“Upgrades?” Yaut allowed puzzled-misunderstanding to pervade his shoulders. He had not encountered this English word before. Neither had Aille.
“Improvements,” Kralik said. “New technology, the latest advancements.”
“Why would we change anything?” Yaut said, his eyes trained on the advancing line. “This equipment works well and we know how to operate it. Replacement parts are already manufactured. What more is needed?”
“How long ago did you develop this line of technology?” Aguilera asked, as the lead Jao vehicle began firing at the first structure it encountered.
“It came down to us from the Ekhat,” Aille said.
“So it’s not really yours,” Tully said. “Someone else invented all this stuff. You just maintain and use it.”
The vehicle’s laser fired a second time, a third, and then the structure burst apart with a muffled explosion. Shards of burning wood flew through the air. The tank glided on to the next building, an ice-blue presence in the night.
* * *
Tully could not sit still, but Aguilera was already pacing, for all the good it would do anyone in the doomed town, so he tucked his twitching hands under his arms and shuffled his feet to dissipate his nerves. How could the rebels have been so stupid—going after the Governor, himself, for God’s sake? Tully had heard that the Resistance groups in the Northwest tended to be reckless, but this was worse than he’d expected.
He wanted to pound someone’s face, beat sense into them, but it was far too late. He ached to slip off into the darkness and see if he could help protect the town against this one-sided attack, but that was impossible as long as he was shackled with the locator band. Yaut had evidently disarmed it on the ship, once they were under attack, but the damned thing was certainly working now. He’d had a good-sized shock out of it just fifteen minutes ago, when he’d gotten careless and wandered too far looking for a place to urinate.
He watched gloomily on the screen as, one by one, the buildings along the street being used to enter the town were blasted into burning splinters by Jao tanks. But no one flung open the doors and ran as they approached, or popped up behind an open window and got off a few well-placed shots. None of the buildings had lights on, either.
Tully edged around Yaut, peering closer. It was almost as though . . . no one was home. His heart raced with sudden hope. Had Salem perhaps been evacuated? Maybe this wasn’t quite going to be the slaughter Oppuk had envisioned.
He studied Aille, for a moment. There was something about his posture . . . Tully couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but suddenly he knew. The Pluthrak Subcommandant was looking pleased with himself. And Tully suddenly realized that when he’d caught a glimpse of Oppuk earlier that day, the Governor had seemed more furious than ever.
I will be good God-damned. The sly Jao bastard planned it this way.
He reviewed everything he’d seen since the whale hunt in his mind. Looking at it, this time, not from the angle of a bitter rebel but from that of a soldier who’d had enough time in the service to know how to goldbrick.
Yup, he did. Dragged everything out as long as he could. Hurry up and wait. Had Jao aircraft buzzing the town constantly, making sure everybody knew all hell was about to break loose—but carefully kept routes of evacuation open. He could have easily positioned troops around the entire town. Salem’s not that really that big. Maybe . . . what? A hundred thousand people? Can’t be much more than that.
Kralik had been consulting with Aille, most of that time, providing him with the expertise of a human general who knew the lay of the land. As commander of the Pacific Division, the western part of the continent was his turf.
Tully now studied Kralik. The general’s face was calm, impassive, unreadable. For a moment, his gray eyes met Tully’s, then looked away.
Him too!
Tully had to suppress a laugh. When Kralik had disappeared for a while, Tully had simply assumed it was because he had the hots for the Stockwell girl and insisted on personally taking her to the hospital. Cradle robber, he’d thought at the time. The general was almost old enough to be her father.