“See anything else?”

“I’m not sure. Something was moving out there for a while. But it was heading away from us, and it didn’t walk like a man.”

Nodding, Alec said, “All right. We’re going to get a search party together. Let’s both watch the area until then.”

It was actually pleasant. Lying there wasn’t too uncomfortable, and Alec started to get a feel of this huge world called Earth. The breeze made noises, strange sighings and whisperings. Memories of old poems from his childhood school days started to make sense to him for the first time. And there were other sounds too. Alec had been told what bird songs and insect buzzings sounded like, but he had never heard them before.

“Look at that!”

Kurowski pointed six centimeters in front of his nose. In the stubby grass an insect was scurrying busily.

“I think that’s what you call an ant,” Alec said. “Or maybe a bee.”

“Bees can fly, can’t they?”

“Only the queens.”

The heavy weapons carriers finally trundled into position. They were six balloon-tired armored trucks, driven by smooth-humming electric engines, mounting high-powered lasers. Some of the men hustled up on foot, laden with heavy rocket launchers and machine guns. They began clicking the sections of their weapons together, quickly surrounding themselves with a bristling arsenal of gunbelts and finned rockets.

Alec led six men on a cursory, fruitless search through the gutted buildings. They found nothing but burned-out walls, crumbling floors, shattered roofs. And a few startled raccoons and other small animals that had claimed parts of the abandoned buildings for themselves. One of the troopers fired a burst from his automatic rifle at a brown furry something that simply blew apart when the bullets hit it.

“Glad it wasn’t a skunk,” muttered Beardon, who had made a special study of troublesome Earth animals as part of his preparation for the mission.

By mid-afternoon Alec gave the word to extend their perimeter. Most of the rocket launchers and heavy machine guns were repositioned on the roofs of the buildings, together with infrared sensors for night vision. One laser truck was parked in front of the central building. The others prowled the farther limits of the airfield, while troopers patrolled on foot alongside them, cradling their automatic rifles in their arms.

Back inside the first shuttle, Alec reviewed the situation with Kobol. The older man sat heavily in a padded seat, looking tired and wary. Alec leaned against the chair’s armrest.

“We’ve got to assume we’ve been spotted,” Kobol said.

“Right. It’s the safe assumption to make,” Alec agreed, thinking to himself, I never realized the shuttles made so much noise! The entire countryside must know we’re here.

“The shuttles would have been a lot easier to hide if we had landed in one of the valleys nearby,” Kobol went on.

With a shake of his head, Alec countered, “They’re safe enough here. None of the barbarians has weapons that can reach us from the edge of the airfield.”

“Really?”

“And there’s still no report from the satellite of a large number of barbarians moving our way. So we’re safe from a mass attack. For a day or two, at least.”

Kobol looked skeptical, but said nothing.

“All right,” Alec said. “We move out tonight. I...”

“Tonight? In darkness?”

“Right. We have infrared sensors. The barbarians don’t. We can move in darkness. They can’t and they won’t expect us to. I want a dozen men and one of the laser trucks. We have aerial maps of the region, the road between here and the Oak Ridge complex is clearly marked. We can be there before dawn and surprise any possible defenders.”

Kobol shook his head. “The men won’t want to move at night. And those who’re left here will be scared even worse, knowing that one-quarter of their strength is off in the dark.”

“Martin, I’m not in here to engage in debates,” Alec snapped, getting to his feet. “The men will follow my orders. By this time tomorrow we’ll be on our way back home.”

Shrugging, Kobol acquiesced. “You’re in charge. I presume you’ll want to lead the trek to Oak Ridge yourself.”

“That’s right. And I’ll want you along too.”

Kobol’s shaggy eyebrows rose a centimeter. “You don’t want to leave me here with the shuttles?”

“Jameson can hold the airfield,” Alec said, almost smiling at him. “I want you with me—to identify the fissionables.”

“Oh. I see.” Getting up slowly from his seat, Kobol said, “You know, if you’re not careful out in the dark, you could get shot by one of your own men.”

“You’re right,” Alec replied, keeping his voice even. “I’ve already thought about that. If it happens to me, though, there’s a chance that the same thing could happen to someone else. A better than fair chance, in fact.”

Kobol broke into a toothy grin. “That’s about what I would expect.”

“As long as we understand each other,” Alec said, unsmiling.

The night was different.

It wasn’t merely a turning down of the lights. It was dark. And alive.

Alec rode perched on the front fender of the laser truck, which trundled along quietly carrying the dozen men, including Kobol and himself. The driver, burrowed in the armored cockpit between the fenders, was groping along the winding road using the infrared lights and sensors. Up here in the open night air, all the ancient tales of ghosts and werewolves seemed only too real.

It’s absolute nonsense, Alec told himself.

But still, there were things out there in the dark. Things that croaked and groaned, things that sighed, sudden cries and strange ghostly hootings.

“Bet that’s what they call an owl,” said a voice behind Alec.

The clouds had started to lift just before sundown, giving Alec and his men the most heart-catching sight they had ever seen: an earthly sunset, vibrant with reds and flame-orange that slowly paled to blue, then softest violet, and finally to star-strewn darkness.

The sky was clear now, and except for their disturbing twinkling, the stars seemed very normal. Where the highway swung close to the trees, though, even the stars were blotted out. All that Alec could see were the twisted black branches rustling in the moaning wind, swaying across the faint brightness of the sky. He shuddered, and not merely from the growing chill.

The truck braked to a stop so suddenly that Alec almost lurched off the fender.

“What is it?” he whispered urgently into his helmet mike.

From inside the armored cockpit the driver replied, “Something moved out there.”

“Something? What?”

“Don’t know. It threw off enough heat to register on the scope. Big as a man. Maybe more than one.”

Alec swiftly considered the alternatives. “All right. We’re not going to stop. All you troopers get off the truck and walk alongside. If you see movement, tell me on the intercom. Don’t fire unless fired upon. Joe, keep the truck apace with us on foot. Let me know what you see on that ‘scope.”

“Right.”