“Just one, boss. How do I get to Denver? .Or how do we get there, assuming that Howe comes along?”
“I thought you would bring that up. It’s a sticky question; we can’t expect the Hand to provide you with a helicopter. How are your feet? Any broken arches? Corns and bunions?”
“I’ll be switched if I want to walk. It’s a long way. ”
“Don’t blame you. And the devil of it is that it’s a problem we’re going to have with us from now on, if we are going to organize all over the country.”
“I don’t understand the difficulty,” put in Brooks. “I thought citizens were still allowed to ride anything but aircraft?”
“Sure — with travel permits and endless red tape. Never mind,” Ardmore continued, “the day will come when the costume of a priest of Mota will be all the travel permit we’ll need. If we work this right, we’ll be teacher’s pet with all sorts of special privileges. In the meantime the trick is to get Jeff into Denver without attracting undue attention and without wearing out his feet. Say, Jeff, you never did tell me how you traveled. Somehow we missed that.”
“I hitch-hiked. Quite a chore, too. Most of the truckers are too scared of the security police to risk it.”
“You did? You shouldn’t have, Jeff: The priests of Mota do not hitch-hike. It doesn’t fit in with miracle working.”
“Well, what do they do? Dawggone it, Major, if I had walked I would still be on the way — or more likely arrested by some flunky who hadn’t gotten the news yet.” Thomas’ face showed irritation most unusual in him.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t second-guess you. But we will have to figure out a better way.”
“Why don’t I just run him down in one of the scout cars?” asked Wilkie.
“At night, of course.”
“Night doesn’t mean anything to radar, Bob. They would shoot you out of the sky.”
“I don’t think so. We have an almost unlimited amount of power at our disposal — sometimes it scares me when I try to think how much. I believe I can rig a radar beacon effect that will burn out any radar set that is turned on us.”
“Giving notice to the enemy that there is still someone around capable of hanky-panky with electronics? We mustn’t tip our hand so soon, Bob.”
Wilkie shut up, crestfallen. Ardmore thought it over. “And yet we’ve got to take chances. You rig your rig, Bob — then plan on hedgehopping all the way. We’ll do it about three or four o’clock in the morning and there’s a chance that you won’t be noticed at all. Use your rig if you have to but if you do then everyone is to return to base. The incident must not be connected with the priests of Mota, even in the matter of timing. The same applies after Wilkie sets you down, Jeff. If by any chance you are surprised, use the Ledbetter effect to kill off all the enemy anywhere close to you — then go underground. Jungle up. Under no circumstances is any PanAsian to be permitted to suspect that the priests of Mota are anything but what they seem. Kill off your witnesses and escape.”
“Right, boss.”
The little scout car hovered over Lookout Mountain a few feet away from Buffalo Bill’s grave. The door opened and a robed priest dropped to the ground, stumbling because of the heavy money belt slung from his shoulders and waist. A similar figure followed him and landed a bit more surefootedly. “You all right, Jeff”
“Sure.”
Wilkie left the car on automatic long enough to lean out and say, “Good luck!”
“Thanks. But shut up and get going.”
“Okay.” The door closed and the car disappeared into the night.
It was growing light by the time Thomas and Howe reached the foot of the mountain and started into Denver. So far as they knew they had not been detected although once they had crouched in bushes for several minutes, afraid to breathe, while a patrol passed. Jeff had kept his staff ready, a thumb resting lightly on a golden leaf in the decorations below the cube of Mota. But the patrol passed on, unaware of the curbed lightnings trained on them.