Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (25 page)

Feverish
and
achy
in
the
aftermath
of
the
action
and
the
blackout,
Bleys
drowsed
on
an
air
mattress
inside
their
container,
Toni sitting
quietly
beside
him
as
she
worked
over
her
wrist
control
pad. Dahno,
sedated,
lay
quietly
on
another
mattress
while
the
medician monitored
his
condition.
The
wounded
Soldiers—six
in
total—had stayed
with
John
Colville
and
his
vehicles,
adding
to
the
authenticity
of
the
decoy
operation
while
speeding
them
toward
more
advanced
medical
care.

"I've
missed
something,"
Bleys
said,
lifting
the
arm
he
had draped
across
his
brow;
the
lightstrips
glued
to
the
walls
of
their container
seemed
to
be
able
to
glare
right
through
his
eyelids.
He rolled
onto
his
side
and
propped
himself
up
on
one
elbow,
watching Toni
as
she
monitored
the
displays
on
her
wristpad.

"I
deliberately
set
out
to
stir
the
pot
on
this
planet,"
he
went
on, "thinking
that
if
our
Others
were
galvanized
into
action,
they
might unearth
some
clue
to
whoever
these
people
are
who've
been
working
in
secret
here.
Or
perhaps
those
people
would
become
aware
of the
increased
activity,
and
react
in
some
way
that
might
lead
us
to them.
But
this!
Two
major
attacks
in
two
days,
thousands
of
kilometers
apart
...
?"

He
stopped
himself
from
shaking
his
head,
for
fear
that
the lurking
sense
of
discomfort
in
the
center
of
his
skull
might
blossom
into
a
full-blown
headache
...
he
had
come
to
be
leery
of headaches.

"I
wanted
to
elicit
some
reaction,"
he
said.
"But
if
these
attacks are
that
reaction,
it's
so
far
out
of
proportion
to
the
situation
as
to
be insane.
So
I
must
have
missed
something."

"We
talked
about
this
after
the
bombing,"
she
said,
"and
you
and Dahno
agreed
it
must
have
been
the
work
of
that—that
secret group
you
came
here
to
look
for."

"Only
because
we
couldn't
think
of
anyone
else,"
he
said.
"But that
conclusion
only
dodged
the
question
of
why
they,
or
anyone
on this
planet,
would
want
to
attack
us."

He
held
up
a
hand,
stopping
her
reply
while
he
thought.

"But
maybe
they
don't
have
to
be
from
Ceta
at
all,"
he
went
on after
another
moment.
"We've
made
a
lot
of
enemies
elsewhere, certainly."

"Who
out
there
could
have
reached
down
onto
Ceta
and
set
up not
one,
but
two,
attacks
in
such
quick
succession?"
she
asked. He
nodded
at
her
objection.

"Generally,
you're
right,"
he
said.
"The
only
group
really
capable
of
being
efficient
enough
to
follow
us
to
Ceta
on
short
notice and
then
set
up
these
attacks—only
the
Dorsai
could
do
it."

"It's
not
the
Dorsai,"
she
said.

"I
know
you
have
Dorsai
ancestry,"
he
said.
"Is
there
another reason
to
believe
they
couldn't
do
this?"

"It's
not
that
they
couldn't,"
she
said.
"It's
that
they
wouldn't." He
was
impressed
by
the
firmness
of
her
assertion. "You're
that
sure?"

"Absolutely,"
she
said.
"I
have
Dorsai
ancestry,
yes,
but
that doesn't
make
me
one
of
them.
It
does,
however,
make
me
sure
that such
an
attack
is
something
no
true
Dorsai
would
ever
do."

"I'll
admit
it
feels
like
a
false
idea,"
he
said.
"But
who
else
could have
done
it?"

"Besides,"
she
said,
not
ready
to
let
go
of
her
thought
just
yet,
"no
Dorsai-led
group
would
have
let
itself
be
caught
so
off-guard
by
Henry
and
his
Soldiers—no
disrespect
to
Henry
and
his
people "

"That's
true,
too."
He
grimaced
and
raised
a
hand
to
massage
his forehead.
"Who
else
is
there?
Who
have
I
overlooked?"

"You're
working
now
from
the
premise
that
the
attack
must
have come
from
off-Ceta,"
she
said.
"But
the
logic
only
works
if
the premise
is
correct."

"You're
right,"
he
said.
"I
did
start
out
by
assuming
there
isn't anyone
already
on
this
planet
who
would
have
wanted
to
attack us—and
who
also
could
have
done
it.
But
I
gather
you're
saying
that I'm
making
a
shaky
assumption,
there."

"Yes,"
she
nodded.
"If
you
think
about
it
for
a
moment,
what
you really
mean
is
that
there's
no
one
on
this
planet
who
would
have done
it,
and
could
have
done
it,
that
you
know
of"