"Lexy won"t take chances with Tim along," said the girl who had whistled. Amanda was vainly searching her memory for this one"s name. Sometimes when they shot up suddenly, she lost track of who they were; and the tall girl was already effectively an adult.
"How about it, Tim?" Amanda asked the boy. Tim hesitated.
"He gets scared," a very young voice volunteered.
"No, he doesn"t!" Lexy turned on the crowd. "He"s cautious, that"s all."
"No," said Tim, unexpectedly. "I do get scared. But with Lexy I can do anything you want."
He looked openly at Amanda.
Amanda looked at Ramon.
"I can"t add anything," he said, shaking his head. "Lexy"s good, and Tim"s pretty good- and they work well together."
His eyes settled on Amanda"s suddenly.
"But do you have to have someone from one of the teams?"
"Who else is there?"
"One of the older ones, then..." his voice trailed off. Amanda looked back at the faces ringed about.
"Team?" she asked.
There was a moment of almost awkward silence and then the girl who had whistled- Leah Abo, the name suddenly leaped into existence in Amanda"s mind-spoke.
"Any of us"ll go," she said. "But Lexy"s the best."
"That"s it, then," said Amanda. She put the power to her skimmer, and lifted it off the ground. "Lexy, Tim-I"ll meet you after dark tonight, just behind the closest ridge above the meadow north of town. All of you-be careful. Don"t let the patrols see you. And get those runners out as fast as you can."
She left them, the circle parted and she hummed up and over the ridge. Foralie homestead lay on a small level s.p.a.ce a couple of hundred meters beyond her, on a rise that commanded a clear view in all directions as far as the town itself.
Behind the long, low, timbered house there, she could see the oversize jungle gym that Cletus had, caused to be constructed at Grahame-House and then moved here, after his marriage to Melissa. It had been a device to help him build himself back physically after his knee operation, and there was no reason for it to evoke any particular feeling in her.
But now, seeing its spidery and intricate structure casting its shadow on the roof of the long, plain-timbered house beneath it, she suddenly felt-almost as if she touched the cold metal of it with her hand-the hard, intricately woven realities that would be bringing Dow and Cletus to their final meeting beneath that shadow.
She slid the skimmer down to the house. Melissa, with the tall, gray-mustached figure of Eachan Khan beside her, came out of the front door; and they were standing, waiting for her as she brought the skimmer up to them and dropped it to the ground.
"Betta"s fine, Amanda," said Melissa. "Still waiting. "What"s going on?"
"The occupation troops are down in Foralie Town."
"We know," said Eachan Khan, in his brief, clipped British-accented speech. "Watched them drop in, using the scope on our roof."
"They"ve got Dow deCastries with them," Amanda said, getting down from the skimmer.
He"s after Cletus, of course. He plans to come up here to Foralie right away. He may be right behind me-"
The ground under her feet seemed to rock suddenly. She found Eachan Khan holding her up.
"Amanda!" said Melissa, supporting her on the other side. "When did you eat last?"
"I don"t rememb..." she found the words had difficulty corning out. Her knees trembled, and she felt close to fainting. A distant fury filled her. This was the aspect of her age that she resented most deeply. Rested and nourished, she could face down a de-Castries. But let any unusual time pa.s.s without food and rest and she became just another frail oldster.
Her next awareness was of being propped up on a couch in the Foralie sitting room, with a pillow behind her back Melissa was helping her sip hot, sweet tea with the fiery taste of Dorsai whisky in it. Her head began to clear. By the time the cup was empty, there was a plate of neatly cut sandwiches made by Eachan Khan, on the coffee table beside her. She had forgotten how delicious sandwiches could be.
"What"s the rest of the news, then?" Eachan asked, when she had eaten. "What happened to you today?"
She told them.
"... I must admit, Eachan," she said, as she wound tip, looking at the stiff-backed ex- general, "I wasn"t too pleased about Cletus asking you to sit on your hands, here-and even less pleased with you for agreeing. But I think I understand it better since I met deCastries, himself. If any one of them"s likely to suspect how we might defend ourselves, it"ll be him, not those officers with him. And the one thing that"ll go farther to keep him from starting to suspect anything, will be finding you puttering around here, keeping house right under his nose while he waits for Cletus. He knows your military reputation."
