Mara Force Hearing

The doorway led into a guard foyer with a pair of reinforced hardpoint firing positions flanking the foyer's only other door. The hardpoints were simple half cylin-ders, a meter in diameter and two meters tall, with their curved sides pointed toward the main door. Each had two slits—one at eye level for observation and one waist-high, for firing-and was big enough to provide cover for two guards at a time. A single person, crouched out of sight beneath the firing slit, would be in perfect position to launch an ambush on someone heading for the door into the safe room proper.

But Mara's Force-enhanced hearing could detect no surreptitious breathing. The guard foyer was empty.