His thoughts wandered to the runabout upended back where they had left it, waiting for a call. For some reason he pictured birds perching on it. Why was he thinking about birds? He felt the curve of the probe’s side pressing into his back. Probe . . . Up in the Varuna . . . Erskine should have known better than to try pulling that stunt. . . . How could a few command that much power? That was the problem. The Kronians had never faced opposition. They never had understood power. . . . Cavan understood. . . . Cavan and Harvey Mitchell with his Special Forces unit, and the plane they had flow in to California . . . Vandenberg when the tide went out, leaving miles of uncovered mud . . . Walls of ocean breaking over the mountains above Pasadena . . .
Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . . Beep . . .
The tone from the emergency-unit handset propped on a rock beside him jolted him back to wakefulness. He groped for it blearily and clicked it on. It was Sariena.
“Lan, are you all right?”
“Oh . . . uh? Yeah. . . . Sure. What have you got?”
“You can stop worrying about Pieter and the people in the Scout. What’s going on is more involved. The source couldn’t give the whole story, but it seems to have to do with a bigger tribe who live in some caves.”
“Caves? That sounds like the place that Rakki and his original group came from.”
“That’s what I thought too. But now listen to this, Lan.” Sariena’s face was grave. “As far as the source could make out, the plan is to install Rakki there as chief. Zeigler left to rendezvous with them somewhere. So they’ll all be arriving together, making it a big event. He must be using his image to force an alliance of the two tribes. Can you see what this might mean?”
Keene was fully awake now, his eyes wide. He saw exactly what it might mean. “He’s building a private army. The larger group they’ve just found farther east on the coast will be next—and whatever others turn up later. He’ll be able to challenge the leadership when they arrive. And that’s how the new world will be built.”
“Unless Kronia prevents it. Would that be possible?”
“They’re too far away to do anything in time. And if Valcroix’s people have taken over the Aztec and deliver it to Zeigler with the capability it’s carrying . . .” Keene’s voice trailed away as the plan finally became clear in all its horrifying completeness.
“Lan. What is it?”
He stared hard for several seconds. “The Trojan is part of it too. It didn’t get lost on its way to Jupiter. It’s coming here. With its firepower as protection, they’ll be able to get a self-sufficient operation going before Kronia can organize anything. After that, they could be practically invulnerable. The only chance is to stop Zeigler now. With no friendly base waiting for them, where do they go?”
“But if they’ve still got Trojan . . .”
“They do what? Destroy Serengeti? How does that benefit anyone?”
“Blackmail, maybe. By threatening the Varuna. They might be crazy enough.”
Keene sighed. She was right. But what else was there? “We just have to risk it.”
“But how? What can we do?”
Keene rummaged through the possibilities in his mind, but nothing immediate leaped out. The only answer he could give was, “I don’t know. But whatever the chances are, they exist there, where Zeigler is, not here or at Serengeti, where he isn’t.”
“But we don’t even know where he is,” Sariena said. “And even if we did, what could either of us do? We’re under armed confinement here. All you have there is a dead probe.”
Three faces were watching Keene curiously, aware from his manner and tone that something important was afoot but having no idea what. He thought of Rakki and his warriors meeting with Zeigler somewhere out there in the wild lands to the east. . . .
Somewhere in the area over which Heeland’s airmobile was circling.