Cletus, of course, had the use of the staff Arvid had collected to help in making his forecasts of enemy activity. But members of the staff, including Arvid himself, were fully occupied with their regular jobs, at least during normal working hours. Cletus had set them to functioning as a research service. They were collecting information on both Neuland and the Exotic colony, plus all the physical facts about Kultis - weather, climate, flora and fauna - that pertained to the two opposed peoples. This information was condensed and fed to Cletus as soon as it was available; at least half his working day was taken up in absorbing and digesting it.
So it was that the first five days after the Dorsais had been moved up to Two Rivers, Cletus spent at his office between the hours of seven in the morning and midnight, with very few breaks in between. About seven o'clock of the fifth evening, after the rest of the staff had already left for the day, Wefer Linet showed up unexpectedly.
"Let's go catch some more Neulander guerrillas," Wefer suggested.
Cletus laughed, leaned back in his chair and stretched wearily. "I don't know where there are any, right now," Cletus said.
"Let's go have dinner then and talk about it," said Wefer craftily. "Maybe between the two of us we can figure out how to find some."
Cletus laughed again, started to shake his head, and then let himself be persuaded. After the dinner, however, he insisted on returning to his desk. Wefer came back with him, and only reluctantly took his leave when Cletus insisted that the work yet undone required his immediate attention.
"But don't forget," Wefer said on his way out, "you'll call me if anything comes up. I've got five Mark V's, and four of them are yours on half an hour's notice. It's not just me, it's my men. Everyone who was with us there on the river has been spreading the story around until I haven't got anyone in my command who wouldn't want to go with you if another chance comes up... You'll find something for us to do?"
"It's a promise," said Cletus. "I'll turn up something for you shortly."
Wefer at last allowed himself to be ushered out. Cletus went back to his desk. By eleven o'clock he had finished the extensive and detailed orders he had been drafting to cover the actions and contingencies of the next two days. He made up a package of the orders, which were to be passed on to Eachan Khan for application to the Dorsai troops, and, going out, drove himself in a staff air-car to the Headquarters building in the Dorsai area.
He parked in front of it. There were two other cars waiting there; the one window of Eachan's office that faced him was alight. The rest of the building - a temporary structure of native wood painted a military light green that looked almost white in the pale light of the now-waxing new moon overhead - was dark, as were all the surrounding office and barracks buildings. It was like being in a ghost town where only one man lived.
Cletus got out of the car and went up the steps into the front hall of the building. Passing through the swinging gate, which barred visitors from the clerks normally at work in the outer office, he went down the corridor beyond the outer office to where the half-open door of Eachan's private office was marked by an escaping swathe of yellow light that lay across the corridor floor. Coming quietly up on that patch of light, Cletus checked, suddenly, at the sound of voices within the room.
The voices were those of Eachan and Melissa - and their conversation was no public one.
Cletus might have coughed, then, or made some other noise to warn that he had come upon them. But at that moment he heard his own name mentioned - and instantly guessed at least half of the conversation that had gone before. He neither turned and retreated nor made a sound. Instead he stood, listening.
"I thought you liked young Grahame," Eachan had just finished saying.
"Of course I like him!" Melissa's voice was tortured. "That's got nothing to do with it. Can't you understand, Dad?"
"No." Eachan's voice was stark.
Cletus took one long step forward, so that he could just see around the corner of the half-open door into the lighted room. The illumination there came from a single lamp, floating a foot and a half above the surface of Eachan's desk. On opposite sides of the desk, Eachan and Melissa stood facing each other. Their heads were above the level of the lamp, and their faces were hidden in shadow, while the lower parts of their bodies were clearly illuminated.
"No, of course you can't!" said Melissa. "Because you won't try! You can't tell me you like this better - this hand-to-mouth mercenary soldiering - than our home in Jalalabad! And with Dow's help you can go back. You'll be a general officer again, with your old rank back. That's home, Dad! Home on Earth, for both of us!"
"Not any more," said Eachan deeply. "I'm a soldier, Melly. Don't you understand? A soldier.' Not just a uniform with a man walking around inside it - and that's all I'd be if I went back to Jalalabad. As a Dorsai, at least I'm still a soldier!" His voice became ragged, suddenly. "I know it's not fair to you - "
"I'm not doing it for me!" said Melissa. "Do you think I care? I was just a girl when we left Earth - it wouldn't be the same place at all for me, if we went back. But Mother told me to take care of you. And I am, even if you haven't got the sense to take care of yourself."
"Melly... " Eachan's voice was no longer ragged, but it was deep with pain. "You're so sure of yourself... "
"Yes, I am!" she said. "One of us has to be. I phoned him, Dad. Yesterday."
"Phoned deCastries?"
"Yes," Melissa said. "I called him in Capital Neuland. I said we'd come anytime he sent for us from Earth. We'd come, I said, Dad. But I warn you, if you won't go, I'll go alone."
There was a moment's silence in the darkness hiding the upper part of Eachan's stiff figure.
"There's nothing there for you, girl," he said, hoarsely. "You said so yourself."
"But I'll go!" she said. "Because that's the only way to get you to go back, to say I'll go alone if I have to - and mean it. Right now, I promise you, Dad... "
Cletus did not wait to hear the end of that promise. He turned abruptly and walked silently back to the front door of the building. He opened and closed the door, banging the heel of his hand against it noisily. He walked in, kicked open the gate in the fence about the outer office area and walked soundingly down the hall toward the light of the partly opened door.
When he entered the office room, the overhead lights had been turned on. In their bright glare, Melissa and Eachan still stood a little apart from each other, with the desk in between.
"Hello, Melissa!" Cletus said. "Good to see you. I was just bringing in some orders for Eachan. Why don't you wait a few minutes and we can all go have a cup of coffee or something?"
"No, I... " Melissa stumbled a little in her speech. Under the overhead lights her face looked pale and drawn. I've got a headache. I think I'll go right home to bed." She turned to her father. "I'll see you later, Dad?"
"I'll be home before long," Eachan answered.
She turned and went out. Both men watched her go.
When the echo of her footsteps had been brought to an end by the sound of the outer door of the office building closing, Cletus turned back to face Eachan and threw the package of papers he was carrying onto Eachan's desk.
"What's the latest word from the scouts watching the Neulander side of the mountains?" Cletus asked, watching the older man's face and dropping into a chair on his side of the desk. Eachan sat down more slowly in his own chair.
"The Neulanders've evidently stopped moving men into the area," Eachan said. "But the scouts estimate they've got thirty-six hundred men there now - nearly double the number of our Dorsai troops. And they're regular Neulander soldiery, not guerrillas, with some light tanks and mobile artillery. My guess is that's better than 60 per cent of their fully equipped, regular armed forces."