This seemed to cheer Terl up. “No crap?” he said.
“What gear protects one?”
Terl said, “There's always radiation around on a planet like this and a sun like this. Small amounts. That's why these breathe-masks have leaded glass in their faceplates. That's why all the canopies are leaded glass. You don't have any.”
“It’s lead that protects one?”
“You'll just have to take your chances,” said Terl, amused, feeling better.
“Can you turn a light up here?” asked Jonnie. There was a thump as he laid a sack on the flat section in front of the windscreen.
“I don't want any lights.”
“Do you think you were followed?”
“No. That spinning disc on the roof is a detection wave neutralizer. You needn't worry about our being traced.”
Jonnie looked up at the top of the tank. In the very dim light he could see a thing planted there. It looked like a fan. It was running.
“Turn a light on this,” said Jonnie. Terl looked at his screens. There were no telltales. "I’ll drive ahead under that tree.”
Jonnie steadied the ore sack as Terl slowly put the car under a mask of evergreens. He stopped again and turned on a light that lit up the area in front of the windshield.
With a lift of his arm, Jonnie spilled about ten pounds of ore onto the tank bonnet. It flashed under the light. It was white quartz and wire gold. And it shone and glittered as though it had jewels in it as well. Eight pounds of it was pure wire gold from the lode.
Terl sat and stared through the windscreen at it. He swallowed hard.
“There's a ton of it there,” said Jonnie. "If it can be gotten out. It 's in plain view.”
The Psychlo just sat and looked at the gold through the windscreen. Jonnie scattered it so it shone better.
He picked up the intercom again. “We're keeping our bargain. You must keep yours.”
“What do you mean?” said Terl, detecting accusation.
“You promised to give food and water and firewood to the females.”
Terl shrugged. “Promises,” he said indifferently.
Jonnie put his arm around the gold and started to sweep it back into the ore sack and withdraw it.
The motion was not lost on Terl. “Quit it. How do you know they aren't being cared for?”
Jonnie let the gold lie. He moved over so the light touched his face. He tapped a finger against his forehead.
“There's something you don't know about humans,” said Jonnie. “They have psychic powers sometimes. I have psychic powers with those females.” It would not do to tell Terl that it was the absence of a fire or a scout that alerted him. All's fair in love and war, as Robert the Fox would say, and this was both love and war.
“You mean without radios, right?” Terl had read about this. He hadn't realized these animals had it. Damned animals.
“Right,” said Jonnie. "If she is not well cared for and if she isn't all right, I know!” He tapped his head again.
“Now I have a pack here,” said Jonnie. “It has food and water and flints and firewood and warm robes and a small tent. I’m going to lash it on top of this tank and right away when you get back, you're to put it in the cage. Also get the cage cleaned up, inside and outside, and fix the water supply.”
“It’s just the tank,” said Terl. “It goes empty, needs to be topped up. I’ve been busy.”
“And take those sentries away. You don't need sentries!”
“How did you know there were sentries?” said Terl suspiciously.
“You just told me so, tonight,” said Jonnie into the intercom. “And my psychic powers tell me they tease her.”
“You can't order me around,” bristled Terl.
"Terl, if you don't take care of the females, I just might take it into my head to wander up to those sentries and mention something I know.”
“What!” demanded Terl.
“Just something I know. It wouldn't cause you to be fired but it would be embarrassing.”
Terl suddenly vowed he had better get rid of those sentries.
“You'll know if I don't do these things?” said Terl.
Jonnie tapped his own forehead in the light.
But the threat had unsettled Terl's spinning wits. On an entirely different tack he demanded, "What'll you do with the gold if you don't deliver it?”
“Keep it for ourselves,” said Jonnie, starting again to put it back in the bag.
Terl snarled deep and threateningly. His amber eyes flared in the darkness of the tank. "I’ll be damned if you will!” he shouted. Leverage, leverage! “Listen! Did you ever hear of a drone bomber? Hah, I thought not. Well, let me tell you something, animaclass="underline" I can lift off a drone bomber and send it right over that site, right over your camp, right over any shelter, and bomb you out of existence. All by remote! You're not as safe as you think, animal!”
Jonnie just stood there, looking at the blank, black windows of the tank as the words avalanched through the intercom.
“You, animal,” snarled Terl, “are going to mine that gold and you're going to deliver that gold and you are going to do it all by Day 91. And if you don't I’ll blast you and all animals on this planet to hell, you hear me, to hell!” His voice ended in a shriek of hysteria and he stopped, panting.
“And when Day 91 comes, and we've done it?” said Jonnie.
Terl barked a sharp, hysterical laugh.
He felt he really had to get control of himself. He sensed he was acting strangely. “Then you get paid!” he shouted.
“You keep your side of the bargain,” said Jonnie. “We'll deliver it.”
Good, thought Terl. He had cowed the animal. This was more like it. “Put that pack on the tank,” he said magnanimously. "I’ll fill the water tank and clean up the place and take care of the sentries. But don't forget my remote control box, eh? You act up and dead females!”
Jonnie tied the vital pack on the vehicle roof. In the process of doing so he removed the wave-neutralizer and put it behind a tree. Terl would think it had been knocked off by the tree branches, perhaps. It might be useful.
Terl had turned the bonnet light off and Jonnie put the ore back in the sack. He knew Terl wouldn't take it with him.
Without saying goodbye, Terl drove off and the tank vanished.
Minutes later, when it was hidden from view and miles away, Dunneldeen climbed out of a mine hole where he had been holding a submachine gun in sweaty hands. He had realized the weapon would do nothing to that tank, but they had not expected Terl to stay in the armored vehicle. Although they would not have shot him, they thought he might have tried to kidnap Jonnie if the girls were dead. Dunneldeen gave a short whistle. Ten more Scots bobbed into view from mine holes, putting their guns on safety.
Robert the Fox came down the from an old ruined wall. Jonnie was still standing there looking off toward the compound.
“That demon,” said Robert the Fox, “is on the verge of insanity. Did ye ken how his talk darted this way and that? The hysteria in his laughter? He's hard driven by something we don't know about.”
“We didn't know about the drone bombers,” said Dunneldeen.
“We know now,” said Robert the Fox. "MacTyler, you know this demon. Wouldn't you say he was borderline daft?”
“Do you suppose he meant to blast you when he drove in?” asked Dunneldeen. “But you handled it very well, Jonnie MacTyler."
“He's dangerous,” said Jonnie.
Two hours later he saw a fire start, a tiny pinpoint of light in the distant cage. Later a scout would confirm the removal of the sentries and he himself would check on the water and Chrissie.
An insane Terl was making this a much more hazardous game they were playing. A treacherous Terl was one thing. A maniac Terl was quite another.