Part 29 (1/2)
”Understood, sir. But we'll get 'em first.”
Yes, Jeff whispered to himself, now we get the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who have Annie. Dear G.o.d, let her be safe.
”Up, s.l.u.t!” the voice shouted as a foot took Annie in the ribs. ”All of you, to the horses. We've got work to do.” Annie shook Nikki awake; sleeping was all they could do in this stinking barn. It seemed forever that they'd been here.
”About time,” ”What took you so long?,” and ”Where are those d.a.m.n greens?” were the greetings Pretty Boy's words brought from his thugs. Annie stood, waited patiently for someone to tell her what they wanted her and Nikki to do.
”Some old b.i.t.c.h in that stinking mudhole finally decided to take Vicky's copper,” Pretty Boy bragged. ”Told on her own son. He doesn't know he'll be leading us in tonight.” That brought laughs that held no humor.
”b.i.t.c.h must have believed the weather report” drew more derisive laughter. Annie wondered; she'd heard the talk of four monster hurricanes headed at them out of season. Everyone here scorned the story. Annie trusted what Jeff had told her about the super computers the Colonel was fighting.
”Maybe the b.i.t.c.h wasn't so dumb. I talked to Miss Vicky while I was in town. She believes that story enough to evacuate Richland. She definitely wants the box. Wants to be there when the starbase disappears.”
”Can we get more money?” the woman asked. Annie tried to shrink into the shadows. The men talked bad; the woman was bad.
”She doubled her offer if we get the box to her in the next three days.” That brought joy all around.
”She'll triple that when we have the box,” the woman said with a soft smile. Annie tried to suppress a s.h.i.+ver, to hold perfectly still and stay unnoticed. The look in the woman's eyes...Annie didn't want that focused on her or Nikki.
The men saddled horses, checked air rifles, got supplies. The woman came over to Annie, a knife in her hand. ”When we find them, you'll do what I tell you or die worse than the woman at the house. You understand me, you two mud s.l.u.ts?”
”Yes,” Annie stammered, keeping her hands folded, covering her wallet. For all this time, she'd seen no chance to escape. She'd held Dumont's pistol and not used it. Today she'd find a way. Today she'd use it.
But not now. Not here, where there was no way out. She might kill the woman, but the men would get her. That was the counsel of despair, the old priest said in his sermons. No child of grace need taste despair, no matter what happened. Annie wondered if any child of grace had ever been in as big a mess as this. Somehow she doubted it.
Ray dropped by Lek's shop. The old man was shaking his head. ”That was one h.e.l.l of an experience, Colonel.”
”Tell me about it later. Lek, you remember that rock in the cave I had you look at the day after Mary ran her first ore tap?”
”Yep.”
”I read your report on it. No activity of any sort, you said then. What do you think now?”
”d.a.m.n, sir, it could be pudding pie, for all I know.”
”Bring it in here. Then you and Net Dancer go over it, see if you can make it active again.”
”Sir, that AI is gonna be a busy little routine for the next couple of hours, working what we loaded on the blimp.”
”Can't be too much of it there. How much bandwidth can our radio carry?” Ray frowned.
”Seems so, boss, but I don't think those things are as big as we think they are. I mean, they're big, but not like we think of as big. I don't know.” Lek took his hat off, wiped his forehead. ”I tried to get it to explain what it was doing. It laughed. I've never had a computer laugh at me. Said it would be easier for me to explain my network to some naked savage just hacking the first spear point out of flint than it would be for it to explain what it was doing. And you know, boss?” Ray nodded into Lek's pregnant pause. ”I believe it. d.a.m.ned if I don't. I don't know about bringing that thing home. Before I talked to it, I thought it would be great, what it could do, what schooling our kids could get. Now, I don't mind saying I'm spooked. That puppy is spooky s.h.i.+t.”
Ray didn't blink. ”Take part of Net Dancer out there when you get the stone. Can't risk damaging it accidently. Maybe he can tell you how to cut it loose.” Ray finished what he intended to say. He'd heard Lek's worry. Someday he'd think it through, but not now. Right now, he had four megahurricanes headed his way and needed every trick he could get his hands on to stop them. After that, he'd think this through. a.s.suming there was anything after, after that.
