When Jeridan saw the fresh attack, he nearly fainted. They were far too outnumbered to last more than a few seconds.

But then he noticed something.

The guardsmen were running in a disorganized rabble, all looking over their shoulders.

The soldiers weren't charging. They were retreating.

Another explosion rocked the building. Debris, smoke, and body parts flew through the front door.

"Run!" Ogedai shouted.

"Sounds like a good idea," Jeridan said, grabbing the nearest unconscious scientist and dragging him toward the rear doors.

He looked around and saw Aurora doing the same with her mother. Several other researchers took their lead and helped their coworkers.

Jeridan moved backwards, keeping an eye on the situation at the front door. Imperial guardsmen had taken up positions on either side of the doorway and were returning fire. Another large explosion went off outside. Was that the second armored car getting hit?

"Who's fighting who?" Jeridan asked nobody in particular.

"Maybe it's a counterattack from those loyal to the king," a scientist said. She and a colleague were carrying an unconscious man between them.

"Any help would be welcome right now," Jeridan replied.

He spotted Negasi hobbling along, using a rifle as a walking stick, blood flowing freely from his calf.

He looked for Ogedai and didn't see him.

Where was he? He hoped he hadn't gone down. From what Negasi told him about the fight on Yavari Prime, the guy was a one-man army.

Then he had his own problems to deal with, because a hailstorm of bullets poured through the doorway, taking out a royal guardsman and a couple of scientists.

"You're shooting our only hope, you idiots!"

No one listened to him, not that he expected anyone to. The firing increased.

He got to the door that he had first made a break for when this whole silliness began. Leaving the unconscious scientist safely on the other side of it, he made sure Aurora and her mother were inside as well before going back into the fight.

It took some time to get there. A whole crowd was funneling through the doorway and he had to push and shove to get back through.

Once he was clear, he saw Ogedai and Negasi hiding behind separate pillars along with a couple of terrified-looking but armed scientists. Most of the guardsmen at the front door were down, the rest putting up a valiant resistance.

Against who? That still wasn't clear.

What was clear was that they were paying zero attention to what they assumed was a disorganized mass of scientists who were still prisoners. Apparently, none of the guardsmen they saw now had been inside the building. They must have been killed by whoever was out there.

He ended up next to Negasi.

"What's that old Chinese saying? The enemy of the enemy is my friend?"

"Not all ancient sayings are Chinese. That's a stereotype," Negasi said.

"Fine. You didn't invent it. I still say we kill those guys and take our chances with the folks outside."

"Seems logical."

They opened fire on the soldiers. Two went down immediately, jerking with surprise before falling. Jeridan didn't like shooting people in the back, but this was survival.

At least he hoped it was. They might only be clearing the way for an even worse enemy.

Ogedai joined in, as did the armed scientists.

Only a couple of soldiers were able to swing around in time and return fire before dying.

Within seconds, the way was cleared.

"Stay here, bud," Jeridan said.

Jeridan raced across the room, angling to the left to keep out of the line of fire of whoever was outside that open door. Ogedai angled to the right. They ended up on either side of the doorway at the same time.

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Jeridan looked at Ogedai.

"You want to take a peek, or should I?"

Ogedai slapped another magazine in his rifle.

"I'll do it."

"Wait. I better do it," Jeridan said. "Shooting everything that moves might not be the best course of action right now."

"Why not?"

The man looked genuinely confused.

"Just let me peek," Jeridan said.

Ogedai shrugged.

The firing had died down outside. He could hear the rumble of a heavy engine.

Jeridan peeked.

And immediately ducked back as a bullet panged off the doorframe.

"Cack!"

Ogedai laughed. "Want me to do it?"

"No, hold up." Jeridan raised his voice. "Hey! You out there! The Royal Guardsmen are all dead or captured in here. Identify yourselves!"

Silence.

Jeridan stuck out a hand and waved. Reassured that he had kept all his fingers, he gingerly showed more of his body, keeping his rifle out of sight.

He managed to get his entire head into view without getting it shot off.

"Hi!" he said in as cheerful a voice as he could muster.

A difficult task when the parking lot was littered with dead bodies and the two armored cars were billowing flames and oily smoke.

Of greater concern were the three tanks pointing their guns at the building. They were clunky things, like out of some history book, with squat carriages and blocky turrets. A machine gun stuck out of the front of the carriage and another from the turret. There was also a long cannon barrel on the turret.

All three cannons pointed at the doorway.

