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There was a shout of assent. As it died, a lone voice asked, "Where to?"
"Good point. If you get free, make for the coral houses around the south void and Alpha-Beta cliffs. Anything else?"
Nobody spoke, including Matt. Why ask questions to which nobody knew the answers? Matt was unutterably relieved to let someone else make the decisions for a while. They might be just as wrong, but ninety-eight rebels could be a mighty force, even moving in the wrong direction. And Harry Kane was a born leader.
Laney moved out of his arms-but kept a grip on one hand. Matt became conscious of the handcuffs dangling from his wrists. They might hamper him. Jay Hood moved up beside him, looking rumpled. He shook hands, gri
"All out," said Harry Kane, and butted the door open with a wide shoulder. They streamed into the hall.
"I'll take only a minute of your time, Watts." Jesus Pietro relaxed indolently in his chair. He loved mysteries and proposed to enjoy this one. "I want you to describe in detail what happened last night, starting with the call from Hobart."
"But there aren't any details, sir." Master Sergeant Watts was tired of repeating himself. His voice was turning querulous. "Five minutes after your call, Hobart called and said he had a prisoner. I told him to bring him to my office. He never came. Finally I called the gate. He was there, all right, without his prisoner, and he couldn't explain what had happened. I had to put him under arrest."
"His behavior has been puzzling in other ways. That is why I ask, Why didn't you call the gate earlier?"
"Sir?"
"Your behavior is as puzzling as Hobart's, Watts. Why did you assume it would take Hobart half an hour to reach your office?"
"Oh." Watts fidgeted. "Well, Hobart said this bird came right up to the gate and started banging on it with a rock. When Hobart didn't show right away, I thought he must have stopped off to question the prisoner, find out why he did it. After all," he explained hastily, "if he brought the bird straight to me, he'd likely never find out what he was doing banging on the gate."
"Very logical. Did it occur to you at any point that the 'bird' might have overpowered Hobart?"
"But Hobart had a sonic!"
"Watts, have you ever been on a raid?"
"No, sir. How could I?"
"A man came back from the raid of nigbt-before-last with the bones of his nose spread all over his face. He, too, had a sonic."
"Yessir, but that was a raid, sir."
Jesus Pietro sighed. "Thank you, Master Sergeant. Will you step outside, please? Your bird should be arriving any minute."
Watts left, his relief showing.
He'd made a good point, thought Jesus Pietro, though not the one he'd intended. Probably all the Hospital guards had the same idea: that a gun was ipso facto invincible. Why not? The Hospital guards had never been on a raid in the colonist regions. Few had ever seen a colonist who wasn't unconscious. Occasionally Jesus Pietro staged mock raids with guards playing the part of colonists. They didn't mind, particularly; mercy-weapons were not unpleasant. But the men with the guns always won. All the guards' experience told them that the gun was king, that a man who had a gun need fear nothing but a gun.
What to do? Interchange guards and raiders long enough to give the guards some experience? No, the elite raiders would never stand for that.
Why was he worrying about Implementation?
Had the Hospital ever been attacked? Never, on Alpha Plateau. A colonist force had no way to get there.
But Keller had.
He used the phone. "Jansen, find out who was on guard at the Alpha-Beta Bridge last night. Wake them up and send them here."
"It will be at least fifteen minutes, sir."
"Fine."
How had Keller gotten past them? There had been one aircar on Gamma Plateau, but it had been destroyed. With the pilot still in it? Had Keller had a chauffeur? Or would a colonist know how to use the autopilot?
Where the Mist Demons was Keller!
Jesus Pietro began to pace the room. He had no cause for worry, yet he worried. Instinct? He didn't believe he had instincts. The phone spoke in his secretary's voice. "Sir, did you order two guards?"
"Bridge guards?"
"No, sir. Intrahospital guards."
"No."
"Thank you." Click.
Something had set off the grounds alarms last night. Not a rabbit. Keller might have tried the wall first. If the grounds guards had let a prisoner escape, then faked a report--he'd have their hides!
"Sir, these guards insist you sent for them."
"Well, I damn well didn't. Tell them--just a minute. Send them in."
They came, two burly men whose submissive countenances unsuccessfully hid their ire at being made to wait.
"When did I send for you?" asked Jesus Pietro.
The big one said, "Twenty minutes ago," daring Jesus Pietro to call him a liar.
"Were you supposed to pick up a prisoner first?"
"No, sir. We took Hobart to the vivarium, put him to beddybye and came straight back."
"You don't remember being--'
The smaller guard went white. "D-Dave! We were supposed to p-pick up someone. Keeler. Something Keeler."
Jesus Pietro regarded them for a full twenty seconds. His face was curiously immobile. Then he opened the intercom. "Major Jansen. Sound 'Prisoners Loose.'"
"Wait a minute," said Matt.
The tail end of the colonist swarm was leaving them behind. Hood brought himself up short. "What are you doing?"
Matt dodged back into the vivarium. One man lay on his face with his headset on. Probably he'd thought he was safe once he was out of the couch. Matt snatched the headset off and slapped him twice, hard; and when his eyelids fluttered, Matt pulled him to his feet and pushed him at the door.
Watson and Chek finished pushing buttons and left, ru
"Come on!" Hood yelled from the doorway. Panic was in his voice. But Matt stood rooted by the thing on the floor.
The guard. They'd tom him to pieces!
Matt was back in the organ banks, frozen rigid by horror.
"Keller!"
Matt stooped, picked up something soft and wet. His expression was very strange. He stepped to the door, hesitated a moment, then drew two sweeping arcs and three small closed curves on its gleaming metal surface. He hurled the warm thing backhand, turned, and ran. The two men and Laney charged down the hall, trying to catch the swarm.
The swarm poured down the stairs like a waterfall: a close-packed mass, ru
The first armed guard was several yards beyond the first corner. He turned and stared as if his eyes beheld a miracle. He hadn't moved when the mob reached him. Someone actually had the sense to take his gun. A tall blond man got it and immediately forced his way to the front, waving it and yelling for room. The swarm flowed around and over the limp Implementation policeman.
This hallway was long, lined with doors on both sides. Every door seemed to be swinging open at once. The man with the gun closed his fist on the trigger and waved it slowly up and down the hall. Heads peered out the doors, paused, and were followed by falling bodies. The colonist swarm slowed to pick their way around the crewish and half-crewish fallen. Nonetheless, the fallen were all badly or mortally injured when the swarm passed. Implementation used mercy-weapons because they needed their prisoners intact. The swarm had no such motive for mercy.