4. IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT GET YOU

THE GROUND SEEMED TO VIBRATE, AS IF SOME DISTANT rockslide had rumbled down the side of the hills. A few minutes later it began to shake harder, then harder yet, and they began to be concerned.

“What is that?” Ikira Sukotae asked.

“I don’t know,” Vulture replied, “but I don’t like it.”

“Could be one last trick to drive us out,” Sabir suggested.

“I’m going out to see.” Ikira said. “I know this hill pretty well now—they won’t see me. Wait here.” And, with that, she scampered past them and out the passage.

The vibrations continued, getting a little stronger each time, and they waited for a report. Vulture had already decided that if the captain wasn’t back in five minutes he was going after her.

She ran back in, out of breath. “They’re going along both sides of the ridge in squads and tossing explosives into the caves they find. Then they look inside and go on to the next. They’ll be here in maybe ten minutes.”

“Roll back the mats and open the escape route!” Vulture ordered sharply. He got his gun and tossed another to Sabir. “How far into the caves are they coming?” he asked the captain.

“Not far. They’re moving too fast. I think this is just a routine exercise. If we’re in one they’ll either stun or kill us or scratch it off their list. They aren’t taking enough time to do more than shine a light in when the dust clears.”

He thought furiously for a moment. “We should stick it out. When the explosions get very close everybody open their mouths and cover their ears and keep quiet! I’ll cover the passage just in case—Sabir, you cover the escape tunnel. If I shoot, everybody get down there as fast as you can and keep going. I’ll catch up—but they won’t.”

They waited, agonizingly, as the vibrations and the sounds of explosions came to them, the vibrations much stronger than the sounds. Finally they heard the distant voices of troopers shouting to one another, then there was a silence, quickly broken by three very loud explosions. The air moved forcefully down the passage and brought with it dust and dirt, and it was all they could do to keep from coughing, but they managed. The troops evidently waited for the dust to settle and then shined floodlights into the cave itself but did not enter. Everyone inside the inner cave held their breath, and then there was the sound of more men shouting and then an explosion a bit more distant and on the other side. Within minutes it was clear that the force had moved on, but they kept quiet and on guard until all sounds ceased.

Some of the crates had been knocked over and a few gourd dishes had been disturbed and cracked but nothing else seemed damaged. Finally Ikira whispered, “I’m going to check.”

“But you’re unarmed! If they left a guard . . . ” Vulture left it unfinished.

“I can take care of myself. I’m a lot less obvious than any of you. They don’t even know a creature like me exists.”

She wasn’t out very long. “It’s getting close to sundown and I think they were just in a hurry to get it done. It sounds like they’re running flyers up and down the ridge, probably with sophisticated infrared and other detectors to see if anyone pops out, but they can’t keep that up for long.”

Vulture nodded. “It’s their last gasp, I think.”

“Then—we will finally be moving out of this hole?” Chow Dai asked hopefully.

“Yes. I think it is time. I had several different plans for escape and set up a number of pickup points. I also have some elaborate disguises that would probably work. Twenty percent of the young females on this world are pregnant anyway. But I hadn’t counted on having Captain Sukotae with us.”

“You’d be surprised how well I can stay hidden,” she assured him. “I have no natural weapons, but you would be surprised how well my defenses work. They were bred on a far more hostile world than this one, and they have served through the worst of occasions.”

“Admirable, and probably true,” he admitted, “but it isn’t Janipur I’m worried about, nor those troopers, although they’re more of a problem with their sophisticated devices and sensors. You wouldn’t fool a Val for a moment—it knows all the colonial races and automatically senses them, or so I’m assured, and having gotten this far, a Val will come whenever we are spotted. Even I am powerless against a Val unless I can get the drop on it.”

“No one can take a Val one on one,” Sabir asserted. “It just isn’t possible. Everybody knows that. A whole group with the best of weapons could, certainly, but as soon as the loss was sensed by Master System, there would be two Vals following, and more after that, with whatever added forces and weapons were needed.”

Vulture smiled. “If I had a Val with its back to me, ignorant of my presence, and I had a common military laser like those here, I think I could take it. As for the loss sensors, it seems to be some kind of small device with its own punch power and capable of independent action and great speed. Nagy and I saw the module exit when we blew the Val ship. I don’t know what sort of tiny mechanism it is, but it’s at least the size of a fist and must power up and exit the Val when it’s dead.”

The idea was unnerving. “A Val soul,” Sabir whispered.

“A Val is a thing of metals and plastics and other artificial parts. It is a machine, nothing more, although a great one and a thinking one. Its soul, as you call it, is also just a mechanical device, a recorder with whatever power it needs to get it to where it can report, nothing more. I can not see or sense your soul, if such a thing exists, but this is solid, material, and manufactured. What is solid and tangible can be destroyed.”

“So? And if you do? What then? There is still the SPF, and that Val might not be the only one in the area, considering what we did.”

