A Season for Slaughter

Chapter 74 Lopez

I was looking around for some way to pull myself to my feet when Lopez peeked in. "You okay?"

"No, goddammit! Nobody's telling me anything!"

"What do you need to know?"

"What's happening? Where's Lizard? What was all that shooting? Where are the choppers?"

Lopez took the canteen down from where it was hanging and handed it to me. "You want some water?"

"No. I want some answers." I took the canteen anyway. I

"Look, I know you're upset-"

"Spare me the hand-holding. Just give me a straight status report."

Lopez took a breath. "Okay," she said. "We haven't found General Tirelli yet. We're still looking. It's kinda hard to get to where the forward lounge was. It's all crumpled up, and it's caught at the top of a very high tree. But we're not giving up. She's not the only one missing, and we're still finding people-"

"And bodies?"

Lopez nodded uncomfortably. "We've got a morgue, yes. And everybody's identified. Believe me, we're going to find everybody before the choppers arrive. They're pulling everyone out as fast as they can. As soon as the sun comes up. But the whole ship is spread across the jungle canopy, and it covers a lot of territory. You know that. We've rigged some stairs and ladders to get up into it, so we can pull down the things we need, medical equipment, ordnance, food, water, blankets, cots, everything-but it's a crazy situation. Most of the ship is at a thirty-degree angle, parts of it are tilted as badly as sixty degrees. And there's a lot to do, and not a lot of us left to do it." I thought for a moment that she was going to add, "So please be patient," but she didn't.

"What was all the shooting?"

"Worms. Only a few. Probably locals. The jungle is fairly thick between here and the mandala, and the ground is rough. There's also a couple of big rivers in the way. That's slowing down the bulk of the column. You heard about the column of worms? We've got spybirds tracking with them-they're not moving as fast as we thought. But they are headed directly toward us."

"How reliable is this information?"

"We've got communications buoys up." The buoys were tethered balloons with silver-metal skin and studded with rightangle dimples to create a maximum radar image. The things looked like inflated golf balls, only all the dimples were threesided, as if they had been poked in by the corner of a cube. Any beam hitting the dimple would bounce directly back to its source and generate a bright solid blip. The tether doubled as an antenna for transmissions. The ground anchor was a six-week power supply. A communication buoy was always visible to any network satellite above the horizon.

"Defenses?" I asked.

Lopez nodded. "The contingency plans you wrote-for the most part, they're working. You did good. We're spraying aerogel. We've got prowlers and mines. We've got twelve torches and fifteen rocket launchers. We're okay-"

"Uh-huh. And how many worms in the column?"

"At least sixty or seventy thousand-" She patted my hand. "It's not as bad as it sounds. The choppers have been bombing them all night long. That's slowing them down. They won't be here before tomorrow afternoon. By then, we should all be gone."

"We've gotta find Lizard-"

"We will. I promise you." She looked uncomfortable. "Look, I gotta go. There's still some worms prowling around-"

"Lopez-?" I said it flat.

She stopped, one hand on the flap of the tent. "What?"

"What is it you're not telling me?"

She looked away, looked back, looked uncomfortable. "Sorry. I didn't want to say anything yet-"

"'What?"

She lowered her eyes. She was embarrassed to say it. "Siegel bought the farm."

I was PKD'ed. I didn't feel a thing. The words slammed into me and shattered.

"How?" I barely got the question out.

"A worm. Don't ask."

"He got adventurous, didn't he?"

She shrugged. "It's still out there. We put a harpoon into it and we're tracking it. I'm going to kill it."

"Don't be stupid, Lopez. Let it go-"

She shook her head. "It's not your call, amigo." And ducked out, leaving me alone again. More alone than ever.

Just before dawn, I woke in a cold terrified sweat. It was too quiet. And then I realized why. Benson's noisy breathing had finally stopped. I called for help, but no one came.