“You were not out here facing those things, Doctor. You were safe back there at the Plaza’s edge while I was earning the right to look in that hole.”
Chen-Lhu’s face grew rigid with anger, but he held himself silent until he knew he could control his voice, then said, “In that case, I will go with you now.”
“As you wish.”
Martinho turned away, stared across the Plaza to where the carbines were being handed out of the rear of his truck. Vierho collected them, headed back across the lawn. A tall, bald-headed Negro with his right arm in a sling fell into step beside Vierho. The Negro wore a uniform of plain bandeirante white with the golden spray emblem of a band leader at his left shoulder. His craggy, Moorish features were drawn into a scowl of pain.
“There’s Alvarez,” Chen-Lhu said.
“I see him.”
Chen-Lhu faced Martinho, assumed a rueful smile to match his tone. “Johnny—let us not fight. You know why the IEO assigned me to Brazil.”
“I know. China’s already completed the realignment of its insects. You’re a big success.”
“We’ve nothing but the mutated bees now, Johnny—not a single creature to spread disease or eat food intended for humans.”
“I know, Travis. And you’re here to make our job easier.”
Chen-Lhu frowned at the tone of patient disbelief in Martinho’s voice. He said, “Exactly.”
“Then why won’t you let our observers or those from the U.N. go in and see for themselves, Doctor?”
“Johnny! You certainly must know how long my country suffered under the white imperialists. Some of our people believe the danger’s still there. They see spies everywhere.”
“But you’re more a man of the world, more understanding, eh, Travis?”
“Of course! My great grandmother was English, one of the Travis-Huntingtons. We have a tradition of broader understanding in my family.”
“It’s a wonder your country trusts you,” Martinho said. “You’re part white imperialist.” He turned to greet Alvarez as the Negro stopped in front of them. “Hi, Benito. Sorry about your arm.”
“Hullo, Johnny.” Alvarez’s voice was deep and rumbling. “God protected me. I will recover.” He glanced down at the carbines in Vierho’s hands, returned his attention to Martinho. “I heard the Padre here asking for blast-pellets. You could only want them for one reason.”
“I have to look in that hole, Benito.”
Alvarez turned, gave a stiff little bow to Chen-Lhu. “And you have no objections, Doctor?”
“I’ve objections, but no authority,” Chen-Lhu said. “Is the arm severely injured? I will have my own physicians see to it.”
“The arm will recover,” Alvarez rumbled.
“He really wants to know if it was actually injured,” Martinho said.
Chen-Lhu turned a startled look at Martinho, masked it quickly.
Vierho handed one of the carbines to his chief, said, “Jefe, we have to do this?”
“Why would the good Doctor doubt that my arm was injured?” Alvarez asked.
“He has heard stories,” Martinho said.
“What stories?”
“That we bandeirantes don’t want to see a good thing end, that we’re reinfesting the Green, breeding new insects in secret laboratories.”
“That rot!” Alvarez growled.
“Which bandeirantes are supposed to be doing this?” Vierho demanded. He scowled at Chen-Lhu, gripped the carbine as though ready to turn it on the IEO official.
“Easy, Padre,” Alvarez said. “The stories never say. It’s always they or them—never names.”
Martinho looked toward the place in the lawn where the giant figure of a beetle had disappeared. He found this dalliance with talk far more alluring than the walk across the lawn to that place. The night air carried a sense of lowering menace and… hysteria. And the oddest thing of all was the reluctance to take action that could be seen all around him. It was like the lull after a terrible battle in a war.
Well, it is a kind of war, he told himself.
Eight years they’d been fighting this war here in Brazil. The Chinese had taken twenty-two years, but they’d said it could be done here in ten. The thought that it might take twenty-two years here—fourteen more years—momentarily threatened to overwhelm Martinho. He felt a monstrous fatigue.
“You must admit odd things are happening,” Chen-Lhu said.
“That we admit,” Alvarez said.
“Why does no one suspect the Carsonites?” Vierho asked.
“A good question, Padre,” Alvarez said. “They have big support, the Carsonites—all the holdout nations: the U.S. of A., Canada, the United Kingdom, Common Europe.”
“All the places where they’ve never had any real trouble with the insects,” Vierho said.
Oddly, it was Chen-Lhu who protested. “No,” he said. “The holdout nations don’t really care—except that they’re happy to see us occupied with this fight.”
Martinho nodded. Yes—that was what all the companions of his schooldays in North America had said. They couldn’t care less.
“I am going over now and look in that hole,” Martinho said.
Alvarez reached out, took Vierho’s carbine. He hung it on his good shoulder by the sling, took the control handle of the shield. “I will go with you, Johnny.”
Martinho glanced at Vierho, saw the look of terrified relief in the man’s face, returned his attention to Alvarez. “Your arm?”
“I still have one good arm. What more do I need?”
“Travis, you stay close behind us,” Martinho said.
“My Security men have just arrived,” Chen-Lhu said. “Delay a moment and we’ll ring that place. I will tell them to bring shields.”
“It is wise, Johnny,” Alvarez said.
“We will go slowly,” Martinho said. “Padre, return to the truck. Tell Ramon to bring it around the Plaza and up onto the edge of the lawn over there. Have the Hermosillo truck direct all its lights onto that place.” He nodded ahead of him.
“At once, Jefe.”
Vierho headed back for the truck.
“You will not disturb anything there?” Chen-Lhu asked.
“We’re as anxious as you to find out what that is,” Alvarez said.
“Let’s go,” Martinho said.
Chen-Lhu trotted off to the right where an IEO field truck could be seen making its way through a side street. The crowd appeared to be giving trouble there, resisting efforts to expel them from the Plaza area.
Alvarez turned the control handle and the shield began crawling across the lawn.
In a low voice, Alvarez said, “Johnny, why doesn’t the doctor suspect the Carsonites?”
“He has a spy system as good as anything in the world,” Martinho said. “He must know.” He kept his gaze on the disturbed patch of lawn ahead of them, that mysterious place beside the fountain.
“But what better way to sabotage us than to discredit the bandeirantes?”
“True, but I don’t think Travis Huntington Chen-Lhu would make such a mistake.” And he thought: It is strange how that patch of lawn both attracts and repels.
“You and I have been rivals at the bid many times, Johnny. Perhaps we forget sometimes that we have a common enemy.”
“Do you name that enemy?”
“It’s the enemy in the jungles, in the grass of the savannahs and under the ground. The Chinese took twenty-two years…”
“Do you suspect them?” Martinho glanced at his companion, noting the glower of concentration of Alvarez’s face. “They will not let us inspect their results.”
“The Chinese are paranoid. They leaned that way before they ever collided with the Western world and the Western world merely confirmed them in this sickness. Suspect the Chinese? I don’t think so.”