He looked at Hal. "What should we do?" he asked. "What would you suggest we do?" Hal said, meeting his eyes. Calas stared at him for a long moment and then looked away. Hal softened his voice. "For now," he said, "you concentrate on that screen. Try to keep Cee in sight, but watch particularly for any sign either of those soldiers've spotted her." "Yes. Yes, I will," said Calas, fixing his gaze tightly on the screen.
Hal flicked the controls on another scope so that he had a view of the whole area. A few more finger-taps overlaid the picture of the land below with a ghostly map of that same area, but divided into sections, with small bright lights in each section, each representing one of the searching soldiers.
The pattern in the process of search which he had not been able to find but which he had sensed was in the making there still bothered him. The troops below were equipped not only with their weapons but with all other ordinary field equipment, including helmets that would have built-in communications equipment, putting them in verbal contact with their fellow searchers, their immediate sub-officer, and even the command base. He wished for a moment he could tune in on what was being said over that communications network. That reminded him of another, earlier, wish, which was that the Guild, in addition to what other equipment they had possessed, had seen fit to equip themselves with a long range ear-gun - a listening device that allowed the one using it to pick up even a faint noise from a specific spot no larger than an adult human hand and a kilometer or more distant.
As it was, he had a view of the searchers, but no idea of what they were saying. With the ear-gun he could have overheard conversations even back at the command post where Liu waited. But to want what was not available was a waste of time. He put both desires from him and considered the pattern of ghost map and lights once more.
With intuitional logic he should have been able to track down what he felt immediately. The fact he could not meant that to intuitional logic the pattern he sensed was not there. Either there actually was no such thing, or a necessary link in the logic chain that would relate it to what he saw at the moment was missing. A word overheard from one of the searchers might have filled that gap. Particularly since he had known Amanda, he trusted his instincts more than ever before, and now his instincts were positive that there was a pattern to the development of the situation below him that he could not yet see.
He leaned forward sharply to peer at the screen he had been watching. "What is it?" asked Calas. He glanced up to see both Calas and Old Man watching him. "Is Cee still following those two soldiers?" Hal asked. "Yes." Calas nodded emphatically. "Has either one of them seen her, as far as you can tell?" "Not as far as I could tell." "Or I," said Old Man unexpectedly.
Hal looked back at the screen before him. "What is it?" said Calas again. "They may not be as inept as I was thinking they were," said Hal. "Perhaps some of them've had some field training after all. " "Some'll have had training rounding up prisoners before," said Calas. "That's all." "That may be enough," said Hal. He pointed at the screen before him with the ghost map and the lights. "Or they may be wearing some special equipment - heat sensors or such that would warn them Cee was following. Those two soldiers just began searching outside their own area." "Outside... ?" said Calas. "They're still moving in a straight line, and it's taken them over into the territory of another search unit - as best I can judge where the boundaries of the territories are-"
He broke off. "There it is," he said. "I see what they're doing now." "What are they doing?" asked Calas. "Those soldiers Cee's following have spotted her after all. They're leading her on. Take a look at the screen. The other search teams are changing their pattern. The team leading her is keeping on going forward, to lead her into position, and gain time for a good number of the others who're close to move into a circle around her. Then, as they move in, using their helmet communication, they'll draw the circle tighter around her. When she finally begins to suspect and makes a break for it, it'll not only be these two, but a lot of the others, who ought to have a good shot at her with those catch-nets of theirs. Unless she stops following these two now, I think she's virtually certain to be captured."
There was the sound of feet on the gravel-like soil behind them. They all turned. Onete came up and stopped before them all. But it was to Hal she spoke. "Artur's gone," she said breathlessly. "Evidently, he left last night. Rolled the boulder aside and rolled it back in place after him. He left a note by the boulder.
She paused to catch her breath. "He said he was sorry, but he had to go down to do what he could to protect Cee. He asked them to leave the boulder in place as long as they could before they felt they had to replace it with the rock plug. Just in case he was able to bring her back up to safety after all."
CHAPTER 26
"And it's been left?" asked Hal. "It's been left," answered Onete. "Everyone wants it that way."
There was nothing they could do from the ledge but watch. Onete left them again. In the next three-quarters of an hour as Procyon climbed brilliantly into a clear sky, Cee shadowed the two soldiers and was drawn into a semi-open area with short but vertical, near-unclimbable cliffs on two sides of it, and with now more than two dozen of the following members of the Occupational Troops closing in behind her to shut off escape back the way she had come.
She clearly heard them moving in on her, as they drew close, but the sounds must have come from all directions, so that she turned, ready to flee one way, then hesitated, turned to run in another, and hesitated again.
The hesitations were what doomed her. If she had raced full tilt for their line at the first noise, she would have had some chance, at least, of dodging between two of them, twisting, ducking, evading their grasps and so getting away. But at her first betrayal of the fact she had heard them, they all burst into a run toward her, so that when she began to run, herself, they were already closing in on her.
She checked and stood, legs spread apart, one in advance of the other. She had evidently been carrying something cupped in each hand all this time, and she now threw these two things, whatever they were, at the men most directly before her.
The throws were delivered with the kind of power and accuracy that could only come from long practice. With a sidearm motion her whole body sent the missiles on their way, and to the surprise of those on the ledge as well as that of the soldiers, the two men she had thrown at went over backwards and down, while she dashed forward again at the gap in their line she had now created.
Almost, she made it. But the others were too close. Nets exploded into existence in the air above and around her, dropped and enveloped her, and a moment later her net-swathed body disappeared under the swarm of adult figures.
From the ledge it was still plain, however, that she was not easy to subdue. The huddle of soldiers' backs, which was all those on the ledge could see, heaved and moved for some time, and it was only the sudden appearance of Liu Hu Shen and the Urk that stopped one of the soldiers who had finally reversed his needle gun, raised it, and seemed about to use it as a club.
The huddle struggled a bit more and then went still. Hu Shen clearly was issuing orders right and left. There were now between twenty and thirty of the uniformed men in the clearing, and at last the group holding her stopped its struggle, indicating she had finally been held and immobilized.
In remarkably short time the power pistol which the Urk had been carrying had been used to cut down a number of trees, large and small, to enlarge the clearing, the cut-down upper parts being hauled off to one side by teams of the men. Left standing were two trees about ten meters apart. By this time three dome-shaped battle tents had also been erected. The moment the first of these were up, the huddle of men carrying Cee, invisible in their midst, moved into it, to come out its entrance a little later by twos and threes with every sign of relief. Clearly Cee had been left, tied down or otherwise secured, somewhere within. "Bastards!" said Calas.