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healthy plants. And goodbye to Earthblood."
"Until the next time," said Kyle. "If there's a way of screwing the planet,
you can bet your last dollar that scientists'll find a way of doing it."
"Must be hundreds of acres there," said Steve. "Can't have got all that
together since Earthblood. The place must've been running for ages."
"And who are the guards?" Carrie looked at the others. "They got some kind of
uniform on. Carrying automatic rifles."
"Zelig's men?" Kyle shook his head in answer to his own question. "Not far
enough north for that. So I wonder who they are?"
So did the others. The hydroponics establishment fascinated all four of the
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Axler, James - Earth Blood 02 - Deep Trek.htm grown-ups. They agreed that it
had to be of sufficient interest for them to try and get close enough for a
good look. When they eventually made a contact with
General John Kennedy Zelig, they felt he might like to know about the square
miles of glass-covered tanks.
"Don't get too near or take any chances on being seen," said Jim. "Heather and
Sly can wait together by the truck."
"Let me come, Dad," begged the girl. "It's not dangerous."
"Might be."
"Could be safer to take the kids with us," said Steve. "Suppose they got wide-
ranging patrols. Pick them up and nobody here to protect them. We stay quiet
and careful, then there won't be any danger. I'll take Sly. You take Heather.
Carrie and Kyle can come in from a third vector."
Jim was reluctant but agreed to investigate come nightfall.
There was a bright sliver of moonlight as they left in three pairs. Kyle and
Carrie, in dark clothes, went to the right. Jim and Heather took a longer
route to the left.
Steve, with the excited Sly in tow, picked the direct line over the ridge and
along a wide draw, then into some dead brush. That should give them cover to
within less than fifty yards of the nearest of the rows of long buildings.
THERE WAS the distant hum of a powerful generator with forty or so clusters of
lights placed around the perimeter of the base. There were fewer guards, but
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Axler, James - Earth Blood 02 - Deep Trek.htm
Jim had counted at least five of them patrolling at a steady walk close to the
lamp towers.
He was surprised that it was so relatively sparsely protected, assuming it was
as important as he supposed it was.
Jim was walking slowly and carefully in the lead, his daughter tracking his
steps a couple of paces behind, just as he'd told her.
"Stop, Dad!"
"Shit! You made "
"Don't move forward."
"What the I nearly decorated my underwear, Heather."
Her voice was a sibilant whisper. "Something ahead& Saw the moonlight off it.
A wire."
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Now Jim Hilton could see it, as well a narrow strip of cable, around midthigh,
with two thicker lengths beneath it. Farther along, to the left, almost hidden
by a fallen jumper, was an upright post with three white discs on it.
"Electric," he breathed. "Better go back, Heather. Well spotted. Best warn the
others in case& "
"We haven't found anything out."
"We already saw with the glasses by the truck that it was hydroponics. Could
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Axler, James - Earth Blood 02 - Deep Trek.htm even read the sign by the main
gates. All we're going to& "
Away to their right there was a sudden, startling flash of magnesium light and
an audible hissing crack, like the lash of a giant whip.
Jim turned and ran toward it. After a few minutes he heard a sound, followed
by
Kyle's voice.
"It's me and Carrie. You heard the noise, Jim?"
"And saw the flash. There're high-voltage cables strung around the base,
hidden in the brush. Heather saw it in time."
"We never saw that. Think it was& "
The question hung in the cool of the November evening as they stared at each
other with fear.
Then from the guarded establishment a quarter mile off, they became aware of a
siren, rising and falling like a wounded dinosaur in the last throes of agony.
"This place will be swarming with sentries in a few minutes," said Jim.
"Carrie, you take Heather back to the pickup. Get it packed. All our gear. Be
ready to move out at ten seconds' notice. Shoot anyone who isn't us."
They didn't argue, running away, feet crackling through the dried, dead
branches.
Jim was leading Kyle toward where he'd seen the dazzling flash, when they [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]