The Chantry Guild

CHAPTER 25

The craft was a surface-to-orbit shuttle bus, completely unsuited to surveillance of the sort it was being put to here. The Occupation was clearly hard up for space-and-atmosphere craft. since the Exotics had given away most of these with their spaceships to Old Earth, before yielding to control by the Others.

Very probably its pilot knew that this trip was simply a waste of its time and his, for the craft made two explosive, supersonic passes over the area where the troops were, far above the speed at which any naked eye observation would have been possible. Pictures, of course, could have been taken, but even if they had been, Hal doubted that they would be subjected to the timeconsuming, careful examination that an expert would have to make to discover evidence of human occupation anywhere on them. The time-cost of such expert attention to all the small areas probably being searched at the same time would be prohibitive.

The chance was still there, of course. But it was so small that he thought they could afford not to worry about that until it proved to have some substance.

Having made its passes, the shuttle bus disappeared. Hal, with the other two, went back to watching the deployment of the soldiers below into their various assigned areas of search.

It was a slow dispersal, and the soldiers were not driving themselves to accomplish it with anything more than casual speed. As the units departing the roadhead broke up into smaller and smaller units, their pace slowed progressively, until by the time they were down to the four individuals that seemed to be the team number for an individual section of territory, they were literally loafing along, and when at last they reached the area that was to be theirs alone to search, they put themselves first to the leisurely business of setting up temporary camps.

Meanwhile, Procyon moved across the sky overhead and the day wore on. Hal and Old Man sat still, engrossed in the developing situation as shown on the screens of the four scopes that now sat in front of them since Calas had rejoined them. None of the soldiers, as yet, were close enough for naked-eye observation. But Calas became more and more restless as the day wore on. Hal could feel the tension in the wiry little man growing with the passing hours. "Why don't they get it done, damn it?" exploded Calas finally. "Do you know about the battle of Thermopylae?" asked Hal.

Calas turned to look at him. "No," Calas said. "It' happened on Old Earth, nearly three thousand years ago," Hal said. "Persia, a huge empire of that time, set out to conquer the city-states of the Greeks on a peninsula reaching down from the southern part of Europe into the Mediterranean Sea. Xerxes, the Persian ruler, attacked the Peninsula with a vast army. His forces clashed with seven thousand Greeks on a narrow strip of coastline with the sea on one side and steep cliffs on the other. The sea was barred to the Persians by Greek ships. The seven thousand Greeks on land were mainly from Sparta, a city that produced the best hoplites in the world then - men armed with large shields and long spears, fighting in close formation. "

Hal paused. Calas was, at least, listening with every sign of interest. "For three days of fighting Xerxes tried to get past the Spartans. But Leonidas, King of Sparta and their commander, with his troops, who, were mostly Spartans, held them. Then a Greek traitor showed the Persians a narrow footpath up over the cliffs. They started to go up and around the Spartans to take them from behind. Leonidas, learning of this, sent most of his soldiers off in retreat. He, himself, and three hundred of his Spartans with some of the allies from other cities, stayed and defended. They who stayed died fighting, but what they did allowed those sent off to get away safely." He paused again, this time glancing at Calas. "The place where they fought the Persians and died," he said, "is called Thermopylae, and after, there was an inscription put up there. It said 'go, stranger and tell the Spartans we lie here in obedience to their command.' "

Hal stopped, he reached out and enlarged the view on one of the scopes. "And?" said Calas. "What has all this three-thousand-year old history to do with what we've got down there?"

He jerked his hand at the valley below. "Just that Leonidas knew what he was deciding to do when he chose to stay and die - and those with him knew." Hal looked directly into the eyes of Calas. "We only have one life, and at its end, there's one important question only. Whether what we did praises or condemns us in our own eyes. And judgment can rest on any moment's decision or action, from all our years.

Old Man bowed as only he could from a seated position, toward Hal. Hal looked at him. "Now, why?" he said to Old Man. "I only put a truth into words. " "It was the truth I bowed to," said Old Man, and smiled. "All right, all right..." muttered Calas, peering into his scanner, "you don't have to underline it. Maybe I know what you mean better than you think. Don't forget I figured myself for dead, under the rocks of that slide, when I heard those mates of mine taking off without digging for me."

