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those thoughts helped Maggi with her own predicament. She didn’t see this ending in a triumphant victory over a pack of wild Krall. There was nothing for her to gain in this fight, or for the rest of the Kobani on the planet, regardless of how many of this plague of killers she took down with her. Besides, she had placed her companions at risk, because of her irrational feeling of annoyance. What had she thought those four youngsters would do? She sent them off with no instructions at all, except to “scout for threats.” She could have Mind Tapped them in a few seconds with a touch, telling them to stay close, and return quickly.
    Now she was going to die down here, and they might die trying to reach her. She didn’t want their bones to join the pile with hers, although she couldn’t think of a way to get high enough to improve the weak signal of their transducers. She had lost the signal at about thirty feet below the main floor, when she was still close to the open stairwells. That was a direction closed to her now, at least if she wanted to delay her death. Despite the darkness, her IR vision component could guide her. There were other stairs (also next to dead elevators) closer to the center of every Krall factory complex. She went in search of one of those now.
    When she reached the next set of stairs, she knew that the stale, unstirred air here had put her pursuers on her trail again. Wherever she went, some scent would lead them. She was wearing a light jacket, because this island was so far south that it had cool night breezes, coming off the polar ocean currents that flowed past. She started down the stairs, seeking some place she could leave the jacket as a distraction.
    As she descended, the walls gave way to a vast feeling of space, where there were echoes from the blackness around her, sounds of condensation drips, and the smell of mustiness. The lack of visual temperature contrasts close to her, for easy reference when she entered the large open volume, caused her to experience a momentary sense of vertigo. She couldn’t orient herself properly, and the lack of stair rails could send her off the side of the steps if she wasn’t careful.
    When she adjusted her focus, she realized there were temperature variations detectable farther across the vast feeling space. Old machinery, walkways between them, power and cooling lines, conveyer systems, and structural members could faintly be discerned. The Krall, with their more sensitive IR vision would be able to move faster here than she could. The ripper genes conveyed superior low natural light vision, because they never hunted in total darkness, as she was in now. She had to pay close attention to where she walked, to stay centered on the steps.
    When she reached the wide walkway at the bottom of these steps, she touched some of the machinery. It felt damp and gritty to the touch, with flakes coming lose between her fingers. There had been no maintenance here for a very long time, and unseen rust probably coated many of the metal parts, catwalks, and support beams.
    She walked between tall mysterious pieces of equipment, and turned down several side walkways, to get her heat signature out of sight of the stairs, once her chasers reached this far. They were coming, because she could hear them.
    Ah. They’ re back to using the natural cunning displayed when I first entered the dome, she noted. They had stopped making low frequency sounds, which most animals on Koban could hear, and were using only ultrasonic gabble. It still sounded like nonsense, but it was clear they wanted to sneak up on their prey, unaware that her wolfbat gene modifications let her hear them coming.
    They were so confidant she couldn’t hear them, that they were being very noisy. To better sense from which way they were approaching, she closed her eyes and simply listened. She had a clue to orient herself, because they would be trailing her by scent, and would be descending the same