Part 8 (2/2)
”You have me stopped, Jules,” Mordkovitz was replying. ”I know a lot of rich geeks have receiving sets, but no sending sets.”
The pattern that had been tantalizing von Schlichten took visible shape in his mind. For a moment, he shelved the matter of the _Aldebaran_.
”They didn't need sending equipment, Barney,” he said. ”They used ours. Sid Harrington was poisoned in Konkrook. The news, of course, was sent out at once, as the geeks knew it would be, to every residency and trading-station on Ullr, and that was the signal they'd agreed upon, probably months in advance!”
”Well, what was our Intelligence doing; sleeping?” Keaveney demanded angrily.
”No; they were writing reports for your civil administration blokes to stuff in the wastebasket, and being called mailed-fist-and-rattling-sabre alarmists for their pains.” He turned away from Keaveney. ”Barney, where is Dirk Prinsloo?”
”Aboard his s.h.i.+p. He hitched a ride to the airport with Jarman, when he was here picking up air-crews.”
”Call him. Tell him to take the _Aldebaran_ to Kankad's Town, at once; as soon as he arrives there, which ought to be about 1100, he's to pick up all the Kragans he can pack aboard and take them to Konkrook.
From then on, he'll be under Them M'zangwe's orders.”
”To Konkrook?” Keaveney fairly howled. ”Are you nuts? Don't you think we need reenforcements here, too?”
”Yes, I do. I'm going to try to get them,” von Schlichten told him.
”Now pipe down and get out of people's way.”
He crossed the room, to where two Kragans, a male sergeant, and the ubiquitous girl in the orange sweater were struggling to get a big circular TV-screen up, then turned to look at the situation-map. A girl tech-sergeant was keeping Paula Quinton and Mrs. Jules Keaveney informed.
”Start pus.h.i.+ng geeks out of the Fifth Zirk Cavalry barracks,” the sergeant was saying. ”The one at the north end, and the one next to it; they're both on fire, now.” She tossed a slip into the wastebasket beside her and glanced at the next slip. ”And more pink pills back of the barracks and stables, and move them a little to the north-west; Kragans as skirmishers, to intercept geeks trying to slip away from the cavalry barracks.”
A young Kragan with his lower left arm in a sling and a daub of antiseptic plaster over the back of his head came up and gave him a radioprint slip. Guido Karamessinis, the Resident-Agent at Grank, had reported, at last. The city, he said, was quiet, but King Yoorkerk's troops had seized the Company airport and docks, taken the _Procyon_ and the _Northern Lights_ and put guards aboard them, and were surrounding the Residency. He wanted to know what to do.
Von Schlichten managed to get him on the screen, after awhile.
”It looks as though Yoorkerk's trying to play both sides at once,” he told the Grank Resident. ”If the rebellion's put down, he'll come forward as your friend and protector; if we're wiped out elsewhere, he'll yell '_Znidd suddabit!_' and swamp you. Don't antagonize him; we can't afford to fight this war on any more fronts than we are now.
We'll try to do something to get you unfrozen, before long.”
He called Krink again. A girl with red-gold hair and a dusting of freckles across her nose answered.
”How are you making out?” he asked.
”So far, fine, general. We're in complete control of the Company area, and all our native-troops, not just the Kragans, are with us.
Jonkvank's pushed the mutineers out of his palace, and we're keeping open a couple of streets between there and here. We airlifted all our Kragans and half the Sixth N.U.N.I. to the Palace, and we have the Zirks patrolling the streets on 'saur-back. Now, we have our lorries and troop-carriers out picking up elements of Jonkvank's loyal troops outside town.”
”Who's doing the rioting, then?”
She named three of Jonkvank's regiments. ”And the city hoodlums, and priests from the temples of one sect that followed Rakkeed, and the whole pa.s.sel of Skilkan fifth columnists.”
”How long do you think it'd take, with the equipment you have, to airlift all of Jonkvank's loyal troops into the city?”
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