The long night wore on. Janazik had sent most of his Khazaki out to
alert the other loyalists in their hiding places, but only they had a
chance of slipping unobserved past the enemy patrols. Humans, obviously
alien, slow-footed and clumsy beside the flitting shadows of Khazak,
would never get far. They had to wait.
Anse was glad of the opportunity for conference with Janazik, planning
the assault on the citadel. Neither of them was very familiar with the
layout, but Alonzo, as an engineer on the rocket building project, and
old Chiang had been there often enough to know it intimately.
It was impossible that a few hundred warriors armed with the primitive
weapons of Khazak could take the stronghold. Its walls were manned by
more fighters than that, and there were the terrible Earth-type guns
as well. Alonzo had a blaster with a couple of charges, but otherwise
there was nothing modern in the loyalist force.