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that is?
 Small valley, said Morphy.  It s way outside our sentry posts.
 We re going there, Donal said. The light went out and he got up from the
log.
 Us? Us, sir? the voice of Lee came at him.
 The three of us, said Donal.  Come along. And he led the way surefootedly
out into the darkness.
Going through the woods, he was pleased to discover the two Groupmen were
almost as sure-footed in the blackness as himself. They went slowly but
carefully for something over a mile; and then they felt the ground beginning
to slope upward under their feet.  All right. Down and easy, said Donal
quietly. The three men dropped to their bellies and began in skilled silence
to work their way up to the crest of the slope. It took them a good half-hour;
but at the end of that time they lay side by side just under the skyline of a
ridge, looking over into a well of blackness that was a small, hidden valley
below. Donal tapped Lee on the shoulder and when the other turned his face
toward him in the gloom, Donal touched his own nose, pointed down into the
valley and made sniffing motions. Lee turned his face back to the valley and
lay in that position for several minutes, apparently doing nothing at all.
However, at the end of that time, he turned toward Donal again, and nodded.
Donal motioned them all back down the slope.
Donal asked no questions and the two Groupmen volunteered nothing until they
were once more back safely within the lines of their own sentry posts. Then
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Donal turned toward Lee.
 Well, Groupman, he said.  What did you smell?
Lee hesitated. His voice, when he answered, had a note of puzzlement in it.
 I don t know, sir, he answered.  Something sour, sort of. I could just
barely smell it.
 That s the best you can do? inquired Donal.  Something sour?
 1 don t know, sir, said Lee.  I ve got a pretty good nose, Force in fact,
a note of belligerence crept into his voice.  I ve got a damned good nose. I
never smelled anything like this before. I d remember.
 Have either of you men ever contracted on this planet before?
 No, said Lee.
 No, sir, answered Morphy.
 I see, said Donal. They had reached the same log from which they had
started a little less than three hours before.  Well, that ll be all. Thank
you, Groupmen.
He sat down on the log again. The other two hesitated a moment; and then went
off together.
Left alone, Donal consulted the map again; and sat thinking for a while. Then
he rose, and hunting up Morphy, told him to take over the Force, and stay
awake. Donal himself was going to Command HQ. Then he took off.
Command HQ was a blackout shell containing a sleepy orderly, a map viewer and
Skuak.
 The commandant around? asked Donal, as he came in.
 Been asleep three hours, said Skuak.  What re you doing up? I wouldn t be
if I didn t have the duty.
 Where s he sleeping?
 About ten meters off in the bush, at eleven o clock, said Skuak.  What s it
all about? You aren t going to wake him, are you?
 Maybe he ll still be awake, said Donal; and went out.
Outside the shell, and the little cleared space of the HQ area, he cat-footed
around to the location Skuak had mentioned. A battle hammock was there, slung
between two trees, with a form mounding its climate cover. But when Donal
reached in to put his hand on the form s shoulder, it closed only on the soft
material of a rolled-up battle jacket.
Donal breathed out and turned about. He went back the way he had come, past
the Command HQ area, and was stopped by a sentry as he approached the village.
 Sorry, Force, said the sentry.  Commandant s order. No one to go into the
village area. Not even himself, he says. Booby traps.
 Oh, yes thank you, sentry, said Donal; and, turning about, went off into
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the darkness.
As soon as he was safely out of sight, however, he turned again, and worked
his way back past the sentry lines and in among the houses of the village. The
small but very bright moon which the Harmonites called The Eye of the Lord was
just rising, and throwing, through the ruined walls, alternate patches of
tricky silver and black. Slipping in and out of the black places, he began
patiently to search the place, house by house, and building by building.
It was a slow and arduous process, carried out the way he was doing it, in
complete silence. And the moon mounted in the sky. It was nearly four hours
later that he came upon what he was searching for.
In the moonlit center of a small building s roofless shell stood Hugh
Killien, looking very tall and efficient in his chameleon battle-dress. And
close to him almost close enough to be in his arms was Anea, the Select of
Kultis. Beyond them both, blurred by action of the polarizer that had
undoubtedly been the means of allowing it to carry her invisibly to this spot,
was a small flying platform.
 ... Sweet, Hugh was saying, his resonant voice pitched so low it barely
carried to the ears of Donal, shrouded in shadow outside the broken wall,
 Sweet, you must trust me. Together we can stop him; but you must let me
handle it. His power is tremendous 
 I know, I know! she interrupted, fiercely, all but wringing her hands.  But
every day we wait makes it more dangerous for you, Hugh. Poor Hugh  gently
she raised her hand to touch his cheek,  what I ve dragged you into.
 Dragged? Me? Hugh laughed, low and confidently.  I went into this with my
eyes open. He reached out for her.  For you 
But she slipped away from him.
 Now s not the time for that, she said.  Anyway, it s not me you re doing
this for. It s Kultis. He s not going to use me, she said fiercely,  to get
my world under his thumb!
 Of course, it s for Kultis, said Hugh.  But you are Kultis, Anea. You re
everything I love about the Exotics. But don t you see; all we have to work on
are your suspicions. You think he s planning against the Bond, against Sayona,
himself. But that s not enough for us to go to Kultis with.
 But what can I do? she cried.  I can t use his own methods against him. I
can t lie, or cheat, or set agents on him while he still holds my contract. I
... I just can t. That s what being Select means! She clenched her fists.
 I m trapped by my own mind, my own body. She turned on him suddenly.  You
said when I first spoke to you, two months ago you said you had evidence!
 I was mistaken, Hugh s tone was soothing.  Something came to my
attention at any rate I was wrong. I have my own built-in moral system, too,
Anea. It may not reach the level of psychological blockage like yours, he
drew himself up, looking very martial in the moonlight.  But I know what s
honorable and right.
 Oh, I know. I know, Hugh  she was all contrition,  But I get so desperate.
You don t know 
 If he had only made some move against you personally 
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 Me? She stiffened.  He wouldn t dare! A Select of Kultis and besides, she [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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