"They found the will," Kip said conversationally.
"What will? "Lara asked.
"My mother's will. She was—Lara, my mother was Michelle LaScala Trent, and she left me all her stock. I'm the heir!"
Lara walked along in silence.
"I mean, I own the whole company! Can you believe that?" Kip grinned.
"Actually, I do," Lara said. "That computer interface implant must have cost millions of francs, and someone paid for it. I believe it, all right, I just don't know what to think about knowing the richest boy on the planet."
"It hasn't done me much good so far." Kip's grin faded. "I got to grow up out in the boonies, I've only got two friends, and the cops are after me."
"Poor you. Kip, if you're the heir, why are the grayskins after you?"
"Captain Gallegher—Uncle Mike—says they're trying to keep me away from Uncle Bernie."
"Uncle Bernie. You mean Governor Trent," Lara said. "Wow. I hadn't thought of that. He sure didn't recognize you."
"I guess I was like a year old the last time he'd seen me," Kip said.
"You sure were a good actor—"
"Not really. I didn't know who I was, then."
They walked along the cliff top in silence for minutes. "You're sure quiet," Kip said.
"I was thinking," Lara said. "This is a lot more serious than someone throwin' a bomb. We didn't do that, and we could prove it, but, Kip, it doesn't matter what we can prove, does it? Not with this much money at stake. It makes everything different—"
"Scared?"
"Sure. Aren't you?"
"Yeah."
They hadn't gone a full kilometer when Kip heard the cold voice again. "WAIT THERE."
The only landmark was a large tree, something like a banyan tree with spreading branches and broad leaves. Aerial roots descended from the branches, so that the area under the tree was a labyrinth of caves. There were dark objects in the caves, and some of them were filled with what looked like webs. Lara looked at the tree with horror.
"Uncle Mike told me a person could hide in a cave tree," Kip said. "It's creepy, but the things that live in there don't like our smell. They'll leave us alone if we don't bother them, and they eat haters, so if there's a swarm you're best off in the trees."
Lara looked at the dark shapes in the grottoes among the branches. "I'm glad we don't have to."
"Me too." They sat well away from the tree, and Kip took out his stove to make tea.
They'd been there about two hours when the dogs began growling.
"Centaurs," Kip said. He stopped to listen. It was very dark so he couldn't see a thing, but there were drumming hoofbeats on the bluff top to the south. The dogs got between them and the sound and stood uncertainly, fangs bared. The climbing beasts in the tree grottoes had made the dogs nervous. Now the centaurs were coming. Silver growled, as if to say that at least he understood what to do about centaurs.
"Silver!" Kip said. "Stay. It's all right, Silver. Good dog. Mukky, be good now. Come here. Come here all."
The four dogs reluctantly came back to stand with Kip and Lara. Dark shapes approached out of the darker night.
Kip took out his flash and masked it with his fingers so that only a tiny light spilled out.
"I see them," Lara said quietly. "There must be a dozen—Kip, they're not all the same size."
"I think that's Blaze in front," Kip said. "With a backpack."
"A lot of them have backpacks. They look like our backpacks. Kip, what are we going to do?"
"Get a good grip on the dogs," Kip said. "They're here."
A new picture formed in Kip's head. The centaurs stood at the lake, and pictures passed rapidly from the lake to the centaurs. Then the centaurs trotted away, and there were no more pictures. Then the map returned, with Kip and Lara on it, only this time the scale changed to show the lake. The centaurs came up to Kip. Now pictures passed between Kip at the seashore and the lake in the hills.
"It can talk to me, but not to the centaurs," Kip said. "It gave them some kind of instructions—"
Blaze came slowly forward. The dogs growled warning.
Chapter Forty-Three
Things Are Not Food
BLAZE smelled fears. There was fear in the scent of his People, both the Highlanders and the Seacoaster clan People, more in the Seacoasters of course. But there were new scents. The furrykillers made their warning noises, and there was a scent Blaze thought might be fear mingled with the other smells of these alien creatures. And the Things developed a new scent even as Blaze approached them.
Things. He must no longer think of them as Food. Things are not Food, he told himself. Furrykillers are not Food. The Master had made that very clear. Not only Blaze, but every Highlander sent with him had been forced to stand in the cold lake water as the Master poured pictures into their minds. Things are not Food.
He fingered his new weapons. The Master gave them weapons, new weapons, powerful weapons they could use to fight the Things, but then the Master told them Things were no longer Food.