He nodded. “There are two Vals. One has been alternating between the command ship and Cochin Center ever since the Troopers arrived. The other is acting as a sort of messenger boy and consultant going among SPF General Staff, the Janipur command ship, and Master System itself. So, that’s two Vals, the command ship, and the two automated fighters—a hell of a good force, even against us. We can assume they have a few other automated pieces of nastiness waiting for the signal to come in as well. The troopers here are the Janipurian Division, racially the same as us and therefore of only marginal use elsewhere. They can stay here forever if they have to, and SPF won’t miss them. The Vals and fighters are machines, and machines have infinite patience. They will simply wait for us to be drawn into a fight.”

“What you are saying,” put in Ikira Sukotae, “is that the only way we can get out is by playing their game, doing exactly what they want in the first place—forcing all of us into a head-to-head battle. That’s fine planning!”

“If we didn’t get the ring, the rest didn’t matter,” he responded defensively. “Frankly, we knew it’d be tough getting out, but we didn’t really think it was a problem we couldn’t solve when we saw the forces against us. Now I am considering the alternatives. We can go on as planned to Pickup Two, Three, and so on, until we tire of it or settle down and rot—or get desperate and call for that battle. Or we can have the fight sooner and eliminate all that wasted time.”

“And lose,” Sabir commented gloomily.

“Perhaps, but we have a few things on our side. We will pick the time. If we are willing to take some risks, we can also even the odds a bit.”

“Risks,” Sabir repeated. “What sort of risks?”

“Capture. Imprisonment, perhaps. They would not interrogate you here, you realize. We all know too much about the rings and their purpose. They would remove you to the command ship. The local Val and the local commander, a fellow named Colonel Privi, would handle it personally. They would have to . . . ”

“I don’t mind risks, but I don’t like that ‘you’ stuff,” Ikira said. “Us, not you?”

“Oh, I would be there with you all the way. That’s the beauty of it. The problem is, I would have to have extensive communications with Thunder for it to work, and I don’t think even now that I can risk any long-term transmissions from here. It is less than a day’s trot from here to the edges of civilization. Two days southwest of here I have another hideout, better situated and more comfortable. With a bit of disguising, I think we can all make it to that one. I have the materials here for the disguises and the necessary maps, even some currency.”

“There’s bound to be a hue and cry over us,” Chow Dai pointed out. “Wanted—two men traveling with identical twin sisters, both pregnant.”

“We will not travel together. We are two males and two females so we pair up naturally, and no one will notice identical twins if they are not next to each other. Each pair will take a slightly different route to avoid any smart people getting wrong thoughts. I am unconcerned about the pregnancy aspect; there are close to a billion and a quarter people on this continent and growing rapidly in spite of a fairly high infant mortality rate. Maybe one in six women are pregnant at any one time on the average. Once we are in some sort of civilization, we will blend in and the searchers know it. If we make the real world from here, they won’t get us. They will wait for us to make a move. Come—Sabir, help me with this black barrel. The applicators are over in that box.”

They got out the barrel and the box, and the lids were removed. Sabir shook his head and sighed. “Vaisya. Must you step us down so much?” The dye color was a reddish brown.

“We can’t go as Brahman. That would be like transmitting our presence and we could never move unobtrusively. Ksatriyas, as the political and professional leaders, have friends, higher education, and they stand out. They will be expecting us to use Ksatriya, and so it won’t be long until the first slip brings them down on us. Sudra is simply too low and lacks mobility, although it’s the largest caste and would provide the greatest invisibility. Captain Sukotae, you will travel with me but you’ll have to forage and fend for yourself. We will work something out. Chow Dai, you will go with Sabir; Chow Mai with me. We will go separately at intervals as soon as we seem ready.”

Sabir stared at Vulture. “You are enjoying this, aren’t you? You are really enjoying this.”

“It is the most fun I have had in my whole life,” he admitted unapologetically.

Sabir and Chow Dai walked slowly down a road that was little more than a dirt track between fields of grain planted across very low rolling terrain. Here and there would be a small Sudra village, its modest adobelike houses made from the inhabitants’ own dung and baked and formed as bricks. The hordes of insects, particularly flies, filled even a quiet time with a low buzz that changed in pitch now and again. The villages were based around communal wells, the wells usually being located in the center of the settlement and creating a broad town square that was filled with women getting water and often just talking as young children romped and laughed and played all about, looking more like four-footed animals with strange heads than anything else.

The odors were the hardest to get used to after the clean and filtered air of the Center and, before that, the even more purified air of the spaceships, but they were starting to adapt to it. The peasant organization itself was quite familiar to Chow Dai, although her people lived in small homes of bamboo, wood, and straw. Her old people, she thought, almost longingly. These were her people now.

