“Uh . . . it’s just a figure of speech.” Aguilera winced. “If you do it, you’ll tear his head off.” He looked up at Tully. “Do us the honors, would you?”
“Sure,” said Tully, smiling crookedly. He rose easily, took two strides over to the old human, and gave him a little swat with the fingers on the top of his bald head.
To Aille’s surprise, the old one’s eyes filled instantly with water. “Tears,” humans called it, normally a sign of great pain or anguish. Yet Tully’s blow would hardly have sufficed to crush an insect.
“I’ve lived in this house my whole life,” the old one said, the words coming in short, gasping sobs, “since Marge and me got married. She died, just two years ago—but she died in our bedroom.”
“Yeah, I know, old-timer,” replied Tully softly. “And by tomorrow, it’ll be nothing but cinders. But it’s just a house, when all’s said and done. And Marge is safely out of it. You better come with us.”
He lifted the oldster to his feet, all but shoving Yaut aside to do it. Then, helped Aguilera to his feet also. The wounded man’s face glistened in the dimness, bathed in a thin sheen of water, though the rain had not started again. “Even if it was only a lousy popgun, he needs medical attention.”
“Take him back, then.” Aille said. “I will remain and observe further. Tell the medician I authorize treatment.” He glanced at the oldster, understanding that Tully would not relinquish him now. “Both of them, if the other needs attention also.”
“I can’t.” Tully held up his wrist with the gleaming black locator band. “Not unless Yaut goes too.”
Yaut fished in his carrying pouch, then threw him the control box. “Go.”
Tully’s face changed as he stared down at the smooth black rectangle. “But—”
“Either you comprehend vithrik, or you do not,” Yaut said. “I have trained you as well as I can. The rest is up to you.”
Tully’s pale face looked from Aille to Yaut. “I’ll be back as soon as I see to Aguilera and the old fellow,” he said, almost as though he didn’t believe it himself. “I will.”
“You are of my personal service,” Aille said. “Whatever your beginnings, among Jao, to be so trusted is counted of great honor.” Their eyes met in the darkness, the green of Tully’s reflecting the light from above.
A long burst of automatic weapon fire came from the next street over. Kralik turned, obviously trying to pinpoint the source.
Aille took Aguilera’s hand, trying to imitate the same grip he had often seen one human use with another, though it seemed awkward. The bare skin felt strangely hot against his own palm. Their body temperature was higher than a Jao’s. He had not realized that until this moment. “We will continue to observe,” he said. “Now I want to see how effectively my Jao equipment operates.”
“Watch when they fire,” Aguilera said faintly. His blood gleamed black-red under the light from above. “See how they—” He swayed and Tully took more of his weight. “—how they deal with the lasers.”
His chin drooped to his chest and Tully swore. “Later!” he said, and then slipped off into the darkness, half-carrying Aguilera and the old human.
* * *
Aille’s party skirted two more brief firefights to reach the center of the fighting. Now that the Jao forces were in the town itself, they’d encountered fierce patches of resistance in many places. Much of the battle raged from structure to structure. Finally, they came to a main boulevard down which some Jao fighting vehicles were advancing. They stopped to observe, crouched behind the rubble of a destroyed building.
“There!” Kralik pointed, into the inadequate light shed by the few remaining street lamps on the street ahead. “That’s what Aguilera was talking about!”
Aille squinted and could just make out thousands of tiny metallic strips floating down through the laser cannons’ angle of fire. Whenever a beam hit a strip, portions of it were reflected at odd angles and the beam lost coherence.
He rose higher, heedless of stray projectiles, every line of his body shaped into startled-interest. “What are those?”