But don’t be deceived by that.”
“I understand, sir,” Oberholzer said levelly. “Cassirir, let’s go. We’ll backtrack to where we nabbed the worm, and then follow his trail to wherever he came from. Fall in.”
The men shouldered their Sussmanns. 12-Upjohn and Robin One watched them go. At the last dune before the two would go out of sight altogether, Oberholzer turned and waved, but neither waved back. Shrugging, Oberholzer resumed plodding.
“Sarge?”
“Yeah?”
“How do you figure to spring this joker with only four guns?”
“Five guns if we spring himI’ve got a side arm,” Oberholzer reminded him. “We’ll play it by ear, that’s all. I want to see just how serious these worms are about leaving us alone, and letting us shoot them if we feel like it. I’ve got a hunch that they aren’t very bright, one at a time, and don’t react fast to strictly local situations. If this whole planet is like one huge body, and the worms are its brain cells, then we’re germsand maybe ifd take more than four germs to make the body do anything against us that counted, at least fast enough to do any good.”
Cassirir was frowning absurdly; he did not seem to be taking the theory in without pain. Well, Cassirir had never been much of a man for tactics.
“Here’s where we found the guy,” one of the men said, pointing at the sand.
“That’s not much of a trail,” Cassirir said. “If there’s any wind it’ll be wiped out like a shot.”
“Take a sight on it, that’s all we need. You saw him run offstraight as a ruled line, no twists or turns around the dunes or anything. Like an army ant. If the trail sands over, we’ll follow the sight. It’s a cinch it leads someplace.”