Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (19 page)

It
seemed
clear
his
party
was
under
siege
in
something
that
appeared
to
be
a
primitive
military
fortification.
The
soldiers
with them
were
certainly
a
military
escort,
so
it
was
likely
they
had
been on
another
visit
to
a
unit
of
Friendly
troops.
But
where
were
Henry and
his
Soldiers?
Toni's
words
had
suggested
she
thought
they might
be
nearby—and
with
that
thought,
the
memory
of
the
events following
their
visit
to
Will's
grave
came
back
to
him,
suddenly
and clearly.

Henry
had
realized,
as
soon
as
the
local
military
officials
had stepped
in
following
the
bombing,
that
military
people
were
not likely
to
allow
a
group
of
armed
civilians
to
convoy
through
their midst.
So
he
had
taken
his
Soldiers
undercover,
hoping
to
find
some way
to
protect
Bleys
and
his
party
from
a
distance,
in
the
event
the local
military
could
not
manage
that.

The
fact
that
the
military
had
said
Henry's
people
could
not come
along
did
not
mean
they
weren't
around
somewhere.

Henry
had
never
been
one
for
obeying
orders
like
some
wide-eyed
child;
in
fact,
he
had
spent
a
portion
of
his
earlier
life
fighting against
the
Militia
on
Association.
He
still
had
a
low
opinion
of them,
which
he
sometimes
seemed
to
extend
to
all
other
formal military
forces.

The
question
was
how
to
make
contact
with
Henry
and
his
Soldiers.
Bleys
turned
his
attention
back
to
his
wristpad;
Toni's
had been
damaged,
and
he
guessed
that
Dahno's
had
been
also;
his
appeared
to
be
all
right—

Abruptly,
he
noticed
a
small
blue
light
on
his
pad's
display
face, one
he
had
never
seen
there
before.
He
queried
the
pad
and—

"—me,"
a
voice
said.

The
voice
was
female
and
seemed
very
soft,
and
Bleys
realized that
the
pad's
HUSH
mode
had
somehow
come
on.

He
tried
to
use
the
SEND
control,
but
it
seemed
inoperable. Even
as
he
tried
it
the
voice
resumed:
"Eleven
minutes
and
thirty seconds."
It
paused;
then:
"Do
you
hear
me?"

The
voice
sounded
familiar,
with
some
of
the
Friendly
intonations
most
of
his
Soldiers
had.
His
Soldiers
came
from
a
variety
of worlds,
but
most
were
from
the
Friendlies;
and
while
none
of
those used
the
archaic-sounding
canting
speech
of
the
ultra-religious, they
generally
had
the
distinct
Friendly
accent
he
was
used
to.
He himself
had
taken
voice
training
that,
among
other
things,
rid
him
of the
few
tinges
of
that
accent
he
had
picked
up
while
spending
his teenage
years
on
Henry's
farm.

In
a
few
seconds
the
voice
spoke
again:

"Eleven
minutes
and
twenty
seconds.
Do
you
hear
me?"

As
the
voice
continued
to
count
down,
Bley
s
tried
to
locate
the channel
the
message
was
coming
in
on;
but
all
the
remainder
of
his
communications
system
seemed
to
be
cut
out
of
whatever
circuit this
message
was
coming
in
on
.
.
.
and
even
as
he
futilely
clicked
SEN
D
for
the
third
time,
the
voice
stopped
at
the
ten-minute
mark. A
new
voice
spoke—Henry's
voice.

"Bleys,"
Henry
said,
"I
don't
know
if
you
can
hear
this
or
not. Don't
try
to
respond
to
this
message.
You
can't;
I'm
using
an
emergency
channel
on
a
gravity
band.
Your
pad
can
only
receive,
because a
gravity
transmitter
is
too
bulky
for
any
wristpad."

A
gravity
band
would
be
unlikely
to
be
cither
blocked
or
monitored,
Bleys
thought
as
Henry's
voice
continued
softly.
Leave
it
to Henry
to
have
one
more
backup
behind
the
backups.
For
a
brief moment
he
felt
a
lightening
of
his
spirit.

Maybe
that's
where
Dahno
gets
it.

"This
message
is
going
to
repeat
at
every
one
-minute
mark
of
the countdown,
from
here
on,"
Henry
was
continuing,
his
tempo
speeding
up,
"because
I
can't
stay
here
to
keep
talking.
We
know
where you
are,
and
we're
behind
the
people
who
have
you
surrounded. There're
a
lot
of
them,
but
if
we
can
take
them
by
surprise
we've
got a
good
chance
of
getting
you
out
of
there."

Bleys
found
himself
nodding
as
he
listened,
following
Henry's thought.
He
glanced
up,
and
found
that
everyone
in
the
bunker— everyone
who
was
conscious—was
watching
him.
They
probably couldn't
hear
anything
with
the
HUSH
setting
activated,
but
he
had their
full
attention
anyway.