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.Look, can you tell me when Jamison will be back?”“I honestly don’t know.According to the officer I relieved this morning, a little after midnight a call had come in on the Colonel’s private circuit.About ten minutes later, the emergency carrier frequency lit up.It was for Jamison; he took it in here and talked for three minutes.Then he came charging out cursing in Warrior language grabbed the two biggest guards he could spot and jetted off in the search copter.That’s all we know.”A soft insistent chiming.The photographs on the screen disappeared; in their place ^Emergency’ flashed on and off against a red background.Jill was up and headed out the door almost before I was out of my chair.I tried to follow her, but was blocked by a large Security guard.“Sorry, Free-man Chrome!”Through the opened door of the small waiting room beyond, I saw a brightly lit area and heard the sound of Jamison’s voice greatly amplified.“—in my office?! Why in the name of—?”“Jamison!” I yelled and struggled in the guard’s polite, but firmly effective hold.“Colonel, he came here to ask about some of the guarding agents.It seemed time to reassure him,” Jill’s voice replied.“Jamison!”“Sounds like he’s there in Operations with you now!”“No, sir, but I think he’s trying to get it.”A muttered curse from Jamison, then his resigned, “Let him—,” and the guard freed me to enter the Security Agency’s center of operations here in the Desert Academy.A row of control stations and their computer-monitor desks was lined up in front of a giant video projector.Jamison’s image was on its screen; the background showed him to be aboard a large police copter.He reacted as I popped into view on his craft’s small receiver screen.“It’s bad news no matter what, Chrome, but it concerns you so you might as well be in on it now as later.We’re out at a special teaching facility the Committee’s scientists set up to house and protect your children.It’s just over the dune beyond us here.I came out last night on a tip that there was going to be trouble somewhere in this sector.There is, here.Power for the entire facility has been knocked out.We got no response from them when we arrived.There were no lights, no signs of life.We’ve watched since dawn.”Jamison peered past the hand-held, tri-video camera.“Ready? Good; take her up.Now, Corporal Thalnoys, we’re going in.I want you to begin laser-taping the audio signal from my throat mike and the image from the video camera.”Jill nodded to the waiting uniformed technicians and they sprang to stations in front of their equipment.“Our information was that this activity is originating from S.O.R.A.’s direction.If that’s true, I want a record of everything.”He motioned the camera to move past him and center on the scene below.It angled downward; there was a general view of a compound of blocklike buildings as the copter moved toward them.The craft began its descent.“There may be an uncomplicated explanation for all this,” Jamison’s dry humor came into his tone, “but that’s so rare these days, I doubt it.No point in taking—”A blinding flash.The operations room speakers shrieked as their audio signal shattered from the overload.There were gasps and muffled sounds of alarm from the seasoned professionals around me, so I didn’t feel badly about the yell I let out.When the visual portion cleared, the camera, obviously still functioning, lay unattended on the floor of the craft, showing us a very uninformative section of seat bracings with a soiled cleaning sponge wedged in them.The audio came on again at our technician’s coaxing.Over a background roar we could hear Jamison.“What the hell was that?! No, leave me alone, I’m fine.Are we still in touch with Operations? Jill, do you read me?”“Yes, Colonel.Are you all right?”“No personnel problems, but whatever it was it burst the copter’s bubble.This thing’s like a wind-test tunnel now.Hold on, we’re landing.”“Colonel, we’ve still got a picture here,” Jill said.“What? Oh.Pick that camera up, ass-head.Can’t you see the signal light’s still on?”The image swung dizzily up off the floor and centered on a disheveled Jamison who gestured to a portable headset he held to one ear.“I’ll have to leave this here.Not enough hands or ears! Anything before we go in, Jill?”“No, sir.”“Good luck, Jamison,” I threw in quickly.He winked and gave a little wave.The guard who had piloted the now-still craft handed Jamison a short-barreled radiation rifle, flicked off the safety catch on the one he carried and opened the cabin door.A moment’s survey of the building and, covered by Jamison, the guard jumped down.After a fast zig-zag up to the entrance with its opened doors, he gave another careful look around and motioned for Jamison and the bearer of the hand-held camera to join him.As they did I marveled at the steadiness of the image.“No sign of any personnel.” Jamison barely voiced it.“We’ll move in.Slowly, though.I don’t think there’s any hurry.”And it turned out he was right.The building was silent, deserted.Indications of a struggle in the main office, overturned chairs, desks askew, and opened, rifled file cabinets, but no sign of personnel until—As they turned the last corridor’s corner leading to the rear exit, there was Jamison’s sharp intake of breath, then his sickened groan.“Oh-Jeezus-God!”The ancient rarely heard oath came as a terrible shock, but it was nothing compared to the sight of what caused it.Lying in a naked, crumpled heap was the bloodied body of a little girl.She had been decapitated.* * *In the last analysis, there was nothing to be done.The rest of the children were gone.The employees of the nursery, its medical personnel and guards, the teachers, all had been killed and their bodies piled into a storage area in back of the compound.And S.O.R.A.’s communiqué, pinned to a little blood-covered skirt near the body, made it clear: since I’d proven sterile and was valueless, the Scientific Advancement Committee was welcome to keep me.Any attempt to retrieve the rest of the children or to appeal to the Confederated Galaxy, however, and there would be another “sacrifice” and another following that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]