Checking through the arrow slits reveals quite a few shocktroopers outside, fifty or more in the clearing, having apparently parachuted in and had time to organise themselves: they’ve clearly settled in for a long wait, and they’ve got three light machine guns set up and pointed towards the door. Wu Han is present; he and an officer are having a heated discussion.

David checks the unconscious cyberknight, and connects to his personal network via cyberdeck (his name’s Reynard St Jacques, apparently). He doesn’t try to get into the man’s brain, but can at least enumerate devices: a radio, and a set of leg enhancements.

Heaving the cyberknight’s unconscious body to an arrow-slit, he tries for other devices operating on Cyberpapal frequencies nearby. There’s a vehicle a couple of hundred yards away; asking for its capabilities reveals that it’s a one-man powered hang-glider, currently concealed under vegetation. It does have a self-destruct charge, which might be useful.

The shocktroopers outside seem content to wait, and some discussion ensues. They wait for nightfall; the shocktroopers have some torches, but apparently no big searchlights or similar kit. Stephen wears the cyberknight’s outer clothing (reasonably sensible jungle gear, though with high-tech fabrics), while David wears the headdress from one of the dead shocktroopers so as to try to pass for one in the dark. He fires the captured pistol a few times, to get the shocktroopers’ and Wu Han’s attention. A minute or two later, Stephen calls from the arrow-slits (in deliberately accented Arabic) with an offer to negotiate: he will hand over the tiles, he says, keeping his pictures of them, if he’s allowed to go free.

Wu Han is at least intrigued, and willing to meet this cyberknight outside the temple. Stephen rolls the stone back enough for one person at a time to get out, then comes out, with Thorfin held at gunpoint in front of him carrying a box with grenades strapped to it. Diamond slips out immediately behind them, heading directly upwards. Wu Han orders that the cyberknight show him the tiles; Thorfin puts up a reality bubble, hoping to stop Wu Han’s personal force field from working. Wu Han retaliates, and a reality storm is initiated.

The shocktroopers, not being entirely foolish, scatter, except for those who are caught in the storm and drained of possibilities. Diamond, from her hidden position, shoots the three machine-gun teams and the shocktrooper officer; David starts to sneak along the cliff face. Inside the storm, Thorfin faces a vastly superior manipulator of reality: but Stephen calmly and collectedly knifes Wu Han in the back, maximising injury as the force field is compromised by warring realities. Compromised by this distraction, Wu Han loses concentration, and Thorfin is able to prevail; Wu Han transforms into the form of an evil wizard, before falling to the ground apparently dead as the storm dies down (though natural wind and rain continue). Stephen makes sure of this by cutting his throat.

The surviving shocktroopers have scattered into the jungle, at least for now. Wu Han doesn’t have much on him; some nasty-looking jewellery is most of it, including a ornate ring with sharp edges, and it’s packed away in the box. Wu Han’s head and body are buried separately, and the team decides to bury the dead shocktroopers too; there’s some movement out in the jungle, but the shocktroopers appear to be having too much trouble with the local wildlife to rally for an attack.

The team moves away and spends the night up trees.