Part 35 (2/2)
The eleven went into a huddle. One held back for a moment. ”Why don't you just ask him?” Net Dancer bowed sardonically at the recognition.
”Because I think you still want to ally with us. But I need some evidence of that,” Ray said. ”I'm still waiting.”
The eleven huddled for a long five minutes. When the Dean came forward, he highlighted a mountain. ”It's your target number nine. It contains a major processing center as well as data storage and energy. He'll need it to acquire the Provost's existing a.s.sets. You destroy it, you'll keep him from getting any advantages from his victory and slow down his ability to correlate present happenings with alternate options.”
”Dancer?” Ray said.
”A judgment call. Depends on how much you don't want him integrating the Prov verses generating new ideas.”
”Thanks for the clarification, Dancer. I'll go with their choice. Kat, hit target nine.”
”Nine, you say. Wait one.” Kat was back in fifteen seconds. ”Got the beggar. Pardon me, boss, but we got to beat feet.”
”Your team's done good, Kat. You've had to be predictable today. Do something surprising tonight.”
”Plan to, Colonel. I'll call in when the sun's up tomorrow.”
Ray punched off; he eyed the images. ”You know the Pres wants to return to the good old days. One computer intellect.”
”We do now,” the Dean agreed. ”We thought we could settle this, find a compromise. Guess not.”
”Definitely not.” Ray let that sink in.
”If we want to keep being who we are, we have no choice.”
”It's so nice to see such enthusiasm, Dean,” Ray rumbled. ”Now, concentrate on your defensive line. Let me know when the Pres starts probing you. I'll call you back in an hour.” They left. Dancer stayed.
”What are you and Lek up to?” Ray asked.
”I want to see what the big boy is doing about salvaging the Prov's carcase. I know about the guys you lost to the nanos. I'm looking at chasing that line, making sure the Pres don't.”
”I'd appreciate that. Machines eating humans, humans eating machines leave a bad impression in a lot of minds.”
The Dancer actually chuckled. ”I'll be inside the Pres's matrix for a while, so I'd appreciate it if you'd let Lek know before Jeff starts cutting lines.” And he vanished quite away.
”I will,” Ray said, then glanced up. ”Mary, sorry to be ignoring you. What's up?”
”We've got a definite change in the weather.”
Ray studied her reader. ”Good for us. Bad for Kat.”
”I ran into the padre on the way in. I suggested he pa.s.s the word to the outside. He seemed a bit upset.”
”He came to thank me for opening the base to everyone. I told him it was a false rumor. He understood, but didn't want to think about the level of force I'll use if we have to make a last stand.” Ray put down the reader, stared out the window, went on, half to himself. ”The Pres won't call it quits while he can move an electron. He's gonna be screaming in every mind he can connect to, trying to pump people full of images, run them around like puppets. There's no telling what folks will do.”
”Maybe people who listen to the padre will be far enough away when the trouble starts.”
”We can hope, Mary, but we better get things down tight tonight. Very tight.”
Mary saluted, swallowed hard, and went to obey.
Du stood, one leg on the ledge of the factory, watching the gray day fade into a very dark night. The rain still fell in sheets, though the wind was dropping. The temperature was rising; night might be warmer than the day. Crazy weather.
He had a sharpshooter at each corner, the fifth marine taking a break in the tent. Same on the hangar, five klicks away. The last hint of light disappeared from the western sky. ”Okay, crew, listen up,” he said on the squad net. ”If we're gonna have trouble, the Colonel says it'll be tonight.” That brought a few cheers on the net. ”Let's make one thing clear from the get-go. All squad weapons are locked. I repeat, locked. Arming bolts loose, safeties on.” A chorus of groans met that. ”You will fire only after I give weapons release. To keep Heave happy, Captain Rodrigo also can give you weapons release.”
”Let's hear it for us girls” came back for that.
”I want a personal acknowledgment from every one of you animals on that one.” He went down the squad, got a ”Yes, Sergeant,” from all ten. ”One last point: If things come apart tonight, the squad's fallback position is the base hospital. The Colonel's command post is there, for reasons he didn't bother sharing with me. If we lose the perimeter and you get orders to fall back, head for the hospital. We do not let anyone who ain't from Second Chance in that hospital. Understood?”
The ”Yes, sirs” were more subdued this time. Nothing like the address of the last stand to take the wind out of a gunner's cheer. ”We didn't come to this planet to start, nothing. We aren't at war with these people. But I and the Colonel both expect we will finish anything these locals start. Understood?”
That got a rousing round of ”Yes, sirs.” Du left it at that. He zoomed his night goggles to survey the wall. Mary was in front of him, covering the east and north half of the base. Ca.s.sie had the south and west corner under her supervision.
Du took a couple of deep breaths, to relax himself, to sample the night's air. It was wet. But there was an undercurrent of something else. Open latrines. Humanity. Fear.
Du shook his head. It looked to be a long night.
Kat settled her team down well away from the nearest riverbed. She'd spotted this place late in the afternoon. A jumble of downed trees marked where the land had let go during a storm sometime in the recent past. The trees were big. It took them a good half hour, with Nikki bouncing in the lead, to work their way twenty meters back into the twisted and torn trunks. She finally found what she was looking for, a bit of open ground, that the slide had very definitely disturbed, with lots of trees around and over it. Let it rain; the big log overhead would keep them dry. They even found enough dry wood to start a fire with the torch in Kat's survival kit.
”All the comforts of home,” the copilot crowed as they stretched out.
”Feels that way. We done good today, crew,” Kat said, mimicking how the Colonel or Matt would pat the middies on the head after a particularly good bit of problem-solving. ”Let's get a good night's rest.”
”Only thing missing is a good cup of me ma's soup,” Nikki muttered. This started a long compet.i.tion between them as to what meal they would prepare over the fire. It was kind of hard to sleep when your stomach was rumbling.
Kat let them rave on, enjoying the imaginary cuisine. What the heck, she wasn't all that sleepy either.
Jeff was exhausted, hungry, aching from every muscle he didn't know he had, and desperately wanted to lie down for a quick nap of a month or two. They'd fed the horses the last of the oats Ned had packed for them. Humans and horses were on their last legs.
They crested a ridge; in the rainy gray it was hard to tell, but it looked like the railroad cut across the long valley ahead. Too much of the valley was underwater. They spent what was left of daylight taking the long ways around to the railbed. Beside him, Annie and Lil kept putting one foot down after another. d.a.m.n, it would be embarra.s.sing to call it quits in front of them, the woman he loved and, he wasn't quite sure what Lil was-the mother he'd hardly known? That was no idea to share with the marine. Under a spreading oak, Lil called a ten-minute break. Jeff collapsed, trying not to let the women see how blown he was.
”What do we do when we reach the rails?” Jeff asked.
”Plant demolition charges, rig a detonator, and walk the rails. I want to cut 'em several places at once. Let 'em fix one gap, only to find another. Introduce the computer to the world of human disappointment,” Lil chuckled hoa.r.s.ely.
”You okay?” Jeff asked Annie.
”As good as you are,” she snapped.
”That bad,” he admitted, trying to make it a joke.
”Let's get moving,” Lil ordered. ”Rest too long and it only hurts worse to get moving.”
Ray eyed the contraption Lek and Dancer had put together in the clinic's back room. Part radio, part computer, plenty of chunks of rock-both those Harry had sampled and the high rising stone from the cave where he and the kids had their final talk with the Gardener. Ray wondered if anything patched together from so many different levels of technology could work.
He'd find out soon enough.
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