Her primary thoughts were of the child within, which moved and kicked from time to time. She had never really thought of becoming a mother since she’d been fairly small, but now it seemed very important to her, the most important thing in the world. She could still stand if she had to, but she no longer wanted to do so and feared that it would risk undue pressure on the child. She was becoming more and more dependent on Sabir as a result, but this didn’t really bother her. Other than giving the seed, the only real purpose she saw for Janipurian males was to protect the women during this period and through birth and the first month. She did not think of it as being subordinate, but rather as her due.

They had been given a bag of coins by Vulture that was more than adequate for anything they might need; indeed, it was the equivalent of a half a year’s average income for these people. Sabir had more common sense than to show it or the pistol around, and kept them in a backpack. He kept just two coins, medium denominations with an incarnation of Vishnu on one side and a stylized Janipurian hairy elephant on the other, in the waist pouch for normal purchases. Many of the people in this small town were so poor that any more than a small amount would be an open invitation to thievery.

At first the proprietor had denied there were any rooms, but the sight of both coins, worth about four times the regular rental rate, caused her to change her mind and find something out back. It was a small, dung-adobe one-room cottage with straw for a floor and some well-worn mats for furnishings, but it was adequate. The inn’s large outhouse was but a few meters away and the inn had piped-in well water with a “guest pump” just out back. A small alcohol lamp was the only illumination.

Sabir unpacked and removed the purse, removed two more coins, then stuck the purse in his pack. “I’m going to have to go out and get us something to eat,” he told her. “I shouldn’t be long. I don’t like to leave the pack unguarded and I think we should just relax here and get some rest for the journey tomorrow. We are still far too close to take any risks. You saw how they looked at us just because we were strangers.”

Chow Dai nodded. “Go ahead. I will be all right here.”

They had not started until midday and now it was close to sundown in the town. The marketplace itself was officially closed now, but there were still enough vendors open to assemble some food. Although Sabir had had a harder time learning to be a Janipurian than the sisters, he had almost completely assimilated his thinking to the native culture in a way the sisters had not. Also, he felt very comfortable as a male, something the Chows could never comprehend. The Chows had been born peasants of peasant stock in a Chinese village no higher in culture than this one; a society that was protective, safe, and where everything was clearly structured. Sabir had a rougher upbringing and had always envied her brothers their freedom of movement and their confidence. Sabir had always been small and somewhat frail and had always felt a level of fear and vulnerability to those strange places and practically naked and defenseless on a dark street. There was no such feeling now.

There was more trouble getting change than finding things to eat at the marketplace, even though it was shutting down. Few patrons here used money; it was mostly a barter economy, with money something out-of-towners brought now and again. For a five-rupee coin, he was able to arrange not only to purchase decent food but to have a local woman prepare it and then bring it to the cottage. It was significant only that no one asked any questions, and that no one seemed particularly interested in his features as if comparing them to, say, a wanted poster.

The local dishes, when they arrived, were not the best cuisine, but they would do, particularly when washed down with some rather potent local Janipurian beer that eased fears, aches, and pains. It most likely had some mild herbal drug mixed in that made one feel happy and content after a hard day working the fields, but it was not of great concern. If any alarms were raised, there was nothing either of them could do about it, so there seemed little purpose in worrying or standing guard. It made Chow Dai relaxed and somewhat softer, gentler, even romantic. Sabir found himself fantasizing about having a mindprinter to himself for just a little while and removing Chow Dai’s rough past and making her like this always. Deep down, he knew he should be ashamed of himself for thinking that way, but the fact was that was his ideal way to live the rest of his life. Chow Dai would probably have been appalled at this had she known, but as she did not, both slept better than they had since this whole business started.

It was near the end of the third day out when they reached their destination. They had not rushed, first because there seemed no need and second because it was pleasant to be out and not feel, for the moment, in imminent jeopardy of their lives. Chow Dai took the opportunity to talk with some of the more experienced mothers in the small villages, not only to find out what to expect as the pregnancy progressed but also to pick up some sense of what she would be dealing with in a Janipurian baby. She was also delighted when Sabir stopped at a local marketplace and bought her some small jewelry and trinkets. It was crude, peasant stuff, but to her it was like diamonds.

Pickup Two was a small cottage in a forest near a stream and well off the roads. The land was technically owned by a local maharajah, who, like most, was an absentee landlord. This was the edge of the jungle and not a place where people usually came; the trail was partly overgrown and difficult to negotiate. They had expected to find the others already there, but it was clear from both the condition of the trail and the state of the little cottage that no one had preceded them. The cottage itself was barren-looking and uninviting, and no one who didn’t know could guess that the floor was false and under it was another cache of Vulture’s supplies. It was adequate, although far smaller a store than Pickup One.

