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Then a burst of rain slammed into the canyon like a fire hose, pounding against the stone and washing loose mud and sand down in sheets like oozing paint.

"Hang on!" Louis said, and pushed Margaret close to the wall, giving her the advantage of minimal shelter. They were all drenched within moments, but the rain did not lessen. Rivulets poured through cracks in the canyon wall, leaching alkali from the stone. The air smelled thick and slippery, like soap and ashes.

"I hear something." Arcas raised his voice above the sizzling sound of sharp raindrops, like meat frying on a hot grill. "Listen. It's getting louder."

Margaret heard a crash and rumble, a splashing growl that increased in intensity. Clutching the rough cliff, she looked down to see a boiling tongue of brown water surge through the narrow canyon. The flash flood came with the force of a stampede, carrying silt and boulders like projectiles. It slammed against the lower wall, ricocheted and swirled up, licking the layered rocks.

The humans and DD were safely out of its reach, but stranded on the canyon floor below, the Klikiss robots were doomed. The three black machines had just raised their articulated arms in a pathetic attempt to defend themselves from the wall of water—before it blasted them, knocking the beetlelike machines pell-mell as it swept through the narrow canyon, picking up speed and debris. The Klikiss machines were sluggish and helpless as they tumbled away, engulfed in muddy water. Within seconds they were borne out of sight.

Before Margaret could cry out to Louis clinging beside her, DD activated his alarm systems and clamored for assistance. Part of the layered rock wall, saturated with the sudden influx of water, sheared away. Rock slabs peeled off beside him, sloughing away the compy's handhold, but DD clutched his anchored piton with one metal fist. The cliff face continued to shudder and rumble, breaking apart.

Arcas huddled in the shelter of an overhang, hoping the canyon wall would not come down on top of him. More rock fell away, swept down by small waterfalls. Margaret and Louis held each other as the avalanche continued down into the angry flash flood gurgling along the canyon floor.

The Klikiss robots were completely gone, swept away.

Finally the rocks stopped pattering, and the sky above turned into a slash of burnt orange as the smeary rain clouds passed on to dump their deluge on another portion of the desert.

Soaked and cold, Margaret and Louis eased away from the meager protection of the cliff. Arcas had already emerged, blinking and amazed. DD continued to call for help, sounding like an alarmed child as he dangled one-handed by the piton and the rope. His compy grip had locked his joints in place, so he did not let go.

Breathless, Margaret and Louis scrambled along the muddy ledges, then used the rope to pull DD back to solid ground. "I hope we can find the three robots," the compy said. "Do you think they were destroyed in the flood?"

Margaret looked down at the still-raging waters in the bottom of the canyon. "We'll have to wait and see, DD."

Arcas joined them, streaked with mud and unsettled. Margaret wiped dirt from her face. Louis looked at his wife and laughed, and she shook her head at his own bedraggled appearance. "I wouldn't be too proud of how you look right now either, old man."

Arcas, though, pointed up beyond where DD had secured his piton. Half of the cliff had fallen away, exposing an opening into chambers and grottoes in the cliff that had been covered by sandstone when they first saw it.

With renewed vigor, Margaret climbed up, grasping DD's rope. The compy offered to go first. "Please exercise caution, Margaret," he said, but she quickly hauled herself over the lip into the raw opening below the overhang that had just broken away.

"Louis, come up here!" she called, then looked back down toward the still-shaky green priest. "Arcas, remind me never to doubt you again."

Then she clambered into