Ginny realized Chip might have more luck at getting to his feet if she let go of him. Still, it seemed a pity.
“Will you two get up so that I can collect the explosive, or are you just going to bang right there?” demanded Fal. “And, as you’re back so quick, Pistol, you can help.”
“Bang?” The one-eyed rat laughed wickedly. “Old Chip doesn’t need any help. Does he, Ginny?”
She realized that she’d somehow passed imperceptibly from being an outsider, to being one of them. The thought brought a fierce glow. This was the first time in her life she’d ever felt that way.
The others began trickling back, as they gathered up as much of the fertilizer as possible.
” ‘Tis to be hoped t’ose Maggots aren’t fast runners,” said O’Niel. “I set mine on three minutes.”
“Indade, you’re a fool, O’Niel,” snapped Eamon. “I said to you—plain as day—two and a half!”
“Oh, foine. ‘Tis a fool I am, now. Just because my claw slipped,” muttered O’Niel.
“Indade?” said Eamon. “A drunken fool!”
“Will you two stop bickering? Let’s go.” Chip had shouldered two half-bags of fertilizer and was rolling one of the three dented twenty-five-liter drums of diesel that had made it down.
“We’re waiting for Siobhan and Doc,” said Melene.
Fal looked around. “And the Korozhet.”
Ginny looked alarmed. “Where did he go? Och. I mean she, the Professor, go?”
Pistol pointed. “He went with Doc. They were arguing about—’the dialectic,’ or some such.”
Chip put his load down. “We’d better get after them. When Doc gets going he’s unlikely to notice a little thing like a time fuse.”
* * *
They found her first. By smell. Something very unpleasant had happened to Siobhan. Murder. Murder most foul. The twisted body lay just inside the access-tunnel mouth.
Bronstein bristled. “Her pack is missing. No Maggot ever takes anything.”
With a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, Chip ran past the bats. The little body of Doc lay on top of the pile of fertilizer. For a moment he stood, frozen. Then he noticed a minuscule twitch of the nose. Fal and Melene arrived, full tilt.
“Whoreson! What the hell killed him?” demanded Fal.
Melene, who had dived onto the philosopher, was listening intently. “His heart is beating. But it is very faint.”
Suddenly, it all fell into place in Chip’s head. He grabbed Doc, and gathered Melene up too in the same armful. “Fal—Run!”
They sprinted. At the tunnel mouth, the remaining bats and remaining rats were congregated with Ginny and the galago.
Ginny looked up. “You’ve got Doc! The Professor must be in there too!” She turned, hastily, toward the tunnel.
Chip dropped his burdens and dived on her, bringing her down.
The galago shrieked as he flew from her shoulder. “I will go . . .”
Chip saw Pistol, moving like a blur, knock the little galago down.
Then, as he had foreseen, the charge in the tunnel went off.
“The Professor!” Virginia tried to scramble to her feet.
Chip hung onto her fiercely. “Don’t you see, you little fool, the goddamn Crotchet killed Siobhan—and tried to kill Doc. It’s a fucking murderer!”
She struggled. “NO! Never! He couldn’t be! Korozhet are GOOD.”
Bronstein’s gargoyle face twisted. “Yes.” The word sounded torn out of her. “But we can’t go in there. The rest of the charges are due to go off at any moment. We must finish what the Korozhet wanted us to do.”
Ginny struggled some more. “You go on. I must go back and see.”
“You’ll come with us,” Chip said, half dragging her. “If I have to knock you out and carry you, you’ll come with us now!”
“I won’t!” she struggled hysterically.
He hit her. In the solar plexus. Hard. As her breath whoofed out, he grabbed her and began to run for the dark tunnel where the Korozhet had said their destination should be. He had a sinking feeling about that, too, now.
Chip dumped her, groaning, in the entry tunnel. He turned on the rats who had followed with Doc. “You let her out of here, and I’ll kill you. Got me?”
“And if he doesn’t, I will,” said Bronstein grimly.