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We of the Sabotage Bureau reory We know that too much law injures a society; it is the same with too little law One seeks a balance We are like the balancing force a heaven in the society of ent knows his own conscience and why he serves such a master That is the key to us We serve a mortal conscience for immortal reasons We do it without hope of praise or the sureness of success

- The early writings of Bildoon, PanSpechi Chief of BuSab

They loomed the depths of the city, Tria and six carefully chosen co Human males She&039;d musked herself to key them up and she led them down dim byhere Broey&039;s spies had been eliminated All of her troop was armored and armed in the fashion of an ordinary sortie tea nearby an hour earlier, not sufficiently disruptive to attract large military attention, but a small Gowachin salient had been eliminated from a Hu this Warren could expect after such a specific species adjustment Tria and her six companions were not likely to suffer attack None of the rioters wanted a large-scaleup in the area

A kind of hushed, suspenseful waiting pervaded the streets

They crossed a wet intersection, green and red ichor in the gutters The smell of the dampness told her that a Graluz had been broached and its waters freed to wash through the streets

That would attract retaliation Some Human children were certain to be killed in the days ahead An old pattern

The troop crossed the riot area presently, noting the places where bodies had fallen, esti casualties All bodies had been removed Not a scrap reed frouarded gate, Broey&039;s people A few blocks along they went through another gate, Huuards, all in Gar&039;s pay Broey would learn of her presence here soon, Tria knew, but she&039;d said she was going into the Warrens She ca The less grey of the building&039;s lower floors presented a blank face broken only by the lattice arate lay a die Its deceptively plain walls concealed spy devices and automatic weapons

Holding back her companions with a handentrance across froate was on a siuard in an alcove on the left near the door which was diate A building defense force stood ready to couard&039;s suh the spy devices

Tria&039;s informants said this was Jedrik&039;s bolt hole Not in the deep Warrens at all Clever But Tria had ents in s A conventional precaution Everything depended on ti was poised to eliuards at the spy device station Only the doorguard would rereed upon e: an open reclae? Tria didn&039;t like the feeling of this place What was Jedrik&039;s gauarded building? Jedrikthe riot - and of other matters But would she feel safe there in her own enclave? People tended to feel safe a their own people She couldn&039;t have a very large force around her, though Still, soh the devious pathways of Jedrik&039;s mind, and Tria had not yet fathomed all of that plot There were surface indicators enough to risk a confrontation, a parley It was possible that Jedrik flaunted herself here to attract Tria The potential in that possibility filled Tria with exciteether, we&039;d be unbeatable!

Yes, Jedrik fitted the ianization around her

Once ht The streets were appropriately empty She checked the time Her moment had come With hand ht and another young ate When they were in place, she slipped across with her three reuard was a Hulistened yellow in the die His lids were heavy with a recent dose of his personal drug, which Tria&039;s agent had supplied

Tria opened the gate, saw that the guard carried a round dead-rin was gap toothed as he held the switch toward her She knew he&039;d recognized her Much depended now on her agent&039;s accuracy

"Do you want to die for the frogs?" Tria asked

He knew about the rioting, the trouble in the streets And he was Human, with Human loyalties, but he knew she worked for Broey, a Gowachin The question was precisely calculated to fill him with indecision Was she a turncoat? He had his Huuard post which kept him out of the depths And there was his personal addiction All doorguards were addicted to so which dulled his senses and ht He wasn&039;t supposed to use his drug on duty and this troubled hied, and Tria had asked the right question He didn&039;t want to die for the frogs

She pointed to the dead-nal relay," he said "No bo hiuard sed "What do you"

"Join us or die"

He peered past her at the others Things such as this happened frequently in the Warrens, not very often here on the slopes which led up to the heights The guard was not a one trusted with full knowledge of whouarded He had explicit instructions and a dead-ed withthe more subtle distinctions, the real decisions That was this building&039;s weak point

"Join who?" he asked

There was false belligerency in his voice, and she knew she had hi-dulled mind onto its primary fears He knehat he was supposed to do: open his hand That released the alarm device in the dead-man switch He could do this of his own volition and it was supposed to deter attackers fro him A dead man&039;s hand opened anyway But he&039;d been fed with suspicions to increase his doubts The device in his hand nal transmitter What if it actually were a bo hours to wonder about that

"We&039;ll treat you well," Tria said

She put a coet the full effect of her musk while she held out her other hand to show that it carried no weapon "Demonstrate to my companion here how you pass that to your relief"

One of the young uard showed hoas done, explaining slowly as he passed the device "It&039;s easy once you get the trick of it"

When her co firuard&039;s shoulder, touched his carotid artery with a poisoned needle concealed in a fingernail The guard had only ti, before he sank from her erinned It was the kind of thing you learned to expect froht into the guard alcove, and the young nal device took his place at the door The others protected Tria with their bodies as they swept into the building The whole operation had taken less than twosmoothly, as Tria&039;s operations were expected to work