Dean shook his head. “Not necessarily. Hang on…”
The younger Cawdor found the transmitter-receiver mike and speaker on the comp desk, and rapidly unscrewed the cover. Underneath were the wires, boards and chips that controlled the mike. Loosening a connection, Dean caused the reception to go slightly awry, so that the urgent voice was no longer clear, but distorted. He then tapped the board to which the wire was attached, causing the transmission to cut in and out.
“Should work,” he muttered before switching the radio to transmit and speaking in a louder, strained voice, as though he were in pain. “Problems with the electrics…hard to get away…some injured…”
He winked at Tammy as he switched off the transmission.
“Evan? That you, son? You sound like shit… Look, save the explanations till you’re back. You’re going a weird course, boy. What’s happening out there? Has the direction finder been off-line, as well?”
Dean switched back to transmit and adopted his sore throat voice. “All off…just managed to get back online…electrics shot out, had to reroute power…”
“That’s a real award winning performance you’re giving,” Mildred remarked as Dean switched back to receiver. Any other comments were cut off by another interjection from the receiver.
“Evan, listen to me. Bear north-northeast, and you’ll be fine. I don’t know what visibility’s like right now, but it’s sunup in about an hour, so if you haven’t sorted out your direction by then, we’ll send a wag to collect you.”
“Fireblast and fuck it,” Ryan swore. “That’s the last thing we need—an escort that’ll realize we’re not the real thing before we get into the redoubt.”
“But they won’t be sending anyone out until sunrise, and we were planning to mount the raid before then, Ryan,” Gloria said. “So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that we no longer have any slack, and we’ve really got to move. We also need to let J.B. and Jak know what’s going on, so they can spread the word in case the wag comes out to find us before we put the plan into action. We’ve got to stop soon, before we part company with them.”
“Better do it soon, then,” Krysty commented, taking a look out of the armaglass windshield at the terrain ahead. “We’ll be past the woods soon, and they’ll be in there.”
“Okay,” Ryan said, pulling up the wag. “Let’s hope they haven’t already gone off on another path.”
AS THE WAG HALTED, and J.B. dismounted from his own wag, the outrider patrol came back to report.
“Why’s everyone stopped now?” Dette asked, pulling her horse around to trot alongside J.B. as he headed for the Illuminated wag.
“That’s just what I’m hoping to find out,” he replied. “Stick around and we might both learn something.”
“Make that three,” Jak muttered as he sidled up to them, even in a nonthreatening situation able to move with an uncanny invisibility.
As they approached the Illuminated wag, the back opened and Ryan climbed out. In a few brief words he filled them in on recent events. When he had finished, J.B. shot a glance toward the horizon.
“If they really do leave it till sunrise, then we can just about do it. You head off now, and me and Jak will get the Gate and the others to move it some. Keep up your current speed and head straight for the redoubt. We’ll be behind you. And another thing, when you head for the entrance keep to the track.”
“Why?” Ryan questioned.
J.B. shrugged. “Dunno, just a feeling. I could be wrong, but what if the area around the track is booby trapped?”
Ryan pondered this for a second. “Could be. That would explain why they never really send out sec patrols, even though they must’ve been aware that the Gate were close by.”
He turned to Dette. “Did any of your recce riders ever go near the entrance?”
“Hell, no,” the brown skinned warrior replied. “We’re not that stupe. We always stayed up around the back or took the cover that there was.”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, we can’t be sure, then.”
J.B. agreed. “You take the track, and we’ll work a pincer movement to try and come round the edges of the hill. Still gonna be a problem getting that far, but what the hell.” He shrugged, acknowledging that it was a necessary risk.