Halder nodded. "I sent the alert signal to their apartment ComWeb in the
capital. Under the circumstances, I didn't think a person-to-person call
would be advisable. They'll have time to pack and get out to the ranch
before we arrive. We'll give them the details then."
"Did you reset the trap switch at the house entry?"
Halder slowed the cab, turning it into one of the cross-city traffic
lines above Draise. "No," he said. "Knocking out a few more Federation
agents wouldn't give us any advantage. It'll be eight or nine hours
before Atteo will be able to talk; and, with any luck at all, we'll be
clear of the planet by that time."
The dark woman who was Kilby and a controlled devil's swarm of microlife
looked over at him and asked in Kilby's voice, "Halder, do you think we
should still go on trying to find the others now?"
"Of course. Why stop?"
Kilby hesitated, said, "It took you three months to find me. Four months
later, we located Rane Rellis ... and Santin, at almost the same time.
Since then we've drawn one blank after another. A year and a half gone,
and a year and a half left."
She paused, and Halder said nothing, knowing she was fighting to keep
her voice steady. After a few seconds, Kilby went on. "Almost twelve
hundred still to find, scattered over a thousand worlds. Most of them
probably in hiding, as we were. And with the Federation on our trail ...
even if we get away this time, what chance is there now of contacting
the whole group before time runs out?"
Halder said patiently, "It's not an impossibility. We've been forced to
spend most of the past year and a half gathering information, studying
the intricate functioning of this gigantic civilization--so many things
that our mentors on Kalechi either weren't aware of or chose not to tell
us. And we haven't done too badly, Kilby. We're prepared now to conduct
the search for the group in a methodical manner. Nineteen hours in
space, and we'll be on another world, under cover again, with new
identities. Why shouldn't we continue with the plan until ..."
Kilby interrupted without change of expression. "Until we hear some day
that billions of human beings are dying on the Federation's worlds?"
Halder kept his eyes fixed on the traffic pattern ahead. "It won't come
to that," he said.
"Won't it? How can you be sure?" Kilby asked tonelessly.
"Well," Halder asked, "what else can we do? You aren't suggesting that
we give ourselves up--"
"I've thought of it."
"And be picked apart mentally and physically in the Federation's
laboratories?" Halder shook his head. "In their eyes we'd be Kalechi's
creatures ... monsters. Even if we turn ourselves in, they'll think it's
some trick, that we'd realized we'd get caught anyway. We couldn't
expect much mercy. No, if everything fails, we'll see to it that the
Federation gets adequate warning. But not, if we can avoid it, at the
expense of our own lives." He glanced over at her, his eyes troubled.
"We've been over this before, Kilby."
"I know." Kilby bit her lip. "You're right, I suppose."
Halder let the cab glide out of the traffic lane, swung it around
towards the top of a tall building three miles to their left. "We'll be
at the club in a couple of minutes," he said. "If you're too disturbed,
it would be better if you stayed in the car. I'll pick up our
flighthiking outfits and we can take the cab on to the city limits
before we dismiss it."
Kilby shook her head. "We agreed we shouldn't change any details of the
escape plan unless it was absolutely necessary. I'll straighten out.
I've just let this situation shake me too much."
* * * * *
They set the aircab to traffic-safe random cruise control before getting
out of it at their club. It lifted quietly into the air again as soon as
the door had closed, was out of sight beyond the building before they
reached the club entrance. The driver's records had indicated that his
shift would end in three hours. Until that time he would not be missed.
More hours would pass after the cab was located before the man returned
to consciousness. What he had to say then would make no difference.
In one of the club rooms, rented to a Mr. and Mrs. Anley, they changed
to shorts and flighthiking equipment, then took a tube to the outskirts
of Draise where vehicleless flight became possible. Forest parks
interspersed with small residential centers stretched away to the east.
They set their flight harnesses to Draise's power broadcast system,
moved up fifty feet and floated off into the woods, energizing drive and
direction units with the measured stroking motion which made
flighthiking one of the most relaxing and enjoyable of sports. And
one--so Halder had theorized--which would be considered an improbable
occupation for a couple attempting to escape from the Federation's
man-hunting systems.
