Part 10 (1/2)

'The only thing they care about,' she said, keeping her voice low so the Vanir wouldn't hear, 'is the drug that keeps them alive.'

'What are they going to do with us?'

'There's supposed to be a secret cure. But I think they're going to let us die.'

Nyssa was about to speak, but the girl stopped her.

A moment later, the two Vanir walked by. They collected their helmets and left the tank. The door closed behind them with the solid clunk of metal on metal.

Nyssa said, 'One of them told me he was just a baggage-handler.'

The girl nodded. 'And we're the baggage.'

Nyssa summoned up her strength and tottered over to the door. She was amazed that her energy was seeping away so rapidly. The door operated on a simple key, but that was enough to ensure that she couldn't get out. She returned to her place.

'Might as well face it,' the girl said.

'No,' Nyssa said with determination.

'We've been had. There's no hospital and there's no cure. It's hopeless.'

'That's not what the Doctor would say.'

'There are no doctors here.'

'He's one of a kind. What's the forbidden zone?'

The girl said, with grudging admiration, 'You don't give up, do you?'

'Not until I'm beaten. Well?'

'I only know what I've heard. It's where the radiation gets too strong for them. They have to keep on this side of the line or they'll die even sooner.'

'And what's the Garm?'

'You'll find out soon enough.'

'I need to know now.'

The girl sighed. Talking was wearing her out, and she obviously believed that Nyssa's determination was going to be wasted. She said, 'It's some kind of animal they brought in to work in the zone. They operated on its brain, but it's still half wild.' She turned to Nyssa, as much as she was able, and gave her a hard look.

'Just wait a little while longer,' she said, 'and you'll see for yourself.'

Sigurd came upon Eirak in his corner of the tank that was the Vanir's headquarters. The watch-commander was at his desk with the Hydromel case open before him, and he was making notes. Logging-in of the phials of honey-coloured liquid was always a priority duty.

Sigurd dropped his clipboard on the end of the desk, and said, 'Lazar a.s.sessment from tank three.

How's it going?'

Eirak looked up at him. He wasn't smiling. He said, 'I was right. They've reduced the supply. Half of these are just coloured water.'

For a moment, Sigurd didn't know what to say.

Finally he managed a strangled, 'But why?'

'Obviously they think we can get by on less. Or else we've not been performing well enough.'

'That's impossible.'

Eirak leaned back wearily, contemplating the gla.s.sware before him. 'I don't know how they get their information. Spies, perhaps.'

'Bor's gone,' Sigurd said with sudden inspiration.

'Won't that help?'

'Not enough. We'd have to lose at least one more.'

'Then there's no way out of it.'

'I just told you the way out,' Eirak said with quiet seriousness.

And he meant every word of it, Sigurd thought with horror. He's actually contemplating shutting one of us out. A name struck from a roster somehow didn't seem to carry the same charge of outrage as the death of a human being but it was the rosters that were Eirak's reality. Sigurd was trying to think if he'd ever given Eirak a reason to single him out, but he could think of nothing that didn't apply to every other Vanir in the Terminus. Eirak won all the arguments, but still everybody griped. So it was really a question of who had offended him most recently.

As if in answer, Valgard burst into the tank.

'We've got trouble,' he said immediately. He was helmetless and in an obviously agitated state. The rest of the off-duty Vanir took an instant interest and started to come through from the bunkroom area.

Eirak looked up at him. 'What do you mean?' he said.

Valgard pushed his way through the growing crowd and leaned heavily on Eirak's desk. 'I saw two people down in the storeyard, a man and a girl. They went off into the zone.'

'Were they Lazars?'

Valgard shook his head. 'No, they weren't. They were talking about reconnaissance, and they were armed.'

'Company spies?' Sigurd hazarded.

'Perhaps.' Eirak obviously wasn't going to commit himself until he'd heard it all. He said to Valgard, 'Why didn't you stop them?'

'I tried, but they teamed up on me.'

'That's got to be it,' Sigurd insisted. 'The company sent them.'