“I am worried,” Chow Dai said. “I think I would know if something really bad had happened to my sister, but that means little. Could they have run into trouble, do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Sabir replied honestly. “The best we can do is settle in and keep out of sight and wait. They might have taken a longer route, or the weather could have delayed them, or a hundred other things. They had to keep the tiny captain hidden and supplied, as well, remember, so they were camping out and using the markets only sparingly. We will wait until they arrive or we are more certain something is wrong. There is enough here to last us a week, perhaps two.”

“And if they do not come? What then?” Neither of them had the ring.

“If that comes, we will face it then.”

The others did not come that night, and the next day Sabir took inventory of Vulture’s stores. There was a lot more equipment here—some nastier weapons, a sophisticated communications link, and even a portable mindprinter from Janipurian security. There were a number of cartridges with it, mostly of the security type, including one marked “hypno,” a security staple. Unlike the other cartridges, it wasn’t a permanent program—although it could be made so with larger and more complex lab mindprinters and computers or by long-term consecutive treatments—but anyone put under with it and given suggestions would then obey those suggestions for a good five to seven days, staunchly maintaining that black was white and the sky was on the floor if that’s what they were told.

And if they do not come? What then? Oddly, almost ashamedly, the question was a turn-on. Chow Dai was familiar with the uses of mindprinters and was now quite trusting of Sabir, but she couldn’t operate or read the names on the cartridges. Repeated treatments as long as the power pack lasted . . . No! That was evil. It was one thing to fantasize, another to contemplate actually doing something of that nature. Vulture had called him selfish and that was certainly true, but selfish did not necessarily have to mean evil. Two more days, and then he would string the communications net among the trees and attempt to call Thunder.

Chow Dai stirred, then awoke. It was quite dark, far too dark to see anything, but her ears and her old sixth sense sounded a warning that something was not quite right. For a moment she wondered if it was just her imagination, but her keen Janipurian ears strained and caught what had awakened her and she stirred.

“Sabir! Wake up!” she hissed.

“Huh? Wa—?”

“Someone is coming! I can hear the sounds of steps crushing twigs and leaves along the path!”

Suddenly Sabir was fully awake and reached for the pistol, then moved around and got up on his feet. He stood, facing the door, not quite knowing what to do. He was totally blind in the darkness, but if he risked lighting the lantern he might betray their presence to someone who otherwise might not know they were there. If he shot when and if the door opened, he might cut down those for whom they waited, but if he didn’t, he might have no chance to avoid capture in case it was someone else. He thought quickly, then decided that while Vulture had prepared a number of things in this cabin just right, he had certainly neglected to provide any back exit that Sabir had been able to discover. The gun might prove an intimidator or even an equalizer, but there was no purpose in shooting unless there was some way to escape.

“You—you think it’s them?” Chow Dai whispered.

“Shhhhh . . . Quiet.” In fact, he did not think it was Vulture and the others. The footsteps, getting quite close now, had a far different sound man a Janipurian would make, and if it was Sakotae, she had gained a hundred or more kilograms someplace.

The footsteps ceased at the door and they both held their breath. This was not anyone friendly; they knew that now. Vulture would have sent Sukotae to check in silence, then come in boldly himself through the front door.

The door opened slowly, and both Sabir and Chow Dai expected to see the strange, illuminated form of a living being through their infrared abilities, but the picture they received was a strange one, with great heat coming from two glowing eyes and otherwise only in spots along a very tall humanoid torso.

“You might wish to light the lamp for yourself,” the Val said, calmly. It spoke Janipurian Hindi flawlessly and in a calm, clear male voice. “I can see you perfectly well but there is no reason to have you at a disadvantage.”

Sabir was less surprised than let down as his worst fears were realized, a sinking feeling setting in that the inevitable had finally happened. You couldn’t escape a Val. Everybody knew that. And here they had been taking on not just one but two. Sure, they’d nailed one ship-to-ship, but it had killed Arnold Nagy in the process and was no sure thing until it was already over. More a one-of-a-kind freak than a sure victory. He considered for a moment trying to shoot Chow Dai and then himself to at least keep the information out of Master System’s hands, but even that was folly. He might get her, or himself, if the Val wasn’t expecting it—and it probably was—but not both, and what good would one death do?

He put down the pistol, fumbled, found the match, and with some difficulty, lit the lamp. He was surprised at how calm and steady his hand was, however, once he could see. It was almost as if a great burden had been lifted from his soul.

“You have captured the others?” he asked the Val.

“Alas, no, but we will, sooner or later. We staked you out here the last two days hoping to net the whole crew, but it was decided that they were not coming, that they had probably seen our stakeout in spite of all our precautions and been scared away.”

“Then—you were not on to us from the start. You discovered us, not the whole group,”

“Yes. Brahman in Cochin Center have little use for money, as you know, so a small amount is kept in security just in case it should be needed. The coins are newly minted. Your accomplice Boil took seven hundred and sixteen rupees, a considerable sum, but they were of a larger than usual denomination for poor places such as the ones you went through and all, I fear, have slight defects in them. That is why they were sent to security from the mint rather than placed in general circulation. Not even the chief administrator himself knew this—it was a simple economy move by the mint. We had paid agents about, of course, looking for any stranger within a few hundred kilometers of Cochin Center who might be spending newly minted coins of large denominations. We really didn’t expect to net anyone that way—although we thought we might be able to locate you later wherever in the world you turned up. Uh—I assume the lady is one of the Chows, but who might I be speaking to?”

