Liu, who had been generally overseeing the work being done, now for the first time went into the building where Cee had been taken. He was inside for only a few minutes, however, before he came out again, crossed the clearing and entered one of the other structures, into which his men had been bringing various furniture, such as chairs, a desk and a cot. They had brought the furniture folded up in carrying cases, and once the furniture was inside, they reclosed the cases and carried them into the third dome.
Calas's gaze, however, was all on the structure into which they had taken Cee. "They could be working on her in there right now!" he growled. "I don't think so," said Hal. "My guess is Liu just stepped inside with her long enough to see if she'd answer him, but not really expecting her to. When she didn't, he left her tied up, or however she's restrained, in there, for now." "That's your guess," said Calas mutinously. "I know the kind of shithouse sweepings they've got in that outfit!" "I believe you do," said Hal, "but I also believe they won't dare do anything they aren't ordered to do by that commanding officer, from the way you've described him. And he won't want any of them touching Cee - just yet, anyway." "Another guess?" Calas said. "No. Look down there for yourself," said Hal. "If he'd wanted to question Cee physically, the obvious place for it would have been back at his base, in Porphyry. They've undoubtedly got the equipment for it back there-" "That's true enough," said Calas, under his breath. "But back there, he'd have superiors who might take not only control away from him," said Hal, "but whatever glory there might be in catching the famous little wild girl. It just might be, too, that Liu has a pretty low opinion of the officers over him."
Calas nodded. "You mean, he's right in feeling that way?- asked Hal. "Unless they've got some brighter ones in since I was around," said Calas. "Right up to the Commander, the rest are all the sort that want to get to their desk at eleven in the morning, sign half a dozen papers, then go to lunch and take the rest of the day off. You're right, as long as he stays out here, he's the one in charge." "Yes," said Hal, "and he stands to gain more credit, which none of his superiors can take away from him, if he comes in, not only with the girl, but with as many more strays and outlaws as he can pick up and bring back. As I say, take a look down there. Don't those two tents and the cut-down trees make it look like he's planning to stay a day or two, at least?" "Yes," said Calas, somewhat grudgingly, looking at them. "It's a good guess, then," said Hal, "he's been looking, beyond Cee's capture all along. He'll be pretty sure she knows who else lives around here, and he'll want her help in finding them."
His eyes met Calas's brown ones. "You mean he knows about the Chantry Guild?" "Guesses, at least," said Hal. "He may have picked up bits of information from townspeople he's questioned, and gotten enough out of them to at least suspect there's some kind of community of free Exotics up here. That's why he'll be in no hurry to get his men back to barracks, and that's why he won't hurt Cee, to begin with at least. He may even try to make friends with her." "Lots of luck!" Calas cleared his throat, and spat, deliberately, over the edge of the cliff before them. "If she wouldn't answer when Artur tried to talk to her and she'd barely answer Onete, Liu's chances of making friends with her." Calas ran out of figures of speech, into silence. "But it's still all just your guesses, all the same," he said, at last, to Hal. "Old Man," said Hal, turning to the silent figure beside them, "what do you think?" "I think you're probably right," said Old Man softly. Calas turned to stare at the white-bearded, thin face. "He'll need the child in good physical shape to lead them to whoever else is here and if he's got any experience at all with managing prisoners, he'll know she'll be more willing to help him if she believes he doesn't plan to hurt them when he gets there. So I'd think he'll begin, at least, by making her as comfortable as possible, while at the same time making sure she doesn't run away. Also, he'll try to give the impression that it's just a matter of time before he finds the other people, whether she helps or not, and a leisurely attitude to the situation is going to help along that illusion."
As usual, when Old Man talked at any length at all, the Guild members had a tendency to listen attentively. Calas listened. When Old Man fell silent again, he nodded, slowly.
"Right," he said. "it makes sense. But what happens if she still doesn't answer him? He's going to run out of patience sooner or later." "We'll have to watch, wait, and hope some kind of opportunity comes up for us to do something about the situation, without risking discovery of the Guild," said Hal. "I don't know what other option we've got. Do you?"
After a long moment, Calas slowly shook his head again, and turned back to watching the screens showing where Cee was being held. Missy and Hadnah had followed the action of the chase closely and now held the area of the three buildings and the clearing in a good-sized picture. Calas sat unmoving and watching, but now he watched the way a wolf might, at a rabbit hole.
It was midafternoon when he suddenly exploded into speech. "By God, they've got him!" It was unnecessary to ask who had been meant by "him." Artur was the only one down there likely to be brought in as a captive. By rights it should have been Missy or Hadnah who first caught sight of the large man and his two captors, benefiting from the higher angle of their post of observation. But evidently the approach had been under the cover of treetops, which were more an obstacle to those viewing high on the mountainside, than Hal and the other two with him. "He doesn't look very mussed up," Calas went on. "You'd have thought someone like him who could move that boulder at the foot of the path out of his way and then roll it back could have put up more of a fight before they took him." "He's unarmed," said Hal. "What would you do if you were faced with a needle gun - and both those soldiers bringing him in have them?"
There was a pause. "You're right," said Calas, but he said it grudgingly. Artur had plainly given his clothing some thought before he dressed to leave the ledge. He was wearing green shorts and shirt, and boots made of rough leather tanned a light brown. He would not have been easy to spot among the growth below unless he moved. On the other hand, Hal guessed that Artur knew less than nothing about moving inconspicuously through the high-altitude forest below.
Cee, on the other hand, could have given any one of them lessons. If it had not been for the heat sensors, or whatever other technological aids the soldiers had been carrying, Hal would have been willing to bet she could have moved around and between them all day long without being spotted.
As the two guarding Artur brought him into the camp, one of the dozen who had stayed around after the three shelters had been set up ducked into the other tent, the one holding Liu. A moment later the commanding officer came out and stood while Artur was brought face to face with him.
They stood looking at each other. The screen showed their lips moving. Hal's ability to read lips had become rusty over the last few years and the angle at which the screen showed the two had Artur's back to him and Liu's face averted to the point where he could see only the left corner of his lips. He could not make out what either man was saying. However, they talked for no more than a few minutes.
The conversation ended with Liu abruptly turning around and re-entering his shelter. The two escorting soldiers, apparently having been given their orders by their disappearing commander, took Artur to one of the two trees that had not been cut down. They tied him to it, in standing position with his back to the tree trunk, enclosing him with what seemed an excessive number of turns of rope around his body and the tree. He stood with his back to the tree, unable to move even in small ways. "Now what?" asked Calas. "I believe," said Old Man in his soft voice, "that the officer has decided to leave him there to think his situation over." "Does Artur know they've got Cee, do you think?" asked Calas, looking from Old Man to Hal and back again.