Battlefield Earth Part 25

Chapter 9.

They had been left in the truck throughout the chilly night. Terl had simply put a couple of b.u.t.ton cameras on it, one at each end, and had gone off to his quarters.

But it was midmorning now and Terl had been bustling about the cages since before dawn. Jonnie had not been able to turn his head enough to see what he was doing; the collar and leash had never been so tight.

Terl came to the back of the truck and dropped its gate. He led the horses out and tied the lead ropes to a tree. Then he bodily shoved the wounded horse off the truck and when it hit the ground shoved it further out of the way. It was trying to stand and he cuffed it, knocking it down again.

He came onto the bed and unfastened Pattie. He had a collar in his paw and he clamped it around Pattie's throat. He pulled out a welding torch and welded it shut and then welded a lead to it. Picking the little girl up with one swoop, he went off with her.

Presently he came back. Chrissie shrank away from him. He had another collar and he welded it on. Jonnie had a closer look at it as the leash was fastened. This collar had a red bulge on its side. Jonnie realized that Pattie's had had one too.

Terl looked at Jonnie's eyes. They were ice-blue and deadly. "Your turn in a moment, animal. No need to be cross. A whole new life is opening up for you." He scooped up Chrissie and packed her off the truck.

He was gone for some time. Jonnie heard the cage door opening and shutting as though being tested.

Then the truck rocked as Terl's enormous weight came onto it again.

He looked down at Jonnie. "Any more dummy wires?" he said. "You sure you're not sitting on a blast rifle that has its action dummy wired?" Terl laughed at his own joke. "You know, I am going to knock the c.r.a.p out of Ker for not teaching you any better." He was fumbling with Jonnie's leash and las.h.i.+ngs. "Rat brain," said Terl.

The recon drone rumbled in from the distance and pa.s.sed over with an earsplitting roar. Jonnie glared at it as it pa.s.sed.

"Good," said Terl, approving. "You know what spotted her and so you know what will spot you now, if you get up to anything I don't like. Beautiful pictures we get with that thing. Tiniest detail. Get off the truck."

Jonnie was yanked toward the cage. Terl had indeed been busy. Several things were changed. One of them was his instructor machine and table. It now sat outside the cage. Terl yanked him to a halt.

Chrissie and Pattie were tied to an iron rod that had been inset into the side of the pool. Chrissie was trying to ma.s.sage some feeling back into Pattie's arms and legs, and the little girl was crying with the pain of returning blood.

"Now, animal," said Terl, "I am giving you a briefing tour, so pay very close attention." Terl pointed to an electric connector box on a nearby wall. His talon indicated a heavy wire coming from it that led to the top bars of the cage, wound around each one, enclosed the whole cage high up, and returned to the box. Each cage bar now had insulator wrappings around the bottom.

Terl yanked Jonnie over to a clump of bushes. A coyote was lying there, its head m.u.f.fled in wrappings, snarls coming from it. Terl put on an insulator glove and picked up the coyote.

"Now tell those two other animals to watch this carefully," said Terl.

Jonnie said nothing.

"Well, no matter," said Terl. "I see they are watching."

With his gloved paw, Terl held up the struggling coyote and launched it at the bars.

There was a searing puff of light. The coyote shrieked.

An instant later it was a charred, crackling mess on the bars, turning black.

Terl chuckled. "Animal, tell them if they touch those bars, that's what will happen."

Jonnie told them never to touch the bars.

"Next," said Terl, taking off the glove and putting it in his belt, "we have a real treat for you."

Terl reached into his pocket and took out a compact switch box. "You know all about remotes, animal. Remember your tractor! This is a remote." He pointed at the two girls. "Now look closely and you will see they are wearing a different kind of collar. See that red bulge on the side of the collar?"

Jonnie did, all too clearly. He felt sick.

"That," said Terl, "is a small bomb. It is enough to shatter their necks and blow their heads off. Understand, animal?"

Jonnie glared.

"This switch," said Terl, pointing to his remote control box, "is the small animal. This switch," and he pointed to another, "sets off the collar of the other animal. This box-'

" And what is the third switch?" said Jonnie.

"Well, thank you for asking. I didn't think I was getting through to your rat brain. This third switch ignites a general charge in the cage that you do not know the location of and that will blow up the whole lot."

