Nick stared at the black ship, which lay at the widest point in the canyon.

“It's a pity they aren't better pilots.” Drake was looking at it with his helmet visor on zoom. “If they could have landed deeper into the canyon where the walls are closer, we could have landed on the roof and found a hatch or maintenance door in.”

“They probably have sensors, though.” Nick studied the way the ship was standing, a little off-kilter because a cluster of rocks to one side lifted it up higher on the left than the right. The struts had been deployed, but they weren't high enough to get it completely level.

“They've set it to dead mode, remember?” Drake said. “Sensors emit a signal. They won't have activated them. They're counting on the fact that there are too many places for them to hide on the Mother for us to even bother.”

“Do you think the other teams have gotten here yet?” Nick looked right, toward where they had left Stru nearly an hour ago. Nothing moved, no lights were visible.

But this was Special Forces they were dealing with. They wouldn't see them coming until they were surrounded.

Nick knew if they'd stayed put as ordered, whether they were under Intoh's command or not, they would not have been allowed to do much more than protest from the sidelines.

Neither of them were prepared to accept that.

Stru hadn't liked them going, but he could hardly stop them by himself. He hadn't even tried.

They'd followed the edge of the cliff and ended up as close to the ship as they were going to get.

Which meant Intoh's team would be moving this way, too, as soon as they arrived. Nick's guess was that if they hadn't reached Stru yet, they would do so any minute.

“Something's happening.” Drake tapped Nick's arm.

They both leaned a little further over the edge.

“Is that an all-terrain?” Nick watched as a bulky, windowless vehicle rolled down a lowered ramp, and drove silently off into the darkness.

“What are they up to?” Drake watched the vehicle until it disappeared.

“They're in dead mode, right?” Nick turned his head to look at Drake. “So they either have to switch their systems on to transmit a message, or they have to transmit from a mobile unit.”

“They're communicating.” Drake nodded. “They're either sending another message to the media on Parn, or they're talking to their friends.”

“So, how about we hitch a ride back inside the ship when they come back?”

Drake set his pack beside him and pulled out his grapple. “Good idea.”

* * *

They dropped from the top of the cliff face like earlings in a dive for prey, silent and fast.

All Nick could hear was the in and out of his own breath inside his enclosed helmet. Drake, rappelling beside him, didn't make a sound.

“Where are you?” Stru's hiss in his ear jolted him, and he had to breathe through the spike in his heart rate.

“Why?” He kept his voice soft and his tone curt.

“The first team is two minutes out.” Stru's voice was unapologetic and equally curt.

The Special Forces officer was angry, no doubt about it.

His ass was on the line.

Nick's feet touched the gritty floor of the canyon.

“You are going to get killed or you're going to destroy any chance of getting the Halatian woman out.” Stru's voice was low and uneven with fury.

“Is that so?” Nick knew they were taking a big risk, but he agreed with Drake that it wasn't as big as the risk they took by bowing to the Special Forces directives. “What do you think will happen here, Stru? The VSC will get involved. There'll be hand-wringing because Tila is Halatian. And while everyone weighs in, Tila could be whisked away. Right now, she's valuable to them. Most likely, if we're discovered, we're the ones who'll get hurt, not Tila. And in the worst case scenario, either they kill us, or they take us hostage too. Drake and I are prepared to accept that.”

“Down comms.” Drake's voice came through the comm in his helmet, but a brush on Nick's shoulder told him the commander was standing right beside him.

Nick wondered how long he'd been standing there in the gloom.

Damn, the man was quiet.

“We're going dark,” Nick told Stru. “We'll contact you when we can.”

“How long--?”

Nick cut him off and followed Drake, who was now just a dark shape ahead, deep in the canyon's shadow.

They would be impossible to see with the naked eye, and because they had managed to borrow full Special Forces gear, the smugglers would have difficulty with thermo-detection as well. Not that they were using it, if they were in dead mode.

Nick overtook Drake, moving a little faster than the commander as they navigated the twists and turns of the canyon.

They'd angled north along the top of the canyon and dropped down out of sight of the ship.

But they were closer now, and Nick started to move slower, to test every step he took before putting his foot down.

Somewhere ahead there was the sound of a scuff on the ground, and Nick crouched, signaling back to Drake to do the same.

A single guard trudged around the ship, shuffling in his thick boots and heavy suit. His helmet looked as if someone had scraped it against a rock.

Given the sleek, deadly look of the ship itself, the substandard kit was a surprise.

Everything they'd learned about the ship that had attacked Cepi was that whoever had built or stolen it had deep pockets.

The guard stood, looking in the direction the all-terrain had gone.

“He's waiting for them?” Nick wondered.

“If they've gone dark, they won't know when the all-terrain comes back. They've left someone outside with the codes to do a manual entry.”

It made sense. It also made finding a good place to hide until the all-terrain returned more difficult.

They waited until the guard did another circuit of the ship, and ran as silently as possible to a small group of rocks when he was out of sight.

It was the best they could do.

Nick curled in on himself, and Drake pressed up against him. It seemed like a long time before they heard the crunch of the tires on the gritty canyon floor.

Thank goodness for the gravel or the all-terrain would have been past them before they even heard it; the pop and crack of stones under tires was the only sound it made.

As soon as it passed them, Nick rose up and ran, limping a little as the blood surged back into his numb feet.

Drake stumbled behind him, but righted himself in time, and they both swung up onto the backboard and then climbed up to lie flat on the roof.

The all-terrain slowed as it crawled up into the small loading bay.

The ramp lifted, smooth and silent, and Nick felt the pressure change as the enviro tech pumped air back into the chamber.

The guard who'd let them in pulled off his helmet, and after a moment, the doors at the back of the vehicle, and the driver's door at the front, opened.

“Well?” the guard asked.

“Zy managed to hack in to the pinch zone schedule, so we got what we needed, and she sent the message,” the driver said. “But I need to speak to Jirmain. I think I saw a couple of personal hovers out there.”

“Special Forces?” the guard asked.

“Who else?”