"Is Liu just a better soldier than the others," Hal asked, "or does he happen to like hunting down and killing Exotics?" "Likes it, I think," said Calas. "But he's a good officer, too. Probably the best in the garrison - though nobody likes him. With him, it's always done by the numbers. Everything in line of duty, that's Liu."
A faint sound on Hal's other side made them both look and see Old Man now sitting there. He smiled at them, and Hal smiled back. It was a contrast, he thought with approval. Here was Calas, wound up to the tightness of a piano string, while Old Man was his usual self. In fact, a sort of relaxed, almost grandfatherly, warmth seemed to radiate from him as he sat there, and Calas was already perceptibly less tense. "Thank you for joining us," said Hal, and suddenly realized he was talking like an Exotic.
Old Man smiled and bowed slightly from his sitting position. "I didn't ask you to join us," said Hal, "for any specific reason. I'd just like the benefit of your opinion on anything about the situation that you think might help. If you don't mind staying here with us, we'll watch the soldiers as they move in and perhaps you'll have some suggestions to make after you've seen them and the way they act."
Old Man nodded and smiled, He looked out over the jungle below in the direction from which the soldiers would come. Hal turned back to Calas. "You don't have to stay with us now, if you'd like to get breakfast, or some such thing," he said. "In fact, if you came directly here after they woke you and haven't eaten, I'd suggest you get some food into you. It may be a long day's watch. I won't need you back here until after the soldiers are in view on the scope, close enough so that you can tell me who the important ones are and how they might act - or react."
Calas nodded. It was an abrupt, rather ungraceful movement after the nod Old Man had given. He got to his feet. "I'll go eat," he said, "then I'll come back." "Take your time," said Hal. "It'll be three hours yet, anyway, before I expect to see the soldiers - and that's even if they left their garrison at dawn. They wouldn't be Iikely to leave before that, would they?"
Calas gave a grunt of laughter. "No," he said. "Under anyone but Liu, they wouldn't leave even then. They might not get off until noon."
He turned and went. Hal and Old Man sat together in a silence that held no need to be broken. The sun moved up into the sky. The hours passed. After a while Calas came back. It was nearly noon by the time a line of four combat vehicles made their way up the road to the end of the trail and stopped there, letting the search party out. "Liu," said Calas. Hal saw the one he meant. "Porphyry itself hasn't any atmosphere-to-space ships, or any other above-surface vehicle they could use overhead?" Hal asked Calas. "Not Porphyry," said Calas. "They could call some in from Omanton. " "Perhaps that's what they'll do, then," said Hal. He turned to the scope, on which the soldiers were now visible at close range, and pressed the chime stud. The voice of Hadnah spoke to him. "Yes, Friend?" "If Missy's not awake, wake her," said Hal. "Both of you forget the scope for now and watch for the approach of any kind of atmosphere ship. Each of you take half the visible sky to watch. It ought to be coming here in no particular hurry, but as soon as you see anything in the air, even if you're not sure it's headed this way, let us know below here. Amid, are you listening?" "I'm Iistening for Amid. He's lying down for a bit," said the voice of Artur. "Good. Make him rest as much as you can. Have everybody make sure they're undercover, starting now. We may have aerial observation at any moment from now on. Calas says they may get air assistance from Omanton. I don't know where that is, but it's got to be close as above-surface travel goes." "I'll have someone check to see everyone's hidden, right away, Friend. " "Good," said Hal. "I'll let you go now."
Artur sounded as if he was in control of himself, Cee or no Cee, Hal thought as he turned back to closely examining the soldiers shown in the scope. He touched the controls to move his own picture to a closer view of the soldiers who had just got out of their vehicles and were forming up in units. "All right," he said to Calas, "Liu is obvious, with that force-leader's insignia on his lapels. Tell me about the subofficers." "Right. See that thin groupman in the tailored uniform, with the black, black eyebrows, right by Liu, there?" said Calas. "That's the Urk, Sam Durkeley. He's Liu's pet. That groupman just getting out of the cab of the second vehicle, and the one forming up the first unit of men, are new since I was there. I don't know them. The other groupman just beyond the Urk is Ali Diwan. The only team-leader I know is the one backing the first vehicle off the road to turn it around, so it's ready to head back. That's Jakob... can't remember his last name. He's pretty decent, compared to most of them. There's more I don't know than I thought. I forget how long it's been since I joined the Guild." "It looks as if Liu is setting up a command post just off the end of the road there," said Hal. "They're putting up a shelter. Do you suppose Durkeley'll stay with him?" "He wouldn't be wearing that tailored uniform if he'd expected to go slogging through the jungle," said Calas. "No, the Urk'll be where Liu is, you can count on it." "And Liu is obviously staying at the end of the road," said Hal. "That ought to mean he's got enough confidence in his sub-officers to let them make the search out of his sight, since you said he was the most capable of the garrison's force-leaders. he wouldn't be letting them do it on their own simply because he was lazy or unsure of himself." "Right," said Calas. "He's either got them scared, like old Jakob there, or trained like the Urk. That doesn't mean he won't come on in, himself, if they find anything, or run into any trouble. Or he might show up when they don't expect him just to keep them wound up. That's the way he is."
The search party continued to get out of their vehicles, form up and move off into the jungle. "Calas," Hal said abruptly, "have you any idea how many more scopes we have that aren't in use at the moment?" "No," said Calas, "I don't."
He scrambled to his feet. "I'll go find out," he said. "If there's three more that can be spared, will you bring them out here to me?" said Hal. "From the way they're deploying I'd guess they're going to follow the plan of dividing up the area and putting a team in each section. We may need to keep track of several different parties simultaneously." "I'll be back as quick as I can," said Calas, and went off at a run down the corridor of trees. Hal's eyes met those of Old Man and Old Man smiled gently at him. The scope before Hal chimed. "Craft approaching by air at three o'clock," said the voice of Missy, off screen.
CHAPTER 25
The craft was a surface-to-orbit shuttle bus, completely unsuited to surveillance of the sort it was being put to here. The Occupation was clearly hard up for space-and-atmosphere craft. since the Exotics had given away most of these with their spaceships to Old Earth, before yielding to control by the Others.
Very probably its pilot knew that this trip was simply a waste of its time and his, for the craft made two explosive, supersonic passes over the area where the troops were, far above the speed at which any naked eye observation would have been possible. Pictures, of course, could have been taken, but even if they had been, Hal doubted that they would be subjected to the timeconsuming, careful examination that an expert would have to make to discover evidence of human occupation anywhere on them. The time-cost of such expert attention to all the small areas probably being searched at the same time would be prohibitive.
The chance was still there, of course. But it was so small that he thought they could afford not to worry about that until it proved to have some substance.
Having made its passes, the shuttle bus disappeared. Hal, with the other two, went back to watching the deployment of the soldiers below into their various assigned areas of search.