Terl was smiling behind his faceplate, his amber eyes slitted, flickering, watching Jonnie.

At length he continued. "This control box is always on my person. There are also two other remotes in places you don't know about. Now, is all that very clear to you?"

"It's clear to me," said Jonnie, repressing his shaking anger, "that one of the horses can come over and get electrocuted. It 's also clear that you could accidentally trip those controls."

"Animal, we are standing here jabbering and omitting the fact that I have truly befriended you."

Jonnie was very alert.

Terl took out a metal cutter and snipped off Jonnie's collar. He then mockingly handed him its remains and the leash.

"Run around," said Terl. "Feel liberty. Frisk!"

Terl moved off and started picking up some odds and ends of tools he had strewn about while working. The stench of the electrocuted coyote was rank in the air.

"And what do I pay for this?" said Jonnie.

Terl came back. "Animal, you must have realized by now- in spite of your rat brain- that your best course is to cooperate with me."

"In what way?"

"That's better, animal. I like to see grat.i.tude."

"In what way?" repeated Jonnie.

"The company has some projects that need doing. They are very confidential, of course. And you are standing there pledging your full cooperation. Right?"

Jonnie looked at him.

"And when they are all done," said Terl, "why, I will stagger you with gifts, and you can return to the mountains."

"With them," said Jonnie, pointing at Chrissie and Pattie.

"Of course, and with your four-legged companions as well."

Jonnie knew a false Terl when he saw one.

"Of course," said Terl, "if you try to get away- which I think by now you have found impossible- or if you seek to mess me up or if you don't succeed, why then, very easy, the little one loses its head. And if you repeat your mistake in any way, the bigger one loses its head. And if you go off the cable completely, the whole place blows up. Now do I have your promise of cooperation?"

"I can move around all I please?"

"Of course, animal. I'm tired of hunting rats for you. And I'm sure not going to hunt rats for those two in there!" Terl laughed, the soul of joviality.

"I can go into the cage?"

"When I'm standing outside with my little remote control box watching. Yes."

"I can ride around the country?"

"As long as you wear this," said Terl. He pulled out of his pocket a b.u.t.ton camera with a loose neck band and dropped it over Jonnie's head. "If it shuts off or gets beyond a five-mile range, why, I just push the first switch."

"You're not a monster. You're a devil."

But Terl saw clearly he had won. "So you promise?"

Jonnie dejectedly looked at the remote control box bulge in Terl's pocket. He looked at the two girls who were now gazing at him trustingly.

"I promise to do the project," said Jonnie. It was as far as he could be stretched.

But it was enough for Terl. He almost gaily tossed his tools into the back of the truck and drove off.

Jonnie walked over to the cage, careful not to touch the bars, and began a cautious low-key explanation of what was going on. He felt like a cheat as he did so. If ever he had seen treachery, it had been in Terl's eyes.

- Part VI -

Chapter 1.

Leverage, leverage, Terl told himself as he went through company papers in his office.

He must solve this riddle of Numph. With enough on the Planetary Director, Terl could begin his own project in earnest. Wealth and power on home planet beckoned from the future. Only Numph could drop a mine bucket on him. And Terl was determined that once his project was completed, he was not going to spend ten more years on this cursed planet. With enough on Numph, all he had to do was finish the project, obliterate all evidence (including vaporizing the animals), get his employment terminated, and there he'd be, wallowing in luxury at home. But Numph was getting a little restive; in the last interview a couple of days ago Numph had complained of the noise of the recon drone in its daily pa.s.s-by, and veiling it as a sort of compliment, he noted that the "mutiny" was not showing up on his lines. There was something on Numph. Terl was fervidly certain of it.

He was thumbing through a company publication, "Metal Markets of the Galaxies," which was issued several times a year. It was supposed to go to the sales department but there was none on this planet, since it sent its ore directly to home planet and had no sales except to the home company. Yet the publication was sent routinely to all minesites through the galaxies, and Terl had fished this latest copy out of the incoming dispatch box.

So many credits for this metal and so many credits for another. Such and such credits for unsmelted ore of what percent. It was very dull. But Terl laboriously went through it, hopeful of some clue.

