The MCV looked completely different with its armour replaced.

  Before, it had looked like some mad Professor's experiment, with exposed wires and tubes connecting the magnetic panels. It had looked fragile and vulnerable. Now, it looked like a tank with armour painted a desert khaki. The cab had the large windscreen and windows of any large truck, but they were protected by metal grills. The six wheels were black and chunky. Serious looking. Murphy, one of Jeffcott's new soldier friends, had told him they were filled with foam, which made them virtually immune to puncture. Even if all six did go flat, Murphy had told him, the vehicle could still travel for fifty miles at fifty miles per hour before they became too damaged to go further.

  "So why don't all cars have tyres like that?" Jeffcott had asked him.

  "Because they cost about five thousand dollars each," Murphy had replied with a wide grin.

  The two MCV's were standing in the widest open area of the construction facilities yard. Each had four other vehicles gathered around it, two side by side ahead of it and two behind. The two rear vehicles, Rhinos according to Murphy, looked like armoured buses. They had no weapons of their own but had covered openings through which people inside could fire their hand weapons.

  One of the two leading vehicles was also clearly designed to carry soldiers, but unlike the Rhinos it and its twin standing in front of the other MCV ran on caterpillar tracks. It would have looked like a proper tank if it had had a cannon mounted on top, but instead it carried only a machine gun, in front of the hatch in which the gunner would stand. It was an M113, Murphy told him, and inside it had been outfitted as a field hospital.

  The vehicle standing beside it, the Stryker, did have a large cannon mounted on top, its bore about four inches wide, but it was kept from looking like a proper tank by the eight wheels it possessed rather than tracks. It had a variety of tubes and cylinders mounted on the turret whose purpose defied Jeffcott, as did the swelling half way along the gun barrel. He would have asked Murphy about them, but the Irishman (only one of whose ancestors, a grandparent, had ever set foot on the Emerald Isle, he had admitted with a rueful grin) had wandered off to talk to a group of fellow servicemen. Jeffcott decided not to disturb their conversation, which he suspected might concern military matters that they might not want to talk about in front of a civilian. People tended to be careful discussing the tricks of the trade with outsiders present.

  A prickling in his skin made him look around at the anomaly, which was now just a couple of dozen metres away on the other side of the barbed wire fence that surrounded the military facility. He saw it rising up into the sky, looking perfectly straight as it stretched to left and right, it's curvature hidden by its sheer size. Birds and insects had already fled the area. Only humans remained, and only a few of them.

  The National Guard Headquarters had now been almost completely evacuated. The day before, Jeffcott had watched people driving away in trucks, west, towards Interstate 17 that would take them north to Flagstaff where the next forward operating base was being established. The only people remaining were the members of the expedition, a handful of mechanics and technical staff, Malcolm Starr and General Bromley. Two more trucks stood ready to take them away as well, and then the city of Phoenix would be abandoned to the enemy. Any further incursions into the anomaly would enter elsewhere, bypassing the city. There would be no need to navigate the maze of streets and run the gauntlet of anomaly creatures when all they would want to do was get to Maricopa as quickly as possible.

  All ten expedition vehicles had their engines running and the soldiers were standing smartly beside them in neat rows, their uniforms shining immaculately in the Arizona sun and bulging slightly above the breastbone where their magnets sat in their harnesses. Jeffcott was the only one not in uniform. He was wearing a white robe, similar to the one he'd worn on his first journey into the anomaly, above trousers and a tee shirt. He matched the soldiers, though, with the curving sabre hanging in its scabbard from his belt. It was the only weapon he was carrying while everyone else, even the MCV crew, were also carrying a machine gun and a pistol.

  The weight of the sabre was comforting as he stood in the hot morning sun. He preferred it to the spears they'd been given for the first mission. A weapon with a long reach, designed to reach the vital organs of the enemy, was no good against an enemy that had multiple, disposable body parts. The anomaly creatures were better fought with a weapon that could slash, ripping open several of their fish egg body modules with every swipe.

  The men stood straighter as they sensed that Starr was about to speak. "No long speeches," he said as he took a couple of steps forward. "You all know what's at stake. You all know your jobs. You aren't trembling raw recruits who need to be reassured and motivated. You are all veterans. You have all seen action. Seen comrades die, seen formerly peaceful communities torn apart by enemy forces. I know you would all willingly give your lives to save the United States from the danger that threatens it..." His eyes met Jeffcott's momentarily before moving away. "...as well as the rest of the world. You're not just fighting for freedom and democracy this time. This time you're fighting to literally save the world. To save the human race. I know you will not fail."

