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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] tunnels, and if Beys or his subordinates had positioned any last defensive troops -- or hoped to fight a final action -- I surmised they would be hidden in that patch of thicket, or perhaps at the Citadel itself, and when Page 221 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html opportunity arose, certainly after the artillery barrage, storm up one or both of the hills. I saw a group of soldiers marching down a street on a hill, almost hidden in the shadows of a row of buildings still intact in that quarter of town. They marched about a kilometer and a half from the boat. I could not tell whose troops they were, of course -- it was possible that none of Lenk's troops had uniforms, but I couldn't make out the cut of their clothes, or even determine file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Legacy.txt (165 of 183) [5/21/03 12:38:23 AM] file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Legacy.txt the color. It was necessary to survey the town from farther south, to get a better view of the streets and buildings, the centers of potential conflict. I guided the boat south, away from Lenk's ships. Locking the wheel for a moment and searching through the cabin, I found a piece of paper in a drawer, and quickly sketched the harbor, the town, and the streets visible. I used the binoculars to gather details -- likely administration buildings, a water tower, and what seemed to be a radio mast on the western side of the town. Any one of these could be crucial objectives. By this time, I was starting to attract unwanted attention from Lenk's ships, less than two kilometers away. A gunner had targeted the boat and a shell landed barely a dozen meters away. I did not know what type of guns they had, and how accurate they might be, but I could not risk staying on the water any longer. I headed for the docks again. Another shell drenched me with spray. I was less than a dozen meters from shore when a direct hit split the boat in two and flung me backward into the water. Dazed, I floated on my back in the black water of the harbor for several minutes before swimming for the docks. I crawled up a ladder and stood in the darkness between two warehouses, one of them shattered by the shelling but not on fire. I tried to get my wits together. A piece of xyla had cut a bloody groove across my forehead. I wiped the blood away with my wet sleeve. The map was gone, but I had most of the details firmly in memory. Naderville was divided by four main east-west streets and seven or eight wide streets running north-south from the harbor to the hills. The buildings that seemed most likely to be administrative -- still intact, surprisingly -- lay on the slopes of the easternmost hill, off of a north-south boulevard. I walked toward these buildings. A few civilians still lingered in the town, and the scenes I saw, heading for the eastern hill, could have been several thousand years old. Bodies littered a small courtyard where a shell had exploded: two large ones, two small. Children. I wondered if Lenk had killed some of his own children. Five older men and several women, heads wrapped in cloth against the smoke, pushed their belongings on a makeshift cart through brick and xyla rubble. I hid in the half open doorway of a hollowed-out building to avoid a straggling line of young men and women, not knowing whether they were soldiers; they crossed along an east-west street, shouting encouragement to each other. A few carried electric lanterns. By the glare of one lantern, I recognized a face -- Keo, one of Lenk's assistants, following close on the line. I called out his name and he jerked around, then raised the lantern and spotted me in the doorway. "Olmy! Fate's breath," he said. "You're still alive! We were sure you'd all have been killed when the attack started." He shouted at the retreating backs of the young men and women, "Hold on!" They turned and clustered around us, the whites of their eyes showing like startled deer, breathless, at once frightened and cocksure. "What's happening?" I asked. "Where's Salap?" he asked in return. I did not want to waste time by explaining. "Is the town taken?" Page 222 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Some of the young people shook their heads. Several laughed nervously, milling like dogs. I counted heads and sexes: eight men, five women. "Not yet," Keo said. "There's an action up around Sun Road. Lots of resistance. Beys was back at sea -- missed our ships -- but swung around to the northern side of the peninsula, landed troops. They're moving back into the town now, to replace the soldiers who went to the western peninsula. A diversion. Lenk's auxiliaries -- we're all auxiliaries now -- grounded a small ship there and burned some houses and buildings. I didn't know about this -- " Keo's chest jerked. He was hyperventilating in his nervousness. "Randall told us ... before he left, and ... about you..." "Is Shirla with Lenk?" Keo's face fell. "The woman? No," he said. "She and Randall were taken by Brion's police two days ago, just after you and Salap left with Brion." "We have to go," shouted one of the young men, an apprentice sailor from one of the schooners to judge from his clothing. He confronted me. "Whoever you are, we can't stay here clacking teeth -- we have to report if there are any troops coming around to the east of town." "That's true," Keo said, clearly uncomfortably with leadership. "He's the Hexamon man," a young woman said, peering at me curiously. Dirt and sweat streaked her lean face and she seemed stupid with fear and excitement. "He was on _Khoragos._ He's the one they've been talking about." I hardly heard all this. My thoughts raced, trying to think of where they might have taken file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Legacy.txt (166 of 183) [5/21/03 12:38:23 AM] file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%20Legacy.txt Shirla. She could still be back at the lake, hidden in the buildings within the old seed-mother palace. "I've been out in the harbor, and there's no action to the east -- not yet," I said. "But there could be a contingent of troops back at the lake. Beys might use them to pinch us all ... Where are his steamships?" "North of the peninsula, the last we saw." Clearly, Beys's most likely plan -- the best plan under the circumstances -- sketched itself in my head. He had landed the soldiers traveling with the ships in the north, perhaps two companies of well-trained men and women, a fair force under the circumstances, but not enough to have much impact. Troops at the old palace could number in the hundreds. If the town had been lightly defended -- concentrating the troops in Beys's ships and around Brion's [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |