The Defiant Agents

by Andre Norton

  15

  They camped another two days near the wrecked ship while Manulitoprowled the haunted corridors and cabins in his space suit, planning hisbooby trap. At night he drew diagrams on pieces of bark and discussedthe possibility of this or that device, sometimes lapsing intotechnicalities his companions could not follow. But Travis was wellsatisfied that Manulito knew what he was doing.

  On the morning of the third day Nolan slipped into their midst. He wasdust-grimed, his face gaunt, the signs of hard travel plain to read.Travis handed him the nearest canteen, and they watched him drinksparingly in small sips before he spoke.

  "They come ... with the girl--"

  "You had trouble?" asked Jil-Lee.

  "The Tatars had moved their camp, which was only wise, since the Redsmust have had a line on the other one. And they are now farther to thewest. But--" he wiped his lips with the back of his hand--"also we sawyour towers, Fox. And that is a place of power!"

  "No sign that the Reds are prowling there?"

  Nolan shook his head. "To my mind the mists there conceal the towersfrom aerial view. Only one coming on foot could tell them from thenatural crags of the hills."

  Travis relaxed. Time still granted them a margin of grace. He glanced upto see Nolan smiling faintly.

  "This maiden, she is a kin to the puma of the mountains," he announced."She has marked Tsoay with her claws until he looks like the ear-clippedyearling fresh from the branding chute----"

  "She is not hurt?" Travis demanded.

  This time Nolan chuckled openly. "Hurt? No, we had much to do to keepher from hurting us, younger brother. That one is truly as she claims, adaughter of wolves. And she is also keen-witted, marking a return trailall the way, though she does not know that is as we wish. Did we notpick the easiest way back for just that reason? Yes, she plans toescape."

  Travis stood up. "Let us finish this quickly!" His voice came out on arough note. This plan had never had his full approval. Now he found itless and less easy to think about taking Kaydessa into the ship,allowing the emotional torment lurking there to work upon her. Yet heknew that the girl would not be hurt, and he had made sure he would bebeside her within the globe, sharing with her the horror of the unseen.

  A rattling of gravel down the narrow valley opening gave warning tothose by the campfire. Manulito had already stowed the space suit inhiding. To Kaydessa they must have seemed reverted entirely to savagery.

  Tsoay came first, an angry raking of four parallel scratches down hisleft cheek. And behind him Buck and Eskelta shoved the prisoner, urgingher on with a show of roughness which did not descend to actualbrutality. Her long braids had shaken loose, and a sleeve was torn,leaving one slender arm bare. But none of the fighting spirit had lefther.

  They thrust her out into the circle of waiting men and she planted herfeet firmly apart, glaring at them all indiscriminately until shesighted Travis. Then her anger became hotter and more deadly.

  "Pig! Rooter in the dirt! Diseased camel--" she shouted at him inEnglish and then reverted to her own tongue, her voice riding up anddown the scale. Her hands were tied behind her back, but there were nobonds on her tongue.

  "This is one who can speak thunders, and shoot lightnings from hermouth," Buck commented in Apache. "Put her well away from the wood, lestshe set it aflame."

  Tsoay held his hands over his ears. "She can deafen a man when shecannot set her mark on him otherwise. Let us speedily get rid of her."

  Yet for all their jeering comments, their eyes held respect. Often inthe past a defiant captive who stood up boldly to his captors hadreceived more consideration than usual from Apache warriors; courage wasa quality they prized. A Pinda-lick-o-yi such as Tom Jeffords, who rodeinto Cochise's camp and sat in the midst of his sworn enemies for aparley, won the friendship of the very chief he had been fighting.Kaydessa had more influence with her captors than she could dream ofholding.

  Now it was time for Travis to play his part. He caught the girl'sshoulder and pushed her before him toward the wreck.

  Some of the spirit seemed to have left her thin, tense body, and shewent without any more fight. Only when they came into full view of theship did she falter. Travis heard her breathe a gasp of surprise.

  As they had planned, four of the Apaches--Jil-Lee, Tsoay, Nolan, andBuck--fanned out toward the heights about the ship. Manulito had alreadygone to cover, to don the space suit and prepare for any accident.

  Resolutely Travis continued to propel Kaydessa ahead. At the moment hedid not know which was worse, to enter the ship expecting the fear tostrike, or to meet it unprepared. He was ready to refuse to enter, notto allow the girl, sullenly plodding on under his compulsion, to facethat unseen but potent danger.