  He stepped back and the General stepped forward to replace him. "What he said," he said. A ripple of laughter ran through the assembled soldiers before their sense of discipline reasserted itself. "Don't try anything fancy," the General added. "Just get to Kensington Labs, blow everything up and get out of there. I look forward to seeing you all back here and handing out a few medals when the anomaly has gone. Good luck, and may God go with you."

  "Alright men," Captain Daniels then said. "Everyone aboard your vehicles."

  Jeffcott trotted over to MCV one with Archie, Bird and Brooks. The Captain also climbed in with them. Daniels took one of the front seats, by the command and control console, where he could monitor conditions around the convoy, communicate with the other vehicles and give orders. Archie sat beside him at the magnetic shield's control panel. Bird and Brooks sat behind them, beside secondary control panels that controlled the vehicle's secondary systems and Jeffcott sat just inside the door, beside the reserve nitrogen tank. The vehicle's rear compartment had no windows, but all five of them could see the screens mounted on the forward bulkhead, each of which showed images taken by one of the cameras mounted on the other vehicles.

  Jeffcott slammed the door closed. The interior was now lit only by the lights mounted where the walls met the ceiling; a dim light that allowed them to see the screens clearly. On one of the screens Jeffcott saw the two drivers making their way towards the cab. Bailey and Cassino, who was replacing the unfortunate Carpenter. They waved to their friends climbing into the other vehicles as they stepped carefully over the heavy chains that linked the five vehicles together. Then they climbed in, making the vehicle shake slightly as they slammed the doors closed.

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  Looking at the screen that showed the view to the south, Jeffcott saw that the anomaly had now entered the military base. The chain-link fence with its topping of barbed wire was now rippling, as if seen through the surface of a body of water. As he watched he saw the anomaly swallowing up small weeds growing in cracks in the tarmac, and then he saw something that made him give a hissing, Indrawn breath. The sound made Bird look at him and then follow his gaze to the viewscreen. Jeffcott saw him tensing up in his seat as he saw what he'd seen.

  There were anomaly creatures crowding up against the chain-link fence, staring at them with their six-eyed flower heads. "Look at that," he heard someone say over the radio link. "The bastards are ready to move in."

  "They're cutting the fence," someone else said.

  It was true, Jeffcott saw. One of the creatures had a pair of pincers on the end of a string-of-sausages tentacle and as they watched it clamped onto one of the plastic-covered metal wires. The creature strained visibly and then the wire gave way. The pincer moved to the next wire down.

  Then the creature exploded as a hail of bullets hit it. Jeffcott searched the viewscreens to see what was happening and saw that the General was aiming a machine gun at the fence. He ejected the magazine, slapped in another and fired off another burst. The creatures scattered, fading from view as they camouflaged themselves and ran for cover.

  Jeffcott saw Bromley's lips movng as he ejected the second magazine and slapped in a third. "Time to go," it looked like he was saying. He and the other non-expedition personnel made their way for the two trucks that had been left for them, Starr taking the drivers seat of the lead truck while the General sat beside him. Their engines started and they drove to the entrance of the military base where the gates and the barrier had been left open for them. For the first time since the base had opened, anyone could walk right in, but there was no-one within a dozen miles to do so.

  The two trucks turned right to go north as they passed through the gate, then paused as the ten armoured cars of the convoy followed then out, turning south. They drove carefully, trying not to put too much tension on the chains connecting them together in two groups of five, each with one of the MCV's in the centre. Jeffcott's MCV was in the forward group and, as they passed the two trucks he saw Starr and the General raising their hands in farewell. He imagined the drivers of the convoy waving back and then the armoured cars picked up speed, the drivers gaining confidence in the art of maintaining their formation. In one of the screens he saw the trucks moving again as they left. He watched them grow smaller as they grew more distant and then they turned a corner and vanished.

  "Approaching the boundary of the anomaly," said Daniels into a microphone, his voice being carried to the other nine vehicles. "We'll take it slow going through, to make sure everything works as it should. Then we'll get out of town as quick as possible."

  "Understood," said voices from speakers beside the Captain's seat as the drivers of the other vehicles responded, one after the other. Then there was silence except for the barely heard conversation between passengers of the other vehicles, carried over the communications links. It gave Jeffcott the reassuring feeling that they were all in one big group together. Over a hundred men who would make sure that no harm came to him. He heard someone laugh in response to a barely heard comment and it cheered him even though he had no idea what the joke had been. Beside him, the nitrogen pumps and the refrigerator hummed contentedly to themselves, telling him that the vehicle's magnetic shield was working. Hopefully it would go on working, because if it didn't...

