ENTOVERSE

“So that would trigger the same i-space terminal to connect to

Uttan,” Hunt said. He was standing with Danchekker and Keshen beside the Ganymeans, Leyel Torres and Rodgar Jassilane. “We

wouldn’t need to know where the node is located or what it is, or–exactly how it functions?”

“That’s right,” Keshen confirmed.

“But I thought all the links were shut down,” Jassilane said. “Isn’t that what disconnected you in the first place?”

“Yes,” Eesyan agreed. “Apart from one that they’ve probably got open to their people inside PAC—but that would be inaccessible to us, anyway. But in order to stage his invasion from Uttan, Eubeleus will have to open JEVEX to access from Jevlen-based trunk nodes again. What we’re saying is that when he does, VISAR will have been routed through to one of them.”

Jassilane looked inquiringly at Keshen.

The Jevlenese nodded. “If we can get back into the net,” he confirmed.

Gina watched with Nixie, Fendro, and Murray, over on one side. There was nothing she could contribute, and tossing in questions that could just as well be answered later would only delay things. Nixie, Fendro, and Murray were still too awed at the interior of the starship to have much thought about anything else, anyway.

“And I think there’s a way we might be able to do it,” Keshen said. He looked around quickly. “Through one of the re4irector satellites that were left functioning. There are about thirty of them. They’re part of the regular net, unmanned, and a long way out.” The others were listening intently. He spread his hands and went on. “If we could get to one of them and find a way inside it, I think I could break into one of the primary circuits. That would bypass the protection. The network itself would take care of finding a route to wherever the access code indicates. We don’t have to know where it points.”

“Do you know the codes?” Eesyan asked. He sounded dubious, as if he found the thought unlikely.

Keshen looked surprised. “But I assumed VISAR had the codes,” he replied. “VISAR was connected when I entered them at the club. Isn’t it true?’’

“They were stored in local memory,” VISAR said. “They got lost when I was cut off.”

Eubeleus paced agitatedly to and fro across the floor of the main control center deep beneath the surface of Uttan. The latest report

from Jevlen was that the Shapieron had lifted out from the planet and was riding in orbit. It was the Shapieron that had slipped in close under the planet’s defensive guard during the Pseudowar and intercepted a communications beam to let VISAR into JEVEX. All his instincts told him that the Terrans were going to try the same thing again. He should have felt completely confident, he knew, for this time he had foreseen their plan; but he found himself unable to shake off an oppressive nervousness, which he traced back to the knowledge that Hunt and Danchekker were involved. It meant that anything could happen: especially something that nobody else had thought of.

“How close to completion is the final integration sequence?” he asked the operators clustered around the supervisory console.

“It’s practically complete now,” Iduane answered.

“Good. Run a double check on all communications input chan­nels. I want to be absolutely sure that no illicit accesses are being tried -anywhere. Assign it a class—one priority.”

“Understood.”

“What is the Shapieron doing?” Eubeleus asked another operator, who was monitoring the tracking data being relayed via PAC from the Jevienese surveillance system.

“Still holding LJO. No new developments.”

Eubeleus stopped, stared at the screen showing Langerif and his officers in the PAC communications room, then turned away and started pacing again. “I don’t like it,” he muttered. “I don’t trust that ship.”

“It’s not doing anything,” Iduane pointed out. “And what can it do? Our surveillance will be following it from Jevlen every inch of the way, wherever it goes.”

“It’s not safe so long as it’s anywhere in the vicinity of Jevlen,” Eubeleus said. “I’m not proceeding further until we get rid of it.”

“Get rid of it?” Iduane looked perplexed. “How? Jevlen doesn’t have any strategic defenses.”

“There must be some way of—” Eubeleus stopped and looked over at the screen showing Langerif again. “Wait. We’ve still got their illustrious commander, haven’t we?” he said, moving back across. “The leader who brought them back after all those years. They wouldn’t want anything to happen to him, now, would they?” He nodded, satisfied. “And you’ve got some others there that we can use as hostages, isn’t that right? Who are they?”

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