  Only the memory of the towers and the threat of the Reds finding andexploiting the treasure there kept him going. Eskelta went first,climbing to the tear. Travis cut the ropes binding Kaydessa's wrists andgave her a slight slap between the shoulders.

  "Climb, woman!" His anxiety made that a harsh order and she climbed.

  Eskelta was inside now, heading for the cabin which might reasonably beselected as a prison. They planned to get the girl as far as that pointand then stage their act of being overcome by fear, allowing her toescape.

  Stage an act? Travis was not two feet along that corridor before he knewthat there would be little acting needed on his part. The thing whichpervaded the ship did not attack sharply, rather it seeped into his mindand body as if he drew in poison with every breath, sent it racingalong his veins with every beat of a laboring heart. Yet he could notput any name to his feelings, except an awful, weakening fear whichweighted him heavier with every step he took.

  Kaydessa screamed. Not this time in rage, but with such fervor thatTravis lost his hold, staggered back to the wall. She whirled about, herface contorted, and sprang at him.

  It was indeed like trying to fight a wildcat and after the first secondor two he was hard put to protect his eyes, his face, his side, withoutinjuring her in return. She scrambled over him, running for the break inthe wall, and disappeared. Travis gasped, and started to crawl for thebreak. Eskelta loomed over him, pulled him up in haste.

  They reached the opening but did not climb through. Travis was uncertainas to whether he could make that descent yet, and Eskelta was obeyingorders in not venturing out too soon.

  Below, the ground was bare. There was no sign of the Apaches, thoughthey were in hiding there--and none of Kaydessa. Travis was amazed thatshe had vanished so quickly.

  Still uneasy from the emanation within, they perched within the shadowof the break until Travis thought that the fugitive had a goodfive-minute start. Then he nodded a signal to Eskelta.

  By the time they reached ground level Travis felt a warm wetnessspreading under his shielding palm and he knew the wound had opened. Hespoke a word or two in hot protest against that mishap, knowing it wouldkeep him from the trail. Kaydessa must be covered all the way backacross the pass, not only to be shepherded away from her people andtoward the plains where she could be picked up by a Red patrol, but alsoto keep her from danger. And he had planned from the first to be one ofthose shepherds.

  Now he was about as much use as a trail-lame pony. However, he couldsend deputies. He thought out his call, and Nalik'ideyu's head appearedin a frame of bush.

  "Go, both of you and run with her! Guard--!" He said the words in awhisper, thought them with a fierce intensity as he centered his gaze onthe yellow eyes in the pointed coyote face. There was a feeling ofassent, and then the animal was gone. Travis sighed.

  The Apache scouts were subtle and alert, but the coyotes could far outdoany man. With Nalik'ideyu and Naginlta flanking her flight, Kaydessawould be well guarded. She would probably never see her guards or knowthat they were running protection for her.

  "That was a good move," Jil-Lee said, coming out of concealment. "Butwhat have you done to yourself?" He stepped closer, pulling Travis' handaway from his side. By the time Lupe came to report, Travis was againwo
und in a strapping bandage pulled tightly about his lower ribs, andreconciled to the fact that any trailing he would do must be well to therear of the first party.

  "The towers," he said to Jil-Lee. "If our plan works, we can catch partof the Reds here. But we still have their ship to take, and for that weneed help which we may find at the towers. Or at least we can be onguard there if they return with Kaydessa on that path."

  Lupe dropped down lightly from an upper ledge. He was grinning.

  "That woman is one who thinks. She runs from the ship first as a rabbitwith a wolf at her heels. Then she begins to think. She climbs--" Helifted one finger to the slope behind them. "She goes behind a rock towatch under cover. When Fox comes from the ship with Eskelta, again sheclimbs. Buck lets himself be seen, so she moves east, as we wish--"

  "And now?" questioned Travis.

  "She is keeping to the high ways; almost she thinks like one of thePeople on the war trail. Nolan believes she will hole up for the nightsomewhere above. He will make sure."

  Travis licked his lips. "She has no food or water."

  Jil-Lee's lips shaped a smile. "They will see that she comes upon bothas if by chance. We have planned all of this, as you know, youngerbrother."

  That was true. Travis knew that Kaydessa would be guided without herknowledge by the "accidental" appearance now and then of somepursuer--just enough to push her along.

