‘That will be brought. There is no water you can use here.
Stay out of the cities; you will be in the way.”
“How else can we eat?”
“Food will be brought. You should make your needs
known; you are of low intelligence and helpless. I forbid
nothing, I know you are harmless, and your life is short in
any case; but I do not want you to get in the way.”
The repetition was beginning to tell on Oberholzer, and the
frustration created by hig having tried to use a battering ram
against a freely swinging door was compounded by his
mental picture of what the two Momma’s boys would say
when the squad got back.
“Thank you,” he said, and bringing the Sussmann into
line, he trained it on the Callean’s squidlike head and
squeezed the trigger.
It was at once established that the CallSans were as mortal
to Sussmann flamers as is all other flesh and blood; this one
made a very satisfactory corpse. Unsatisfied, the flamer bolt
went on to burn a long slash in the wall of the nest, not
far above the entrance. Oberholzer grounded the rifle and
waited to see what would happen next; his men hefted
their weapons tensely.
For a few minutes there was no motion but the random
twitching of the headless Callean’s legs. Evidently he was
still not entirely dead, though he was a good four feet shorter
than he had been before, and plainly was feeling the lack.
Then, there was a stir inside the dark entrance.
A ten-legged animal about the size of a large rabbit
emerged tentatively into the sunlight, followed by two more,
and then by a whole series of them, perhaps as many as