But from then on he watched the screen before him closely, continuously and without fidgeting.

By the time the sun began to set, the soldiers below had all made their individual camps. A few of the separate teams had even made a brief search of part of their assigned area. But most had simply spent their time setting up shelters and building a fire. They sat around the fires as darkness grew, talking and drinking from their canteens, and when, at last, there was nothing to be seen from the ledge but deep shadow where forest foliage had been visible, the numerous firelights flickered and twinkled like echoes of the stars that grew into brightness overhead. "Friend?"

Hal had heard the footsteps coming up behind them, but, still caught in his long day's observation of what was below, on identifying them as the footsteps of Artur he had merely noted them, and returned to his concentration on what was lit on the screen before him by the light of one of the fires below. Now he roused and answered. "Yes?" he said.

He got to his feet, cramped by the long watch. Beside him, Calas and Old Man were also rising. "I thought I could take over for you here," said Artur. "At night, there's not much need for a skilled watcher, and you'll need rest." "True," said Hal.

The darkness was deep enough so that the two men were standing close together. Hal caught the faint sour odor of nervous perspiration from the other. Fresh sweat raised by the body in response to physical effort did not have that smell. "I'll head back in, then," he added. "Calas, Old Man, come along. Amid's probably going to want to talk to us about what we've seen."

He stepped around Artur, making it a point to pass so closely his elbow brushed lightly for a second against the shirt of the Assistant Guildmaster. Sure enough, Artur's shirt was soaked through with sweat. "Make sure you get enough sleep yourself," Hal said to Artur as he passed, "Don't worry about me," Artur's voice came, controlled and level behind him. "I'm wide awake." "Good," said Hal.

He led the two with him to Amid's reception building. Within, Amid was talking, also by firelight, but artificial illumination as well, to Onete." - All right," said Onete, breaking off whatever she had been saying as he came in the door. "I'll be going."

She smiled at Hal and the others as she passed them on her way out. The door shut behind her.

"Come and sit down," said Amid. They did so. There was a rough circle of chairs to one side of the table where the map was laid out, in one of which Amid sat. They took others facing him. "You put in an extended watch," Amid said. "How are you all?" "Myself," said Hal, "I'm still a little stiff from sitting that long. But it's something that'll work itself out." "I'm fine," said Calas - but there was tiredness to be heard in his voice. Old Man smiled and nodded. "What were you able to figure out about them, and their plans for searching?" Amid asked Hal. "Most of what I saw just confirmed what I told you earlier," said Hal. "They've clearly divided the area into small sections they're going to search in no great hurry, with units of four searchers to the section. Thanks to Calas, I understand more about some of their officers than I did. But before we get into that, you know that Artur's taken over as night guard, replacing us?" "Yes," said Amid. His wrinkled old face squeezed up in a frown that would have been almost comical if it had not been so concerned. "He knows it doesn't do any good, but he feels better out there, where he can watch where Cee must be, even if he doesn't know exactly where she is and couldn't see her down there, even if he knew. There's no great need for him to be doing anything else. I thought he might as well be busy at what he wanted, so I agreed to let him take the night watch. There's no problem with that, is there?" "Not from the standpoint of safety," Hal said. "How much sleep has he had?" "He told me he'd had over six hours last night," said Amid I'll've only got his word for it. What is it? Are you afraid he might fall asleep out there on watch?" "No," said Hal. "But you can be wide awake on very little sleep and still not thinking straight - even though you think you are."

"I'm not sure I believed that about the six hours, but I believe him when he says he couldn't sleep now if he tried," said Amid -

"Why's it important? The soldiers certainly won't do anything during the night?"

