“Yes, sir.” He opened a drawer, and handed his chief a slender, deadly looking weapon. Gaines belted it on, and accepted a helmet, into which he crammed his head, leaving the anti-noise ear flaps up. Blekinsop cleared his throat.
“May – uh – may I have one of those helmets?” he inquired.
“What?” Gaines focused his attention. “Oh – You won’t need one, Mr. Blekinsop. I want you to remain right here until you hear from me.”
“But-” The Australian statesman started to speak, thought better of it, and subsided.
From the doorway the Cadet Engineer of the Watch demanded the Chief Engineer’s attention. “Mr. Gaines, there is a technician out here who insists on seeing you – a man named Harvey.”
“Can’t do it.”
“He’s from the Sacramento Sector, sir.”
“Oh! Send him in.”
Harvey quickly advised Gaines of what he had seen and heard at the guild meeting that afternoon. “I got disgusted and left while they were still jawin’, Chief. I didn’t think any more about it until twenty stopped rolling. Then I heard that the trouble was in Sacramento Sector, and decided to look you up.”
“How long has this been building up?”
“Quite some time, I guess. You know how it is – there are a few soreheads everywhere and a lot of them are functionalists. But you can’t refuse to work with a man just because he holds different political views. It’s a free country.”
“You should have come to me before, Harvey.” Harvey looked stubborn. Gaines studied his face. “No, I guess you are right. It’s my business to keep tab on your mates, not yours. As you say, it’s a free country. Anything else?”
“Well – now that it has come to this, I thought maybe I
could help you pick out the ringleaders.”
“Thanks. You stick with me. We’re going ‘down inside’ and try to clear up this mess.”
The office door opened suddenly, and a technician and a cadet appeared, lugging a burden between them. They deposited it on the floor, and waited.
It was a young man, quite evidently dead. The front of his dungaree jacket was soggy with blood. Gaines looked at the watch officer. “Who is he?”
Edmunds broke his stare and answered, “Cadet Hughes-he’s the messenger I sent to Sacramento when communication failed. When he didn’t report, I sent Marston and Cadet Jenkins after him.”
Gaines muttered something to himself, and turned away. “Come along, Harvey.”
The cadets waiting below had changed in mood. Gaines noted that the boyish intentness for excitement had been replaced by something uglier. ‘There was much exchange of hand signals and several appeared to be checking the loading of their pistols.
He sized them up, then signaled to the cadet leader. There was a short interchange of signals. The cadet saluted, turned to his men, gesticulated – briefly, and brought his arm down smartly. They filed upstairs and into an empty standby room, Gaines following.
Once inside, and the noise shut out, he addressed them,
“You saw Hughes brought in-how many of you want a chance to kill the louse that did it?”
Three of the cadets reacted almost at once, breaking ranks and striding forward. Gaines looked at them coldly. “Very well. You three turn in your weapons, and return to your quarters. Any of the rest of you that think this is a matter of private revenge, or, a hunting party, may join them.” He permitted a short silence to endure before continuing. “Sacramento Sector has been seized by unauthorized persons. We are going to retake it – if possible, without loss of life on either side, and, if possible, without stopping the roads. The plan is to take over ‘down inside’, rotor by rotor, and cross-connect through Stockton, The task assignment of this group is to proceed north ‘down inside’, locating and overpowering all persons in your path. You will bear in mind the probability that most of the persons you will arrest are completely innocent. Consequently, you will favor the use of sleep gas bombs, and will shoot to kill only as a last resort.
“Cadet Captain, assign your men in squads of ten each, with a squad leader. Each squad is to form a skirmish line across ‘down inside’, mounted on tumblebugs, and will proceed north at fifteen miles per hour. Leave an interval of one hundred yards between successive waves of skirmishers. Whenever a man is sighted, the entire leading wave will converge on him, arrest him, and deliver him to a transport car and then fall in as the last wave. You will assign the transports that delivered you here to receive prisoners. Instruct the drivers to keep abreast of the second wave.