“Why do they have to turn sour?”
She shrugged. “They always do. I suppose it’s the way people are.”
“You sound like a cynic.”
“Just more a realist, I’d say.” Leisha stared out at the rocks outlined blackly against the last vestige of fading sky. “That’s why I ended up on this side that we’re on. They deal in what is, with people as they are. To me it makes more sense. It’s on solid ground. The others are preoccupied with things that should be. But you have to live in reality.” She turned her head toward Jorff. “How about you?”
“Me, what?”
“What’s your reason?”
“Oh, nothing so philosophic. I leave that stuff to philosophers. Me? Life was getting too boring, everything predictable. I used to have exciting times here on Earth, you know that? You never knew what was going to happen tomorrow or next week. And I like people who know how to take control. You have to let people know who’s in charge. And out here, that’s what it’s going to take.” He nodded his head decisively, as if it had all become clear only at that moment. “I guess that’s it. Nothing’s too predictable. You don’t know what’s going to happen. It makes me feel I’m coming back to life again.”
Jorff stopped speaking just in time to unmask what sounded like a giggle from somewhere in the darkness, stifled suddenly by an urgent whisper. “What the hell was that?” he demanded, banging the flask down and standing up. He advanced in the direction the sounds had come from, and threw a rock. There were scuffling noises, and two small shapes appeared briefly and ran off into the dark. “Kids!” Jorff exclaimed indignantly. “Would you believe it? Do they change anywhere?”
Leisha straightened up beside him. “You see,” she said. “Something always goes wrong with these things. Always complications.” She pulled her jacket more tightly around her shoulders. “We should be heading back, anyway. It’s starting to get cold. And I need to check with Serengeti to see if the maps were okay.”
* * *
Zeigler and Kelm, accompanied by a retinue of officers and guards, paced slowly along the perimeter of the compound where the vehicles would be grouped at night, inspecting the arrangements. Things at Joburg were progressing well. A probe would be sent out tomorrow to pinpoint the location of the caves. Zeigler’s staff had named the location Carlsbad.
The training program at Joburg was probably one of the fastest courses ever put together for handguns and automatic weapons—but it wasn’t as if Rakki’s recruits would be making their combat debut against crack troops. The more important thing was to begin recruiting at the earliest opportunity the larger force Zeigler was hoping to raise from Carlsbad. The first phase of the operation—installing Rakki in place of his enemy, Jemmo—had been designated “Usurper.”
“The occasion needs to be made big and impressive,” Zeigler told Kelm. “We want Rakki to be seen as a superhuman chief appointed by the gods, who will lead them to great victories. We should be there too, to show our support and authority.”
“We go to Carlsbad too,” Kelm checked.
“Jorff will need an additional flyer at Joburg to transport his team when they’re ready. We can depart directly from here, rendezvous with them somewhere, and then proceed to Carlsbad as a unit, all arriving together. That would make more of a spectacle.”
“What about Naarmegen and those others in the Scout?” Kelm asked.
“Yes, I’ve been thinking about them too. We wait until Rakki is secure at Carlsbad, and then have some of his new soldiers from there take care of the Scout for us. We could make it a loyalty test before giving them firearms. Then we let Laelye and her friends send a recovery team out from Serengeti afterwards, so they can see for themselves it was the work of hostile natives. That should put any thoughts of trying something similar out of everyone’s mind. It ties all the loose ends up neatly.”
Kelm hesitated for a second. “Keene is with them too,” he reminded Zeigler. “He’s a valuable resource. Can we afford to lose him along with the others?”