"No," said Hal. "They can't search in the dark, and they're not the type for night exercises, even if they were trained to it, which I doubt." "I never got any training in night exercises, when I was with them," said Calas. "Garrison people, that's all they are." "But what did you learn, then?" asked Amid. "Anything that can help?" "That surveillance craft possibly took pictures of the whole area," Hal said, "but as we agreed last night, it's doubtful they'll be studied by anyone able to pick up the small signs that'd show we're here, under the cover and camouflage you've set up. Chances are more likely some officer'll just run an eye quickly over them to see if there're any obvious signs of people - and that, they won't find." "Yes, but the soldiers," said Amid. "How likely are they to notice some sign of our presence, down there in the flatland? After all, we do have foragers down there often, and there's the spot where Onete's been meeting Cee." "I'd hate to promise anything," Hal said, "but even if they do recognize some signs of people, from what I saw today I think we'll be fairly safe if we just sit tight up here. That ought to include, by the way, not making any noises that could be reflected down into the valley. As we sat on the edge of the ledge, I could hear the sounds of the Guild people moving about here, reflected off that cliff-face above us. Sound rises rather than falls, but we should still keep things quiet until the soldiers are gone," "We can do that," said Amid. He made a note. "I'll see to it."

"As far as the soldiers themselves go," Hal said, "they all moved clumsily through the forest, making harder work than they needed to of getting places in it. They've got the city-bred tendency to try to push their way through undergrowth with main strength, rather than slip through at the best place for it. Also, very few of them set up camp in the best places available. The few who did, I think, did it by accident. They're certainly not Woods-wise, and they're probably not too happy to be here. That attitude'll help make them careless when they start searching. "

He paused.

"Those are the most certain points about them I picked up today, that and the information Calas was able to give me about certain officers. Basically, from what Calas says, we've got to deal with a commander who's something of a martinet, leading poorly trained and motivated troops. What that adds up to is that he'll probably be used to clubbing them - metaphorically speaking - to get results. Which in turn means they'll slack off the minute he's out of sight, no matter how much they might be afraid of him finding out about their doing that, later. I'd guess that unless something favors them, we're pretty secure up here. Cee, even, should be fairly safe down there, unless she literally walks into their hands."

He stopped and looked questioningly at Old Man. "Anything to add?" he asked. "They'll sleep poorly tonight," said Old Man with one of his gentle smiles. "They're people of bad conscience trying to rest under unfamiliar conditions. Their sleep and their dreams will be bad, and tomorrow they'll be more tired than usual, and so more likely to miss seeing things they might notice otherwise."

He fell silent and, with Hal, looked at Calas. Calas cleared his throat. "Me?" he said. "You want a report from me on them?" "Certainly," said Hal. "Well, I wasn't really watching them the way I should have, earlier in the day. I didn't really look at them - then. Friend, I have you to thank for making me try to actually see them, rather than just sit up there and swear at their being here." "What did you see when you did look closely?" Hal said. "A lot of them're new since I was there. Not that there's any really knew well, but the faces of the ones who were there when I was there, I'd recognize. You know? So, most of them are faces I never saw before, which means they're new, but they're going to be just like we all were. Most of them'll have come out with something to drink - liquor, I mean - in their canteens or hidden in the equipment they're carrying, and so most of them'll be drinking tonight. I'd have been drinking, even though I wasn't that much of a drinker when I was with them, just to help me sleep out here and make it more comfortable. More'n a few'll have hangovers, tomorrow."

He paused a moment.

"Some won't drink at all, of course," he said. "We've got some Friendlies and others who've got individual reasons for never drinking. Anyway, that's one thing."

Hal, Amid and Old Man waited. "Something else, though," said Calas. "I didn't think of it until you told me about decisions, but friends tend to stick together, and the groupmen and team-leaders usually let them. Because that makes it easier for the sub-officers. That means in most of those units of four, there's almost sure to be at least two who're side-by-siders. That means those two'll stick together and the other two'll have to tag along with them. Also it means that one of the two is the leader of the two. So you've got one man in each four-man unit who'll probably end up making up the minds of the other three, whenever there's something to make up minds about. I don't know just how knowing that'll help, but maybe you, Friend, can see some use in it."