He sighed. “I was Sabira, a freebooter crew member. Now I am what you see, without a proper name or identity of my own.”

“A freebooter! So they have freebooters on their side now,” the Val responded, sounding very human and seeming to talk aloud only to himself. “I knew that breaking the covenant would cause a price to be paid. Master System eliminated a nuisance and appears to have created an army. How many, I wonder? Don’t answer—that’s for later. We decided that two of you in hand with information we desperately need was worth blowing this probably eternal stakeout. Uh—I don’t suppose you have the ring, do you?”

“No. I had it, but I returned it. That’s the truth, too.”

“Oh, I believe you,” the Val assured him. “There is no reason to lie now, is there?”

“Would it be too much to ask,” Chow Dai interjected, “what is to become of us?”

“Well, that depends,” the creature replied, still keeping that friendly, conversational tone. “For a while, you will be useful to us, I think. We will return to Cochin Center at first, then take a little trip up to a ship we have in orbit. Then we will find out what you know and evaluate that data. After that, you might be of further service to us and you might not. If so, we might do a little attitudinal adjusting to set you back on the true path to harmony and stability. When you are of no further use, our skilled technicians will erase your current memories and create new, permanent identities for you with, of course, some slight genetic manipulation to you and your offspring that will be consistent with, shall we say, a lowered status. But you, and your child, will be here, happy, for the rest of your days if you give no trouble. Of that I assure you. I will not promise you more than a Sudra’s life, but if you are cooperative and cause no problems I assure you that your child will not be born Untouchable.”

It was a powerful threat, more powerful than threatening either of them with bodily harm. Even Chow Dai, who thought of the Untouchables as just unfortunates and irrational outcasts in this system, knew what price a child would pay in that class. The Sudras were serfs, but that had been her origin on Earth and it was honorable and without shame. Sabir was prouder and of higher birth, but he understood and accepted the offer as the price of failure and perhaps the punishment of God that he had changed sex and form from what had been ordained. Thinking that way, and being a fervent believer in reincarnation, it was not a horrible fate, but it was severe enough for him to feel that the Val was not just playing along with them but was really sincere.

“We might as well get this over with, then,” Sabir said with a sigh. “At least it will not mean any more nights sleeping here.”

“Move over in the corner,” the Val instructed. “I want to see what you have here.”

They complied, and the huge, black creature moved to the items Sabir had brought from the cache under the floor. “Hmmm . . . A communications system. Long range, too. Encoded subcarrier via one of our own satellites, I’ll bet. We will not underestimate your people again. And one of security’s mindprinters, too! I could use that on you—but I shall not. We should make this as honorable as possible. Worthy foes deserve respect, and we get very few of them.” It turned back to the door. “Sergeant!”

A Janipurian with the uniform of the SPF entered. He was wearing some sort of headgear and goggles that apparently gave him limited vision in the darkness. “Sir!”

“You have called for the flyer?”

“It cannot land in here. We must move back toward the road for safe clearance. Not far—a kilometer or so. It should be here in fifteen to twenty minutes. They are not well designed for night flying, you know.”

“Very good. Now, everyone out of here, please. Sergeant, see that this is sealed and then join us.”

The sergeant looked dubiously at the prisoners. “Are you sure, sir? All but one of my men are down at the landing site right now . . . ”

The Val chuckled. “Don’t worry, sergeant. They won’t escape me. Carry on.”

The Val switched on a light that seemed to grow from someplace inside of it and afforded them a measure of visibility. They walked in front of it, the whole forest eerily illuminated. Suddenly the Val said, “Halt! Freeze! There is something here, something not right . . . ”

Both Sabir and Chow Dai felt it, too. There was a sudden, deadly silence in the darkness and then, from forward and to their right a young girl’s voice came to them ghostly in the night, a playful voice singing, and in English!

Sabir and Chow Dai were confused and frightened, but they were old hands enough to take the hint. Both dropped immediately to the ground. Almost instantly, there was the crack and flash of multiple laser pistols from behind; purplish beams shot out and struck the Val—who had turned and directed its sensors toward the chanting—directly in the small of the back, just above where its rectum should have been. Twin beams, criss-crossing rapidly, and doing damage.

The Val made a terrible, inhuman sound and tried to turn, but it seemed frozen at the waist, unable to move. It was not defenseless; return laser fire shot from its back, but the fire wasn’t directed or locked on to the incoming fire as it was designed to be but rather wild and random. Sparks flew as its wild beams struck trees and leaves and started a few small tires.

