“I was expecting someone to come, someone who could overrule Orkhad.” Again the full truth.
“A division in their ranks, eh?” The Patrolman did not question that.
“I don’t know.” Nik chose his words with care. “But Orkhad was not following the orders I had been given.”
“Which were?”
The truth – if they did have a scanner on him, they would know he spoke the truth. And he was sure they had him under such observation.
“To keep Vandy safe – for the information he had.”
Commander i’Inad moved closer. “Vandy – information?” he repeated. “But the boy has no information they couldn’t have learned by other sources. That’s a lie!”
The Patrolman had turned his head, and Nik followed that line of sight. The machine that had been clicking away so steadily – he had never seen a scanner, but he was sure that was one. And now the Patrolman proved Nik correct.
“No, that is the truth as far as this one knows. What kind of information?’
Again Nik told them the truth. He put Leeds’ first story to him into a few terse sentences. It sounded thin, retold like this, but the scanner would bear him out. He was developing an affection for that machine – so far.
“And you believed that?” The commander was highly incredulous.
Nik pulled himself up on the bunk where he had been lying.
“I believed it,” he returned flatly. There was no use adding that he had wanted to believe it, that he was eager to, considering what acceptance of the story meant to him.
“But when you got here, Orkhad had a different tale?”
“Yes.” Nik told them that also.
“So you took the boy and ran for it? Why?”
“It was the only thing to do. I thought we could hide out until the captain came.”
“This captain – Strode Leeds?”
Nik was not surprised when the Patrolman named Leeds. He must have picked up a lot from prisoners taken here in the refuge.
“Yes – Captain Leeds.”
“Leeds has the boy now?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
This was the hard part. Could he defeat the scanner by thought? Nik was not sure it could be done, but it was his only chance.
“I can’t tell you where; there’s no map. But I can take you there.” Two full truths – one hedging. Would the whole come out on the truth side in the report?
The commander, as well as the Patrolman, was watching the machine for some confirmation or denial Nik could not read.
“Well?” i’Inad demanded, not of Nik but of the Patrol.
“True.”
For the first time, Nik’s tension eased somewhat. He had beat the scanner by that much. Heartened by that victory, he ventured to prod a little on his own.
“I need food for Vandy – soon.”
“Let’s go now!” That was i’Inad.
“Leeds will have the boy where you left him?” The Patrolman was not so quick to pick that suggestion up.
Of that Nik had no doubts. His injury was enough to pin the captain to the island hill. He could not get away and take Vandy with him in the boy’s present weak condition, and he would not abandon the one chance he had of buying his freedom. Nik nodded.
“Let’s go!” i’Inad repeated. He grabbed at Nik, dragging him off the bunk with a rough jerk.
The Patrolman had crossed the room. Now he returned carrying a container of liquid, which he held out to Nik.
“Drink it!”
Nik surveyed the contents of the cup warily. There were a lot of rumors about the Patrol methods. He had no desire to go out of here drugged, obedient to orders in spite of his will. The green liquid had no odor, but he hesitated even as he held the cup to his lips.
The Patrol officer frowned. “It’s no drug – not the kind you fear.” He must have read Nik’s thoughts or else the scanner reported that, too. “That’s Patrol iron rations. You’ll need it to keep going.”
Nik had to believe him. His own weakness of body when he tried to moved warned him that he could not make any such trip on his own. He drank, and the stuff was warm in his mouth, even more heated in his throat, and hot in his stomach as he swallowed.
“We have to have cin-goggles out there,” he said. That was his worst remaining fear, that they might refuse to provide him with those. Suppose they would allow him use of goggles from time to time in order to point out landmarks, would keep him blind most of the journey as a prisoner without bonds?
“All right. We have those.”
They went through the passage of the refuge, collecting an escort of Patrolmen on the way – six of them. But when they trod a path through rubble to the outside, Nik, in spite of the cins, was totally at a loss.
“Well, which way?” i’Inad wanted to know. “Are you trying to say you can’t tell?”
“I can’t – from here.” Nik told of their escape through the tunnel cut. When he had finished, the Patrol officer nodded.
“All right, we’ll go back through that.”
“He’s stalling!” rapped out the commander.
“No, he couldn’t just have walked out with the boy. Such a bolt hole is far more probable. We’ll try that tunnel.”
Back into the refuge they went, to the terminal of the ancient ways. But in the tunnel no break showed. Instead, they were faced with an effective stopper of earth and rocks.
“Those explosions when you broke in.” Nik found the answer. “They must have plugged this.”
“Clear it,” the Patrol.officer ordered.
Something more powerful than a blaster ray snapped on, and the barrier melted at its touch. But only more rock and soil poured in.
“That’s not going to do it,” the officer said a moment later.
“Take a bearing, Dagama. We’ll try it over the surface with that as a guide.
Then they were back at the original refuge door, climbing up to the earth, guided by the small cube their advance scout held, which gave off a small beeping sound.
Chapter XIII
THEY CAME INTO the city ruins by the emptied sea basin from a different angle. But once he sighted the shoreline, Nik was confident of his path. As they went through what must once have been streets, he eyed every shadowed rubble cave, every opening leading to darkness. What had truly happened to him back there by the reef, he did not know. That the city had its inhabitants still, he now believed, inhabitants of one kind or another – degenerate Disians or animals.
There was no blaster in his belt hooks, but the rest of the party were armed. And Nik noted that they were as much interested in possible ambush spots as he was. Finally he dared to ask a question.
“How did you find me?”
“Fighting off a hunting party,” replied the officer crisply. “Once of our scouts had sighted you from the cliff top. He followed along until all at once you came out from some rocks and walked straight at trouble. When they jumped you, Riswold beamed the one who had you down.”
“Then they did fish me out with that light!” Nik was remembering now. “Just as that thing did on the ramp way.”
The officer paid no attention to that, for he was continuing. “Our men picked you up by a reef in that direction.”
“Yes, we go down to the sea bottom here and then head that way.”
Nik rubbed his head. He had no idea whether this was morning or evening or of what day. The outward world, even when viewed through goggles, was darkening. And outside the refuge, the humidity again caught them in its soggy grip. Commander i’Inad was breathing in short gasps, and even one or two of the Patrol guard seemed similarly affected. The restorative drink had strengthened Nik, but still he felt as if he were walking thigh deep in water, pushing sluggishly against a strong current that might at any moment sweep him off his footing to be perilously carried away.
They descended to the first level of the sea bottom. Visibility was fading. And then Nik saw the telltale flash on the horizon. Storm! Such a deluge as he had seen before? He stopped to watch the play of lightning.
“What’s the matter?”
“Get along with you!” i’Inad caught Nik’s shoulder and shoved him on with a force that almost sent him sprawling before he could reply to the Patrol officer’s question.
“Storm coming.” Nik got out. “And they’re bad here. To be caught in the open.”
The water that had cascaded over the shore cliff, cutting hundreds of swift-flowing streams, to flood this portion of the sea bottom and to build up rain lakes below, how high did that water reach? And if one were caught in the open, could it be fatal? Nik did not know, and he was not eager to find out.