” . . . because I’m the boss, that’s why. You just stick to your job. And anyway, even if . . .”
Two of the figures were taller, wearing what looked in the fading light to be Kronian combat garb. The speaker was Jorff.
Keene lay in the darkening shadows, not knowing what to make of it, until a long time after they had gone. For a while he was tempted to work his way closer to the settlement to try and find out something of what was going on, but the recollection that there were dogs there deterred him. As for finding the probe, blundering about up on the ridge in the dark would be more likely to win him a broken leg than anything else, which would be all they needed. There was nothing else for it tonight but to retrace his route back down to where he’d left Charlie. The only thing he was able to offer Charlie when he got back was a refilled water bottle.
* * *
As night wore on, Charlie alternated between fits of sweating and shivering, and was not very coherent. Keene gave him the second quilt and made himself as comfortable as he could wedged among rocks with the packs and spare clothing. Thunder boomed distantly to the east. Just to make everything complete, it started to rain. Keene pulled the tatters of his parka close around him and tried to plan for tomorrow.
What were Jorff and Zeigler’s guards doing at Joburg? The mood of the party he had seen on their way back down to the huts hadn’t spoken of any hostilities. So they had to be training Rakki’s warriors in the use of firearms—there had been shooting, and they were carrying guns. Training them for what? The only thing that came to mind was to supplement Zeigler’s force at Serengeti. The thought, as Keene pictured it, of Kronians being humiliated by what at present could only be described as little more than savages was distasteful enough; but the further implication was more appalling still. When Valcroix and his supporters arrived, the first small army of oppression would already be waiting to enforce their will. It might be only tiny beginnings, but the pattern of the regime that would grow from it, and the way it would be perpetuated, was already being set. And so the old empires of conquest and exploitation would arise and battle each other again. Unless Kronia could intervene in time to prevent it. But Kronia was ill-prepared for such a task. Since Athena, its energies had been totally absorbed in fighting for its own survival.
More to the immediate point, what was he to do tomorrow? Cold, hungry, wet, and exhausted, he was unable to formulate any clear plan of action. They needed to find the probe, but what to do about Charlie? . . . But surely Rakki’s warriors were too few to be worth all the effort. . . . So what was Jorff doing here? . . . Keene fell into a fitful doze with the fragments of thoughts still floating disconnected in his mind.
* * *
Another morning came, cold, gray, and damp. Charlie looked bad: pale, clammy, and sunken-eyed, coming out of his stupor only to ramble disjointedly. There could be no question of leaving him as he was for any length of time. And that decided Keene’s dilemma for him. He stood up resignedly and turned to commence his route of the previous evening, following the rise up from the lakeshore. This time, however, instead of detouring around, he crossed the creek lower down and headed directly toward the settlement.
But as he came within sight of the huts, the whine of flyer engines reached his ears, coming from behind and to his left, getting louder. It sounded like a craft approaching from the north. He turned to scan the sky and picked it out, following the line of the lake and descending. Then it turned toward the settlement on an approach that would bring it right over him, causing him to take cover hurriedly among some rocks. It was a medium personnel bus—seating up to twenty. Keene watched it pass over the huts to land on the open ground above. Then he emerged and carried on in the same direction as before, but curious now, moving more cautiously, in no haste to reveal his presence. Everyone’s attention was on what was happening on the far side of the settlement, and he was able to get quite close.