Chow Dai decided it was safer to take chances than to continue there. She got quickly to all four feet and screamed “Run” as she kicked off. Sabir was slower but followed. The Val ignored them and began flailing around violently, continuing its wild and undirected fire. A second set of beams now struck it from the front, concentrating on the lower abdomen.

The Val stopped shooting and began simply gyrating about. The light flickered and died, and in the darkness the great shape began to go mad. Tentacles shot from it and groped around wildly in the dark at fantastic speed; small balls of energy were launched and struck nearby trees and exploded with incredible force, the concussions deafening. The sound it made, both metallic and at the same time that of a mortally wounded beast, rose in pitch as the fire continued to pour in from both directions. Suddenly there was a horrible, grating sound of metal against metal; the great, glowing crimson eyes flickered, faded, and died, and, as if in slow motion, the gyrations and convulsions ceased, and it quivered, then fell with a crash to the forest floor. The firing continued for a few more seconds, then stopped.

“Stay away!” called the voice of the sergeant. “I want that escape module, as well! Switch to wide disrupter setting like I showed you!”

Inside the Val, the independent automatic circuits determined that the unit was no longer functional. Automatic backup of the memory core had commenced with the first assault, and was now completed. Draining all remaining power from the Val’s circuits, the information module powered up and began to bore its way through the Val’s structure, its normal route of escape blocked. The heat generated by the friction in doing this was a dead giveaway to someone who could see in the infrared.

“Wait for it, but don’t let it fly!” the sergeant warned.

It was out now: a bright, glowing ball of shining crystal a bit larger than an average man’s fist. It glowed with such intensity that it hurt their eyes to watch it, but they immediately opened fire.

The ball shimmered from the assault, then began to rise slowly as they kept their beams trained on it. For a moment it looked as if it were going to get away, but it seemed to be having problems and began to wobble, then vibrate violently.

The explosion was so intense that it deafened all those nearby and knocked them down; trees snapped and there was a rain of debris, and the noise echoed off into the distance.

As soon as he regained his wits, the sergeant got to his feet, bolstered his pistols, and kicked off down the trail, running right past the still-smoldering remains of the Val. A bit farther down, Chow Mai met him and they both raced out of the now-burning forest and into the fields. Ikira Sukotae waited atop Chow Dai; only a few meters away the charred bodies of four SPF troopers lay where they had fallen.

“Let’s hit it!” the sergeant yelled, still deaf from the last explosion. “We want to be as far away from here as we can as soon as possible! Just key on Chow Dai and keep going!”

They had gotten only a few hundred meters when, behind them in the burning forest, there was a second massive explosion and a fireball that reached above the treetops. Investigators would get very little of use from Pickup Two.

With adrenaline flowing and thought too confused to be worthwhile, they ran into the night as fast as they could.

Sabir stared at the man who rescued them and shook his head. “I still cannot believe that we actually got away. I cannot even believe that you are the Vulture. How?”

“The Vulture can be whatever he wants to be,” was the reply. “The Chows know it. You were told that I was not—human. In a sense, I am less human than that Val back there.”

They camped in the trees well away from the previous night’s actions. There were massive searches underway for them, of course, but they were random and haphazard. Nobody seemed to be able to understand even how such a thing could have happened, and the SPF was more concerned with covering up the demise of a Val at the hands of mere mortals than in immediately finding the perpetrators.

The trio had taken a more circuitous, less comfortable route to Pickup Two and had arrived hours after Sabir and Chow Dai. Coming overland, they had, more by luck than anything else, discovered a spotter on a hill with monitoring gear and knew that the duo below had been compromised. It was not a large force—four enlisted men led by the sergeant and the Val—but it was more than enough had they simply walked into the trap. It had been Vulture’s decision to wait and see what would happen.

The previous night, it became clear that the Val had lost patience and was going to go in. It left the three men to guard the approaches and took the sergeant and one soldier up the road, positioning them on both sides of the cabin to cover any possible surprise exits. Vulture and Chow Mai, who proved quite adept with a pistol from a braced position, easily hit the men in the open field, silhouetted as they were against the darkness by their body heat. Then Chow Mai had taken up a fixed position to one side while Ikira Sukotae had gone into the trees above the cabin to watch, warn, and guide Vulture to the first of the two troopers. The timing was delicate, but Vulture had come up behind the sergeant and consumed him while the Val was still approaching the cabin. It was a silent operation, but it took seven minutes to accomplish. Vulture wasn’t certain they had the time, but figured that if the Val emerged before the process was completed, it would have been up to Vulture to suddenly catch up and play the sergeant. It had been even harder because Vulture had had to get the uniform off the sergeant while beginning the process. A naked sergeant would have had much explaining to do.

Fortunately, the Val had been in a casual, talkative mood; Vulture not only had time to become the sergeant and redon the uniform, but also to lure and then strangle the remaining trooper.

