They both took long pulls from the bottle. Alec could feel the liquor burning out the dampness inside him.
“Well,” Will said, as pleasantly as if they were lounging together on the Moon, “what did you want to talk about? Not the weather, I suppose?”
Alec laughed. “No, not that.” Then, more seriously, “You know what’s going to happen when the ground hardens, don’t you?”
Will tried to erase the smile on his face, but he was only partially successful. “Yep. Kobol’s bringing a whole raft of raiders and swamp-runners up here to attack us. It’s been tried before.”
“You don’t have to look so damned cheerful about it!” Alec snapped.
“Should I run away and hide? Look, we’ve been through this kind of thing before. Why, the first winter Douglas and I…”
“You’ve never seen an army this big,” Alec interrupted. “And they’ll be better armed than any gang that’s been put together since the sky burned.”
“H’mm. Well. Is that what you came to tell me?”
“I want you to get out before the fighting starts. Take Angela with you. I don’t want either of you hurt.”
“Leave Douglas? She’d never do that. Neither would I.”
“You’ve got to!” Alec insisted. “There’s no way for you to help him now. He’s the reason for the fighting, he’s the one they’re going to be after. If we can get him without risking your lives…”
But Will was shaking his head. “You don’t understand, Alec. I can’t leave Douglas. I’d sooner chop off my arm. My drinking arm! We’re friends, closer than brothers, really.”
Alec said nothing.
“It’s really Angela you’re worried about, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“She’s worried about you, too. She was damned sore when you left without even telling her you were going. I think she would have gone with you, I really do.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell her,” Alec said.
“Well, all that’s in the past. She surely won’t go anywhere now. She’d never leave Douglas, not with all this trouble brewing up…” A thought seemed to strike him. “Unless…”
“Unless what?”
Will grinned as he answered, “Well, maybe if you were there at the base, helping us to fight off these riff-raff of Kobol’s, then if things got really bad you could get her out and get to someplace safe.”
Alec stared at him. He’s not putting me on He really believes what he just said.
“Will,” Alec said softly, “don’t you realize that I can’t fight on Douglas’s side?”
“Oh, I don’t know. There are a lot of things you don’t realize, even yet. He tried damned hard for a lot of years to get them to listen to reason back at the settlement. He didn’t just decide to go off and make a kingdom for himself here on Earth. He was pushed. By Kobol and the others.”
“The others?”
“Other members of the Council. Douglas was pushed out of power by those he trusted most. Those he loved most, too.”
“Meaning my mother.”
Completely serious now, Will nodded. “Alec, you probably won’t believe me, and you may end up hating me for even saying it, but… well, by golly, your mother helped to push Douglas into doing what he did. She knew he had no choice. She gave him nothing to return to, and they both knew it when he left for Earth. She didn’t want him back.”
The coldness congealed over Alec again. “You’re right,” he said, deadly soft. “I don’t believe you.”
The big redhead made a helpless gesture with his hands. “It’s the truth.”
“I’m sure it’s what he told you. But it’s not the truth. I’ll never believe it. Never.”
“That’s a… shame.”
“There’s something you ought to know, Will,”
Alec said. “I’m not just joining with Kobol’s forces. I’m leading them. I’m in command.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re going to have to try to kill each other. And we’re friends.”
“That’s why I want you to get away. And take her with you.”
“No, I can’t do that. He’s my friend too. And your father.”
“I’m coming after him. Don’t stand in my way. Don’t try to protect him.”
Sadly, in a voice so low that Alec barely heard it, Will said, “Don’t make me choose between you and him, Alec. You’ll lose.”
“We’ve already made our choices,” Alec said.
“They were made twenty years ago.”
Chapter 27
Even though they assembled as quickly as possible it still took weeks for Kobol’s army to straggle all its various units together in a valley on the edge of Douglas’s territory.
Alec had never seen so many human beings before. He stood on the crest of the highest hill in the area, under a maple tree that was just breaking out in young fresh leaves and watched the awesome sprawl of trucks, jeeps, horses, wagons, and men.
Ron Jameson stood beside him. “That ought to be enough men to conquer the whole world,” he said.
“I don’t like having them all bunched together like this,” Alec said. “If Douglas’s people spot them, and if he’s got nuclear weapons or airplanes…”
“’We’ve intercepted all his patrols,” Jameson said calmly. “And I doubt if there are any nukes or airplanes left in the world.”
“It would only take one.”
With a slight shrug, Jameson answered, “We can be ready to move in two days. I think we can keep Douglas’s patrols from finding us for that long.”
“Two days?”
Nodding, “Check. The men have moved a lot harder and faster than they wanted to, just to get here. They need time to catch their breaths, get their weapons ready, and absorb your battle orders.”
That leaves me two days to deal with Kobol, Alec thought.
“On the other hand, if we all sit still here for more than two days,” Jameson added drily, “the different packs in this glorious conglomeration will start fighting each other. There’s not an overabundance of friendship down in that valley.”
Alec nodded. “Let’s get to work.”
It was fully night, after the evening meal, before Alec was able to get to Kobol. The older man was being held under virtual arrest in one of the caves that honey-combed the valley’s hillsides.
His quarters were a small cavern whose sloping wails and roof were laced with stalactites of a thousand different hues. The only entrance was a narrow passage, barely wide enough for a man to squeeze through sideways. Alec had posted an armed guard at the outer end of the passage.
Kobol was sitting on an ancient, creaking bunk, his good leg folded under him and his head bent down as he intently wrote in rapid script on a paper he held in his lap. Alec saw that the bunk was covered with sheets of paper, all filled with his writing.
“Good evening,” Alec said.
Kobol hardly looked up. A slightly raised eyebrow was his only greeting. Then he returned to his writing. It was damp in the cave, Alec realized.
It probably makes his bad leg feel like hell, he thought.
Aloud he said, “There’s something I haven’t told you.”
“Oh?” Still not looking up.
“I know where the fissionables are stored.”
The pen stopped in mid-stroke.
“I want you to head a special force to seize them before Douglas has a chance to destroy them.”
That straightened Kobol’s back. He pushed the paper off his lap and unfolded his long legs. Somehow it reminded Alec of a snake uncoiling. “You think he might sabotage them?” Kobol asked.
“It’s a possibility. He might even have them booby-trapped, or set to go off in a nuclear explosion that will take everything with it.”