Ray had been in some weird staff meetings in his time. Today set a record he hoped never to break. Kat and Doc represented normal; Lek sat like a stone statue, just back with the rock. The padre represented the locals. Blimp pilot Rhynia Loramor had a pile of weather maps in front of her; Harry flipped through papers. Mary was late; Ray would start without her. The humans congregated around the right side of Ray's battle board, casting uncomfortable glances at what stood on the left side.
There was the Dean and his twelve; Net Dancer had arranged it so all of them could access the local net. That might be another reason why Lek was so quiet; his net was totally compromised. Ray considered his options and decided to be glad Net Dancer had changed sides. Each of the dozen images that sporadically haunted Ray's dreams now was a holograph, thirty centimeters tall, standing along the edge of the battle board, staring at the map Ray projected on it of South and North Continent. Most were in tweed jackets, their attempt at battle dress past. Net Dancer-or at least as much of him as wasn't tied up on the blimp-wore a white lab coat complete with the ancient and required pocket protector of the technonerd.
”I'm isolating us from the two main protagonists. Are the rest of you here?” Ray began, making a circle around the table.
Mary came in, worry dripping with the rain from her face. ”Colonel, we've got a problem.”
”Later, Captain; I've got an agenda, and we're sticking to it.” Mary frowned, but settled into a chair.
Ray went on. ”Are the twelve of you in here yet?”
”Yes.” The board turned brown around the base as the Dean walked across it. ”Though I don't know what good it will do. The P and P can follow us anytime they want.”
”They can, but we can make it hard on them. Net Dancer, what's the main avenue of approach to the base?”
”The line left by the Gardener. It runs up this railroad bed, then follows this road.” The mentioned line lit up in red. ”Your farmers don't mess around with roads, so I guess the Gardener found them the safest routes to use.”
”We'll cut it. Harry?”
”It's mainly farmland. This route looks the most likely to me, too. What do you want done?”
”Since you fellows are inside,” Ray said, glancing at the Dean, ”we blow it. In several places. Long, deep gashes that'll take some repairing. Harry, take out a team of marines as soon as we're done. Captain, can you spare Ca.s.sie?”
”Yes, sir.” Mary came out of what was bothering her long enough to start calling orders into her commlink.
That settled, Ray moved to his second item. ”Right now the Pres and Provost can draw on their northern a.s.sets. I propose we eliminate them, cut them off from the North as they cut you off.”
Net Dancer shook his head. ”There may be just one good path into this out-of-the-way mudhole, but there are hundreds to North Continent.”
”We eliminate North,” Ray said simply. That got everyone's attention. ”These are the mountains that serve as their main power base.” Ray circled the pink and blue areas of the map, elevated them into topo relief. The Dean nodded. ”We make them go away as soon as we have our hands on the vanis.h.i.+ng box.”
”You can't do that” came from several of the tiny images...and Mary.
Ray waved Mary to silence and faced his allies. ”This is war. We enforce our will upon the enemy or, failing that, destroy him. The President and Provost depend on these for their strength. To enforce our will, these have to go. If we have to kill the President and Provost, these go.”
”But, but,” the Dean sputtered, ”those were our nodes, too. You destroy them and we'll be forever rebuilding ourselves.”
”You don't have them now,” Ray said.
”But we'll get them back.”
”Not the way things are going. You were losing last time we talked. If things keep going the way they are, you will lose. There won't be any *you' left to reoccupy those nodes.” These folks really didn't know war. You don't win one cheap.
”But if you destroy them, you'll destroy us?”
That stopped Ray in his tracks. ”I don't understand.”
Net Dancer was the one who stepped forward to look up at Ray with tiny, earnest eyes. ”We are here. Our decision-making processes are here. So much of what we know, have done, recall, is there, stored in networks under those mountains. We brought what we needed to survive. But to do more, to really live, we need those rich memories.”
”But I see what the Colonel is talking about,” the Dean said, coming forward. ”For us, those are memories. For P & P, those are sources of new nanos, planning, and power. They are reviewing what happens down here, learning what works and doesn't work. Up there, they are learning how to win this war. What we face here are only their long arms and fingers, so to speak. I know it will be hard if the Colonel wipes out those nodes, but we do have backups scattered around. We could rebuild ourselves.”