One tank idled just thirty meters beyond the front door, the others flanking it and a little behind. Several soldiers from the regular army lay on the ground to either side of the lead tank, aiming their rifles at Jeridan.

Jeridan put on his winning smile and waved.

"Hey guys, how's it going?"

A loudspeaker atop the lead tank squealed to life. Jeridan winced as his eardrums got a worse beating than with all those stun grenades.

"Put down your weapons and surrender or we will open fire!"

Jeridan dropped his gun.

"What are you doing?" Ogedai whispered.

"Relax. We can't hold out against them and I got a feeling we don't have to."

Jeridan stepped out into full view, his hands raised, palms open toward the soldiers. He didn't put them above his head in surrender—that would send the wrong message—he merely showed that he was unarmed.

"I'm an employee of the League of Concerned Archaeologists. We all are. All the Royal guardsmen who tried to take this facility are dead or captured."

"Identify yourself," the speaker squealed, then ended with a high-pitched whine that made Aurora's worst tantrums sound like mood music.

"Ouch! Could you cut down the gain on that thing?"

SCREECH! "Why?"

Jeridan winced again. "Because you're killing my ears. I'm Captain James Nelson, commander of the Antikythera. My gunner is injured. Some of the scientists are injured too. We need assistance. Oh, and it would be kind of nice to know what the cack is going on."

This reasonable request was answered with such an assault on Jeridan's eardrums that he staggered back, thinking he was being attacked with a sonic weapon.

SQUEAL!!!

"You idiot," a voice said over the loudspeaker. "You're turning the gain up."

"Sorry."

SCREECH!"

"No, turn the knob the other way."

"This SCREEEE way?"

"The other way."

"Oh."

"Is that better?"

Jeridan barely heard the question through the reverberations in his skull.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks."

"Sounds like they got their own Jeridan and Negasi out there," Aurora said.

Jeridan whirled around and saw her beside the doorway. At least she had the sense to stay out of sight.

"What are you doing here?"

"I want to see what's going on."

"Get back! It's not safe."

"I can take care of myself."

"Who are you speaking with?" the loudspeaker demanded. At least it didn't kill his eardrums this time.

"One of the other employees. She was just giving me a report on the injured."

"You lie really good," Aurora said. "It's like you think of lies automatically."

"I took some lessons from your mother. How is she, by the way?"

"Recovering."

"See? Now I'm not lying about talking to someone about the wounded."

"She's not wounded, only stunned, so you're still lying."

"I think being knocked down by a stun grenade counts as being wounded."

"Hey!" the man behind the loudspeaker said. "I'm talking to you. We want you all the some out single file with your hands above your heads."

"We have wounded who can't be moved."

"Leave them. We'll take care of them."

"And who exactly are you?"

"Regiment fifteen of His Majesty's Armed Forces. The Royal Guard and a few regiments tried to mount a coup. We remained loyal to His Majesty."

"Long live the king!" several soldiers shouted.

Jeridan gave a thumb's up. "Yeah. Cool guy."

"Come on out."

Jeridan glanced at Ogedai, who shrugged.

"It's not like we have much choice," the Mongol said.

Negasi hobbled over and dropped the gun he had been using as a crutch. "Let's go first and make sure everything is OK."

"Right." He turned to Ogedai. "If anything happens to us, get everyone further inside the building."

Ogedai nodded. "And then what?"

Jeridan didn't have an answer to that.

Negasi hopped over to him and almost fell. Jeridan caught him. Together they walked out of the building and toward the tank.

"What the hell?" one of the soldiers lying on the ground shouted.

He stood, and Jeridan saw he wore the epaulettes of a major.

The major strode toward them. The light was in Jeridan's eyes and he couldn't see the man's face clearly until he got as close as the tank.

Then Jeridan's heart fell to his feet.

It was Major Rainier, the man who had led the military demonstration of those fake weapons they had sold to the king.

"Jeridan Cook and Negasi Gao! You have a lot of nerve coming back here. Did you think we weren't going to recognize you?"

It was only then that Jeridan realized he had switched off his disguise in order not to take friendly fire. Negasi had switched off his too, probably to convince Ogedai he was a friend.

They had both forgotten to turn them back on.

"Oh, um … " Aurora said you were a good liar. Think of a really super one right now! "We've joined your side. You know, saving the galaxy and stuff?"

Jeridan thought he heard an adolescent groan from inside the building.

Major Rainier pointed his pistol at them.

"You two are under arrest. You have been tried and convicted in absentia."

"Um … and what's the sentence?"

Jeridan had a feeling he knew.

"Death."

Why do I have to be right all the time?

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