"Wouldn"t call it puttering," said Eachan. "But you"re right. Cletus does have a tendency to think around corners."
"Let alone the fact-" Amanda held his eye with her own, "that if something happens to me, you"ll still be here to take over."
"Depends on circ.u.mstance."
"Nonetheless," said Amanda.
"Of course," Eachan said. "Naturally, if I"m free -and needed-I"d be available."
"Yes-" Amanda broke off suddenly. "But I"ve got to get out of here!"
She sat up abruptly on the couch, swinging her feet to the floor.
"DeCastries and his escort are probably right behind me. I"d just planned to drop by and brief you-"
She got to her feet, but lightheadedness took her again at the sudden movement and she sat down again, unexpectedly.
"Amanda, be sensible. You can"t go anywhere until you"ve rested for a few hours," said Melissa.
"I tell you, deCastries-"
"Said he"d be up here yet today? I don"t think so," said Eachan.
She turned, almost to glare at him.
"What makes you so sure?"
"Because he"s no soldier. Bright of course-Lord yes, he"s bright. But he"s not a soldier.
That means he"s in the hands of those officers of his. Earth-bound types, still thinking in terms of large-unit movements. They might get patrols out, late in the day, but they won"t get Dow off."
"What if he simply orders them to get him off?" Amanda demanded.
"They"ll promise him, of course, but somehow everybody won"t be together, the vehicles won"t be set, with everything harnessed up and ready to go, before sundown; and even Dow"ll see the sense of not striking out into unfamiliar territory with night coming on."
"How can you be that sure?" Melissa asked her father.
"That brigadier"s got his own future to think of. Better to have Dow down on him over not getting off on time than to send someone like Dow out and turn out to be the officer who lost him. The day"s more than half over. If Dow and his escort get bogged down for even a few hours by some hairbrained locals fighting back-that"s the way the brigadier"ll be thinking- they could end up being caught out, unable to move, in the open at dark Strange country, nighttime, and an open perimeter"s chancy with a prize political package like Dow. No, no-he won"t be here until tomorrow at the earliest."
Eachan c.o.c.ked an eye on Amanda.
"But if you like," he said, "Melly and I"ll take turns on the scope up on the roof. If anything moves out of Foralie we can see it; and by the time we"re sure it"s definitely moving in this direction, we"ll still have two hours before it can get here at column speed.
Take a nap, Amanda. We"ll call you if you need to move."
Amanda gave in. Stretched out on a large bed in one of the wide, airy bedrooms of Foralie, the curtains drawn against the sunlight, she fell into a heavy sleep from which she roused, it seemed, within minutes.
But, blinking the numbness of slumber from her vision, she saw that beyond the closed curtains there was now darkness, and the room around her was plunged in a deeper gloom that that of curtained daylight.
"What time is it?" she called out, throwing back the single blanket with which she had been covered. No answer came. She sat on the edge of the bed, summoning herself to awareness, then got to her feet and let herself out into the hall, where artificial lights were lit.
"What time is it?" she repeated, coming into the kitchen. Both Eachan Khan and Melissa looked up from the table there, and Melissa got to her feet.
"Two hours after sunset," she answered. But Amanda had already focused on the wall clock across the room, which displayed the figure 21:10. "Sit down, Amanda. You"ll want some tea."
"No," said Amanda. "I "was supposed to meet two of the youngsters from the local team just above Foralie Town before sunset-"
"We know," said Eachan. "We had a runner from that team when they saw you didn"t leave here. The two you"re talking about went, and Ramon went with them. He knows what you want in the way of information."
"I"ve got to get down there, to meet them."
"Amanda-sit!" said Melissa from the kitchen unit. "Tea"ll be ready for you in a second."
"I don"t want any tea," said Amanda.
"Of course you do," said Melissa.
Of course, she did. It was another of her weaknesses of age. She could almost taste the tea in antic.i.p.ation, and her sleep-heavy body yearned for the internal warmth that would help it wake up. She sat down at the table opposite Eachan.
"fine watch you keep," she said to him.
