Page 13 (1/2)

The military mentality is a bandit and raider mentality Thus, all anized banditry where the conventional mores do not prevail The , and other forms of theft which are always accepted as part of warfare When denied an outside target, the ainst its own civilian population, using identical rationalizations for bandit behavior

- BuSab Manual, Chapter Five: "The Warlord Syndro from the communications trance, realized how heover him Of course a Dosadi Gowachin would think hi in the trance, perspiration rolling from him McKie took a deep breath

"No, I&039; the many substances to which the Dosadi could be addicted, McKie alht better of it This Gowachin ht demand some of the addictive substance

"Not an addiction," McKie said He lifted hilanced around The sun hadveil

And soantic tracked vehicle, which stood throbbing and puffing smoke from a vertical stack behind the Gowachin intruder The Gowachin maintained a steady, intense concentration on McKie, disconcerting in its unwavering directness McKie had to ask himself: was this some threat, or his Dosadi contact? Aritch&039;s people had said a vehicle would be sent to the contact point, but

"Not ill, not an addiction," the Gowachin said "Is it soe condition which only Humans have?"

"I was ill," McKie said "But I&039;m recovered The condition has passed"

"Do you often have such attacks?"

"I can go years without a recurrence"

"Years? What causes thiscondition?"

"I don&039;t know"

"Iahhhh" The Gowachin nodded, gestured upith his chin "An affliction of the Gods, perhaps"

"Perhaps"

"You were coed Let the Gowachin make of that what he could

"You were not vulnerable?" Somehow, this amused the Gowachin, who added: "I a which has ever happened to you"

Bahrank was the naiven as McKie&039;s first contact

"I am McKie"

"You fit the description, McKie, except for your, ahhh, condition Do you wish to say more?"

McKie wondered what Bahrank expected This was supposed to be a si him on to more important people Aritch was certain to have knowledgeable observers on Dosadi, but Bahrank was not supposed to be one of the about this Gowachin had been specific

"Bahrank doesn&039;t know about us Be extremely careful what you reveal to hierous to you if he were to learn that you came from beyond the God Veil"

The ju

"If the Dosadi penetrate your cover, you&039;ll have to return to your pickup point on your own We very much doubt that you could ive you little help once we&039;ve put you on Dosadi"

Bahrank visibly ca to himself

"Jedrik expects you"

That was the other name Aritch&039;s people had provided "Your cell leader She&039;s been told that you&039;re a new infiltrator froin"

"Who does know?"

"We cannot tell you If you don&039;t know, then that information cannot be wrested froh, that Jedrik isn&039;t one of our people"

McKie didn&039;t like the sound of that warning "wrested froer&039;s er&039;s fangs

Bahrank gestured toward his tracked vehicle "Shall we go?"

McKie glanced at the machine It was an obvious war device, heavily armored with slits in its les It looked squat and deadly Aritch&039;s people had ot only primitive armored vehicles, projectile weapons and relatively uni They&039;ve been quite resourceful in their adaptations of such weaponry, however"

Once estured toward his vehicle, obviously anxious to leave

McKie was forced to suppress an abrupt feeling of profound anxiety What had he gotten himself into? He felt that he had awakened to find hi slide into peril, unable to control the least threat The sensation passed, but it left him shaken He delayed while he continued to stare at the vehicle It was about sixwith heavy tracks, plus other wheels faintly visible within the shadows behind the tracks It sported a conventional antenna at the rear for tapping the power transmitter in orbit beneath the barrier veil, but there was a secondary syste fuel The smoke of that fuel filled the air around them with acridity

"For what do ait?" Bahrank delared at McKie with obvious fear and suspicion

"We can go now," McKie said

Bahrank turned and led the iftly, cla up over the tracks and into a shadowed cab McKie followed, found the interior a tightly cluttered place full of a bitter, oily smell There were two hard her than the head of a seated Human or Gowachin Bahrank already occupied the seat on the left, working switches and dials McKie dropped into the other seat Folding arms locked across his chest and waist to hold him in place; a brace fitted itself to the back of his head Bahrank threitch The door through which they&039;d entered closed with a grinding of servomotors and the solid clank of locks

An ambivalent oraphobia in open places such as the area around the rock But the die reminders of primitive tiht an urge to claw his way outside This was a trap!

