James Axler – The Mars Arena

“The Mirage,” Giskard guessed.

“Exactly.” Hardcoe smiled. “They haven’t been fed in the last four days and have been secured in a soundproof room near the top of the Mirage. Phibes has an electronic door opener. Those monkeys have been released into that building by now.”

“They’re still just monkeys,” Dettwyler snorted. “Not much threat in that.”

“I seem to recall that you weren’t impressed with the piranha in the fish tank at the Mirage’s entry,” Hardcoe returned. “One of Connrad’s prize team members is now dead because of it.”

“Only one.” Dettwyler still didn’t appear impressed.

“True, but now that team is running scared. They thought to take the high ground, as other teams before them had planned on. Only now they’re not as safe as they believed they were going to be. They’re going to run into those monkeys.” Hardcoe leaned forward in his chair and lowered his voice, drawing in the others to his story. “Those monkeys are meat eaters, as I’ve said, but they’re also little more than a foot and a half tall, much stronger and faster than they appear, and have wings.”

“Winged monkeys?”

LeMarck looked at Dettwyler. The baron definitely looked impressed now.

“Can they fly?” Giskard asked.

“Not fly,” Hardcoe said. “However, they can glide pretty damn good. I’ve seen them do it myself.”

A quick, covert glance at Connrad let LeMarck know the baron wasn’t receiving the news with the confidence he’d had before.

“Something new, eh, Vinge? That’s what we wanted for the pit.” Hardcoe grinned. “And no matter how well drilled those boys you managed to gather up are, there’s no way they could have prepared for this.”

Connrad didn’t say anything; he just lifted his binoculars.

LeMarck raised the thermographic lenses to his eyes again, scanning the topmost floors of the Mirage. In a matter of moments he managed to locate the monkeys, dimly outlined by their shape as they scuttled across the floor. They were a horde, their body temperatures considerably elevated from a human’s, and even slightly higher than a mutie biped’s. It was a certain sign of rad-influenced mutation.

The monkeys moved quickly, seeking out the empty elevator shafts and sliding down between the levels to the bottom floor. Some of them unfurled wings almost twice as broad as they were tall, and glided down, bouncing off the walls.

“You’ve never said how many monkeys there were,” Ramsey said.

“Dozens,” Hardcoe replied. “The green team won’t get out of that building alive. I’m afraid, Vinge, that your seasoned troopswith their training and their intent to take the high groundare going to find that those tactics have ultimately chilled them all.”

Connrad paused for a moment before answering. “Getting down to the nut cutting, it’s going to matter who’s the best chillers. Just like it always has.”

“A man who’s a believer until the bitter end,” Giskard said. “Very good of you, Vinge.”

LeMarck moved the thermographic lenses around, picking up other hot spots. He felt better about the outcome.

The green team appeared the only ones who could give the one-eyed man and his party any serious competition.

Abruptly he ran the lenses across a heat signature that read human. He brought the lenses back slowly, finding what he was looking for on the second floor.

He leaned down to Hardcoe’s ear. “Sir.”

Hardcoe listened.

“Our team is in the building, as well.”

“Where?”

“Second floor,” LeMarck answered.

The muscles along the baron’s jawline tightened. “If they’ve got the sense we’ve given them credit for, as soon as they hear the monkeys take the green team, they’ll leave the building.”

LeMarck straightened again, hoping it was true.

WITH JAK WATCHING her back, Krysty put the last plas-ex charge in place against the ceiling. On the top floor now, she knew the sec men were only a few feet above her. The only things separating her from them were the crawl space, ceiling, roof and whatever duct work was in place.

“Done,” she said to Jak.

He stepped out of the shadows beside the room’s door. He nodded, then turned and led the way into the hall, followed by Krysty.

They went down the emergency stairs in a matter of minutes, returning to the first floor. Doc remained in the underground garage with Bernsen, who’d become increasingly nervous as he figured out what Krysty and the others were planning to do.