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treating them more like honored guests than potential customers. Frank, Jesse,
Roy, and Shorty were engaged in a wild game of cards that required two full
decks and seemed to be a hybrid of gin rummy and draw poker.
"Come on, Lady Luck," Shorty was saying now, "give me the card I want."
He took one from the facedown stack just as Jesse was throwing one faceup
beside it.
"You can have this one, Shorty."
But Shorty was too busy kissing the card he had picked to respond to
Jesse's offer. "Jus' the one I wanted," he crowed. "How 'bout that!"
Frank looked at his hand and made a disappointed sound. The cards were
an inverted fan in his left hand; his right gripped a whiskey flask.
"Don't need this 'un either," said Jesse, discarding another.
"Gentlemen, I fold," Roy announced stiffly, although he kept the cards
in his hand.
Shorty started bouncing up and down in his seat. "Frank, y' ole coot, ya
gonna play or not?"
"Hang on, I'm jus' tryin' to decide how much to raise you."
"Yer bluffin'!"
Gabby served a cup of steaming tea to Marlene, who smiled and thanked
him. Lancer watched the man shuffle off into an adjoining compartment
separated from the hold by cinched curtains. Gabby sat down at a
communications console and began to throw switches.
"Is that transceiver in working condition?" Lancer asked loudly enough
to cut through the card-table conversations.
Frank answered him. "Like everything else around here, it's wore out."
Dismissively, he threw his cards to the table. "We still receive transmissions
from the Expeditionary Force, but we can't respond to 'em."
Jesse grunted and laughed. "Gabby keeps turnin' it on like maybe he's
expectin' a message from somebody."
Gabby seemed to hear the men ridiculing him; forlornly, he got up from
the console and left the hold.
"What do the transmissions say?" Lancer asked after Gabby had gone.
"Who knows?" Shorty cackled. "We don't pay no attention to 'em."
Lancer leaned back in his chair. What a sad bunch, he thought. Soldiers
who have lost the will to fight...He was about to launch into the speech he
hoped would rekindle their spirits, when Marlene suddenly shot to her feet and
let out a low groan of pain. Lancer stood up and took hold of her quaking
shoulders; she had her eyes closed, her fingertips pressed to her temples.
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"What is it, Marlene? Are you hearing the Invid broadcasting towers
again?"
The four veterans voiced a shocked "Whaaatt?!"
"The tower must be broadcasting again," Lancer explained without
thinking.
Alarmed all at once, Frank stood up. "You mean she can hear 'em?" He
gestured to the others. "Git 'em, boys! I reckon these two to be Invid spies!"
"You're wrong," Lancer told them, shielding Marlene.
"Well, I think Frank's right," Jesse said menacingly.
"I knew there was sumthin' funny 'bout 'em," snarled Shorty.
Frank leveled a hand blaster that resembled an antique short-barreled
staple gun. "Don't make a move," he warned Lancer. "If she ain't an Invid, how
come she hears their signals?"
Lancer took Marlene into his arms while she sobbed. "She's been
traumatized by them. It affected her hearing somehow-it's more sensitive than
ours."
Jesse scoffed. "That's 'cause we're Human and she's an Invid!"
"That's not true," Lancer shouted, leading Marlene slowly away from the
couch and closer to the external hatch. "She's suffered more from the Invid
attacks than any of you! You can see for yourselves the agonizing pain their
broadcast signals put her through."
Shorty took a step forward. "You're whistlin' in the wind, pretty boy.
We ain't buyin' it!"
Roy uttered a kind of growl and began to move in bearlike, his huge
mitts raised. Lancer backed Marlene against the bulkhead and turned her in his
arms. "Think she's an Invid, huh?" He pulled her to him and kissed her full on
the mouth. Startled at first, Marlene began to relax and return his
tenderness. The veterans went wide-eyed.
"Whoa!" said Jesse. "Don't reckon he'd kiss an Invid like that, do you,
Frank?"
"They might be aliens, but they sure ain't strangers," laughed Shorty.
"Hol' up, kids, 'fore ya short out our pacemakers."
Lancer broke off his embrace. "That was the most pleasant way to prove a
point I could ever imagine," he whispered, looking into Marlene's eyes.
Frank tucked away his blaster and sat down on the edge of the table. "No
hard feelings, kids. Consider yourselves among friends."
Lancer saw his chance to enlist their aid. "Does that mean you'd be
willing to help us?"
Frank looked at him questioningly. "What possible help could we be?
We're just a bunch of old-huh?!"
An explosion rocked the ship.
"The telltale sound of trouble," said Roy, reaching for a weapon.
From the hatchway they saw two Troopers complete a pass over the arena.
Gabby, some sort of tote bag clutched in his right hand, was running a jagged
course toward the ship. A single charge from one of the Invid ships tore into
the already ruined street, throwing him off his feet. Roy had a rocket
launcher on his shoulder; he fired and caught the Invid with a glancing shot
to its underbelly.
"Lay down some more cover fire!" Frank yelled. "I'll go try to fetch
'im!"
"No, wait," Lancer said, pulling the launcher from Roy's grip. "I can
move faster. I'll get him."
Lancer raised the weapon and darted out into the arena. The second
Trooper was swinging around and preparing for another pass. "Make a run for
it!" he told Gabby, helping him to his feet. "I'll keep you covered."
Wordlessly, Gabby struggled to his knees, but instead of heading for the
escort, he doubled back to retrieve the tote bag he had dropped. The Trooper,
meanwhile, was coming in low overhead. Lancer seated the launcher on his right
shoulder, centered the ship in the weapon's laser sight, and triggered the
missile. His shot was sure, straight to the Invid's optic core; a brief
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fireball and the enemy disintegrated.
Gabby was still on his hands and knees but now had the bag tight in his
arms.
"Leave it!" Lancer barked, hearing the sound of the first Trooper's
thrusters. "Whatever it is, it isn't worth risking your life!" But he had
begun to wonder. Gabby looked up at him, words of explanation in his eyes, and
fumbled with the bag's latch. Puzzled, Lancer went down on one knee to gaze at
the contents: it was Gabby's battle armor.
All at once the ground rumbled. Lancer reshouldered the launcher and
twisted. The first Trooper had put down behind them, its right pincer raised
for a crushing blow. Lancer squeezed off a second projectile, which tore into
the Invid's scanner, dropping it instantly. He was on his feet watching the
thing bleed green when he heard Rand's voice in the distance.
"We've been looking all over for you!"
Rand was waving at him from atop a heap of slacked steel that had once
been part of the arena's superstructure. Scott and Annie were with him, along
with the horses they had ridden in on.
Not exactly the cavalry arriving in the nick of time, Lancer said to
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