Hal nodded slowly. "It may apply," he said. "Apply to what?" Amid asked sharply, then immediately softened his voice to its usual gentle tone. "I'm sorry. Do I sound bad-tempered? I don't mean to. It's just that it's been a long night and a long day- "You don't sound bad-tempered," said Hal, "and to answer your question, there's something about what I saw of their dispersal down there today that bothers me. There're patterns to everything that humans do, and there's something about the pattern of the way they've set up for their search that bothers me, only I can't put my finger on just what it is. I've got my own system for figuring out cause and effect, which generally helps with problems like this, but right now it doesn't seem to have enough information to work with. I'll be able to tell you more tomorrow, when they begin actively searching. "

The door to the building banged open and Onete entered, followed by two men wearing the large white kitchen duty aprons everyone used on that job. All three were carrying trays heavy with cloth-covered dishes. Amid popped to his feet and whisked the map off the table as Onete led her companions to it.

They set the trays down on the table and began unloading the dishes. "You haven't eaten, any of you, all day," said Amid. "I asked Onete to go for food as soon as you got here. I may not be able to get Artur to eat, but I can make sure the rest of you are fed. "

At the sight and smell of the food in the dishes, Hal became aware of how hungry he was. "Thank you," he said, pulIing his chair up to the table as Old Man and Calas joined him.

After they had eaten and the others had gone, Hal stayed behind at Amid's request. "I'm worried about Artur," said Amid. "As I said, he's not eating. I don't really believe he's sleeping, either. He acts just the way he does usually, but I know him well enough to know he's tearing himself to pieces over this business of Cee being down there with those soldiers. You see, he feels responsible." "Yes," said Hal, "that would fit his pattern." "He shares your belief, as we were saying," Amid went on, "that Cee's probably followed one of us back under the boulder and right up to the ledge. That she knows where we live. He's afraid that if the soldiers catch her, they may assume she's one of us and try to get her to tell them where we are. "Yes," said Hal, "that would fit their pattern, too." "So, if they threaten to hurt her to make her talk, she'll have no choice but to tell them. Then, when they find the stone in place, they may think she's lying and doesn't really know, and then they'll kill her. On the other hand we can't leave the way open, so in a way we - and he - will be responsible for her death, and she's just a little girl." "Never try to predict what an individual will do under torture," Hal said. "It's not a matter of will power. The individual doesn't even know himself until the time comes. The bravest can crack and people you wouldn't expect it from will die without saying a word. She might simply refuse to talk at all." "But then they might torture her to death, to try to make her talk!" Amid seemed to shrink. "We can't let that happen!" "You can. You must - if there's no way to avoid it," said Hal. "It won't save her to throw away the lives of everyone else in the Guild - and what the Guild might mean for the rest of your Exotics, someday. But keep your mind filled about how horrible Cee's situation could be, and sooner or later you, or Artur, or somebody else'll try some scheme that doesn't have a chance of succeeding, one that'll dump all of you into the soldiers' hands." "Even if we could-," said Amid. "Even if we could accept sacrificing her, Artur never could. Never!" " Then lock him up," said Hal, "until the soldiers are gone." "We can't do that!" "He'd hate you for it," said Hal. "But it may be the kindest way of dealing with him." "I'll speak to him," said Amid. He did not wring his hands. They lay still in his lap, but he might as well have been wringing them. "If he can convince the rest he believes Cee will be safe-" "You know yourself that's not good enough, even if he could do it," said Hal. "Your fellow Guild members are almost all Exotics. They're too empathic to be fooled just by his pretending not to be concerned. He's actually got to face the chance that Cee may die, and, by his example in facing that fact, lead the rest of the community into facing it, too. Anything less than that won't work. More than that, it'd be wrong." "Wrong?" Amid sounded shocked. "Yes," said Hal, "because you'd be letting a situation that's out of your control upset your people at the very time when this community needs to keep its morale as high as possible, and its thoughts as clear as possible. I promise you, if I see any hope of doing anything at all for Cee, I'll let you all know and I'll do it myself, if that's what's best. But until a real chance to help her appears, two things need to be done, and they're very hard things, especially for you Exotic-born Guild members. One, the members have to accept the fact that whatever is going to happen to Cee will happen, and they can't do anything about it, as things stand now. Second, Artur has got to face that fact himself, and show the rest of the community that he's done so."

There was a long moment before Amid answered. "It'll be hard enough for us," he said. "For Artur impossible. " "Then lock him up, as I say."