  "Then, too, she is now armed," Jil-Lee added.

  "How?" demanded Travis.

  "Look to your own belt, younger brother. Where is your knife?"

  Startled, Travis glanced down. His sheath was empty, and he had notneeded that blade since he had drawn it to cut meat at the morning meal.Lupe laughed.

  "She had steel in her hand when she came out of that ghost ship."

  "Took it from me while we struggled!" Travis was openly surprised. Hehad considered the frenzy displayed by the Tatar girl as an outburst ofalmost mindless terror. Yet Kaydessa had had wit enough to take hisknife! Could this be another case where one race was less affected by amind machine than the other? Just as the Apaches had not been governedby the Red caller, so the Tatars might not be as sensitive to the Redax.

  "She is a strong one, that woman--one worth many ponies." Eskeltareverted to the old measure of a wife's value.

  "That is true!" Travis agreed emphatically and then was annoyed at thebroadening of Jil-Lee's smile. Abruptly he changed the subject.

  "Manulito is setting the booby trap in the ship."

  "That is well. He and Eskelta will remain here, and you with them."

  "Not so! We must go to the towers----" Travis protested.

  "I thought," Jil-Lee cut in, "that you believed the weapons of the oldones too dangerous for us to use."

  "Maybe they will be forced into our hands. But we must be sure thetowers are not entered by the Reds on their way here."

  "That is reasonable. But for you, younger brother, no trailing today,perhaps not tomorrow. If that wound opens again, you might have much badtrouble."

  Travis was forced to accept that, in spite of his worry and impatience.And the next day when he did move on he had only the report thatKaydessa had sheltered beside a pool for the night and was doggedlymoving back across the mountains.

  Three days later Travis, Jil-Lee, and Buck came into the tower valley.Kaydessa was in the northern foothills, twice turned back from the westand the freedom of the outlaws by the Apache scouts. And only half anhour before, Tsoay had reported by mirror what should have been welcomenews: the Red helicopter was cruising as it had on the day they watchedthe hunters enter the uplands. There was an excellent chance of thefugitive's being sighted and picked up soon.

  Tsoay had also spotted a party of three Tatars watching the helicopter.But after one wide sweep of the flyer they had taken to their ponies andridden away at the fastest pace their mounts could manage in this roughterritory.

  On a stretch of smooth earth Buck scratched a trail, and they studiedit. The Reds would have to follow this route to seek the wrecked ship--aroute covered by Apache sentinels. And following the chain ofcommunication the result of the trap would be reported to the party atthe towers.

  The waiting was the most difficult; too many imponderables did not allowfor unemotional thinking. Travis was down to the last shred of patiencewhen word came on the second morning at the hidden valley that Kaydessahad been picked up by a Red patrol--drawn out to meet them by thecaller.

  "Now--the tower weapons!" Buck answered the report with an imperativeorder to Travis. And the other knew he could no longer postpone theinevitable. And only by action could he blot out the haunting mentalpicture of Kaydessa once more drawn into the bondage she so hated.

  Flanked by Jil-Lee and Buck, he climbed back through the tower windowand faced the glowing pillar.

  He crossed the room, put out both hands to the sleek pole, uncertain ifthe weird transport would work again. He heard the sharp gasp from theothers as his body was sucked against the pillar and carried downwardthrough the well. Buck followed him, and Jil-Lee came last. Then Travisled the way along the underground corridor to the room with the tableand the reader.

  He sat down on the bench, fumbled with the pile of tape disks, knowingthat the other two were watching him with almost hostile intentness. Hesnapped a disk into the reader, hoping he could correctly interpret thedirections it gave.

  He looked up at the wall before him. Three ... four steps, the correctmove--and then an unlocking....

  "You know?" Buck demanded.

  "I can guess----"

  "Well?" Jil-Lee moved to the table. "What do we do?"

  "This--" Travis came from behind the table, walked to the wall. He putout both hands, flattened his palms against the green-blue-purplesurface and slid them slowly along. Under his touch, the material of thewall was cool and hard, unlike the live feel the pillar had. Cooluntil--

  One palm, held at arm's length had found the right spot. He slid theother hand along in the opposite direction until his arms were levelwith his shoulders. His fingers were able now to press on those pointsof warmth. Travis tensed and pushed hard with all ten fingers.