  He imagined the engines of the vehicles stuttering to a stop as they crossed the boundary. He imagined hordes upon hordes of anomaly creatures pressing in from all sides and the soldiers, their firearms suddenly useless, drawing their sabres in a desperate attempt to hold them back as long as possible. He imagined them falling one by one, each victim one less guardian standing between him and a sudden, painful death...

  Then they crossed the boundary and the engines kept running. "We're in," said the Captain, his voice heavy with significance. "Everything okay?"

  "All okay," the other vehicles replied one after another.

  "Then let's go," said Daniels. "As much speed as we can to the edge of town. All these buildings make me nervous. I want nice, clean desert around us."

  "Amen to that," said Archie with feeling. "No soldier likes to fight in a city. Way too messy. I won't be happy until we've got clean lines of sight all the way to the horizon."

  Jeffcott nodded while remembering that the journey had only been expected to take forty minutes before they were back in another city. He expected that the journey would take longer now that they had to detour around the escarpments, but even so the Captain wouldn't have his nice, clean desert for very long. The Intelligence knew they were coming. Who knew what surprises it might have waiting for them in the streets of Maricopa?

  They made good speed through the streets of Phoenix. Jeffcott remembered seeing abandoned vehicles blocking some of the lanes but they'd all been moved as the soldiers waited for the work on the MCV's to be finished. He felt the vehicle take a right turn, and a couple of minutes later a left. That put them on the Maricopa Freeway, he knew, having studied a map of the city before they left. The road would take them almost all the way to their destination with only one side turning where the main road carried on to Tucson. They would enter Maricopa by the same road they'd used on their first visit. The road had been blocked with abandoned cars trying to leave the city, he remembered. They had cleared one lane to get their wagons through but they would need two clear lanes to get the convoy of armoured cars through. He assumed the Captain had factored the time into his estimate of how long it would take them to make the journey.

  "Seeing cold spots on the road," said one of the drivers, his voice made tinny by the speaker. "Anomaly creatures. Watching us go by."

  "I can't see them," another voice said.

  "They're camouflaged," said the first voice smugly, "but they're showing up nicely in the IR goggles. Wanna take a few shots at 'em?"

  "If they're no threat, leave 'em be," said the Captain. "Let's not get distracted."

  "Roger that."

  Then he felt himself being pulled forward in his seat as the vehicle slowed to a stop. He looked at the viewscreens to see what had happened and saw that they were at the top of an overpass where their road crossed another below. The road ahead of them was blocked by a dozen cars turned on their sides. He saw movement as anomaly creatures swarmed across the roadblock, making no attempt to disguise themselves as they waited in ambush.

  "Ostermann," said the Captain. "Clear the way if you will."

  "Yes, Sir."

  Jeffcott waited, confused. Not knowing what was happening, but then he almost jumped out of his seat at the explosive sound of the Stryker firing. The 105 mm projectile, travelling at 3600 mph, broke into a cloud of fragments as it flew towards the roadblock. It was designed not to penetrate but to push. It hit a silver BMW like the fist of a giant, spinning it around towards the concrete barrier that guarded the edge of the road. It lifted up onto the barrier, tipped over and fell down to the road below. A second shell hit another car, throwing it away in a torn and crumpled ruin. Jeffcott heard something hitting the roof of the MCV but Bird, watching a bank of readouts on his viewscreen, didn't react. They didn't seem to have suffered any damage.

  "Look at 'em scattering!" he heard a man laughing. "They sure weren't expecting that!"

  "Stupid little flower heads," someone else said. "They got no idea what's coming."

  Jeffcott heard a machine gun firing. "Cease fire," Daniels ordered. "Conserve ammunition. All we've got is what we're bringing with us."

  "We've got plenty," someone replied. "We've got enough to start a small war."

  "That's exactly what we're going into," Daniels replied. "Conserve ammunition. If we're successful, they'll all die when we destroy the anomaly. Until then, conserve ammunition."

  "Yes sir."

  There was no further gunfire and the convoy carried on along the road as if nothing had happened. On the screen showing the feed from the rear-facing camera Jeffcott saw anomaly creatures standing in the street and he imagined that they looked dismayed as they watched the departure of the vehicles they'd failed to stop. Then he settled down in his seat and allowed the gentle vibration of the speeding vehicle to lull him into a light doze.