‘So too. They’re what’s left of an old ES ground installation, sir. There’s just a few fragments of a shield dome surrounding a couple of underground missile silos. Surrounding that is a radial scattering of old storage buildings, nothing very large. There are supposed to be bunkers under the ground around the silos, but no one goes in there. Still hot.’

‘Would it be possible to land next to the underground silos?’

‘Not so. No clear ground, and the roofs of the buildings would never take the weight of this carrier.’

‘What’s the scale?’

‘Whole site’s about two kilometres across. Silos were for Hunter Tens, about fifty metres deep and ten in diameter, three of them. Don’t know anything about the bunkers . . . sir.’

Cormac nodded.

‘The description you’ve given is sufficient, Sergeant. Most concise. Put us down on the perimeter, wherever you deem suitable.’

The sergeant allowed himself a tight little smile.

‘Sarge, we got someone on the edge of detector range. Looks like they’re following.’

‘You know the drill, Corporal. Warn them off.’

‘They don’t respond. Shall I send back Cheng and Goff?’

Cormac leant forward. ‘Cormac here.’

‘Colonel, sir!’

‘What’s your name, soldier?’

‘Tarm, sir.’

‘Very well, Tarm, I want you and this Cheng and Goff to go back personally. Warn them off. Turn them if you can. If they fire on you, take them out. Otherwise I want them driven back a fair way, but not so far they won’t be able to pick up on us again. Do you understand?’

‘I think so, sir.’

‘Don’t be thick, Tarm,’ interjected the sergeant.

‘Oh . . . Oh, I see. On our way, sir.’

Cormac glanced out the window of the carrier and saw three of the sky-bikes peel away and accelerate on pencils of fire. He turned to the sergeant.

‘We’ll be at the ruins by nightfall, I take it?’

‘So too.’

‘Put us down as close to the storage buildings as you can. What will the light be like?’

‘Moon’s up, but the light’s deceptive.’

‘Good. When we get there, have your men leave their bikes, set up their tents and disperse into the buildings. Do anything else you can think of to make the camp appear occupied.’

‘A trap, sir?’ Arn smiled his tight little smile.

‘Oh yes,’ said Cormac. ‘But I want at least one of them alive. You have stun weapons?’

‘We’ve got an armoury, sir.’

‘Good, you’ll have opportunity to use it.’

* * *

‘He’s ECS and he’ll be running a team to shut down the local syndicates,’ said Corlackis.