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shrimp and snow pickle sweetmeat from the tray on the
footstool next to him. He gulped it down, savoring the sweet, spicy hoisin sauce on his tongue, and belched appreciatively. "A
lesson in manners."
     
    ]YAN CLUNG to
the outside of the dome like a small, dark insect. Three of the hoops
were set. It remained only to place and arm the last charge.
    Where he rested,
one hand attaching him to the dome's taut skin, the slope was
relatively gentle. He could look out over the capped summit of the
dome and see the distant, moon-washed peaks. It was a beautiful
night. Cfear, like glass. Above him the stars shone like polished
jewels against the blackness. So many stars. So vast the blackness.
    He looked down.
Concentrate, he told himself. YpuVe no time for stargazing. Even so,
he took a final glimpse. Then, working quickly, he placed and
fastened the hoop, taping it at four points. That done, he rugged
gently but firmly at the joint.
    Where he pulled
at it, the hoop came apart, a thin thread joining tail to mouth. Like
a snake's wire-thin tongue, he thought. Fully extended, the thread
was as long as his little finger. Already it was being coiled back-,
into the body of the hoop. Eventually the ends would join up again
and the hoop would send out a trigger signal. When all four were
primed, they would form a single, destructive harmonic. And then ...
    Slowly,
carefully, he backed away, edging back down the steepening wall of
the dome. Like all else in the City its skin was made of the
superplastic, ice. Normal charges would scarcely have dented the
steel-tough, fire-resistant skin, but these would eat right through
it before they detonated.
    He was balanced
at the point where the dome wall fell sharply away when he stopped,
hearing a noise beneath him. He turned his head slowly, scarcely
daring to breathe. Who in the gods' names . . . ?
    The figure was
directly underneath, staring up at him. As Jyan turned his face a
brilliant beam of light shone directly into his eyes.
    "You! What
are you doing up there?"
    Jyan looked
away, momentarily blinded, then looked back in time to see Chen
coming up behind the man.
    The man turned
quickly, sensing something behind him. As Chen struck out with his
knife, the man raised the big torch he was carrying and deflected the
blow.
    Chen's knife
went clattering across the roof.
    For a moment the
two faced each other warily, then Chen moved, circling the newcomer.
He feinted, making the other back off, then dropped to his knees,
searching for his knife in the shadows at the base of the dome.
    The man looked
at his torch, considering whether to use it as a weapon and go for
Chen. Then he turned and ran off to the right, where a faint patch of
light revealed a second maintenance hatch.
    "Pien
kua!" swore Jyan under his breath. Loosening the claws, he
dropped the last five meters and rolled. Crouched there, he looked
about him.
    He saw Chen at
once, to his right, running after the stranger. But the man was
already at the hatch and climbing down.
    "Shit!"
he said desperately, trying to ease the claws from his hands as
quickly as he could. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" If the bastard got
to an alarm they would both be done for.
    He looked up in
time to see Chen disappear down the hatch.
    "Hurry,
Chen!" he murmured anxiously, folding the claws and tucking them
away in his pocket. He turned, looking back up the dome's steep
slope, then glanced down at the dragon timer in his wrist. Six
minutes. That was all that remained.
    And if Chen
failed?
    He swallowed
dryly, then began to run toward the second shaft, his heart pounding
in his chest. "Shit!" he kept saying. "Shit! Shit!"
    He was only
twenty ch'i from it when a figure lifted from the hatch and
turned to face him.
    " Ai-ya! "He pulled up sharply, gasping with fear, but it was Chen. The kwai looked up, the broad shape of his face and chest lit from
beneath, his breath pluming up into the chill air.
    "Where is
he?" hissed Jyan anxiously, hurrying forward again.