Hal shook his head. "Cee's not going to come through that entrance of her own accord," said Hal. "Even if she knows - and I'd bet she does - that it's where all the Guild members vanish to. She's undoubtedly followed Artur, Onete, or some foragers back to the boulder and seen them go under it and not come back out, before this. I'll even bet she's actually come in through the entrance when no one was around, and possibly explored the way beyond, even as far as the ledge." "Well, there you are," said Amid. "Artur feels the way you do. That she knows. And he hates to give up on the thought that if she's really frightened by the soldiers she might prefer us to them and come in. But once that block's in place no single adult, let alone a child, is going to be able to budge it particularly from the outside. It weighs as much as three men your size." "I'd close the entrance now, if I were you," said Hal. "Your first responsibility's to all the people up here, and Artur's feelings are only Artur's feelings." " Yes. "
Amid was clearly unhappy. He pointed to the desk scope. "Did they tell you - Missy and Hadnah - they were going to try to set up a tight-beam link between their observation post and a repeater down here on the ledge?"
Hal nodded. He had a great deal of confidence in Missy and Hadnah, although he had not known that they made a hobby of rock climbing until the present problem had come up. They looked enough alike to be brother and sister, although evidently they were not related. Both were short, well-muscled, blondhaired and young, and they even acted alike-being, as far as their Guild duties and the circle-walking allowed, always in each other's company. "Well, they did it." Amid touched a stud on the desk repeater and it chimed as its screen lit up to show a bulging mass of cliff-face. A second later Missy's face blocked out most of the view of the rock. "Yes, Amid?" her voice said. "There's no sign of soldiers yet. "
Amid moved aside to let Hal look into the screen and be seen above. "I just wanted Friend to see you'd made the connection." "Right. Good morning, Friend. I hope you slept well." "Very well," answered Hal. There was nothing to be done with Exotic manners but live with them. A polite inquiry about his last night's sleep was as out of place in her situation and his in the present moment as a tea party in the midst of an earthquake. "I had five hours. How much did you two have?" "Hadnah's taking a small nap now," said Missy. "After that he can keep watch for a while and I'll take one. Thank you for asking. We're not tired at all, really." "I'm glad to hear that," said Hal. They two must have climbed the better part of a kilometer, vertically, during the night. "Focus your scope on the end of the road for me, now, will you?" "Right." Missy vanished from the screen, and the view of the overswelling rock face above her was replaced by a view from what appeared to be only a dozen meters above the point where the road gave way to a trail. "Pull back your focus," Hal said. "I want to see that spot in relation to the ground around it." "Right. Say when," replied the voice of the now invisible Missy. The scene on the screen seemed to move away from Hal and Amid, taking in more and more ground area as it went, until it showed not only the connection of road-end and trailbeginning but an area of a size that could have been occupied by four city blocks on a side. "Stop," said Hal.
The withdrawal of focus halted. "Let it sit with that view," said Hal. "I'm going out to the edge of the ledge now and I'll be keying my belt scope into the circuit from your repeater down here. You've got up to half a day before any soldiers show up. Take another nap, yourself. If we really need you, we can call you with the chime on your scope." "I'm really quite all right," said Missy, still invisible. "You may not be five days from now, up there," said Hal. "Rest while you can. We'll call you if we need you." "All right, Friend. Thank you." "Don't thank me," said Hal. "I'm just protecting myself against having two overtired observers sometime later on." "Right."
The last word was followed by silence from the scope on the table surface. Hal looked at Amid. "Where's Calas?" he asked. "I can have him found," said Amid. "Do that. Have him come and join me out at the edge of the ledge," said Hal. "Send out Old Man, too." "But Old Man never was a soldier," said Amid, frowning. "I didn't suppose so," said Hal. "But he's a very insightful sort. Tell him I'd like him to join me, if he would."
"He'll be glad to, I'm sure," said Amid. "I will. And you're right. He's a very insightful individual." "And get some rest yourself, when you can," said Hal. "Remember what I just told Missy. This could last five days or more, and we may need to be in the best possible shape at the very end of it. "
He went out, and followed the closest corridor of trees to as close to the lip of the ledge as he could get and still be hidden by tree branches overhead. There, he seated himself in the tree's shade, unfolded his scope and keyed it into the view he had asked Missy to set up from above. The end of the road - and as far down as he could see it before it vanished under the foliage of the treetops that intervened because of the angle of the view - lay alien, intrusive and empty in the jungle, beneath the rapidly warming rays of the brilliant, white pinpoint of sun rising ever higher in the sky overhead.
He looked away from the scope and at the scene as his unaided vision saw it. It would be some time yet, as he had reminded Missy and Amid. He decided to follow Cletus's advice and let his conscious mind run freely over the terrain while waiting for his unconscious mind to produce some process for using it to the advantage of the people of the Guild.
In this case, that meant his remembering the ground as he had covered it during the first part of the previous day. He stared at the greenery below and the ground, together with the growth he had passed on it, began to unreel in the eye of his memory, stride by stride. He was on his third survey of the pattern he had covered when someone dropped down beside him, breathing a little heavily from the hurry in which he had come.
It was Calas. "You wanted me?" said the small, wiry ex-soldier. His black hair was disordered on his head. "How much sleep did you have?" Hal asked. "I didn't fold up until about an hour after you did. But I've slept until now," said Calas. "That's where they found me with the word you wanted me."
Hal considered him. "You're from Ceta," he said. "Where, on Ceta?" "Monroe - I don't guess you ever heard of it," Calas said. Hal shook his head. "It's a tiny state, out in Czardisland Territory. " "Were you in any kind of military outfit there?" "Local militia," said Calas. "Hell, all we did was shoot at targets, parade and get drunk together. We had uniforms, though. "
"And you got picked up for military under the Others and sent here, because of that experience?" "Yes," said Calas. "I should have said I was a rancher - variform sheep. I was that more than I was a soldier. Born and raised on a sheep farm." "Have you any idea which officers and sub-officers might be sent out?" "No," said Calas. "it could be any one of the five force-leaders, any of the groupmen and team-leaders of the active forces. Well now, wait, if the Commandant really wants results, he's most likely to send Force-leader Liu Hu Shen. Liu's the one Force there who really gets a job done. That means at least one of the forces would be his, and two of the groupmen and four team-leaders - ail of them pretty strong on getting things done right, simply because Liu won't have anyone who won't do what he tells them. But the other force-leader and his sub-officers could be anyone - if there is another forceleader. Commandant Essley might just add someone else's force to Liu's. Not that it matters. Any other force-leader sent out is going to be second-in-command to Liu."