Lewis directed a questioning stare at Oakes, but turned and obeyed. He returned with twelve E-clones whose appearance had been held closer to the Natural standard except for the introduction of extra musculature in arms and legs. They were a type Oakes had always thought bulged in a repellant way, but he masked his dislike. Lewis stopped the group in an arc about three paces from Oakes.

Studying the faces, Oakes recognized some of the group which had fled into the Command Center earlier. There was no avoiding the distrust in their expressions. And Oakes noted that Lewis had seen fit to don a holstered lasgun and that the Naturals around the edges of the room were alert and watchful.

“I will not go back to Colony,” Oakes began. “Never. We are here to . . .”

“You might run back to Ship!” It was a clone standing just to the left of Lewis.

“Ship will not respond to us,” Legata said. “We are on our own.”

Damn her! Oakes went pale. Didn’t she know how dangerous it was to betray your dependence on others?

“We are being tested, that’s all,” Oakes said. He glanced at Lewis, surprised another fleeting grin on the man’s face.

“Maybe we’re supposed to go outside and run for it,” Legata said. Her fingers danced across the screen’s controls. “Maybe it’s just a game like the Scream Room or running the P.”

What is she doing? Oakes wondered. He shot a glance at her, but Legata continued to direct the screen’s controls.

“They’re doing something,” she said.

Every eye turned toward the screen whose entire area she had focused on the view toward the cliffs. Panille was standing now, his right hand clutching a hylighter tentacle. More E-clones and others had massed around the cutter on the plain below him. Demons had moved out from the cliff shadows. Even the enclosing arc of hylighters appeared more agitated, moving about, changing altitude.

Legata zoomed in on a man standing beside the cutter’s left wheel.

“Thomas,” she said. “But the hylighters . . .”

“He’s in league with ’em,” Lewis said. “Has been all along!”

Legata stared out at the plain. Was that possible? She had been about to expose Oakes as a clone, but now she hesitated. What did she really know about Thomas?

As she thought this, Thomas lowered his right arm and Panille, atop the pinnacle, was picked up by one of the giant bags, carried gently down to the plain.

Thomas and his people were moving forward now, a ragged advance but spreading out on both sides of the cutter.

“There must be at least a thousand of them,” Lewis muttered. “Where’d they get that many people?”

“What’re the demons doing?” Legata asked.

The creatures had spread out below the cliff—Dashers, Spinnerets, Flatwings and more—even a few of the rare Grunchers. They were following the attackers but slowly and at a distance.