Part 35 (1/2)
”How bad is it?” was Mary's opener.
”The good news is our DNA is safe, but the d.a.m.n computer has developed a taste for us,” Ray answered, then filled her in.
Mary listened to the list of casualties: Rhynia, whom she'd brought in, Zed, Harry, Ned. The woman who'd gleefully run the mines and the base flicked painfully in her eyes before the cold face of the line animal who held the pa.s.s against Ray settled into the seams of her mouth, the squint of her eyes. ”The Pres and Provo are still fighting between themselves. That's good,” the marine officer muttered. ”Do I get this right? The Dean told us the highest-priority target was number twelve, not number one. Dancer set us right.”
”You got it.”
”d.a.m.n! The Dean lied to us.”
”My feelings exactly. Dancer and Lek are turning into quite a team. At least we can trust one computer.”
”You sure they ain't human, Colonel? Or does stabbing folks in the back just automatically come with intelligence, artificial or otherwise?”
Ray shrugged at that question. ”Lek and Dancer are looking into that nano thing Jeff reported. When the Provost goes down, I don't want that data in the victor's hands, files, whatever.” Mary nodded, eyes on the wall, its patrols. ”You need any help out here?” Ray asked. ”I'm counting on you to keep them off my back when I play my last card.”
”We'll hold them, sir. Just hold my hand when it's all over if I had to give the order to slaughter civilians.”
Ray had no good response to that. ”They haven't tried to come over the wall so far. Maybe they won't. I think today, tonight, tomorrow will decide it for us. If we haven't done it by then, I don't know what will happen.”
The day pa.s.sed quickly for Kat. Shoot and scoot, shoot and scoot. That was the way the artillery did it. That was the way she did it. 'Course, it would be a lot easier to scoot if she had some nice rig to drive, like the artillery pukes did.
The copilot hacked down a sapling; they slung the box from it and kept it in the sun, taking turns lugging the thing. The tough part was staying to riverbeds. Most were dry and sandy. Kat had spent some fun time at the beach; running through the sand was fun if you had a cute guy chasing you. Walking through it hour after hour left even good ankles aching and did nothing for a sprain.
Then, of course, there was the change in the weather.
Kat checked the feed from the weather satellites every time they lit off the box. By noon it was clear the high around these mountains was breaking up. What that would do to the line of hurricanes out there was a coin toss. Fifty-fifty chance any one of them would turn right and head for their hills. There were a lot of things about this job they didn't tell her when she was fighting to get it. Probably things they hadn't thought about themselves. Well, girl, you wanted excitement.
They plodded up the riverbed, putting one foot down after another. It reminded her of a movie she'd seen, an old war holo dragged out as they went through the countdown to the last war. Some old Earth fighting group. They had a motto: ”March or Die.”
Kat marched. And remembered why she joined the navy.
The hurricane was in full blow, only slightly weakened by Jeff and company being a hundred miles inland. The three of them tried to stay to high ground, working their way along ridges, but you had to come down from one to get to another. By common consent they were heading south, toward the railroad bed that aimed straight at the starbase. When the Pres moved against the Colonel, a lot of the computer would take the direct path.
They planned on making a mess of that path.
Mary climbed to the roof of the factory. Half of Du's squad was camped here, the other half on the hangar. Du had pitched a tent up here; kids brought them their meals. Du saved his team a lot of running around. He also had five sharpshooters up there twenty-four hours a day. Sneaky son of a b.i.t.c.h.
On the roof, a single marine stood guard, walking the roof, huddled in her poncho. Mary found the other four flaked out in the tent. She nudged Du. He came awake, grabbing for his rifle. Like the others, he was sleeping with his weapon.
”Oh, just you,” Du said, fully awake.
”You get any sleep?”
”A little. What's up?” Mary filled him in on the reports from Kat and Jeff. ”You pick a fight with computers, you can't expect them to stay dumb,” was all Du had to say when she was done. ”Sorry about Zed, Harry, Ned. I kind of liked 'em.”
In reflective silence, the two walked to a corner. From there, they had a good view of the wall and the crowd outside. ”We're picking up a rumor from outside that they expect us to open up, take them all in. Have a feast waiting for them.”
”Are we.” Du almost made it a question.
”You saw the size of the meals we're getting. There's no way we can. Don't you think I would if I could?”
Du rested a hand on Mary's shoulder. ”Not easy, is it?”
”d.a.m.n it, Du, you and I, we've been on the outside looking in. Wis.h.i.+ng for a chance and getting s.h.i.+t. I look out there and I see me. How can I shoot them?”
”Because, when they come at us, Mary, they won't look at all like us. They'll be enraged and crazy, and it'll be all we can do to keep from hating them.”
”If only I could figure out a way to keep 'em quiet.”
Du rubbed his chin. He was past due for a shave. But the Colonel wasn't likely to come up here. ”Has anyone told them we wiped out the weather what's-it? You got a reader handy? What's the forecast look like?”
Mary pulled one from her pants pocket, opened it. The sixteen hundred update was just coming on line. The high up North that had been aiming the weather at them like a rifle was breaking up. Part was being sucked down behind the storm that was dumping weather on them now. Hurricane two was edging to the south while still offsh.o.r.e. Number three was headed north. Four was stalled. ”We got to get this news outside the fence p.r.o.nto,” Mary said. ”The old priest, he'll know how.”
Mary headed down the stairs like a falling angel. Kat did it! She'd scrambled the weather. Now, as soon as they got a blimp repressurized, they could get help to Kat. Mary paused at a landing. No, they couldn't. No blimp for Kat while she's in a hurricane herself. Still, things were changing. Mary picked up steam again on the stairs. Things were changing.
She found the padre leaving Ray's conference room. ”Father, have you seen the new weather forecast?” She didn't wait for an answer, just jammed her reader under his nose. ”They're breaking up. It looks like Refuge and Richland won't be underwater.”
”That's good. I guess I can tell people they can go home.”
The priest was not reacting quite the way Mary expected. ”Something wrong?”
”Talk to your Colonel,” he answered and slipped away.
Mary entered the conference room. Ray had his computer allies arrayed around the map. ”So, the Provost is history,” Ray observed dryly. ”You don't look like you're celebrating.”
”The Pres is not, ah...” The Dean sputtered to a halt.
”Not talking to you,” Ray finished for him.
”Not one peep,” Dancer put in irreverently. ”And it's not like they haven't been trying, is it, boys and girls?”
The computer images stuffed their hands in their pockets and didn't look Ray in the eye. He tapped his commlink. ”Kat, the Provost is down, much thanks to you. Have you got a shot left to take before sunset?”
”About fifteen minutes from now, sir.”
”What'd hurt the Pres most?” Ray asked the Dean.
The Dean fidgeted. ”It appears you are aware some of our information was not as accurate as it could have been.”
”b.l.o.o.d.y d.a.m.n lies,” Dancer spat in pure Lek rhythm.
Ray looked hard at the Dean, letting him hang. ”No, it wasn't,” Ray said finally. ”Why?”
The Dean glanced at his a.s.sociates; Dancer gave him the finger. The Dean turned back to Ray. ”The memory impressing system shared a location with much of our-we twelve's-extended data storage. When it vanished, so did much of our unique recollections. I know we should have had them in other locations, but, over time, many were lost and we didn't bother making other arrangements.”
”You've been lazy for a million years,” Ray offered.
”Too true,” the Dean agreed.
”What node on the mainland can we vanish that would most hurt the Pres? I don't care what's near it, with it. I need to hurt the President bad in the next fifteen minutes.”