The Seacoasters did not believe that. The Seacoasters smelled Food, furrykillers as Food, Things as Food. Blaze moved closer to the Seacoaster leader, ready to intervene with his new weapons if the Seacoaster forgot. He growled warning. The Seacoaster reared high, then bowed in submission. This was Seacoaster territory, and the Seacoaster had long resented the dominance of the Highlanders. The whole clan did. They had learned that resentment from their fathers, who had learned from theirs, for a hundred generations or more. Drive out strangers. This land is mine. They had learned this, but they had also learned submission to the Highlanders. Protect the groves! Drive out all others! But the Highlanders were the exception. Highlanders went anywhere they wanted, anywhere except into the Seacoaster groves, and even those might not be sacred against Highlanders.
So it was decreed, and so it would be.
Blaze moved closer to the Things. The larger Thing held its hands out to show it had no weapons. Blaze held out his own empty hands, then crept forward to the Thing and knelt on the ground.
"It wants you to ride it," Lara said. "Are you going to?"
"We have to, if we want to get to the research station."
"I can walk, it's not that far," Lara said. She looked at the centaur and scowled. "They smell. And the dogs don't like this at all. What will the dogs do?"
"They can run after us," Kip said. "Look, I don't know why the Starswarm wants us to ride the centaurs. Maybe it's a test. I just think we should do it."
The dogs lay at his feet and whined. They hated this. Kip moved forward, slowly, to the kneeling centaur. The centaur watched him warily. It held its hands out empty, but there were weapons in its belt. Kip could see two bronze knives and what looked like a small crossbow. A bundle of small javelins stuck out of the centaur's backpack.
The backpack was almost a duplicate of the one Kip wore. As he got closer he saw that some of the details were wrong. There were lines sewed across it, but they were not zippers, only lines. The leather patches were not really leather, and didn't have slots for straps. The harness arrangement had been modified to fit the centaur.
Kip gingerly touched the centaur. It felt warm. He wondered if he ought to stroke it as he would a dog. These weren't dogs, but Gwen said they were about as smart as the dogs. Grooming was a universal sign of friendship among Earth animals. It probably would be with centaurs. Kip stroked the dark fur. The centaur felt warm to the touch. "Silver. Be good. Follow," Kip said. Then, acting more bold than he felt, Kip stepped forward and straddled the centaur. It stood, and another went over to kneel by Lara.
"Milady, your steed awaits," Kip said.
Lara made a face and mounted the centaur. "Giddyap, Dobbin," she said.
Chapter Forty-Four
We've Got About Five Minutes
MIKE Gallegher put down the phone and gestured to John Fuller to come over. "These things keep a log of who we called, right? Any way to get around it?"
"Wel
l, this is part of the security phone system," Fuller said. "Calls made from here will be logged here, not at phone central."
"So if no one knows we called from here, they might not think to look?"
"Something like that. It will help if you keep the calls short." Mike looked at Kettering seated on the other side of the room. "So he's the only one who knows we used these phones."
"I know it," Fuller said.
Mike chuckled. "Hell, Lieutenant, I wasn't thinking about shooting him. Maybe we'll just take him along when we go. Main thing is to be quick so no one else knows. Thanks. Now I've got a couple more calls to make—"
"OK." Fuller went out of earshot.
Mike punched in numbers.
"Sea station, Rachel Harriman."
"Mike Flynn, Mrs. Harriman. Where are you?"
"At Sealab Two," she said.
"Have you heard what's happening up here?"
"No—"
"Well, it's a mess. Security troops have taken over the station. They've got helicopter gunships out looking for Kip."
"Gunships looking for Kip? Whatever for?"
"They say he made a bomb. He didn't. There's a GWE proxy war, and Kip's all mixed up in that. Dr. Harriman, I haven't got time to explain anything. Listen a second." He gestured to Dr. Henderson. "Tell Mrs. Harriman what I say is all right," Mike said.
Dr. Henderson nodded and took the headset. "Rachel. Eric Henderson. Mike Flynn will have some instructions. Please do as he asks. Time is short, and it is crucial to the future of this station." He handed the phone set back to Mike.
"I'll make it quick," Mike said. "The kids will be trying to find you. Best thing you can do is stay where you are. Get the boat ready for a long trip."
"Long trip?"
"They need to get to Pearly Gates."
"We don't have that much range. Not in one trip," Rachel Harriman said.
"Do the best you can, then," Alike said. "Just do the best you can."
"I really would like to know—"
"Yes, ma'am, and I'd like to have time to tell you, but I got one more call to make and we have to be out of here." He handed the set back to Dr. Henderson.
"Rachel, this is as important as anything you have ever done," Eric Henderson said. "Please."
"Sure. Godspeed," Rachel Harriman said.
"Thank you."
Mike cut off the connection and dialed another. The phone was answered by a man who simply repeated the number.
"Tell Goldie it's himself," Mike said. He glanced at his watch. "And hurry. Please."
Mike finished his calls, then began disconnecting the telephone equipment. "Marty, do me a favor, run back to the lab and get me a hammer," he said. "A big one."
