Battlefield Earth

That wasn't what Jo

“Well, put on your mask and get in. We have other things to do today.”

Jo

As they moved off, Jo

Chapter 7

Terl drove straight north, following the overgrown bed of an old highway. For all his joviality he was thinking very hard. Fear and leverage. If you didn't have leverage you could make fear work. He felt he had already accomplished a little bit: the animal had seemed impressed back there. But he had a lot to do to get both fear and leverage and get enough of them to break this animal and cow it completely. “Comfortable?” asked Terl.

Jo

“Where are we going?” he said.

“Just a little drive. New ground car. Doesn't she run well?”

The tank ran well all right. The plate on the panel said “Mark III General Purpose Tank, Executive, 'The Enemy Is Dead,' Intergalactic Mining

Company Serial ET-5364724354-7.

Use Only Faro Power Cartridges and Breathe-Gas. 'Faro is the Breath and Power of Life.”'

“Is 'Faro' part of Intergalactic?” said Jo

Terl took his eyes off driving for a moment and looked suspiciously at Jo

“It’s all run from home planet, isn't it?”

“Why not,” said Terl. “Something wrong with that?”

“No,” said Jo

“That isn't all Psychlo runs,” said Terl. “There's dozens of companies the size of Intergalactic and Psychlo runs them all.”

“Must be a big planet,” said Jo

“Big and powerful,” said Terl. Might as well add a little more fear. “Psychlo can and has crushed every opposition that ever stood in her path. One imperial check mark on an order and a whole race can go phuttt!"

“Like the Chinkos?" said Jo

“Yes, and like one rat-brained animal will go phuttt if it doesn't shut up,”

said Terl in sudden irritation. “Thank you,” said Jo

“That's better. Even becoming properly polite!” Terl's good humor returned, but it wouldn't have had he realized that the “thank you” had been for vital information.

Abruptly their headlong pace swept them into the outskirts of the city.

“Where are we?” said Jo

Aha, thought Jo

"Where's this?” inquired Jo

“Knew you had a rat brain,” said Terl. “This is where you-' he laughed suddenly and that made it hard to talk, “-where you attacked a tank!”

Jo

Terl gri

Jo

“There are countless animals out in the open here,” said Jo

“Rat brain, you don't have a grip on machines. It shows. Look here.” Terl turned on a large screen set into the instrument panel. The immediate vicinity showed up on it. Terl turned a knob and the scene was viewable from different directions.

Then Terl pushed a button and there was a dull pop like a small explosion in the top of the car. Looking up through the overhead port Jo

“That's why you can't get away,” said Terl. “Look.” He changed a lever on the screen and the image became enlarged. He pushed a button marked “Heat search” and the screen and spi

Jo

“Just sit and watch that,” said Terl, “and tell me if you see your horse.” He laughed. “Security chief of Earth ru

There were cattle and cattle and cattle. There were wolves– small ones from the nearby mountains and huge ones down from the north. There were coyotes. There was even a rattler. There were no horses at all.

“Well,” said Terl, “we'll just drive along to the south. You keep your eyes open, animal, and you'll get your horse back.”

They drove at a leisurely pace. Jo

Terl began to get irritated. Leverage, leverage. His luck was out today!

“No horses,” said Jo

Terl finally looked at the scope. Ahead of them was a small hill, rocky on top, with a lot of trees distributed around it and darkness in among the trees. There were cattle, some with rather big horns just to the north of it in the open. Fear, then. The day wouldn't be wasted. He swerved the car into the trees and stopped.

“Get out,” said Terl. He put on his breathe-mask and hit the door buttons. He threw out the leash and then reached into the huge compartment under the seat and drew out a blast rifle along with a bag of grenades.

Jo

Terl took a position at the edge of the trees, the rocks behind him, the open plain in front. “Come here, animal,” he said.

The leash was trailing. Jo

"I’m going to give you a little exhibition,” said Terl. “I was top shot in my school. You ever notice how neat the rat heads were blown off?

Some of them were fifty paces away. You're not listening, animal.”

No, Jo

Terl reached down and jerked the leash, almost snapping Jo

With an expert motion, Terl snapped a grenade onto the end of the blast rifle. “Watch this!”

There were a half-dozen cattle about eighty paces out on the plain. Two of them were heavy horned bulls, old and tough. The other four were cows.