Harvey gestured at the map. “Meet them here and here. Pin them from both sides, with outreaching parties in case they’re running little surprises for us, figuring we’ll do that. Mebbe they won’t know they’ve been spotted, and we’ll get lucky. Thing is, my boys aren’t that many, and the rest of the folks here ain’t really fighters. We could use some help.”
Ryan nodded. He could see that the request came directly from the baron, and was sticking in the sec chiefs craw even as he asked. He confined agreement to a nod, not wanting to aggravate the situation by further comment. Besides which, time was short.
“Thank you, Ryan,” Alien said simply. “I’ll be with you as this threat hits Raw. We leave immediately.”
HARVEY LEFT five sec men in charge of the ville. Each sec man headed a section, Raw being divided into geographical segments. The armed inhabitants were under their section leader. This left Harvey in charge of twenty sec men, with Alien allowing Harvey—as sec chief—to head operations. Ryan and his people were assumed to be under Harvey’s direction. They were content to do this unless it led them into unnecessary danger, where they each privately reserved the right to take appropriate action.
They marched through the tunnels at double speed, unable to run because the width of the passageways demanded a disciplined exit. As they marched, Harvey assigned parties of sec men, directing them on their courses of action when they broke surface. At one junction, the party divided into two, the second group of sec forces heading for another exit, the better to approach the pincer movement Harvey directed.
Ryan’s party followed Harvey and Alien, heading for the exit by which they had first entered Raw.
When they broke surface, the humidity hit them like a wave. The air just below the surface was less fresh, but was cooler and not filled with the sickly sweet smell of the forest undergrowth. As the first sec team emerged, they took up guard positions until all were safely out of the exit and in a position of defense. The entrance to the ville was closed and disguised before Harvey mustered his forces.
Having filled them in fully on the plan he had earlier explained in detail to Ryan and his party, he deployed his forces, sending them out on a long, semicircular ran that would intercept with the course the mutie war party was taking.
“You sure he’s got that right?” J.B. whispered to Ryan before the parties split. “Reckon they will take the direct route?”
“Not much intelligence or tactical sense among them, and they’ll probably want to take the most direct route,” Ryan reasoned. “Figure Harvey’s probably got it about right. Best to stay triple red on the run out, though. Just in case he’s underestimated Sunchild himself—just like he thought he didn’t have blasters.”
The Armorer agreed, pushing his fedora back and polishing his spectacles. “Don’t usually say this, but good luck. We may need it yet,” he said, only too well aware that the forces they knew they could rely on—themselves—were to be split in two by Harvey’s division of sec forces.
“Hey, Cyclops! You and the blaster boy stop yakking. We’ve got work to do,” Harvey snapped at them.
Ryan’s face set, hiding his anger. Harvey’s ability to use his tongue harshly at the wrong moments would get him into serious trouble one day…but not today.
Not when there was a larger enemy.
THE MUTIE raiding party was making no attempt to disguise its progress, and Ryan was able to hear them from some distance. He was in an ambush party that included himself, Krysty, Jak and the baron. Downey, the silver-haired and snake-hipped sec man with the Sharps, was in charge, although he was suitably deferential to his baron. Alien had confessed to being no fighting man, and he was proving that by being more of an obstruction than a help, his bulk becoming easily snagged on the sharp spines running down the stems of some plants and tripping over tree roots hidden in the creepers that moved alarmingly around his heavy-footed tread.
There were nine other sec men in the party, and Blake was one of them. The wizened and dark sec man dropped back to help the baron straggle through the undergrowth. Jak fell back in line to assist the sec man.