Mike signaled Henderson to come join him. "Doc, I'm going to take the chopper and get out of here. You can come along or stay here and fight the system from the inside. So far you haven't done anything they can charge you with. That don't mean they won't, but legally you're on pretty sound ground."
"What about me?" John Fuller asked.
"Well, I'd sure appreciate it if you'd come along with me," Mike said.
"You're giving me a choice?"
"Haven't exactly said that. I said I'd sure appreciate it if you'd come along with me."
"Where are you going?" Fuller asked.
"I'm going to do my best to get through to the Governor," Mike said. "I'm pretty sure Bernie doesn't know what's going on. He sure doesn't know his nephew's alive. Gives him a big incentive. Kip sure won't vote for any Hilliard takeover." He turned to Henderson. "You come off pretty good too, Doc."
Dr. Henderson nodded. "I'd thought of that. Kip grew up here. He won't want to see strip mines at the station." He frowned. "But if Tarleton is working for the Hilliard group—"
"He is," Mike said.
"Then he'll do anything to stop Kip voting his stock," Henderson said. "And he has to do it fast, because Kip or Bernard Trent will fire him the first chance they get."
"Unless Bernie's in on this."
"Yes, of course—Mike, I think it's best if I stay here. Take this." He handed Mike a computer disk. "This is a copy of that Endgame file. I've made more copies. Perhaps one of them will survive."
Marty ran in with a ballpeen hammer. "Will this do?"
"Sure will," Mike said. He grinned widely and went over to Kettering's electronic setup. "This ought to slow down tracing our calls—"
"I wouldn't do that," Fuller said.
"Yeah?"
"Take it with us. You may need it."
"You know how to operate all this stuff?"
"Some of it. He knows the rest," Fuller said. He jerked his thumb toward Gil Kettering.
"I am damned if I'll help you," Kettering said.
"Yeah, yeah," Mike said. "Fuller, you have a point. OK, let's pack this stuff. Now, Fuller, we need my chopper back. Think your troops will try to stop us?"
"Not until the reinforcements get here. Karabian isn't going to open fire without orders from an officer."
"Good. Let's move it, then. Marty, here's the storeroom key. Grab everything you can carry. We got about five minutes."
Chapter Forty-Five
The Master Might Need Him
BLAZE ran in the center of the pack, just behind the furrykillers. Both of the small night lights were in the sky, plenty of light for Blaze and the People. The Things had even brighter lights, and had used them to light the trail, but the lightstick was too bright. It hurt the People's eyes, and Blaze had held his hand over it until the Thing put it away. Now they ran along the seacoast trail with the sea to his right, farther up the coast than Blaze had ever been, searching for a Thing grove by the sea.
It would be like the other seacoast Thing groves, with a stout fence that caused pain when the People touched it. The first seacoast Thing groves hadn't had that kind of fence, and when the Things left them unguarded, the People had broken in and demolished the Thing grove, taking the Thing treasures to the Master. The Seacoasters had done the same with other Thing groves, and kept all they had found, but when the Highland Master demanded the treasures, the Seacoasters had brought them. All of them. The Master did not often make demands of the Seacoasters, but those demands were always obeyed. Now the Master knew what the Things had been doing, and had begun to teach the People.
Blaze remembered that well, because it was just after they brought the Thing treasures to the Master that Blaze felt the urge to know about Things. Before that he had been content to do the Master's bidding, carrying messages from the Master to the sea and back, hunting meat for the People and doing the Master's will without questions. But then the Master had done something, and Blaze felt odd stirrings, a desire to know and understand. He had never felt that before. Why had the Master done this?
Strongarms, his littermate, now carried the larger Thing. The Thing had been heavy, and Blaze had been glad to have another carry it. Now all he had to do was watch the Seacoasters and be sure they didn't harm the Things or their furrykillers. The Master was concerned about this.
They trotted northward along the coast. Not much farther. Then he could give his messages to the Things, and go back to the Highlands. That would be best. The Master might need him.
Chapter Forty-Six
All Due Respect, Sir, Marty's More Useful . . .
MARTY, where do you think you're going?" Dr. Robbins demanded. Marty thought that was pretty obvious, but he didn't want to say that to his father. He pretended not to hear as he climbed into the helicopter.
"Flynn, you can't take him!" Robbins said. "Doc, I can understand you're worried, but I can sure use someone I trust to watch my back."
"Then I'll come—"
"All due respect, sir, Marty's more useful."
"I know where Kip is going," Marty said. "And Lara's out there."
"It's important," Mike said.
Luke Robbins turned to Dr. Henderson. "Eric—"
"As Captain Gallegher says, it's important," Henderson said.
"And Lara is out there, and perhaps Marty can help. But it's up to you."
"Be careful," Dr. Robbins said.
"Yes, sir. And thanks, Dad."
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