“Just my luck,” Hunt murmured. “As soon as some of the girls I’ve been hearing about show up, they take ’em away again. Who ever deserved a life like this?”
“Is that all you were worried about?” she asked. Her eyes were twinkling, and there was an elusive, playfully challenging note in her voice.
“And to see pal Sverenssen off on his way, of course. What else?”
“Oh, really,” Lyn said softly and mockingly. “That wasn’t exactly the way I heard it from Gregg.”
“Oh.” Hunt frowned for a moment. “He, er . . . he told you about that, huh?”
“Gregg and I work pretty well together. You should know that.” She wriggled her arm more tightly inside his. “It sounded to me like somebody was pretty upset.”
“Principles,” Hunt said stiffly after a pause. “Fancy me being stuck up in a place like McClusky while somebody else was down
here in the sun, getting all that action. It was the principle of it. I have very strong principles.”
“Oh, you idiot,” Lyn.said with a sigh.
They walked back into the house. Sobroskin was standing nearby with a couple of his officers, and Verikoff was sitting on a couch on the far side of the room, talking with Benson and a mix of CIA officials and more Soviets. Norman Pacey was nowhere in sight; probably he was still in the communications room where Hunt had left him a while earlier. Hunt caught Sobroskin’s eye and inclined his head slightly in Verikoff’s direction. “That guy’s done a good job, and he’s trying hard,” he muttered in a low voice. “I hope he gets a big remission.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” Sobroskin said. His tone was noncommittal, but there was something deep down in it that Hunt found reassuring.
“WHAT?” A voice that sounded like Broghuilio’s shrieked distantly from the direction of the passageway that led through to the communications room.. “YOU’VE MANAGED TO LOCATE THEM WHERE?”
“Oh-oh. I think somebody’s just found his fleet,” Hunt said, grinning. “Come on. Let’s go and watch the fun.” They moved across toward the passageway, and all around the room figures began standing up and converging behind them. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to miss the excitement.
“There must have been a malfunction in JEVEX,” the Supreme Commander of the Thurien task force pleaded, cringing as Broghuiio advanced menacingly toward him. “Everything has been premature. There was no time to test the transfer system thoroughly.”
“It’s true,” a white-faced Wylott said from behind. “There wasn’t enough time. An interplanetary operation could not be organized on such a schedule. It was impossible.”
Broghuilio whirled around and pointed a finger at a screen showing the latest details of the Terran order of battle. “WELL THEY’VE DONE IT!” he raged. “Every bicycle and bedpan factory on the planet is making weapons.” He turned to appeal to the whole room. “And what do my experts tell me? Two years to complete the quadriflexor program! Twelve months to bring the extra generators on line! ‘But we have the overwhelming technical superiority, Excellency,’ I’m told.” He turned purple and raised
his clenched fists over his head. “WELL WHERE IS IT? Do I have all the imbeciles in the Galaxy on my side? Give me a dozen of those Earthmen and I’d conquer the Universe.” He wheeled upon Estordu. “Get them back here. Even if you have to exit them here in the middle of the planetary system, get them back here today.”
“It. . . seems that it isn’t quite that simple,” Estordu mumbled bleakly. “JEVEX is reporting difficulties in controlling the transfer system.”
“JEVEX, what is this oaf babbling about?” Broghuilio snapped. “The central beam synchronization system is not responding, Excellency,” JEVEX answered. “I am confused. I have not been able to interpret the diagnostic reports.”
Broghuilio closed his eyes for a moment and fought to keep control of himself. “Then do it without JEVEX,” he said to Estordu. “Use the standby transfer facility at Uttan.”
Estordu swallowed. “The Uttan system is not general purpose,” he pointed out. “It was only set up to handle supply transfers to Jevlen. The fleet is scattered across fifteen different stars. Uttan would have to recalibrate for every one. It would take weeks.”