“South! The alien wizard has gone south.” His face split in a wide smile.
“Excellent. We have driven him from his hole and now we can follow him. He
will not be so well protected in his new lair.” He jumped up on the stump
and struck a heroic pose.
“This time we shall not fail!” he proclaimed in ringing tones.
The other dwarves listened politely, but with a notable lack of
enthusiasm.
“This means the griffins again, doesn’t it?” Thorfin asked glumly.
“I don’t see why we don’t just grab the thing now,” Danny complained as he
and Wiz made their way back to their quarters. “It’s been nearly a week
since we got here and we can’t do anything until we get that computer.”
It was well past midnight and the halls were deserted. The support staff
was small and was not on duty around the clock. Even Jerry had turned in
an hour ago, leaving Wiz and Danny to finish reviewing the results of
their search for a “candidate” computer system.
“Because it’s still legal,” Wiz told him. “They haven’t done anything they
aren’t supposed to yet.”
“But we know they’re going to.”
“But they haven’t. So we don’t touch it.”
“Like, the KGB is really going to use a supercomputer in the United
States.”
“It’s the GRU-military intelligence-and they’re still legal.”
“Bullshit!”
“Maybe,” Wiz said firmly. “But that’s the way we’re going to play it.”
They walked on in silence. Their feet made no noise on the carpeted floor
and the dim light from the ceiling panels had a bluish cast that made it
seem even dimmer.
As they came around a corner, they saw movement ahead. Instinctively they
both froze. Then Wiz realized it was June.
June was always cat-quiet when she moved, edging along the walls of a room
as if she was afraid something would grab her. Now she was moving even
more stealthily. She kept her back to the wall and stepped sideways with
large cross-body steps that carried her along utterly without sound.
Danny moved to say something, but Wiz put a cautionary hand on his arm. As
silently as she had come, June disappeared down the cross-corridor.
“What’s June doing sneaking around like that?”
“She’s not sneaking!” Danny fired back.
“All right, she’s not sneaking. What’s she doing?”
Danny dropped his eyes and didn’t say anything.
“Danny . . .” Wiz began dangerously.
“She’s . . .” He took a deep breath. “Well, she’s watching.”
“Watching who?”
“That elf dude. She doesn’t trust him.”
“That’s obvious. Any special reason?”
“Because he’s dangerous. Because he doesn’t belong here.”
“He’s our ally.”
“How do we know that? Because he says so?”
“Because he is,” Wiz told him with a lot more firmness than he felt.
“Look man, June knows elves. She lived with them for hundreds of years,
right? She doesn’t trust him and that’s good enough for me.”
“He’s saved my life a couple of times and that’s good enough for me,” Wiz
retorted. “Look, I told you once before you don’t have to like him, but
you’re going to have to work with him. If you or June can’t handle that,
I’ll have to send you back to the Capital.”
Danny just snorted and turned away.
The only thing worse than flying over the ocean, Glandurg decided, was
flying over the ocean at night. It was bad enough to look down and see
nothing but water beneath you, but it was worse to look down and not see
the water you knew was there.
This whole trip was worse than anything he had imagined. He was cramped
and sore after hours of hanging from a griffin’s talons. He was mortally
tired, but he could not get any sleep. He was chilled nearly to the marrow
from the night cold and wind. He was still half-airsick from the terrible
fog bank they had gone through a while ago where everything was suddenly
wrong. Now the griffin that bore him was laboring and wheezing as if from
exhaustion.
Well, at least Thorfin had stopped moaning and Gimli wasn’t retching any
more. The next time I make a journey like this I will insist on a flying