A bright white little spot among the twinkling stars slowly went past the zenith. Komov got up on his elbows and watched it. It was the Sunflower—a kilometer-long super-long-range Assault starship. It was now orbiting Leonida at a distance of two megameters. They had only to send a distress signal, and help would come from there. But should they send a distress signal? They had lost one pair of shoes, a pack, and something had “seemed” to the chief…
The little white spot grew dim and vanished. The Sunflower had gone off into Leonida’s shadow. Komov lay down again and put his hands behind his head. Aren’t there just too many conveniences? he thought. Warm green plains, sweet-scented air, an idyllic river with no crocodiles… Maybe this is only a smokescreen that some sort of unknown forces are operating behind? Or is everything much simpler? Say Tanya lost her shoes somewhere in the grass. And everyone knows Fokin is a muddler—the lost packs could be lying somewhere under a pile of excavator parts. I mean, today he was running around all day from pile to pile, glancing around on the sly.
Komov must have dozed off. When he awoke again, Palmyra was high in the sky. From the tent where Fokin was sleeping came smacking and snoring sounds. There was whispering on the next roof:
“… As soon as the cable broke, off we flew, leaving Saburo below. He chased after us and shouted for us to stop, then named me captain and ordered me to stop. Of course right away I started steering for the relay mast. We tied up to it and hung there for the whole night. And the whole time we shouted at each other, arguing over whether Saburo should go find Teacher or not. Saburo could go, but wouldn’t, and we would, but couldn’t. Finally in the morning they saw us and got us down.”
“Well, I was a quiet girl. And I was always scared of any sort of machinery. I’m still afraid of cybers.”
“There’s no reason to be afraid of cybers, Tanya. Cybers are gentle.”
“I don’t like them. I don’t like the way they’re sort of animate and inanimate at the same time.”
Komov turned over on his side and looked. Tanya and Ryu were sitting crosslegged on the next roof. Ah, the lovebirds, thought Komov. Tomorrow they’ll be yawning all day. “Tanya,” he said in a low voice, “it’s time to go to sleep.”
“I’m not sleepy,” said Tanya. “We were walking along the bank.” Ryu started to move off in embarrassment. “It’s nice by the river. The moonlight, and the fish jumping…”
Ryu said, “Hey, where’s Doctor Mboga?”
“He’s at work,” said Komov.
“Really!” Tanya said happily, “Ryu, let’s go find Doctor Mboga!”
She’s hopeless, Komov thought, and rolled over onto his other side. The whispering on the roof continued. Komov got up decisively, took his cot, and went back into the tent. It was very noisy there—Fokin was sleeping with all his might. You muddler, you muddler, Komov thought as he settled himself in. Such a night for romance. But you grew your mustache and thought it was in the bag. He wrapped himself up in a sheet and fell asleep instantly.
A muffled roar tossed him on the cot. It was dark in the tent. Ka-thwack! Ka-thwack! thundered two more shots. “The devil!” Fokin yelled in the darkness. “Who’s there?” Komov heard a short harelike cry and a triumphant yell, “Ha! Come here, come with me!” Komov tangled himself up in the sheet and could not get up. He heard a muffled blow, Fokin’s “Ow!”, and then something small and dark showed for an instant, and disappeared through the light triangle of the doorway of the tent. Komov darted after it. Fokin did too, and they bumped heads violently. Komov clenched his teeth and at last flung himself outside. The other roof was empty. Looking around, Komov saw Mboga running through the grass down the street toward the river, and Riu and Tanya following on his heels, stumbling. And Komov noticed something else—someone was running far ahead of Mboga, parting the grass before him—was running much faster than Mboga. Mboga stopped, pointed his carbine straight up with one arm, and fired again. The wake in the grass swerved to one side and disappeared around the corner of the last building. After a second a bird, white in the moonlight, gracefully spread wide its enormous wings, and rose up from that spot.
“Shoot!” yelled Fokin.
He was already dashing down the street, stumbling at every fifth step. Mboga stood motionless, with his carbine lowered, and, craning his neck, watched the bird. It made an even, noiseless circle over the city, gaining altitude, and flew off to the south. In a moment it had disappeared. Then Komov saw more birds flying very low over the base—three, four, five—five enormous white birds shot upward over the cybers’ workplace, and disappeared.
Komov got down from the roof. The dead parallelepipeds of the buildings threw dense black shadows onto the grass. The grass looked silver. Something jingled underfoot. Komov bent over. A cartridge-case gleamed in the grass. Komov crossed over the distorted shadow of the helicopter, and heard voices. Mboga, Fokin, Ryu, and Tanya were walking unhurriedly toward him.
“I had him in my hands!” Fokin said excitedly. “But he knocked me on the head and tore away. If he hadn’t slugged me, I never would have let him go! He was soft and warm, like a child. And naked.”
“We almost caught him too,” said Tanya. “But he turned into a bird and flew away.”
“Come now!” scoffed Fokin. “Turned into a bird…”
“No, really,” Ryu insisted. “He rounded the corner, and right away a bird flew up.”
“So?” said Fokin. “He flushed a bird, and you stood there with your mouths gaping.”
“A coincidence,” said Mboga.
Komov went up to them, and they stopped.
“What exactly happened?” asked Komov.
“I had caught him,” declared Fokin, “but he knocked me over the head.”
“I heard that,” said Komov. “How did it all start?”
“I was sitting on the packs, in ambush,” said Mboga. “I saw someone creeping through the grass right in the middle of the street. I wanted to catch him, and I moved toward him, but he saw me and turned back. I saw I couldn’t catch him, and fired into the air. I’m very sorry, Gennady, but I think I frightened them off.”
Silence reigned. Then Fokin asked doubtfully, “Exactly why are you sorry, Doctor Mboga?”
Mboga did not answer at once. Everyone waited. “There were at least two of them,” he finally said. “I discovered one, and the other was in the tent with you. But when I ran past the helicopter… well, look for yourselves,” he concluded unexpectedly. “You’ll have to examine it. Probably I’m wrong.” Silently Mboga started walking toward the camp. The others, exchanging glances, moved after him. Mboga stopped near the building on which the helicopter was sitting. “Somewhere around here,” he said.
Fokin and Tanya quickly crawled into the dark shadow under the wall. Ryu and Komov looked down expectantly at Mboga. He was thinking.
“There’s nothing here,” Fokin snapped.