Battlefield Earth

Terl put his paws protectively on the desk top as though to block a view into the drawer. Then he realized he was getting jumpy. Still, the longer he kept things in the dark, the less chance there was of the animal's talking to other perso

“You seem to know an awful lot,” he said suddenly.

“Only what you've told me,” said Jo

“When?”

“Different times. Over in Scotland.”

Terl stiffened. True, he had been unguarded. Very unguarded if this stupid rat brain had picked it up....

"If I hear just one leak of this real project– through Ker or anybody else-' he tapped the control box in his pocket, “the smaller female is going to have a collar explosion!”

“I know that,” said Jo

“So get out,” said Terl. "I’m far too busy for all this chatter.”

Jo

“My name is Jo

“Mine is Chirk.” She batted her painted eyebones. “You animals are kind of fu

“A huge house?” said Jo

“Oh, yes. We'll be rich! Terl says so. Tah-tah, Jo

“Thank you, I will,” said Jo

He went out with his warehouse-size list to get busy. He knew he had a new piece of the puzzle. Terl would not be here more than a year. Terl was going home and going home “rich.”

Chapter 4

“I am sorry, gentlemen,” said Jo

They were seated on some bashed-up chairs in what had become Jo

Jo

“I have searched through everything I can find and am unable to locate it.”

Robert the Fox, Doctor MacDermott, the parson, and the schoolmaster sat glumly looking at him. He never tried to fool them about anything. One thing about MacTyler-he was honest with them.

Things had been going well, too. Almost too well. The young men were progressing marvelously in their ability to handle equipment. There had been only one casualty with the flying trucks– two trainees had been attacking each other's trucks in the air in simulated combat and one of the young lads had punched a wrong button at the wrong time and hit the ground. He was lying in the infirmary now, leg properly set by the parson and attended by the clucking old widows; the flying truck, according to Ker who came over to fix it, was fit only to be ca

The three young men who looked like Jo

Several young men had caught wild horses and broken them to ride, and they rounded up wild cattle and shot deer so there was no lack of food. Radishes and lettuce brightened their fare, proud trophies of the old women's garden.

In fact everyone was working like fury and the place looked like an ant hill all day.

“Perhaps,” said Doctor MacDermott, “we could help you look.” He gestured at the books. "If you'd tell us exactly what it is we're to be locating.”

“It’s uranium,” said Jo

“Ah, yes,” said Doctor MacDermott. “It isn't harmful to humans but is deadly to Psychlos."

“It is harmful to humans,” said Jo

“These mountains,” he continued, sweeping his hand toward the mountains outlined by the sunset behind them, “are supposed to have been full of uranium. I know definitely the Psychlos believe they are. You can't force a Psychlo up into them.

“The demon Terl is going to send us into those mountains to find, probably, gold. He has undoubtedly spotted some. We may or may not mine the gold. Probably we would have to, to keep going. But we could also mine uranium.”

“And you can't locate any,” said Doctor MacDermott.

Jo

“Must have been very valuable,” said Robert the Fox.

“They list a lot of uses for it,” said Jo

The parson rubbed his nose thoughtfully. “Would your own village people know anything?”

“No,” said Jo

“It doesn't seem to have affected you, MacTyler," smiled the parson.

“I wandered a lot and was not home much of the time. And some are affected more than others, perhaps.”

“Heredity,” said Doctor MacDermott.

“Over the centuries some of you may have developed a resistance or an immunity. They would not know?”

Jo

“We do have to solve this problem,” he continued. “It is the center of every plan.”

Doctor MacDermott held out his hand. “Deal those books around and we will put aside some of our sleep and help you look.”

Jo

“I think,” said Robert the Fox, “we should send out some scouts. It is basic in the pla

“Indicators are there in the mine books,” said Jo

“Perhaps,” said the schoolmaster, “there may be one in some of these old villages. Do they have directories for factories?”

“I doubt such an instrument would be worth much after a thousand years,” said Doctor MacDermott. “But I do see there a...goodness, but this has almost gone to pieces...a telephone? book...to 'Dev...Denve...' Telephones,” he added for the others, “used to exist in cities. Here...'instruments...International Business Machines Research?' Oh, drat. The address can't be made out.”

“The writing exists on many buildings there,” said Jo

Robert the Fox leaned forward. “As I say, it takes a scout. Scout before raid is the watchword. We must be very careful that the demons do not suspect us of snooping about.”

“They have body heat detectors,” said Jo