He finished work on the deadfall and began to pull it back up into the treetops that formed a canopy over the trail. What had originally been a heavy but relatively harmless ball of mud was now something more akin to the spiked head of a medieval war club. It was rigged so that an encounter with the vine holding it aloft would send the barbed ball plunging down parallel with the trail and hopefully impale one or more people along its deadly path.
Just as he was re-tying the tripwire over the trail he heard footsteps at his rear and turned to see a greenish glow bobbing in the dark. Ten seconds later, Sgt. Jubal Mariano appeared on the trail leading Lt. Felodon toward the spot where Shake waited to keep them from running into his tripwire. Mariano had his blank-adapted weapon slung across