Amid did not answer. Hal got to his feet. "I'm sorry," he said gently, looking down on the old man who seemed to have shrunk within the confines of his chair until he was no bigger than child-sized himself. "Sooner or later everyone reaches a day on which he or she has to face things like this. It does no good to pretend such a day won't ever come."

He waited, a moment longer. "It's your decision," he said. "If you think of some way I can help, call me. I'm going to get some rest now, while I can."

He went out. The following morning he watched the sunrise as usual with Old Man and then took his position on the ledge's lip with the scopes. Calas joined them shortly thereafter. But it was a good three hours after that before the first of the searching groups down below began to go to work, and at that time some of them had just wakened.

Hal leaned forward suddenly and turned up the magnification on one of the scopes. "Calas," he said. "What's that they're putting on the ends of their needle guns? Something like an explosives thrower."

Calas looked. "Oh, that," he said. "They're catch-nets. They use them a lot when chasing escaped prisoners - or taking any prisoners they'll want to question before they shoot them. You know how a needle gun works?"

Hal smiled. "Yes," he said. As he had learned, growing up on Dorsai, the riflelike needle gun was a universal favorite as a weapon for field troops mainly because its magazine could hold up to four thousand of the needles that the weapon fired.

Each of the needles could be lethal if it hit a vital spot, but a spray of them was almost certain to bring down a human target, one way or another. The needles were slim little things, hardly bigger than their average namesakes that were used for ordinary sewing. A kick from a machine-wound spring unit or from a cylinder of highly compressed air flicked the needles clear of the muzzle of the gun and started them toward their target. But each needle was like a miniature rocket. A solid propellant, ignited by the needle's escape from the muzzle of the rifle, drove it up to three hundred meters in a straight line toward whatever it had been aimed at. All needles fired on the same trigger pull formed a spiral pattern that spread as it approached its target, like shot from the muzzle of an ancient shotgun.

The advantages lay, therefore, in the amount of firepower from a relatively light weapon, plus the fact that the needle gun was almost invulnerable to disablement through misuse. You could drag it through the mud, or recover it from being under half a mile of water for six months, and it would still work. Moreover, the fact that it could be used in poorly trained hands to spray the general area of an enemy like a hose, made it extremely popular.

It also could deliver a number of auxiliary devices, kicking them clear with spring or compressed gas, to be self-propelled toward a particular target. But this catch-net device was one Hal had never encountered before, probably because, as Calas had said, its design fitted it rather for police than military use. "They've got seeker circuits in the noses," said Calas. "Once fired, the catch-net capsule homes in on the first human body it comes close to - combination of body heat, bodily electrical circuitry and so forth, I understand - and when it gets right close to them, it blows apart and spreads a net that drops over the body. As I say, they use them for recapturing prisoners and things like that. In fact, I think the catch-net was designed in the first place for prison guards and police crowd control. That sort of thing."

Hal checked the other scopes. All the soldiers who were ready to begin searching had the catch-net capsules perched like blunt-nosed rockets on the barrel-ends of their needle guns.

He sat back to see how the search would develop. As the sun mounted in the sky, this second morning, all the individual search units were finally at work. Hal checked the command post at the roadhead and saw that Liu was still there, with the sergeant Calas had called "the Urk" in attendance. Outside Liu's shelter an operations table with map screen in its surface and permanently mounted scopes stood in the daylight. One of the vehicles in which the searching party had come out was still there and parked by the table, undoubtedly generating power for the table, as well as the comforts of the command shelter, on tight-beam circuit.

Old Man reached over suddenly, just before noon, and tapped with his finger on the screen of the scope before Hal. Hal looked, but saw nothing to explain the other man's drawing his attention to it. Still, the slim, yellow fingertip rested on the screen, which was now showing a mass of forest undergrowth just beyond the two soldiers they had in focus there at the moment. Hal kept his eyes on that area of the screen, waiting, and, after a moment, he too saw what had caught Old Man's eye - a flicker of movement.

He watched. A small, slim, brown body was moving parallel to the searching soldiers, at a distance from them of perhaps ten meters. Hal continued to watch and for a moment she was fully in view, before the greenery hid her again. It was Cee, with, as before, nothing but the length of vine with its split-open pod shape a few inches to one side of her navel. "I don't think they've seen her," said Hal. "No," answered Old Man. "Seen who?" demanded Calas. Once more Old Man's finger tapped and held on the screen. Calas stared at it. After a long moment he whistled softly and sat back.