"Nothing came from Foralie Town in this direction before sunset," he said. "They"re not starting out with Dow in the dark, as I said. So I came back inside, of course. You could stay the night, if you want."
"No, I"ve got to get there; and I"ve a lot of ground to cover-" she broke off as Melissa placed a steaming cup before her. "Thanks, Melissa."
"But why don"t you stay the night?" Melissa asked, sitting back down at the table, herself "Betta"s already asleep, but you could see her in the morning _".
"No. I"ve got to go." Melissa looked at her father. "Dad?"
"No," said Eachan, "I think perhaps she"s right. But will you come back for the night, afterwards, Amanda?"
"No. I don"t know where I"ll light."
"If you change your mind," said Melissa. "Just come to the door and ring. But I don"t have to tell you that."
Amanda left Foralie homestead half an hour later. The moon, which had been full the night before, was just past full, but scattered clouds cut down the brilliant night illumination she had woken to early that morning. She made good time on the skimmer toward the ridge where she had arranged to meet Lexy and Tim. A hundred meters or so behind it, she found Ramon"s skimmer, empty, and dropped her own beside it. No one was in sight. Ramon could not walk upright without his prosthetics, but he could creep- and-crawl as well as any other adult. Amanda was about to work her way up to the ridge, herself staying low so that any instruments in the cantonment below would not discover her, when a rustle in the shadows warned her of people returning. A few moments later, Ramon, Lexy and Tim all rose from the ground at arms-length from her.
"Sorry," said Amanda, "I should have been here earlier."
"It wasn"t necessary," said Ramon. His powerful arms hauled him up on to his own skimmer and he sat upright there.
"Yes, it was," said Amanda. "You didn"t let these two go in until things were shut down-"
"They didn"t go down until full dark," said Ramon. "Not until the last of the patrols had left and the manufactory was shut down. The townsfolk were all inside and the troops were all in their cantonment area. Tim stayed beyond the perimeter there and Lexy went up to just outside the outer line of huts, close enough so she could hear them talking, but with plenty of room to leave if she needed to."
Amanda transferred her attention to Lexy.
"What were they talking about?"
"Usual stuff," said Lexy. "The officers, and the equipment, how long they"d be here before they"d ship off again. Regular soldier off-duty talk"
"Did they talk about when deCastries would be leaving for Foralie?"
"First thing in the morning. They"d stalled about getting ready, so he couldn"t get off today," said Lexy. "They don"t think much of those of our people who"re left here; but still none of them I heard talking felt much like starting out with night coming on."
"What do they think of their officers?"
"Nothing great. There"s a major they all like, but he"s not on the general"s staff. They really draw the line between enlisted and officer."
"Now, you see for yourself, how that is with Old World troops," commented Ramon to the two young ones.
"It"s a pretty stupid way for them to be, all the same, out here in hostile territory," said Lexy. "But they"ve got a good pool of light vehicles. No armor. Vehicle-mounted light weapons and handweapons. I could have brought you one of their cone rifles-"
"Oh, could you?"
There was a little silence in the darkness, that betrayed Lexy"s recognition of her slip of the tongue.
"The whole line of huts was empty. All I did was look in the last one in the line," said Lexy. "These Earth troops-they"re worse than elephants. I could have gone in and picked their pockets and got out without their knowing about it."
The moon came from behind a cloud that had been hiding it, and in the pale light Amanda could see Lexy"s face... tightmouthed.
"Ramon," said Amanda. "Didn"t you tell them specifically not to go into the cantonment area?"
"I"m sorry, Amanda," said Ramon. "I didn"t. Not specifically."
"Lexy, under no conditions, now or in the future, do you or anyone else go beyond the outer line of huts." Exasperation took her suddenly. "And don"t bristle! If you have to resent an order, try to keep the fact to yourself."
Another cloud obscured the moon. Lexy"s voice came unexpectedly out of the darkness.
"Why?"
"For one reason, because an hour later you may wish you had. For another, learn never to challenge automatically. No one"s that good. Sit on your impulse until you know everything that"s likely to happen when you act on it."
Silence out of the darkness. Amanda wondered whether Lexy was filing the information she had just received in the automatic discard file of her mind, or -just possibly- tucking it away for future reference.