We tracked her across the Falcon Arc to the jagged upthrust of granite and quartz known as the Conundrum Spire. It used to have another name, a useful name, back before the Coral Plague wiped out all the Indians, finally letting us forget there'd ever been anyone here but those brave and noble declensions of Europe. The Russians took over most of the casinos, fledgling archeologist abandoned Native American studies in droves, and local tourist boards lobbied to rename landmarks hoping to jump-start economies still suffering from the lingering stench of death.

But that was too long ago to bother with, and is relevant only as it pertains to the peyote camps and mescaline messiahs our quarry seemed to be taking refuge with.

We unpacked two cases of Mobile Reconnaissance And Containment Arrays once we hit the Spire's eastern foothills. The MoRACA hounds came three to a case, and were the size of a Jack Russell terrier when their ceramic and alloy frames were unfolded and assembled.

Each hound was slaved through satellite to the brain of a suspected terrorist held at a secret government prison in western Texas. The prisoners were themselves controlled by a mixture of chemical and electronic stimulus, not the least of which was a manual kill switch.

An early test had seen a hound go rogue when a fuse blew at the prison, taking down the main control system. A Pakistani general known for his inventive methods of interrogation used his temporary freedom to take his mount for a joyride through a suburban mall in Idaho, killing 14 people before a lab tech was able to strangle him to death with a power cable. The kill switches were installed almost before the fuse was replaced.

Tapping my headset, I opened the line to the control facility. "Sigma Station, this is Lisper, I've got six hounds ready to hunt and need a pair of riders."

"Acknowledged, Lisper, queueing up two riders."

"Hey, is Cumonde available?" I asked, trying to catch her before she finished configuring the network.

"Let me check." Then after a pause, "Controller Cumonde is available, would you like him as primary?"

"Perfect," I agreed, "thanks."