第43节

Chief transferred over too, sir?"

'No,' said Baxter. 'He's outside giving the boys a hand."

He led the way to the Ops Room of the rear command car and put Gus

through the normal debriefing procedure. Gus described the successful

strike on the cropfields and explained how his rifle had jammed at the

crucial moment when Steve was hit and brought down.

'So you left him in the burning cornfield." Baxter's voice carried no

hint of condemnation.

'I had no choice, sir,' said Gus. 'The place was crawling with

hostiles who were none too pleased with us for roasting t. heir com.

Without my rifle..."

Yes, sure..."

'I figured if I could get Fazetti and Naylor to fly cover for me ' 'But

you couldn't raise them..."

'No, sir."

'Was Brickman alive when you left?"

'Just about. He didn't sound too chipper."

'Okay. We'll write him off." Baxter made an entry on his electronic

notepad against Brickman's name. PD/ET/ BNR: 'Powered down in enemy

territory. Body not recovered'. Baxter added the date and keyed the

fate of Brickman. S.R. into the pad's memory, leaving the small flat

grey screen clear.

Baxter then listened as Gus reported, in greater detail, his sighting

of the tangled wreckage of two Skyhawks in the forest. 'Must be

Fazetti and Naylor,' he observed, when Gus concluded his account.

Gus looked bewildered. 'What happened?"

'We're not quite sure,' said Baxter slowly. 'All we know is we got a

Mayday call from Naylor saying that Fazetti had flipped his lid and

started shooting at him. The Chief told Naylor to shoot back."

'Columbus I' breathed Gus. 'And?"

Baxter shrugged. 'Who knows? Naylor must have been slow on the

trigger."

Gus gave him a stunned look. 'But - I mean - why would - ?"

'Good question,' replied Baxter. 'All I can tell you is that little

item won't be reported to Grand Central. It'll just be a straight

PD/ET entry like Brickman's."

'Wow ..." breathed Gus. 'Nine Skyhawks down in one day. If the

Federation's going to lick these Plainfolk Mutes into shape we're going

to have to do better than this."

'Damn right we are." Baxter stood up from the table. Gus leapt to his

feet. The F.O.O. eyed him. 'I should warn you that if that jam in

your rifle turns out to have been caused by faulty rounds you could

draw a spell in the tank.

"Negligence while on active duty"."

Gus stiffened to attention. 'Yes, sir, I'm aware of that, sir.

It would mean that you'd be the only one aboard capable of flying

forward air patrols."

Baxter's expression did not change. 'I'll bear that in mind when I

receive the armourer's report. Dismiss."

Gus saluted smartly, turned on his heel and left.

In the forest, Clearwater watched with hated breath as a group of

She-Wolves clambered up through the branches to the wrecked

arrowheads.

The bodies of the cloud warriors were cut free from their retaining

straps and dropped unceremoniously to the ground. An attempt was made

to dismantle bits of the aircraft. Various wires and control leads

were ripped out but the larger items proved difficult to dislodge.

Most of the scavenging Mutes contented themselves with pieces of the

metallic blue solar cell fabric.

Returning to earth with their trophies they gathered round the two dead

cloud warriors and watched as their visored helmets and clothes were

removed. The pale, olive-pink bodies were almost hairless. A jostling

crowd of spectators gathered to view the bodies then the heads of the