For an hour and a half, they held a steady course eastwards, following
the contours of the rolling forested ground, rarely emerging into the
open. Other groups of vehicleless fliers passed occasionally; as members
of a sporting fraternity, they exchanged waves and shouted greetings. At
last, a long, wild valley opened ahead, showing no trace of human
habitation; at its far end began open land, dotted with small tobacco
farms where automatic cultivators moved unhurriedly about. Kilby,
glancing back over her shoulder at Halder for a moment, swung around
towards one of the farms, gliding down close to the ground, Halder
twenty feet behind her. They settled down beside a hedge at the foot of
a slope covered with tobacco plants. A small gate in the hedge
immediately swung open.
"All clear here, folks!" a voice curiously similar to Halder's addressed
them from the gate speaker.
Rane Rellis, a lanky, red-headed man with a wide-boned face, was
striding down the slope towards them as they moved through the gate. "We
got your alert," he said, "but as it happens, we'd already realized that
something had gone wrong."
[Illustration]
Kilby gave him a startled glance. "Somebody has been checking on you,
too?"
"Not that ... at least as far as we know. Come on up to the shed.
Santin's already inside the mountain." As they started along the narrow
path between the rows of plants, Rellis went on, "The first responses
to our inquiries came in today. One of them looked very promising.
Santin flew her car to Draise immediately to inform you about it. She
scanned your home as usual before calling, discovered three strange men
waiting inside."
"When was this?" Halder interrupted.
[Illustration]
"A few minutes after one o'clock. Santin checked at once at your place
of work and Kilby's, learned you both were absent, deduced you were
still at large and probably on your way here. She called to tell me
about it. Your alert signal sounded almost before she'd finished
talking."
Halder glanced at Kilby. "We seem to have escaped arrest by something
like five minutes," he remarked dryly. "Were you able to bring the
records with you, Rane?"
"Yes, everything. If we get clear of Orado, we can pick up almost where
we left off." Rane Rellis swung the door of the cultivator shed open and
followed them in, closing and locking the door behind him. They crossed
quickly through the small building to an open wall portal at the far
end. Beyond the portal a large, brightly lit room was visible,
comfortably furnished, windowless. Between that room and the shed the
portal spanned a distance of seven miles, a vital point in the
organization of their escape route. If they were traced this far, the
trail would end--temporarily, at least--at the ranch.
They stepped over into the room, and Rane Rellis pulled down a switch.
Behind them the portal entry vanished. Back in the deserted ranch
building, its mechanisms were bursting into flames, would burn fiercely
for a few seconds and fuse to dead slag.
* * * * *
Rane said tightly, "I feel a little better now ... just a little! The
Fed agents are good, but I haven't yet heard of detection devices that
could drive through five hundred yards of solid rock to spot us inside a
mountain." He paused as a tall girl with black hair, dark-brown eyes,
came in from an adjoining room. Santin Rellis was the only one of the
four who was not employing a biological disguise at the moment. In spite
of the differences in their appearance, she might have been taken for
Kilby's sister.
Halder told them what had occurred in Draise, concluded, "I'd believed
that suspicion was more likely to center first on one of you.
Particularly, of course, on Santin, working openly in Orado's
Identification Center."
Santin grinned. "And, less openly, copying out identity-patterns!" she
added. Her face sobered quickly again. "There's no indication of what
did attract attention to you?"
Halder shook his head. "I can only think it's the microbiological work
I've been doing. That, of course, would suggest that they already have
an inkling of Kalechi's three-year plan to destroy the Federation."
Rane added, "And that at least one of the group already has been
captured!"
"Probably."
There was silence for a moment. Santin said evenly, "That isn't a
pleasant thought. Halder, everything we've learned recently at the
Identification Center indicates that Rane's theory is correct ... every
one of the twelve hundred members of the Kalechi group probably can be
analyzed down to the same three basic identity-patterns, reshuffled in
endless variation. The Federation wouldn't have to capture many of us
before discovering the fact. It will then start doing exactly what we're
trying to do--use it to identify the rest of the group."