From time to time he watched his live screens, keeping check on the animal. The b.u.t.ton camera around its neck was working well, and in the vicinity of the cage and nearby plateau he had a broader view. It was a test to see whether the animal really was going to behave. The control box that monitored the cameras lay handy on Terl's littered desk.

The animal so far had been very well behaved. Terl was struck by its orderly sense of priorities.

It had somehow managed to turn the wounded horse over and get the packs off it. It had gotten some pitch from a tree and sealed the wound. It must have been effective, for the horse was now standing on shaky legs, a bit dazed but munching at the tall gra.s.s.

The animal had then staked out the other three horses, using a plaited type of rope that had come from the packs. One particular horse tried to follow the man-thing around, nudging with its nose. It struck Terl very odd that the man-thing talked to it, that the man-thing had also talked to the wounded horse. Very peculiar. Terl couldn't understand the language and listened intently to see whether the horses talked back. Maybe they did. Supersonic? They must say something, because the man-thing sometimes answered them. Was it a different tongue than the man-thing used to the two female creatures in the cage? Terl guessed there might be several such languages. Well, it was no matter and not important. He was no c.h.i.n.ko, he decided, with contempt for the old race.

Terl had next been distracted by the screen views of the animal when it mounted up on a horse and went down to the work area. From what he could see via the b.u.t.ton camera the animal wore, the Psychlo workmen ignored him after a brief glance. The machines went right on tearing around as always.

The man-thing rode up to Ker. Terl got very interested and turned up the volume. Ker tried to edge away.

The animal said something peculiar: "It's not your fault."

Ker stopped backing up. He looked confused.

"I forgive you," said the animal.

Ker just stood there staring. Terl couldn't get a very good look at Ker due to the shadows of the dome Ker wore, but it seemed to Terl that Ker looked relieved. Terl took careful note of that as a sort of trick: it was not the kind of behavior he had ever thought about.

And then Terl really was startled. The animal borrowed a blade machine from Ker. Char came over and objected, and Ker waved him off. The animal tied the horse to trail after the machine and drove the vehicle back up to the plateau. Ker had looked positively threatening at Char. Had the animal started a fight between the two Psychlos? How had the animal managed that?

Well, Terl thought, he was just imagining things, and the screen views had been jumpy and the sound very flawed due to the roar of machinery. And Terl went back to the real puzzle of Numph.

The next time Terl remembered to check, he saw that the animal had used the blade machine to knock down a half-dozen trees and pile them up near the cage. It was using the blade controls to axe up the trees in lengths. Terl was pleased it could operate a machine like that. It would have need of such skill.

Terl got involved with bauxite quotations through the galaxies and didn't pay any more attention until nearly nightfall.

The animal had returned the blade machine and was now almost finished with a fence. It had built a fence of sorts all around the cage! Terl was puzzled until he remembered the animal's saying the horses might touch the bars. Of course! It was protecting the females from flash in case the horses short-circuited the bars.

After another hour of studying prices, Terl got his face mask and went down to the cage area.

He found that the animal had built itself a little hut from the tree branches and now had the instruction machine and table and packs in it and was kindling a fire in front of it. Terl hadn't really recognized that man-things could create houses without dressed timber or stones.

The man-thing got a branch burning and, with some other things in its hand, went over to the cage. It had left a zigzag opening before the door- to bar the horses and still let a man-thing through.

Terl threw a switch and cut off the juice to the bars and let the animal in the cage. It handed the female the burning brand, put down some other things, came out again, and got some wood and took it in.

It was very uninteresting to Terl. He noted idly that the females had cleaned up the old robes, dismantled the meat-drying rack, and neatened the place up. He checked their collars and leashes and the firmness of the pin to which they were tied. They shrank from him as if he were a disease. It amused him.

After he had pushed the animal out and was locking the cage door, from nowhere an idea hit him. Terl hastily turned on the juice again and went tearing back to his office.

Throwing down his face mask, Terl yanked a huge calculator into the center of the desk. Talons rattled on the key b.u.t.tons. Reports to home office concerning ore tonnage s.h.i.+pped flashed on the screen and went into the calculator.

Ripping through the sales price publication and battering its data into the machine, working with an intense fury, Terl calculated the home office values of Earth ore s.h.i.+pped.