[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
."Keep your voice down," Tirrell whispered, slipping off his backpack and squinting down thegentle slope ahead.The south wall of the refinery was about half a kilometer ahead, just visiblethrough a narrow gap in the underbrush.Rummaging briefly through the pack, he pulled out a pair oflightweight binoculars, a headset, and a small microphone attached to a coil of slender wire."Ready,Tonio?" he asked, plugging the end of the wire into the headset and setting the coil and mike onto hislap.Tonio nodded and raised the binoculars to his eyes; and with the barest whisper of disturbed grassthe mike headed smoothly down the slope.Tirrell watched it go, trying simultaneously to protect thecoil of wire from snags and also watch for signs of a sentry.It would have been nice to use a cordlessmodel, but they couldn't take the chance that Martel might have the equipment available to detect itsbroadcast.Still, as long as the wire didn't break or alert the lookout by suddenly yanking out a swathof grass they should be all right.The microphone, its motion alone keeping it visible, was almost to the refinery wall."Looks likethe windows are slanted open a bit," Tirrell murmured to Tonio as he slipped on the headset."Ease themike through the bottom of the crack and let it sort of edge inside.""Right."A moment later it was done.Flipping his on switch, Tirrell cautiously turned up the volume.andwithin five seconds knew he'd guessed right."We got 'em," he announced tightly."Martel's there, andat least a couple of the kids.and they just referred to Jarvis." He slid the headset half off and turnedto Lisa."Okay, Lisa, it's up to you now.Get that note I gave you to the Nordau police; with luck, PlatCity'll have their squad ready to move by now.Be sure to take it very slow until you're over the ridge,aaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr rthen keep low until you're well away from the area.""Okay." Taking a deep breath, she set off uphill, flying bare centimeters off the ground.Within aminute she was lost to view among the undergrowth."She'll be okay," Tirrell assured his righthand as the latter continued to gaze after her."Give me ahand unloading the rest of this stuff, will you?"It took only a minute to empty the backpack and lay its contents in neat rows in front of them."What are these things?" Tonio asked, fingering one of the three gogglelike devices."They're gas masks," Tirrell told him."They're to protect us against the stuff in these." He tappedone of the half dozen squat black cylinders."It's called tear gas acts sort of like concentrated onionsin your eyes.""Never heard of it," the preteen said, looking rather apprehensively at the cylinders."I supposeit's supposed to keep kids from using teekay?""Or at least to limit it drastically.The stuff's hardly ever used anymore, but it was one of the fewweapons that worked against the Lost Generation, and it's a law that every police department has tokeep at least a little of it on hand."Tonio nodded thoughtfully."Stan.you guys don't really trust us, do you? Us kids, I mean.""Well." Tirrell shrugged uncomfortably."I suppose there's some distrust," he conceded, puttingas good a face on it as he could.Certainly most adult tension was below the conscious level, where ithardly qualified as true distrust."After all, with teekay, kids are a lot stronger physically than adults.You probably felt the same way toward the preteens when you were a Six or Seven.Hm?""Not really.I mean, if they picked on us too much the Senior would make them get back in line.""True enough but I'm sure you realize now that without the preteens' cooperation the Senior hasno real power at all.The kids themselves have to enforce his rules; you see?""Huh! You know, I never thought about it like that.""That's because the hive is set up to keep you from doing so.When you're little the preteensenforce the Senior's orders; and by the time you're a preteen yourself you're so used to obeying theSenior you do so automatically [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]