Skip suddenly grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about. Who’s got a lighter?”
Watts removed one from his pocket and tossed it to Skip.
They quickly collected a half dozen smaller bottles with narrow mouths, emptied their contents, and refilled them with ethanol, stuffing wadded gauze into the necks. As they worked quickly and silently, the keen smell of pure grain alcohol filled the room.
“Skip, you’ll be the Molotov cocktail guy,” said Corrie. “Create maximum surprise and confusion. Hit the chopper if possible so it can’t follow us once we escape. Shoot off that big old hogleg now and then to put the fear of God into everyone. The sheriff and I will go in blazing on either flank.”
“Go in blazing,” repeated Watts. “Still suicide. Only maybe not quite as certain.”
62
RUSH STEPPED OUT of the viewing alcove. “Come with me.”
Nora and Tappan rose to follow.
He halted some distance from the craft, turned, and folded one arm over the other, clearly waiting for an answer.
There was a brief, awkward silence.
“Colonel,” Tappan said, “you’re a convincing recruiter. No doubt you’ve performed that little dog-and-pony show before. I could probably use you in the HR department of Icarus Space Systems. But how do I—” and at this, he stepped closer to Nora— “how do we know you aren’t just milking us for information, to be shot and discarded when you’ve wrung us dry?”
Nora was glad Tappan had moved close to her. The fact that Atropos knew of their relationship—not surprising, in retrospect—meant that to ensure the cooperation of one, Atropos would have to spare both. Even so, she wondered if Tappan was laying it on a little thick. It crossed her mind that she still didn’t know what he was really thinking—if he was being sincere, or if he was going along with her scheme. Truth was, she didn’t know him all that well, despite their connection.
“Colonel Rush,” Nora said, “you tell us you’ve kept nothing back. Well, I’ll be equally blunt. Did you blow up the camp?”
“No, we did not. We merely destroyed all your data and equipment. The people are fine.”
“You’ve obviously killed other innocents, like Emilio Vigil.”
“That was the unfortunate product of a soldier’s overzealousness. However, you are right: we have killed. For a cause.”
Rush waited.
“If the fate of Earth is at stake, maybe that could be justified. But the films you’ve shown us, the history you’ve cited…” She stopped and pointed toward the craft. “It all seems contradicted by that. It’s done nothing in our presence. And the device we just excavated—it didn’t zap anybody. How do we know those films weren’t doctored? I’m not sure I buy your conclusion it’s out to destroy us. Maybe it was intended to be benevolent.”
“Benevolent!” Rush repeated, in a mixture of surprise and derision. With a gesture, he brought one of the guards over, then spoke to him briefly in a low voice. The man saluted, walked back toward the hangar entrance, then plucked a microphone off its wall cradle. After about ten seconds, he put it back.
Rush, meanwhile, strode back and forth, with the air of a man for whom both patience and time had run out. As Nora glanced from the colonel to Tappan and back, the hangar door opened and a soldier entered, holding a cage of some kind. She handed it to Rush, saluted, then turned and walked out. The guards remained in their positions by the hangar door, which stood open.
Rush turned toward his prisoners. “Come with me.” Then he made a direct line toward the alien craft.
Nora and Tappan followed. The colonel walked so quickly that, despite herself, Nora soon felt herself slowing behind him.
Rush walked past the outermost, yellow ring of the concentric circles, then paused immediately before the orange ring and looked over his shoulder. He snorted when he saw that both Nora and Tappan were hanging back.
“What are you worried about?” he asked in an acid tone. “We’ve learned the hard way how close we can get.” He put the cage on the floor, opened it, withdrew something, and straightened up again. Nora saw he was holding a lab rat. It had hooded markings, with a black head and white body. Like most such animals, it seemed naturally tame, unfazed by the strange surroundings. It looked around, beady black eyes glancing this way and that, whiskers bobbing as its little pink nose sniffed the air, disgusting bristly tail wrapped around the colonel’s wrist for balance.