CHAPTER 7
“I think we are right above the entrance,” Tarkos said, leaning carefully forward to look over the cliff edge. Tiklik did not reply.
Tarkos searched the moss-covered ground till he found the nearest patch of exposed stone: some kind of ancient weather-smoothed igneous rock. He hammered a piton into the stone, using tools from a small climbing kit he had taken from the cruiser. Then he linked the sheathed monomolecular filament from his armor’s grapple to the piton. He hung the climbing kit from his hip, and touched the small box that Pietro Danielle had given him, to be sure it sat securely on his other hip.
When he stood, he found Tiklik leaning far back, three of its legs held high into the air and spread far apart. Tarkos stared at the strange sight, which might have
