As the Hyadeans had already inferred, they would be staying here until tomorrow. In the morning, Rocco would leave with a guerrilla force to meet up with Hudro and Hudro’s unnamed companion, and attempt to rescue Cade and Marie. Where and how this was to happen Rocco didn’t disclose, but from the things that had been said before, Luodine presumed it would be while the two captives were in transit somewhere. Afterward, assuming the operation was successful, they would all return to Segora. What the plan was after that, Rocco didn’t say. Dan would remain to take care of the Hyadeans and deal with any needs or problems if he could.
The other two who had arrived with Rocco and Dan were women. While Rocco was talking, they brought in the cartons that had been unloaded, put them on the counter at the kitchen end of the room, and began taking out bread, vegetables, cans, and other provisions. Rocco left shortly afterward, explaining that he had preparations to attend to. If all went well, he would see them again tomorrow.
When the meal was ready, the two cooks took portions out for the guard detail around the building. Dan and the man in the forage cap, now revealed to be “Zak,” joined the Hyadeans at the table in the large room. Dan told them they were the first Hyadeans he had seen brought here as guests, although it appeared he had met Hudro previously somewhere. The rest of the men had seen the aliens only from a distance, and then on the other side. They were not clear what was going on, which made them understandably wary.
“Could they learn to accept us, do you think?” Luodine asked him.
Dan seemed puzzled. “Why should they have to? What do you mean?”
She indicated herself and Nyarl. “We are journalists from Chryse who are a little different. We’ve been reporting what is, not what’s supposed to be—even if it has been causing us problems. We think our work is here. Suppose we wanted to stay. Could something like that be arranged, do you think?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. . . . You’d need to talk to Rocco and Hudro tomorrow, when they get back.”
Luodine noted the same edginess in Dan’s manner that she had detected in Zak earlier. “Something is making everyone nervous tonight, isn’t it?” she said. “I saw it in Rocco too. What’s happening?”
Dan glanced uneasily at Zak, as if acknowledging that he wasn’t sure this was the right way to be talking. “There’s a lot of Glob activity everywhere. Air strikes, troop drops. This area has to be targeted. Rocco’s got bad feelings about staging this mission tomorrow, but it seems like it can’t be any other time. I’m not sure why.”
“I think we already know,” Luodine said.
Dan shrugged in a way that said he didn’t need to hear. “My job is just to make sure you’re all here, ready and waiting, when they get back.”
It had been an eventful and arduous day, and the three Hyadeans turned in early. Just as she was drifting off into sleep that promised to engulf her in seconds, Luodine was brought back to reality by the sound of what could have been distant thunder coming in through the screen of the open widow, but with a sharper, more percussive bark. “What was that?” she asked into the darkness.
“It could be artillery fire. Or maybe an air attack somewhere,” Vrel’s voice replied.
The sound continued for maybe fifteen minutes, sometimes seemingly a little closer, then farther away. In the next room, Dan and Zak were engaged on a radiotelephone with others elsewhere. They sounded tense and agitated. Dan poked his head in around the door a few minutes later. “Sleep in your clothes and keep your boots near at hand,” he told the Hyadeans. “We may have to move out in a hurry.”
* * *
It was daylight when sounds of loud explosions accompanied by a shrieking roar tore Luodine out of a deep sleep. She sat up, struggling to integrate the impressions into some kind of coherence. Aircraft, passing low overhead. Bombs! Vrel and Nyarl were already tumbling out of nearby bunks, finding shoes and grabbing coats. The door was thrown open, and Dan entered. “We’re under attack!” he shouted. “Glob forces moving in on the area. We’re taking you back to the strip now.”