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rage the Chief obviously wanted. They were close enough to the fence now that
they could see every exterior detail of the squat concrete structure beyond
the gate. The afternoon light was beginning to draw its long shadows within
the valley beyond. She could see no sign of human activity at the farmhouse
or that portion of the barn visible from this vantage. She picked up her
microphone from the radio under the dash to report this to the vans following,
but the instant she hit the transmit button, the monitor telltale began to
squeal. Jammed! Someone was jamming their frequency!
She glanced at DT, whose tense side glances at the transmitter told her he,
too, understood.
She replaced the microphone on its hook and said, "Park the van between the
farmhouse and the pillbox. You take the satchel. We'll both get out your
side. Toss the satchel along the wall to the east side of the pillbox. Get
to the other side of it and cover me. I'll set the charge. When it's set, we
run like hell for the edge of that hill beyond there."
"The blast will wreck the van," he objected.
"Better it than us. Start revving her up. We can get more speed than this."
"What about our passenger?"
"He takes his own chances. I hope he gets it good!" She grabbed up the
little burp gun from the floor, prepared to release her safety harness. DT
wedged an elbow against the satchel charge which had been jammed between his
seat and the emergency jump door. "Hit it square in the middle!"
Clovis shouted. "It's going to --"
Whatever she had been about to say was drowned in the clattering, screeching
turmoil of their crash through the gate. There was no time to say anything
more after that.
From the diary of Trova Hellstrom. The nature of our Hive's dependence upon
the whole planet must be kept under constant review. This is especially true
regarding the food chain, and many of our workers do not understand this
clearly. They think we can feed upon ourselves eternally. How stupid! Every
food chain is based ultimately upon plants. Our independence hangs on the
quality and the quantity of our plants. They must always remain our plants,
grown by us, their production balanced to that diet we have learned provides
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us with such increased health and longevity when compared with the wild
Outsiders.
"They refused to answer our hail," Saldo said. He sounded grimly smug about
it.
Saldo stood beside Hellstrom in the gloomy north end of the aerie while
workers behind them completed restoring the chamber to its former efficiency.
Only a shadowy louver stood between
Hellstrom and the wrecked van just inside the gate. Flames still crackled in
the van and around it.
The gas had caught fire, blazing up with a roar, then exploding to set little
spot fires in the surrounding grass. There would be a holocaust down there
soon if the workers couldn't get to it.
"I heard," Hellstrom said.
"What shall be our response?" Saldo asked with an odd formality. He was
trying too hard to be cool, Hellstrom observed.
"Use our own guns. Try a few shots around them. See if you can't herd them
down there to the north. That would give us a chance to extinguish the fires.
Have you already sent the patrols out to watch the lower road from town?"
"Yes. Do you want me to have them swing back and take this pair from behind?"
"No. How're we doing at getting a stunwand below them?"
"They're not in a good position for that. We could hit some of our own
people. You know how a hard charge bounces in dirt and rocks."
"Who's in charge of the outer patrol?"
"Ed."
Hellstrom nodded. Ed was a strong personality. He could control the workers
if anyone could.
They must not, under any circumstances, kill this pair. He felt this with
growing certainty. The
Hive needed survivors to question. He had to find out what had prompted the
attack. Hellstrom asked if this had been explained to Ed.
"Yes, I did it myself." Saldo sounded puzzled. Hellstrom was acting with a
strange reserve.
"Get started herding that pair," Hellstrom said.
Saldo moved back to obey, returned in a minute.
"Never forget," Hellstrom said, "that the Hive is a flyspeck when compared to
existing Outsider forces. We need that pair out there -- for their
information and for possible use in a compromise.
Has the telephone been restored yet?"
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