by their countenances, though, that the guards now on duty were more
interested in the fire than in their immediate vicinity, thinking, no
doubt, that the laurels were to be won there and not at Nunami, and as
such, they paid little heed to the walls, instead walking with their
necks craned precariously to the north.

We were able to jump unto the wall silently from our concealed roost on
the treeway when the nearest patrol had passed by. From there we went
along the wall a short way until we came to a battlement, there taking
the downward leading steps that brought us to the ground. Once there we
were pleased and hopeful at what we saw: everything was abandoned, and
no Zards were in sight save those on the walls, whose gaze was cast
elsewhere. We set to work, then, according to our preset plan, which was
to break up into groups of two and cover the city with our atomic
anionizers, so as to spread the destruction as evenly as possible.
Wagner and myself were partners, and we took the central district, near
the government's center, the palace, and the Temple of Time, which rose
above the city like a great tree amidst a desert. It was, in fact, the
very structure that had so stood out to me during my journey through the
prairie upon my arrival, and once again its sobering sensation struck
me, and I found myself staring up at its top, a full 800 feet high, the
bottom being an ornate and elaborate temple. The middle, which supplied
most of its height, was a long, round tower, and at top there was a
spherical pinnacle which had what looked to be a room in it.

Wagner soon called my attention back to our work, and we busied
ourselves with planting a bomb at the base of the palace, using a
smaller type anionizer, which, I noticed, was set just right so that
while all of Nunami would be leveled, the temple with its great tower
would be beyond the impact and left standing. Just as we had set it