Part 29 (2/2)
”Not all of them,” Net Dancer insisted.
”Enough.” The Dean suddenly cut Dancer off. ”Colonel, I agree, as soon as you can, make those mountains vanish.”
Ray turned to Lek and Mary. ”Lek, as soon as you've got the vanis.h.i.+ng box, take the shuttle north.”
”Yes, sir” and ”No, sir” greeted that order. Ray said nothing to Mary's objection.
She leaned forward into his silence. ”I was at the shuttle hangar just now. Somebody slashed every tire on it last night. We've only got two spares. The shuttle's going nowhere.”
”Who did it?”
”Sir, we got ten, fifteen thousand strangers on this base. It could have been anyone.”
”Our security patrols-” Ray started.
”Walked past it every thirty minutes last night, on schedule. None noticed it was a bit lower than usual.”
Ray leaned back in his chair, trying to adjust. Were the Provost or President already controlling people on his base? So far they never actually made anyone do anything. Which of his human enemies had decided the shuttle gave him too much power and ordered someone inside his fence to take it out?
Ray'd been trained to take a lance in the chest and keep moving. A commander had to keep moving; if he didn't, the command didn't. Should he drop the northern sally or try to make it happen some other way? He'd browbeat his allies into it. Could he walk away from it?
Down the table, the blimp pilot shuffled her papers. ”Sir, could you bring up the latest weather on that board of yours?” Ray did. ”These things rotate counterclockwise,” she said, half to herself. ”If the blimp down South doesn't get back before the winds pick up, I've ordered him to loop around the mountains and cruise up the other side. We've never been there. He's kind of jazzed on the prospects. Me, I've always wanted to ride a hurricane. We can't go north against those winds, but if you ride them south, they turn westward, then north,” she grinned.
Ray shook his head. What was it with stick and rudder people? You put a wing, s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, balloon under someone and they started thinking they were indestructible G.o.ds. ”You want to ride it all the way around?”
”The winds will tear you apart,” Mary said.
Rhynia pursed her lips. ”Not if I stay far enough out, where the winds are less than forty miles per hour, not s.h.i.+fting and ripping at a hundred twenty. h.e.l.l, I pull this off, every gas bag jockey that ever flies will know my name,” she crowed.
The Dean shook his head. ”There are some things that were never fully covered in my databases. Go ahead, make it vanish. I'll want to write a whole new one anyway after watching you.”
”It's what happens when you go to war, Dean. You never know what the human heart is good for until you ask 'em for more than they ever thought they could give. Now, folks, let's get busy.”
FOURTEEN.
JEFF SCOWLED; THEY d.a.m.n near lost the sky eye twice to stalls as they turned it around into the stiff headwind. After much cussing from Bo, Dumont's sensor boss, the mule's display came to life. Jeff and Du studied it, the sergeant's fingers flitting over the screen. ”We got a group west of us, a big one coming up from the south east of us, and one squatting in the middle. Not to mention a few cl.u.s.ters of two or four. Bo, they players or just innocent bystanders?”
”My gear says they got a human heart, not what's in it.”
”Any of them women?” Jeff asked, hoping.
”I can get you a pulse rate, son, but your guess is as good as mine as to whether it's a woman or an anxious man.” For another hour they drove the winding trail, getting a feel for the people on the mountain this dreary day. The trail got rougher, narrower, the going slower.
Finally the driver halted. ”Far as we go, boss.”
”Let's mount up, marines. It's a good day for a ride.”
”I'll stay here and relay for you,” Bo offered.
”Pack it in, old man. The higher we get, the better line you'll have on your bird and the less likely we'll have a line on this mule. Everybody out. Everybody rides.”
”Those things-can we really get up on them?” one marine asked, voice quivering. He looked more scared of a horse than of a fight. Probably been in more fights. Jeff helped him mount.
An hour later, they were over one ridge and climbing another. They rode slowly, watching for falling limbs, ready to dodge for their life. Their horses stepped carefully over downed branches. ”Blimp's coming up,” Bo called.
”Pa.s.s them our three targets. See if they can tell anything about 'em.” A red ”X” appeared on Du's map reader marking the disappearing box-in the middle of the unmoving group. ”Thought so. Let's see the imagery.” The reader zoomed the picture down. It got hazy before it showed much definition.
”Rocks,” Jeff offered. ”But we knew that.”
”I told 'em you can't see a cave from orbit,” Bo laughed.
Du enlarged the picture until it held all three groups and themselves. He frowned. ”Southern group is moving in fast. Other group coming in from the North with us is moving kind of careful.” Du worked the map through several lines of sight the stationary group would have on all of them as they closed on it.
”What are you up to?” Jeff asked.
”I'll show you in a little while” was Du's only answer.
A half hour got them up another ridge; Du called a halt. ”Bo, set up a rocket to lob a charge against that rock slab in one hour.” Du pointed out a rocky promontory that shot up solid and steep five miles across the valley from them. ”Lay down a string of monitors along this trail.”
”Whatever, boss,” Bo answered. He dismounted and got to work. Du again studied the topography map on his reader. ”We'll need to be on that ridge when the fun starts,” he told Jeff.
”What fun?” Jeff asked.
”Wait and see, buddy, wait and see.”
A hard hour's ride later, they were atop the next ridge, Right on schedule, the rocket arched across to slam into the foot of the giant rock. Jeff kept his eyes on Du's reader as echoes came in from the listening posts they'd left behind. Just as they had when Mary thumped the hill, the soundings quickly painted the inside of the mountains, showing cracks, crevices, caves. Then part of the picture went blank. Jeff looked up and swallowed a yelp. The rock ma.s.sif was gone!
”Kind of expected that,” Du drawled. Jeff reached over Du's shoulder to tap several keys on his map reader. The heartbeats of the parties they'd been following appeared. The group coming up from the South was close to the missing mountain. Jeff counted hearts and came up shy by half.
”You knew!” Jeff accused.
”I thought it might,” Du answered evenly.
”Annie, Nikki-”
”Are most likely with the other group,” Du cut him off. ”Now let's get moving, crew. I don't know when they can take their next shot, but I don't want to be here.”
Sullenly, Jeff followed Du. The man had said he was tired of being the Colonel's killing dog, but he was playing fast and loose with Annie's life. Jeff ought to...ought to...There was nothing Jeff could do.
Ten minutes later, Dumont dropped back to ride beside Jeff. ”Look, I'm sorry about back there, but I have to know what's up ahead, and all our s.h.i.+t isn't telling me hear enough. I'm almost certain Annie's safe, but I got to do everything I can to keep my crew here safe. They've saved my a.s.s too many times. You understand.”
”No, I don't,” Jeff answered, then thought more on it. ”Maybe I do, but I'm not sure I want to.”
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