s hand.  “This is Lee.  Are you hurt?”

“Lee?”

“I hear you.  Are you hurt?”

“Not badly.  Lee, what are you doing?  I saw the flyers land.”

“Manning wants to attack the city as soon as the land party gets here.  What’s going on there?”

“I’m ... in the temple.  I’ve been trying to communicate with them.  I’ve got an interpreter, but they don’t listen to what I say.  Lee, this is incredible here!  They’ve brought out a lot of weapons ... some of them don’t work.  The hall is half-filled with dust and sand, and they move so clumsily!  They’re trying to hurry, because they saw you too, but it’s like ... like they’ve forgotten how.  They think they can get rid of us all, but they....  It’s pitiful—­they’re so slow.”

“Those disintegrators aren’t slow,” Rynason said.  Manning was standing beside him; he dropped a hand on his shoulder, but Rynason shook it off.  “Are they using the machine ... the altar?”

“They were using it when they brought me in.  I think it is the Outsiders.  But they don’t seem to know it’s just a machine—­they kneel in front of it, and chant.  It’s so strange, in that language of theirs ... those thin, high voices, and the echoes....”

“They’re holding you prisoner?”

“Yes.  I think they want to hold you off till they can get ready for their own attack.”

“For their what?” Rynason stood up, and looked toward the city; he could see no movement there.

“I know ... it’s incredible.  Lee, they don’t know what they’re doing.  Horng said on the interpreter that they were going to drive us off the planet, and then rebuild their cities, and re-arm.  It’s something to do with Kor, or the Outsiders.  The orders have changed.  They think that if they can drive us away for awhile they can build themselves up to where they can repel any further touchdowns here.”