He learned the territory, mapped its folds and hills, its forests and streams, the roads, the abandoned cities, the villages. And Douglas’s defenses. A new perimeter of wire fencing was going up, he saw; teams of men digging through the snow and frozen ground on the outermost edges of his territory. They also erected wooden watchtowers every kilometer or so, despite the bitter weather. Douglas was not waiting for spring.

Alec located the firebases on hilltops inside the new perimeter fence. He saw scouting parties and larger armed patrols riding across the snowy countryside, but he kept a few jumps away from them. He wanted no serious fighting. Not yet. Once he thought he recognized Will Russo at the head of a column of men on snowshoes. Alec stayed especially far from them.

The days were becoming noticeably longer when he attacked the firebase. He had to lead his men around the long way through a gap in the still-uncompleted fence and watchtower ring. It was still bitterly cold, and the sky seemed to be a constant blank of gray as Alec marched his two dozen men toward the firebase. But toward evening the Sun broke through the western clouds and Alec noticed a tiny blue flower poking its head out of the snow along a hillside brook.

He smiled to himself. Not at the flower’s beauty or the promise of the sunset, but at the correctness of his timing for the attack.

They waited until well after midnight and climbed the hill to the firebase stealthily. It was laid out almost exactly like the base Alec had been in. The men clambered over the snow-packed earthen ramparts and used knives and crossbows on the defenders. Alec got to the radio before the base commander could switch it on. He shot the man twice through the chest as he clawed wildly at the console controls. Only when the commander lay twitching and bleeding to death on the floor of the radio room did Alec notice that the man was still gripping his unbelted trousers with one hand and his feet were bare.

They took no prisoners. They carefully disassembled the radio and its generator and packed them onto the firebase’s own truck. They used the explosives they found there to blow up the underground dugouts and artillery pieces, leaving no evidence that they had stolen the radio.

He’d suspect, Alec knew. But they’d stay far enough from his other radio equipment so that he wouldn’t be able to monitor their calls.

The truck slipped and groaned through the night, bearing the radio equipment and all of Alec’s men. They got back safely outside Douglas’ perimeter and then pushed on for another whole day before Alec tried to call the satellite station. When he finally made contact, the voice that crackled in his earphones was totally incredulous.

“We thought you were dead or...”

“Or gone over to Douglas’s side?”

“Well...”

“Never mind,” Alec said. “Get word to Kobol that I want to see him or his representative as soon as he can get someone up here. There’s much planning to do. I’ll stay in touch with you at least every other day and relay instructions on where to find me.”

“Yessir. I suppose you want to be patched through to the settlement, and speak to your mother?”

Without an eyeblink’s hesitation, Alec answered, “No. I can’t afford to keep broadcasting that long. My transmission might get picked up. Relay this message to her: Tell her that I’m fine and we’ll soon have accomplished our mission.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s everything.”

Chapter 25

Kobol sent Jameson. He arrived within two weeks of Alec’s first radio call.

“How did you get here so quickly?” Alec wondered.

Jameson smiled in his eagle-fierce way. “There are lots of boats down in Florida. And plenty of fuel for them, too. They make the fuel from seawater—electrolyze the hydrogen and then freeze it down to a liquid.”

“I didn’t know that level of technology still existed on Earth,” Alec said.

“The old civilian spaceport is still there,” Jameson explained. “Nobody bothered to bomb it.”

“So there are scientists there.”

“A few. Some engineers. They needed our help, though, otherwise they would’ve been overrun by barbarians.”

“And you came by boat all this way?”

Jameson nodded tightly. “Up the old inland waterway to Delaware Bay, then up the Delaware River. Scooted past Philadelphia as fast as we could—it’s still pretty radioactive. When we ran out of river we trekked overland, and here we are.”

Alec and Jameson were standing on the brow of a small hill, sheltered from the wind by a stand of white-barked birches. Their limbs were still gaunt and snow still covered most of the ground. But the Sun was shining out of a perfectly blue sky and warmth was returning to the land. Alec could hear trickles of melting water running beneath the snow. Soon the streams would be rushing noisily again.

“What’s Kobol doing down there?” Alec asked.

“He’s putting together an army. A real army.” Jameson spread his hands outward for emphasis. “Thousands of men. He’s recruiting them from the locals. They’ve got four shuttles landing supplies and weapons almost every day now: lasers, trucks, heavy stuff.”

“Thousands of men? Four shuttles?”

With a grim nod, Jameson answered, “The Council’s decided that the only way to get the fissionables is to smash Douglas once and for all. So they’re giving Kobol everything he wants. There must be more able-bodied lunar men in Florida now than there are left in the settlement.”

“Everything he wants?” Alec echoed. “Kobol’s not in command; I am!”

“You might find that point a little difficult to get across. The official verdict was that you were killed or captured. The rumor was that you’d joined Douglas.”

“They’re both wrong,” Alec insisted. “I was named commander of this mission and I’ve never been relieved of command, no matter what Kobol says or thinks.”

“He’s not going to be pleasant about that,” Jameson warned.

Alec looked at him, thought a moment, then said, “All right, there’s no sense arguing about it here and now. We’ll have to settle it between us when he gets here.”

Jameson looked unconvinced, even slightly amused.

“I assume Kobol has some plan worked out for getting his thousands of troops here?”

“Indeed he does,” Jameson said. “He’s been studying terrestrial meteorology and he’s come up with the irrefutable observation that it’s warmer in the southern areas—where he is—than it is up here in the north.”

“So?”

“So his plan is to follow the advance of springtime right up the countryside. He’s already started to move northward, out of Florida and into some lovely swamplands the natives call Georgia. As the warm weather advances northward, Kobol plans to advance his men along with it, adding new recruits along the way.”

“More men?”

“That’s right,” Jameson said. “He says that nothing succeeds like excess.”

“He stole that. It’s a quotation from history.”

Jameson’s stem face showed surprise. “Really? He’s been strutting around like he thought of it himself. But no matter who said it first, I think he’s right. The more men we have, the more raiders and barbarians will want to join us. And the bigger the army we have to face Douglas, the easier it’ll be to beat him.”

Alec scuffed a toe on the snowbank where they stood. “It won’t be easy to keep an army like that together. Those people aren’t going to march more than a thousand klicks and maintain discipline. Why should they?”

“Some of them will. Maybe a lot of them will. Kobol’s promised them all the loot and women they can carry, once they’ve beaten Douglas.”

Alec finally understood. And thought of Angela.