place, and whose planning was the only thing keeping the Chinese temporarily at bay, sat in a large room with seven corpses, one gun, and the young man who had betrayed them all.
More than three hours later, gunfire began again, in the distance. The booming sound of anti-aircraft guns.
Achilles was on the phone in an instant. "Don't fire at the incoming aircraft," he said, "or these geniuses start dying."
He clicked off before they could say anything in reply.
The shooting stopped.
They heard the rotors-choppers landing on the roof.
What a stupid place for them to land, thought Petra. Just because the roof is marked as a heliport doesn't mean they have to obey the signs. Up there, the Indian soldiers surrounding this place will have an easy target, and they'll see everything that happens. They'll know when Achilles is on the roof. They'll know which chopper to shoot down first, because he's in it. If this is the best plan the Chinese can come up with, Achilles is going to have a harder time using China as a base to take over the world than he thinks.
More choppers. Now that the roof was full, a few of them were landing on the grounds.
The door burst open, and a dozen Chinese soldiers fanned out through the room. A Chinese officer followed them in and saluted Achilles. "We came at once, sir."
"Good work," said Achilles. "Let's get them all up on the roof."
"You said you'd let us go!" said one of the Battle Schoolers.
"One way or another," said Achilles, "you're all going to end up in China anyway. Now get up and form into a line against that wall."
More choppers. And then the whoosh, whump of an explosion.
"Those stupid eemos," said the Tamil, "they're going to get us all killed."
"Such a shame," said Achilles, pointing his pistol at the Tamil's head.
The Chinese officer was already talking into his satrad. "Wait," he said. "It's not the Indians. They've got Thai markings."
Bean, thought Petra. You've come at last. Either that or death. Because if Bean wasn't running this Thai raid, the Thai could have no other objective than to kill everything that moved in Hyderabad.
Another whoosh-whump. Another. "They've taken out everything on the roof," the Chinese officer said. "The building's on fire, we've got to get out."
"Whose stupid idea was it to land up there anyway?" asked Achilles.
"It was the closest point to evacuate them from!" answered the officer angrily. "There aren't enough choppers left to take all these."
"They're coming," said Achilles, "even if we have to leave soldiers behind."
"We'll get them in a few days anyway. I don't leave my men behind!"
Not a bad commander, even if he's a little dim about tactics, thought Petra.
"They won't let us take off unless we've got their Indian geniuses with us."
"The Thai won't let us take off at all!"
"Of course they will," said Achilles. "They're here to kill me and rescue her" He pointed at Petra.
So Achilles knew it was Bean that was coming.
Petra showed nothing on her face.
If Achilles decided to leave without the hostages, there was a good chance he would kill them all. Deprive the enemy of a resource. And, more important, take away their hope.
"Achilles," she said, walking toward him. "Let's leave these others and get out. We'll be taking off from the ground. They won't know who's in what chopper. As long as we go now."
As she approached him, he swung his pistol to point at her chest.
She did not even pause, merely walked toward him, past him, to the door. She opened it. "Now, Achilles. You don't have to die in flames today, but that's where you're headed, the longer you wait."
"She's right," said the Chinese officer.
Achilles grinned and looked from Petra to the officer and back again. We've shamed you in front of the others, thought Petra. We've shown that we knew what to do, and you didn't. Now you have to kill us both. This officer doesn't know he's dead, but I do. Then again, I was dead anyway. So now let's get out of here without killing anybody else.
"Nothing in this room matters but you," said Petra. She grinned back at him. "Soak a noky, boy."
Achilles turned back to point the gun, first at one Battle Schooler, then another. They recoiled or flinched, but he did not fire. He dropped his gun hand to his side and walked from the room, grabbing Petra by the arm as he passed her. "Come on, Pet," he said. "The future is calling."