That meant the cannon was far enough away that Lieutenant Waldstejn had forgotten it. The distance had also thickened the sharp muzzle blasts into something quite different from what he had heard-painfully-during a demonstration firing when the Company first arrived. Waldstejn's lips pursed in speculation.

Fasolini touched the wear-polished spot on his helmet that keyed the radio. He said, "Top to Guns.

What thehell do you think you're upto. Roland? Shut her down before our whole fee goes up the spout!"

The mercenary listened a moment. To Waldstejn, out of the net, the reply was only a tinny burr like that of a distant cicada. The gun continued to fire its eight shots a second, regular as a chronometer.

"Listen, I was on bloodySedalia too," the Colonel shouted suddenly. "I don'tcare what you figured, I'm not having ammo / buy pissed down a- Waldstejn touched the older man on the shoulder. "I'll clear it, Guido," he said. "I'll get an acquisition request off today."

"Hold on!" Fasolini snapped. He took his fingertip from the communicator control. "What do you mean, you'll clear it?" he demanded."You don't have authority to supply one of those mothersthere isn't a unit like it in the whole bloody Federal army."

"And by the time somebody in Military Accounts has figured that out," the local man said reasonably, "we'll both have long white beards. Look, the noise'll make a few of them-" he waved. The breeze carried a burden of faint moans, people too slow or too ignorant to get under cover before the bombs hit- "think they're in a battle, not an abattoir. Requests from independent commands have an automatic clearance up to fifteen thousand crowns-and believe me, the Major knows better than to flag a chitI've approved." The pride in Waldstejn's voice was as obvious as it was justified.

Fasolini squinted at the younger man. Instead of replying directly, the mercenary keyed his communicator again. "Top to Guns," he said. "All right, you've got clearance, Roland. But it's still a bloody waste." To Waldstejn alone he added, "Damned fool thinks they'll be programmed to whip-saw back and forth on the same track, so if he keeps enough crap in the air they'll fly right into-"