“Hold still! Let me see your eyes-“ That was the Patrolman. I flinched involuntarily from his touch and then obeyed. I could feel him spread the lids, the sting of moisture against the balls.
“Close and hold!” he ordered. “From my aid kit – that ought to help.”
“They will have heard-“ I put up my hand to touch Eet’s wiry fur. “They will come-“
“Not for a while,” Eet answered quickly. “It is night and they have posted an outer guard, but there are none in any of the tunnels. We have a good chance of getting free. This guard was the only sensitive among them.”
My hand was caught in a firm grip which pulled me on. Eet meanwhile directed my steps around piles of debris. We must have re-entered the tunnel, heading for the outside.
“Who are you?” the Patrolman asked. “A hostage?”
I gave him the version I had edited for the Guild men. “I caught an unknown disease, was spaced from a ship in an LB. It made tape landing here and I was hunted by natives. I took refuge in a wrecked ship. Then these landed. They made me prisoner after their medico pronounced me clean.”
“You are lucky they did not just beam you down, he returned. “I wonder why they did not.”
I had to supply him with a plausible answer. “They thought I knew about what they hunt here. I am an apprentice gemologist”
“Gems!” He paused and then added, “They are conducting mining operations – that is true.”
“Were you tailing them? And where is your ship?” I counterquestioned.
“I am a scout.” He gave me the most disheartening answer for one hoping for a quick way out of trouble. “They took me when I came out after landing. But my ship is on time lock – they cannot break into her. If we can reach her- But what- or who- is your friend?”
“I am Eet,” Eet answered for himself. “This human and I are in defensive alliance – which was good for you, Patrolman. To get him free I had also to extend aid to you.”
“Then you did engineer that fall of rock,” I observed.
Eet corrected me. No, the creature brought it on himself. I only gave him mind direction, confused him to make him think he saw something threatening above. He was esper, but to a limited degree save with his own kind. He lost his head and shot at a shadow which was not there, bringing down the rock.”
My hand slipped along Eet’s body and he suffered that examination by touch. I did not feel the twined roots about his long neck, or any indication that he still carried the ring. Nor in that company could I ask questions. For the less the Patrolman knew the better. The Patrol ever takes the view that the good of many is superior to the good of the individual.
I sensed that Eet was in complete agreement with me on that point, and that the ring was in a safe place. But I fretted a little – no place save my own custody really satisfied me.
“Try to use your eyes,” said the Patrolman.
The sensation of being closed in was gone, and a cool wind laden with outdoor scents blew about us. I lifted my lids and blinked rapidly. That sweep of violent red had faded, and though there were some shadowy blotches, I could see blearily.
Not too far away a rude sentry post had been erected from debris of the mine tunnels and blocks of the ruins. There was a beamer mounted on its uneven wall, and at intervals that swept, not toward the tunnel mouths, but across the jumble of ruins, touching the broken walls which had once dammed the river.
“They fear an attack from the natives,” Eet explained.
“Clubs against lasers?” I scoffed.
“Clubs in the night, when one cannot see well – the odds are not as uneven as you think.”
“Why do they not just hole up in their ship?” was my second question.
“They have equipment in the tunnels. Once before they tried retreating into the ship at night. The natives smashed things that could not he repaired – they had to go off world for more.”
“You seem to know a lot about them!” flashed the Patrolman.
“You,” returned Eet in his most insufferable voice, “are one Celph Hory, ten years with the force. You are a native of Loki, one of four sons, two of whom are dead. You were sent here, not on a routine scout, but to search out the source of a well-sustained rumor that the Guild has made a discovery which will give them superiority in space. You have orders to keep under cover ( which you did not carry out well, mainly because your ship had been skillfully sabotaged, something you did not discover until you were in orbit here ) and to report back, not revealing your presence to the Guild. Is this not true?”
I heard a breath drawn in sharply. “You read minds.” Hory made it close to an accusation.
“I merely follow the instinct bred into me, as you follow yours, Hory. Be glad that I do, or you would have been prisoner until Captain Nactitl gave the order for your burning. He was debating the folly of keeping you any longer an hour ago. I would suggest as speedy a withdrawal as possible. These miners have not come upon what they are seeking, but they are close-“
“You found it!” I broke in. By this time I could pick up not only Eet’s mental speech but some of his emotions. He was at his smuggest now, suggesting that once again he had bested those physically stronger and bigger.
“So far they look in the wrong place. However, sooner or later that will occur to them. Nactitl is not in the least stupid, and certainly not to be underrated. He has only failed so far because he did not have the right guide.”
The right guide! The ring which Eet had taken, which- which might have drawn him to the source. I wanted to ask questions so badly they choked my throat, buzzed in my head. But if he answered them, then Hory, too, would have that information.
“What have they to find here?” broke in the Patrolman, and I knew he would continue to seek an answer. It all depended now on how much he knew of gems. If I guessed wrongly and he had any training in that field, then my secret was threatened. But again Eet took the lead, giving me a briefing in his reply.
“A source of revenue, which also means power.” It was very easy to forget at such times he was only a small furred creature. His communication was not that of an equal, but soared only too often into patronizing explanations. “This was a mine of – how many years ago we cannot guess. But I would say the diggings of one of the Forerunner civilizations. Unfortunately for the present-day seekers, they have been picked clean.”
“But you said Nactitl was just not looking in the right place-“
“He searches the old diggings. If he looked among the ruins he might find other clues. Unfortunately we cannot linger to investigate on our own. I would suggest that we find your ship,” he said to Hory, “and lift as soon as possible. To hide out in this area is unwise. The sniffers are out-“
“Sniffers?”
“The natives; they hunt largely by scent. At any rate the Guild activity here is drawing more and more of them and they have established a ring about the landing field. As yet they are not ready to attack, but they very efficiently serve as a means of confining offworlder activity to this general vicinity. Even to reach your ship will be something of a problem which will increase materially with every passing moment. But one man alone is not going to change Captain Nactitl’s Mind and-“
I felt Eet’s body stiffen, his head go up and forward.
“What is it?”
“We have less time than I had hoped!” His message flashed to us. “They endeavored to reach your late guard by hand com. When he did not answer they ordered a general alert.”
We had only those few instants of warning. The beamer mounted on the sentry post went into stepped-up action, sweeping its light wider and farther. But bright as it was in the open, it still could not penetrate the hollow pools of shadow which were to be found among the ruins. And we had luckily dropped into one of those.
“To the right-“ Eet took over direction. “Move out at the next sweep.”
“To the left.” Hory was equally insistent. “My ship-“
“It will not be that easy,” Eet snapped. “We must go right to eventually win left. And we shall have to go deeper into the fringe of the ruins, maybe even out into the open-“