"Reuben?" Derek drawled. "Why Reuben went out to check the crops up in
the northeast forty. Took the horse and buggy."
That didn't help Johnny's irritation. "He took an air-cushion jeep,
instead of a copter? Why, for heaven's sake?"
"He wanted to check quite a few of the pumps. Said landing and taking
off was more trouble than the extra speed helped. He'll be back
shortly."
"He's back now," a voice from the door said.
Pierre Marimbert, brushing sand from his clothes, pushed into the room
and made his way to the mess-hall refrigerator. He said nothing further
until he had a can of beer open.
Johnny said, "Damn it, Pierre, you shouldn't stay out this late in a
jeep. If you got stuck out there, we'd have one hell of a time finding
you. In a copter you've at least got the radio."
Pierre had washed the dust from his throat. Now he said quietly, "I
wanted to check on as many pumps as I could."
"You could have gone back tomorrow. The things are supposed to be
self-sufficient, no checking necessary more than once every three
months. There's practically nothing that can go wrong with them."
Pierre finished off the can of beer, reached into the refrigerator for
another. "Dynamite can go wrong with them," he said.
* * * * *
The other two looked at him, shocked silent.
Pierre said, "I don't know how many altogether. I found twenty-two of
the pumps in the vicinity of In Ziza had been blown to smithereens--out
of forty I checked."