“Arnold Nagy told me how to take a Val one on one, almost with his dying breath,” Vulture told them. “Of course, I had only his word for it, but it was the only chance. I admit I did weigh just riding back with you and managing things later, but I figured the dead troopers in the field would go away with just the two of you leaving the sergeant in charge of finding the killers. I have to be honest—I wasn’t sure if I could keep either of you from being hurt or killed, but that just couldn’t be a consideration. It sounds callous and cruel, I know, but you were better dead than captured, isolated, and interrogated for information about the others.”

“I understand that,” Sabir told him. “I had considered whether or not I could kill the both of us prior to that.”

“I hoped that you were clever and quick enough to understand my diversion,” Ikira said. “I figured that if it was in the English used on Thunder you would take the hint and drop.”

“That allowed Chow Mai to add her fire to mine,” Vulture went on. “The weak point is in the operating core of the Val—the equivalent of a brain—and that’s not where you’d think it would be. The casing is well protected even against the strength we were firing, but Nagy told us to shoot at the abdominal region, front and back, and give quick back-and-forth passes. The shots jolted and disoriented it for precious seconds, and in that time the back-and-front cutting motion burned out a huge amount of the embedded neurological system. Sort of like damaging or cutting the spinal column. The brain functions but the messages don’t go where they should. Those suckers are damned hard to kill. Even at that, we didn’t so much kill it as wreck it. When it lost control the real Val, that crystal ball that was its brain and more, and which wore that body like a suit of armor, got out of its own power and quite possibly could have gotten clean away. Only when we destroyed it did we truly kill a Val.”

“And now what?” Sabir sighed. “We can’t use the money, they’re still combing the countryside for us, and there will be more Vals. We can’t keep this up forever. Sooner or later they will find us.”

“I agree, and we must hurry before Master System brings in God knows what else. Still, they really don’t know who or what they’re dealing with and that puts them at a great disadvantage. We have proven able to massacre them, or so it will look, but they will still have orders to take us alive if they possibly can. Considering we wiped out a Val and a squad of SPF troopers, they won’t be certain how many are actually here or just who they can really trust. We’ve got to move. We’ll live off the land and avoid human contact unless absolutely necessary, choosing the harder and rougher route and avoiding the roads. We must get to Pickup Three where I can call Thunder. Only then will we be able to get off this planet, although I fear that it will not be without cost.”

Vulture was certainly correct about the disarray of their pursuers. There was evidence in the days ahead of some heavy-handed tactics and mass arrests by the SPF that showed desperation but also were violations of all that Master System stood for. The masses of Janipur were not simply outside the reality of interstellar wars and scientific marvels, they were quite deliberately kept ignorant of it. At first the mere display of many of the tools and weapons of the SPF caused great fear and confusion, but after a little while it turned from that into anger. Master Systems’ principles of colonial maintenance were well founded and based upon a long-term common sense. Security and peace equals ignorance. It was difficult enough for the Centers to weed out the budding geniuses and suppress bright new ideas that might change the status quo; now troopers marched through towns using mass communication and information systems the people had never dreamed existed. One does not show such wonders as even simple flashlights and then tell the people that they are forbidden them and should forget them. Or, rather, you can tell them, but the seed will have been planted. Nor can you wipe out such knowledge when it is shown to masses of people.

The mere fact that such things were happening at all showed a total lack of direction and firm leadership at the top. Colonel Privi was born to be a soldier, not a diplomat or planner. It was the Vals and higher command that used such men as weapons in their arsenals, with care and caution. Left alone with a major problem and no one to temporize, the colonel was doing what he considered his greater duty without regard to cost. Either Master System was out of touch or, more chilling to Sukotae, Vulture, and the others, it no longer cared.

Nor were such methods effective. Although there were some close calls and occasional long hours hiding out, the group reached the remote and crumbling area where Pickup Three had been established without detection.

It had been one of the very first settlements, but it had not worked out over the long centuries that followed. Weather and agriculture were far better on the plains and in the rolling hills elsewhere, and it had been abandoned and now mostly overgrown. It was the third of the four places Vulture had chosen and set up as refuges, and the fourth was over a thousand kilometers away in the mountain region where Vulture had first landed on Janipur. Vulture wasted no time in setting up his communications network and uttering a silent prayer that the channel was still open.

Thunder was delighted to hear from them and that all were safe, but their tribulations were sobering to those who waited and the news not all good.

“Another Val has come in, although they don’t seem very sure of themselves any more. The Val has remained in orbit, docked to the command ship. There is no clear indication that more forces are being brought in, but it’s nearly impossible to tell for sure,” Hawks reported. “Now that we know where you are, I think we ought to try a probing action to see just what reserves might pop out of thin air before committing all our forces. What is the condition of your people?”

