“Good. Now listen. Stay where you are. Hold tight while we figure out the next move.”
“No.”
A long pause. Not merely because of the distance this time.
“What was that?”
“I said no,” Alec repeated. “I know where the fissionables are. We’re going to get them.”
“You can’t... I mean...”
“I can and I’m going to. We’ll keep in touch with the satellite,” Alec said. He counted, waiting for the response: one, one-thousand, two, one-thousand, th...
“This is psychotic! You’re going to force us to pull another shuttle out of mothballs, track your movements...”
“Stow it, Martin. We came here for the fissionables and we’re going to get them. Everything else is a detail.”
Kobol’s voice, when it came, was almost a woman’s screech. “You can’t travel across the continent and find him, you fool! You’ll kill yourself and your men with you!”
“You’d hate that, wouldn’t you?” Alec shot back. “Listen to me, Martin. We can travel across country. And we can live off the country, too. There’s plenty of food here.”
But Kobol was already saying, “I don’t care what you do to yourself, your personal grudges are your business, not mine. But to risk the rest of those men without even giving them a chance...”
“Save your speeches for the Council, Martin. Tell them I’m following their prime directive: I’m going to get the fissionables.”
The time lag between their statements was turning the conversation into two separate monologues. “And there’s medicine,” Kobol was saying, but more calmly now. He was more in charge of himself, obviously thinking fast while he spoke, “You’ll be exposing those men to all the diseases of Earth...”
“I want to talk to my mother now,” Alec said. “Please put her on.”
“Your inoculations won’t keep you protected...” Kobol stopped, then answered, “Your mother’s busy preparing for the Council meeting. By the time we could get her here to the communications center the satellite would be below your horizon and out of range.”
“Very well. Arrange for her to call me tomorrow.”
The pause again. Alec could sense Kobol’s mind churning furiously during the hiatus. “I’ll tell her. In the meantime, I must warn you again that you should not endanger your men foolishly. The Council won’t look favorably on any rash action. You should stay where you are until we’ve decided on the next step.”
“Too dangerous,” Alec countered. “We’ve already been trapped here once. I don’t want to allow that to happen again.”
Kobol’s voice was starting to fade. “Your orders are to stay where you are.”
Smiling tightly, “No good, Martin. We’re in much greater danger here than we will be on the move. I’ll expect a call tomorrow. From my mother. Now I’m going to put Gianelli back on. Give him the ephemerides for the satellite, so we’ll know when you’re in contact range.”
Alec pulled the earphones off his head and handed them to Gianelli. “Quick, before the satellite gets out of range.”
Gianelli took the earphones with a slight, quizzical grin. “Gonna make heroes out of us,” he muttered.
Jameson said nothing. Alec left the truck and went searching for Will Russo. Halfway back to the campfire he spotted the big redhead striding toward him.
“Looking for you,” Will said.
There was something about the man, his big gangling gait, the way his arms swung loosely at his sides, the innocent grin on his face—Alec found it impossible to distrust him.
“I’ve been looking for you, too,” Alec said.
“Have you been in touch with your people?” Will hiked a thumb skyward.
“Yes. If you don’t mind, I’d like to travel north with you. I want to find my father.”
Will’s grin broadened. “Good. Good. I just got a message from him. He’s only a few klicks—eh, kilometers—from here, in a town named Coalfield.”
“Here?” Alec suddenly felt weightless, all the breath knocked out of him.
“Yep.” Will nodded happily. “We can be there in a couple of hours.”
Chapter 17
Alec scarcely noticed the countryside rolling past as he sat on the fender of the lead truck, heading for the town where his father waited for him.
They came down out of the ridges and woods, all of his own men and all Russo’s people riding on the trucks. They bumped onto a paved road; not a wide concrete highway like the one between Oak Ridge and the airport, but a narrow, twisting blacktopped road, cracked and potted beyond description. Weeds and grass sprouted in every crevice.
Behind him Alec could hear Gianelli talking with Angela. “You mean you walk all the time?” he was asking. “Carrying all your food and guns and all?”
She sounded almost amused. “Sure. We ride when we can find something to ride on. There aren’t many cars or trucks still running—just a few electrics that run on solar batteries. Not much fuel left for gas-burners.”
“So you walk?” There was amazement in Gianelli’s voice. “And you carry everything on your backs.”