He looked at Hal. "What should we do?" he asked. "What would you suggest we do?" Hal said, meeting his eyes. Calas stared at him for a long moment and then looked away. Hal softened his voice. "For now," he said, "you concentrate on that screen. Try to keep Cee in sight, but watch particularly for any sign either of those soldiers've spotted her." "Yes. Yes, I will," said Calas, fixing his gaze tightly on the screen.

Hal flicked the controls on another scope so that he had a view of the whole area. A few more finger-taps overlaid the picture of the land below with a ghostly map of that same area, but divided into sections, with small bright lights in each section, each representing one of the searching soldiers.

The pattern in the process of search which he had not been able to find but which he had sensed was in the making there still bothered him. The troops below were equipped not only with their weapons but with all other ordinary field equipment, including helmets that would have built-in communications equipment, putting them in verbal contact with their fellow searchers, their immediate sub-officer, and even the command base. He wished for a moment he could tune in on what was being said over that communications network. That reminded him of another, earlier, wish, which was that the Guild, in addition to what other equipment they had possessed, had seen fit to equip themselves with a long range ear-gun - a listening device that allowed the one using it to pick up even a faint noise from a specific spot no larger than an adult human hand and a kilometer or more distant.

As it was, he had a view of the searchers, but no idea of what they were saying. With the ear-gun he could have overheard conversations even back at the command post where Liu waited. But to want what was not available was a waste of time. He put both desires from him and considered the pattern of ghost map and lights once more.

With intuitional logic he should have been able to track down what he felt immediately. The fact he could not meant that to intuitional logic the pattern he sensed was not there. Either there actually was no such thing, or a necessary link in the logic chain that would relate it to what he saw at the moment was missing. A word overheard from one of the searchers might have filled that gap. Particularly since he had known Amanda, he trusted his instincts more than ever before, and now his instincts were positive that there was a pattern to the development of the situation below him that he could not yet see.

He leaned forward sharply to peer at the screen he had been watching. "What is it?" asked Calas. He glanced up to see both Calas and Old Man watching him. "Is Cee still following those two soldiers?" Hal asked. "Yes." Calas nodded emphatically. "Has either one of them seen her, as far as you can tell?" "Not as far as I could tell." "Or I," said Old Man unexpectedly.

Hal looked back at the screen before him. "What is it?" said Calas again. "They may not be as inept as I was thinking they were," said Hal. "Perhaps some of them've had some field training after all. " "Some'll have had training rounding up prisoners before," said Calas. "That's all." "That may be enough," said Hal. He pointed at the screen before him with the ghost map and the lights. "Or they may be wearing some special equipment - heat sensors or such that would warn them Cee was following. Those two soldiers just began searching outside their own area." "Outside... ?" said Calas. "They're still moving in a straight line, and it's taken them over into the territory of another search unit - as best I can judge where the boundaries of the territories are-"

He broke off. "There it is," he said. "I see what they're doing now." "What are they doing?" asked Calas. "Those soldiers Cee's following have spotted her after all. They're leading her on. Take a look at the screen. The other search teams are changing their pattern. The team leading her is keeping on going forward, to lead her into position, and gain time for a good number of the others who're close to move into a circle around her. Then, as they move in, using their helmet communication, they'll draw the circle tighter around her. When she finally begins to suspect and makes a break for it, it'll not only be these two, but a lot of the others, who ought to have a good shot at her with those catch-nets of theirs. Unless she stops following these two now, I think she's virtually certain to be captured."

There was the sound of feet on the gravel-like soil behind them. They all turned. Onete came up and stopped before them all. But it was to Hal she spoke. "Artur's gone," she said breathlessly. "Evidently, he left last night. Rolled the boulder aside and rolled it back in place after him. He left a note by the boulder.

She paused to catch her breath. "He said he was sorry, but he had to go down to do what he could to protect Cee. He asked them to leave the boulder in place as long as they could before they felt they had to replace it with the rock plug. Just in case he was able to bring her back up to safety after all."