Snowl's voice came back: “Thank you, Your Excellency. Please inform the emissaries that I will honor a temporary suspension of hostilities and at this moment am withdrawing to an orbit clear of this and all Combat areas. End transmission.”
Jonnie was pointing at the emissaries of the other combatants. They were the ones wrecking Edinburgh and Russia! “Lord Fowljopan," said Jonnie, “I am certain any temporary suspension of hostilities includes all combatants.”
“Ah,” said Fowljopan. He thought. “We have no guarantee that only Tolnep ships were up there. It would be irregular for these others not to agree.”
But the Bolbod, Drawkin, Hawvin, and other combatant lords were pointing at Sir Robert who was standing outside the ops room.
“We agree!” shouted Sir Robert with an expression of disgust for their delays.
The combatant emissaries started to look around for communication facilities. A mob of communicators with mikes rushed out and almost knocked them down.
With a spatter and batter of many tongues, the other combatants ordered a temporary suspension of hostilities for all their ships.
Good god, thought Jonnie. All this while men went on dying. It was still very touch-and-go. No one had said hostilities would not be resumed and with even greater ferocity.
And who was this small gray man who exerted such power over them? Where did he fit in? Who was he? What would he want out of all this? Another threat?
Chapter 9
The emissaries were dragging Schleim off when Quong, Sir Robert's Buddhist communicator, ran up to Jonnie.
“Sir Robert asks me to tell you,” whispered the boy, “that there will be a sudden exodus in a moment and not to be alarmed. They have been working it out in ops for the past half-hour and the orders are being issued this instant. There are hundreds of people trapped in shelters in Edinburgh. The tunnel corridors and entrances fell in under heavy bombs. They do not know how many are alive or anything else. He says it is like a caved-in mine. They are leaving in minutes and he wants you to carry on here. If needed he will come back.”
Jonnie felt like a cold hand had gripped his heart. Chrissie and Pattie were part of that.
If they still lived.
“I should go!” said Jonnie.
“No, no,” said the boy Quong. “Sir Robert said you would say that, Lord Jonnie. They will do everything that can be done. He said to tell you he is leaving all this in your hands.”
At that moment pandemonium broke loose. Sir Robert raced out of the ops room. He had somewhere changed his clothes and the gray cloak billowed as he donned it on the run.
“Goodbye, Lord Jonnie," said Quong and raced away.
Sir Robert was at the passage, waving his arm with an urgent swing, “Come on!” he bellowed. “Come on!”
Doctors MacKendrick and Allen sped out of the hospital area, shutting valises as they ran. Allen turned and shouted something at the nurse and then sped on.
The walking wounded hobbled and limped out, heading for the passage.
Four pilots raced by.
Guards who a moment before had been covering Schleim from pits were yelling to one another and a soldier carrying several packs raced toward them and then they were gone.
A crowd of officers and communicators slammed out of ops and headed for the passage exit.
Suddenly, Jonnie was aware of the turmoil and commotion among the Chinese. Mothers were dumping babies and a screech of instructions at older daughters and then running to the exit. The Chinese men were snatching up bits and pieces from the personal baggage, shooing smaller children into the vicinity of the half-grown girls, yelling at each other to hurry. Dogs, snapped on to leashes that were pushed into the hands of young boys, set up a cacophony of barking and howling at being made to stay.
A plane motor started up. Then another.
Three Scot pilots ran out of the ops room, getting into flight clothes and gripping maps.
And all the time Sir Robert was at the exit shouting, “Come on! Come on!”
From the open door of ops, Stormalong's voice was rising above the din. “Victoria? Victoria? Damn it man, keep your radios manned! Take every mine pump you've got. Every atmosphere hose and pump. Got that? I know it's in clear! All right.” A woman communicator in there was taking over. She started to chatter
Pali.
“Come on!” Sir Robert was shouting at the delaying few. “Damn it, Edinburgh is burning!”
A plane took off. Sir Robert was gone. Another plane. Another, another, another. From the whip of sound they were lancing up to hypersonic in seconds. Jonnie wondered whether they were leaving any aircraft at all.
Lord Dom came over to Jonnie. His big, liquidy face looked a bit concerned. “What's happening? Are you abandoning this area? You realize that in a temporary suspension of hostilities it is irregular to use it to arrange the redisposition of military forces to achieve the advantage of surprise when hostilities are resumed. I would caution-”
Jonnie had had just about enough of being Chinko polite for one day. He was worried about Chrissie and Pattie. And very concerned about his village people who had gone to Russia. “They are on their way to try to dig hundreds of people out of collapsed shelters,” said Jonnie. “I don't think your rules apply to noncombatants, Lord Dom. And even if they did, not even you could stop those Scots. They're on their way to save what they can of the Scottish nation.”
Jonnie walked into ops. The place was in a shambles left by the hasty departure. Only the Buddhist woman communicator and Stormalong were there. She had finished her messages and was sitting back, head bowed, exhausted. They had been on straight duty for days without rest. This was the first
“Russia?” said Jonnie to Stormalong.
“I sent the whole contingent at Singapore there over half an hour ago. They took everything they had. It 's just a flight over the Himalayas and they'll be there in another couple of hours. I don't know what they'll find– we haven't heard from Russia for a couple of days.”
“Edinburgh?” said Jonnie. “Nothing for the last hour.”
“Did I hear you sending everyone at Victoria to Scotland?” said Jonnie. “What about the prisoners there?”
“Oh, they gave Ker a blast rifle.” He saw Jonnie's look. “Ker says he'll blow their heads off if they so much as move an eyebone! They left that old woman from the Mountains of the Moon to handle their diets. And all your vital notes are safe-' He was about to add “here” when he saw Lord Dom at the door and looked at him.
Lord Dom said, “I didn't wish to intrude but I couldn't help overhearing. Haven't you left this whole conference area, maybe this whole continent, maybe the planet, without air cover?”
Jonnie shrugged and pointed to Stormalong. “There's he and I."
This startled Lord Dom. He quivered a bit.
Stormalong laughed and said, “Why, that's twice as many as there used to be! Not long ago, there was just him!”
He pointed at Jonnie.
Lord Dom blinked. He stared at Jonnie. The young man didn't seem worried at all.
Lord Dom went off and told his colleagues about this. They discussed it considerably among themselves.
They decided they had better keep a careful eye on Jonnie.
Chapter 10