"Joseph Rimskaya in the fourth chamber. Judith, we're having a rash of boojum sightings—I've seen two myself."

"So?"

"They're metal, cross-shaped, zipping over our compound and over the Russian territories, too. We've followed some of them with our trackers. There must be twenty or thirty of them in this chamber alone. They're all over."

Hoffman gritted her teeth and rubbed her eyes before glancing at her watch. She had been asleep less than an hour. "You're at the zero compound in the fourth chamber now?"

"That I am."

"I'm on my way."

She shut off the comline just as she received another call. This time, Ann cut in and was dickering with the voice on the other end as Hoffman answered.

"Judith, I'm sorry," Ann said hastily. "Beryl told me to let you sleep and I was away for just a second—"

"Miss Hoffman, this is Colonel Berenson in the seventh chamber—"

"Please, Colonel," Ann cut in.

"This is an emergency—"

"Ann, let him talk," Hoffman said.

"Miss Hoffman, our sensors are picking up dozens—maybe hundreds—of objects, large and small. Some have entered the bore hole, almost certainly, and are in the sixth chamber by now—"

"They're in the fourth chamber, at least," Hoffman said. "Colonel, coordinate with Rimskaya. He's made sightings, too. I'll be in fourth chamber on the next train."

She packed her small emergency case and ran down the hall, stumbling and almost falling at the head of the stairs. She grabbed a railing until her dizzy fatigue passed, then pumped down the stairs as fast as she could without breaking her neck. Ann met her at the bottom with a mug of water and stimulant tablets.

"Shit, what are these?" Hoffman asked, downing them.

"Hyper-caffeine," Ann said. "Lanier used them all the time. "

Hoffman slugged back two pills and the water.

"What is it this time?" Ann asked, her face pale. "Not another attack?"

"Not from outside, honey," Hoffman said. "Where are Wallace and Polk?"

"Second chamber."

"Tell them to be in fourth chamber, zero compound; tell them to meet me there or at the zero train."

Hoffman ran from the bungalow, shouting for a truck to take her to the second chamber. General Gerhardt ran on his stubby legs from the cafeteria, radio in hand, calling for marines, and waved for her to follow him. Doreen Cunningham met them at the security fence and pointed wordlessly to two trucks idling beyond the ramparts.

They were climbing into the nearest truck when the science compound alarms went off. Hoffman stepped away from the truck hatch and jerked her head back instinctively. Overhead, a barred silvery cross drifted at leisure. The heavy lobe on its end gave it a sinister and silly appearance at the same time. It reminded Hoffman of some outlandish weapon in an eighties martial arts movie.

"That's not Russian, is it?" she asked, still slightly addled from interrupted sleep.