An odd observation helped hilass over the slits which gave them their view of the outside Glass He felt it Yes, glass It was coile He could see that this glass wasn&039;t very thick The fierce appearance of this ave one swift, sweeping glance to their surroundings,ru whine

A track of sorts led from the white rock toward the distant city It showed the e, a roadway to follow Glittering reflections danced fro the track Bahrank appeared very busy hatever he was doing to guide the to the briefings he&039;d received on Tandaloor

"Once you enter Jedrik&039;s cell you&039;re on your own"

Yeshe felt very much alone, his mind a clutter of data which had little relationship to any previous experience And this planet could die unless he ht learn here

Alone, aloneIf Dosadi died there&039;d be few sentient watchers The Caleban&039;s tempokinetic barrier would contain most of that final destructive flare The Caleban would, in fact, feed upon the released energy That was one of the things he&039;d learned fro blast, a meal for a Caleban, and BuSab would be forced to start anew and without the most important piece of physical evidence - Dosadi

The machine beneath McKie thundered, rocked, and skidded, but always returned to the track which led toward Chu&039;s distant spires

McKie studied the driver covertly Bahrank showed uncharacteristic behavior for a Gowachin: more direct, more Human That was it! His Gowachin instincts had been contaminated by contact with Humans Aritch was sure to despise that, fear it Bahrank drove with a casual expertise, using a coht different levers and arms which the Gowachin employed Some were actuated by knees, others by his head His hands reached out while an elbow deflected a lever The warhis attention froe There was quite a police action down there earlier"

McKie stared at hih"

"You Ri"

McKie peered out the slits: bushes, barren ground, that lonely track they followed

Bahrank spoke

"You&039;re older than any Rimmer I ever saw before"

Aritch&039;s people had warned McKie about this as a basic flaw in his cover, the need to conceal the subtle signs of age

They&039;d provided hiive when challenged He used that answer now

"It ages you in a hurry out here"

"Itin Bahrank&039;s response eluded him, but dared not pursue this It was an unproductive exchange And there was that reference to a "police action" McKie knew that the Rim Rabble, excluded from Chu, tried periodic raids, most often fruitless Barbaric!

"What excuse did you use to co glance at him, raised one webbed hand from the controls to indicate a handle in the roof over his head The handle&039;s purpose was unknown to McKie, and he feared he had already betrayed too

"Officially, I&039; this area for any hidden surprises the Rimmers may have stored out here I often do that Unofficially, everyone thinks I&039;ve a secret pond out here full of fertile feain, it was a relatively fruitless exchange with hidden undertones

McKie stared silently ahead through a slit Their dusty track led down onto a narrow ledge cut froh a series of swift changes in speed: slow, fast, slow, fast The red rock walls raced past McKie peered out and doard on his side Far below lay jungle verdure and, in the distance, the sh over dies appeared purposeless to McKie And the dizzy drop off the cliff on his side filled hied the cliff, turning as the cliff turned - now into shadows and now into light The roaned around him The smell of oil made his stomach heave And the faraway city seemed little closer than it had from the cliff top, except that it was taller, more mysterious in its smoky obscurity

"Don&039;t expect any real trouble until we reach the first ledge," Bahrank said

McKie glanced at hie? Yes, that&039;d be the first elevation outside the city&039;s walls The gorge within which Chu had been raised came down to river level in broad steps, each one numbered Chu had been anchored to island hills and flats where the river slowed and split into many arms And the hills which had resisted the river were ales

"Glad to get off there," Bahrank said

Their narrow ledge had turned at right angles away froreen jungle The growth enclosed the out to the side, identified hair fronds and broad leaf ficus, giant spikes of barbed red which he had never before seen Their track, like the jungle floor, was grey rowth appeared an almost equal e plants

Sunlightplants onto a plain of tall grass which had been trampled, blasted, and burned by recent violence He saw a pile of wrecked vehicles off to the left, twisted shards of metal with, here and there, a section of track or a wheel aimed at the sky Some of the wrecks looked similar to the machine in which he now rode

Bahrank skirted a blast hole at an angle which gave McKie a view into the hole&039;s depths Torn bodies lay there Bahrank made no cons ofpresence of both Humans and Gowachin Solint of a metal tube, bandoliers of bulbous white objects around their necks McKie had not tried to memorize all of Dosadi&039;s weaponry; it was, after all, primitive, but he reminded himself now that primitive weapons had created these scenes of destruction

Their track plunged again into overhanging growth, leaving the battlefield behind Deep green shadows enclosed the lurching, ruainst the restraints, carried an odor innings of rot Their shaded avenue e slashed by a plunging cut into which Bahrank took thee