"I'm not sure I believed that about the six hours, but I believe him when he says he couldn't sleep now if he tried," said Amid -
"Why's it important? The soldiers certainly won't do anything during the night?"
"No," said Hal. "They can't search in the dark, and they're not the type for night exercises, even if they were trained to it, which I doubt." "I never got any training in night exercises, when I was with them," said Calas. "Garrison people, that's all they are." "But what did you learn, then?" asked Amid. "Anything that can help?" "That surveillance craft possibly took pictures of the whole area," Hal said, "but as we agreed last night, it's doubtful they'll be studied by anyone able to pick up the small signs that'd show we're here, under the cover and camouflage you've set up. Chances are more likely some officer'll just run an eye quickly over them to see if there're any obvious signs of people - and that, they won't find." "Yes, but the soldiers," said Amid. "How likely are they to notice some sign of our presence, down there in the flatland? After all, we do have foragers down there often, and there's the spot where Onete's been meeting Cee." "I'd hate to promise anything," Hal said, "but even if they do recognize some signs of people, from what I saw today I think we'll be fairly safe if we just sit tight up here. That ought to include, by the way, not making any noises that could be reflected down into the valley. As we sat on the edge of the ledge, I could hear the sounds of the Guild people moving about here, reflected off that cliff-face above us. Sound rises rather than falls, but we should still keep things quiet until the soldiers are gone," "We can do that," said Amid. He made a note. "I'll see to it."
"As far as the soldiers themselves go," Hal said, "they all moved clumsily through the forest, making harder work than they needed to of getting places in it. They've got the city-bred tendency to try to push their way through undergrowth with main strength, rather than slip through at the best place for it. Also, very few of them set up camp in the best places available. The few who did, I think, did it by accident. They're certainly not Woods-wise, and they're probably not too happy to be here. That attitude'll help make them careless when they start searching. "
He paused.
"Those are the most certain points about them I picked up today, that and the information Calas was able to give me about certain officers. Basically, from what Calas says, we've got to deal with a commander who's something of a martinet, leading poorly trained and motivated troops. What that adds up to is that he'll probably be used to clubbing them - metaphorically speaking - to get results. Which in turn means they'll slack off the minute he's out of sight, no matter how much they might be afraid of him finding out about their doing that, later. I'd guess that unless something favors them, we're pretty secure up here. Cee, even, should be fairly safe down there, unless she literally walks into their hands."
He stopped and looked questioningly at Old Man. "Anything to add?" he asked. "They'll sleep poorly tonight," said Old Man with one of his gentle smiles. "They're people of bad conscience trying to rest under unfamiliar conditions. Their sleep and their dreams will be bad, and tomorrow they'll be more tired than usual, and so more likely to miss seeing things they might notice otherwise."
He fell silent and, with Hal, looked at Calas. Calas cleared his throat. "Me?" he said. "You want a report from me on them?" "Certainly," said Hal. "Well, I wasn't really watching them the way I should have, earlier in the day. I didn't really look at them - then. Friend, I have you to thank for making me try to actually see them, rather than just sit up there and swear at their being here." "What did you see when you did look closely?" Hal said. "A lot of them're new since I was there. Not that there's any really knew well, but the faces of the ones who were there when I was there, I'd recognize. You know? So, most of them are faces I never saw before, which means they're new, but they're going to be just like we all were. Most of them'll have come out with something to drink - liquor, I mean - in their canteens or hidden in the equipment they're carrying, and so most of them'll be drinking tonight. I'd have been drinking, even though I wasn't that much of a drinker when I was with them, just to help me sleep out here and make it more comfortable. More'n a few'll have hangovers, tomorrow."
He paused a moment.
"Some won't drink at all, of course," he said. "We've got some Friendlies and others who've got individual reasons for never drinking. Anyway, that's one thing."
Hal, Amid and Old Man waited. "Something else, though," said Calas. "I didn't think of it until you told me about decisions, but friends tend to stick together, and the groupmen and team-leaders usually let them. Because that makes it easier for the sub-officers. That means in most of those units of four, there's almost sure to be at least two who're side-by-siders. That means those two'll stick together and the other two'll have to tag along with them. Also it means that one of the two is the leader of the two. So you've got one man in each four-man unit who'll probably end up making up the minds of the other three, whenever there's something to make up minds about. I don't know just how knowing that'll help, but maybe you, Friend, can see some use in it."
