Part 28 (1/2)
Telek leaned forward, hands tightening painfully... but the carnage she'd half expected wasn't there. The scene was almost exactly as it had been when the signal had been cut off a scant few minutes ago... except that Moff was sitting facing the Aventinians with his gun drawn.
Telek groped for the mike. ”Joshua, let me see the rest of the team,” she called.
The scene remained unchanged. ”He can't hear you,” Christopher murmured. ”We can clean up the signal at this end, but there's no computer equipment out there to do the same.”
”Great,” Telek gritted. ”Which means we can't contact Almo, either. d.a.m.n it all.” She stared at the display another moment, then turned to the two men standing quietly just inside the lounge door. ”Well, gentlemen, it looks very much like your paid vacation is over. Suggestions?”
Michael Winward gestured toward one of the displays showing the nearby forest.
”The Qasamans presumably don't know Almo's out there, which is theoretically an advantage for our side. But if we can't tell him what's going on the advantage is pretty useless. Somehow, we've got to get his attention so that he'll set up the comm laser.”
”In other words, you think you should try and sneak out to him.” Telek hesitated, shook her head. ”No. Too risky. Even if we could come up with a diversion for you you'd probably be spotted before you could get to cover. Let's see if we can wait until the usual check-in time.”
The other Cobra, Dorjay Link, glanced at Winward and shook his head minutely.
”The Qasamans may be moving people and weapons into the forest to cover the
Dewdrop from that side,” he told Telek. ”Almo could come down from his nest right into the middle of them.”
”He'd hear or see them, though, wouldn't he?” Nnamdi spoke up.
”Cobras are human, too,” Winward said tartly. ”And if he doesn't even wake up until they're in position they won't be making much noise.”
Telek stared at the forest display. I'm out of my depth, she admitted to herself. We've gone to a military situation without a sc.r.a.p of warning-
No. They had had their warning; and that was what really hurt. The purpose of
Moff's mysterious disappearance a few hours ago was now clear: he'd been setting up this operation, coordinating things via the still unknown, triple-d.a.m.ned long-range communication system of theirs. In which case-”The soldiers and guns are probably already in place out there,” she said out loud. ”The only way to wake Almo up and simultaneously let him know there's trouble...” She stopped and looked back at the two Cobras.
Winward nodded-understanding or agreement, she didn't know which. ”A quick sortie. Gunfire and all that. Let me get into my camouflage suit-be back in a minute. Dorjay, start looking for my best approach, will you?”
”Sure,” Link said as Winward vanished out the lounge door. ”Any chance.
Governor, that we can wait until full dark?”
”No,” Christopher spoke up before Telek could say anything. ”Governor, we've got a new problem-the contact team's not being brought back to Sollas.”
”d.a.m.n.” Telek stepped to his side, looked at the display that was now showing an aerial photo of the area between Sollas and Huriseem. ”How do you know?”
”Joshua's been looking around a little-I saw the sun out of the side window.
Looks to me like they're taking this road-” he traced it with a finger-”down to the next city southwest of here.”
Telek checked the scale. ”d.a.m.n. Closest approach doesn't get them under twenty kilometers from the Dewdrop. Where's the next connecting road?-oh, there it is.
Three kilometers past that point. Any idea where on the road they are?”
Christopher spread his hands helplessly. ”The range finder doesn't seem to work when the computer's mucking with the signal like this. About all I can do is estimate their speed and extrapolate from Huriseem. Looks like they're about here, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes from that crossroads.”