“Chow Dai is well advanced on her metamorphosis toward motherhood. Although still bright and alert, her horns measure more than a meter and she no longer has effective use of hands and feet. In effect, she is a four-legged animal with human intelligence. She is even sleeping standing up at this point, and she’s still got months to go before delivery. Chow Mai is a bit behind her, but her horns are long, and any standing or use of hands is uncomfortable and limited now. They both eat a lot, almost constantly it seems, and Chow Dai tires easily and will not, I suspect, be in much condition for a long run. Have you thought about my plan for allowing our capture? If I am lucky, I might even get to eat Colonel Privi himself.”

“We rate it as too dangerous,” Hawks told him. “Once captured, it is likely you all would be separated and no matter who you become, Vulture, you couldn’t watch over them all. First priority would be to get a complete mindprint that would tell them your own nature and betray our best weapon, which is their ignorance of your existence. No, sit tight, unless you are discovered, and wait. Within twenty-four hours we will know if we can get you out of there or not. If not, then your plan might be the only open course.”

Hawks was clearly worried, and the council of captains was no more reassured, but they were all sick of waiting.

“I tire of skulking about in the uncharted regions!” Chun Wo Har exclaimed. The freebooter colonial captain with the shiny exoskeleton and inhuman eyes was not often given to emotional outbursts. “Let us strike! My ancestors came from the same China that bred the Chows, a fountain of civilization and culture that was tramped upon by lessers because it was often too civilized to defend itself. I am of rougher stock. It is more honorable to die than to rot. I say we go get them and the hell with the cost!”

Hawks looked around. “Everybody agreed?” There was no response, but a number of nods. “Very well then.” He sighed. “I just wish we had someone more experienced in naval battles.”

China, who often sat in on these discussions, cleared her throat. “There is no substitute for experience,” she admitted, “but common sense and good information are ninety percent of any victory. The best admirals can do little without them. We monitor the command ship, the two fighters, and the Val. The command ship is also a troop carrier; it is deadly but slow and not much of a threat. I believe we can assume that it depends, like Thunder, mostly on its fighters and that its own armaments are basically defensive in nature.”

“I have no idea how many actual fighters such a ship might have,” Star Eagle put in, “but I feel that there are more than just the two we know about, even though they are larger and more formidable than my own. Still, I wonder. I carry twenty-four, but this ship was built in a rougher time when external enemies were the likely threat. The SPF is not used to having real enemies and in effect is as inexperienced as we are in actual ship-to-ship combat, perhaps more—since we have had to do it several times while they are probably entirely dependent on simulations. They have fought some limited ship-to-shtp engagements against the freebooters but it wasn’t this command that was involved. To find out if there are any more surprises waiting for us, though, we will have to commit a convincing force. They will detect any feint. Clearly any force we send in must be theoretically large enough and good enough to win or they have no incentive to bring in any reserves. At the minimum, then, it means three of our better ships along with some supplemental Thunder fighters. I respectfully submit that we have only six ships useful in such a fight, Pirate One not being fast enough to compete, and while Espiritu Luzon may be well armed, it’s better suited to fast getaways than head-to-head combat.”

Captain Paschittawal of the Indrus nodded to himself, a grave expression on his face. “Then you are telling us that if our feint is large enough to be credible, we cannot afford to have it defeated because we would not be strong enough to try it again.”

“Essentially, yes.”

Hawks sighed. “Then it’s all or nothing and to hell with the reserves.”

They all absorbed that in stony silence. Finally Raven said, “Chief, I ain’t on this council, but it’s my ass, too, and I think you got the priorities ass-backward here. Suppose we could cripple, maybe knock out that command ship? That’d leave the fighters on strictly automatic programming, and if we weren’t lucky enough to nail the Val, it would still be the only one big threat but acting pretty much on its own. I mean, what kind of reserves we talkin’ about? Probably more fighters, right? They wouldn’t even care about human-piloted craft—this is Master System we’re talkin’ about—and I ain’t sure they got enough Vals to have ’em sittin’ dead in the water, so to speak, waitin’ for some theoretical attack. I don’t care if they got a hundred fighters off someplace—if there’s no command ship to call ’em, then they’re gonna sit.”

“The Val could call them in,” China noted.

“Maybe, but maybe not. The Vals are just damned machines, not gods. We already proved that twice. They’re made one way ’cause that’s the only way Master System makes ’em. They’re arrogant, egomaniacal, and loners. Most of all, they’re loners. They use people, but they’re always oa top and contemptuous of any of ’em. They ain’t got no experience in this sort of thing, either. Now I ain’t sayin’ we can work this trick twice, but I bet we can pull it off this once.”

They were all interested. “What do you have in mind, Raven?” Hawks asked.

“Well, first you tell them down there that we’re shootin’ the wad on this one, and then you tell ’em they hav’ta sit tight a little longer than we said. This’ll take some doin’. It ain’t gonna be easy, but a few real old tricks might do the job . . . ”