Hal nodded slowly. "It may apply," he said. "Apply to what?" Amid asked sharply, then immediately softened his voice to its usual gentle tone. "I'm sorry. Do I sound bad-tempered? I don't mean to. It's just that it's been a long night and a long day- "You don't sound bad-tempered," said Hal, "and to answer your question, there's something about what I saw of their dispersal down there today that bothers me. There're patterns to everything that humans do, and there's something about the pattern of the way they've set up for their search that bothers me, only I can't put my finger on just what it is. I've got my own system for figuring out cause and effect, which generally helps with problems like this, but right now it doesn't seem to have enough information to work with. I'll be able to tell you more tomorrow, when they begin actively searching. "
The door to the building banged open and Onete entered, followed by two men wearing the large white kitchen duty aprons everyone used on that job. All three were carrying trays heavy with cloth-covered dishes. Amid popped to his feet and whisked the map off the table as Onete led her companions to it.
They set the trays down on the table and began unloading the dishes. "You haven't eaten, any of you, all day," said Amid. "I asked Onete to go for food as soon as you got here. I may not be able to get Artur to eat, but I can make sure the rest of you are fed. "
At the sight and smell of the food in the dishes, Hal became aware of how hungry he was. "Thank you," he said, pulIing his chair up to the table as Old Man and Calas joined him.
After they had eaten and the others had gone, Hal stayed behind at Amid's request. "I'm worried about Artur," said Amid. "As I said, he's not eating. I don't really believe he's sleeping, either. He acts just the way he does usually, but I know him well enough to know he's tearing himself to pieces over this business of Cee being down there with those soldiers. You see, he feels responsible." "Yes," said Hal, "that would fit his pattern." "He shares your belief, as we were saying," Amid went on, "that Cee's probably followed one of us back under the boulder and right up to the ledge. That she knows where we live. He's afraid that if the soldiers catch her, they may assume she's one of us and try to get her to tell them where we are. "Yes," said Hal, "that would fit their pattern, too." "So, if they threaten to hurt her to make her talk, she'll have no choice but to tell them. Then, when they find the stone in place, they may think she's lying and doesn't really know, and then they'll kill her. On the other hand we can't leave the way open, so in a way we - and he - will be responsible for her death, and she's just a little girl." "Never try to predict what an individual will do under torture," Hal said. "It's not a matter of will power. The individual doesn't even know himself until the time comes. The bravest can crack and people you wouldn't expect it from will die without saying a word. She might simply refuse to talk at all." "But then they might torture her to death, to try to make her talk!" Amid seemed to shrink. "We can't let that happen!" "You can. You must - if there's no way to avoid it," said Hal. "It won't save her to throw away the lives of everyone else in the Guild - and what the Guild might mean for the rest of your Exotics, someday. But keep your mind filled about how horrible Cee's situation could be, and sooner or later you, or Artur, or somebody else'll try some scheme that doesn't have a chance of succeeding, one that'll dump all of you into the soldiers' hands." "Even if we could-," said Amid. "Even if we could accept sacrificing her, Artur never could. Never!" " Then lock him up," said Hal, "until the soldiers are gone." "We can't do that!" "He'd hate you for it," said Hal. "But it may be the kindest way of dealing with him." "I'll speak to him," said Amid. He did not wring his hands. They lay still in his lap, but he might as well have been wringing them. "If he can convince the rest he believes Cee will be safe-" "You know yourself that's not good enough, even if he could do it," said Hal. "Your fellow Guild members are almost all Exotics. They're too empathic to be fooled just by his pretending not to be concerned. He's actually got to face the chance that Cee may die, and, by his example in facing that fact, lead the rest of the community into facing it, too. Anything less than that won't work. More than that, it'd be wrong." "Wrong?" Amid sounded shocked. "Yes," said Hal, "because you'd be letting a situation that's out of your control upset your people at the very time when this community needs to keep its morale as high as possible, and its thoughts as clear as possible. I promise you, if I see any hope of doing anything at all for Cee, I'll let you all know and I'll do it myself, if that's what's best. But until a real chance to help her appears, two things need to be done, and they're very hard things, especially for you Exotic-born Guild members. One, the members have to accept the fact that whatever is going to happen to Cee will happen, and they can't do anything about it, as things stand now. Second, Artur has got to face that fact himself, and show the rest of the community that he's done so."