'People who drink gasoline shouldn't smoke cigars,' Stack said.
No one spoke for a minute. There were shouts outside, and people running away.
'It's clear,' Chantal said.
Pedro rushed out from behind the bar with a bucket of sand and doused the burning corpse on his wooden porch, kicking the fire out and the 'chugger into the street. The cykes were still burning, and he had to call for someone called Pauncho to help him put that blaze out before it spread to the saloon.
Stack and Chantal left the saloon. Pedro swore at them in Spanish. Chantal was amused by the range of his imagery.
Federico was parked just across the street. When she had arrived in town, the Silver Byte was the only place lit up and she had gone there for directions to the church.
'Is this your car?' Stack asked.
She nodded. Stack whistled again.
Chantal tapped in the entry code, and Federico's driver's side door raised with a slight hiss.
'Federico.'
'Yes,' it said, switching to English for Stack's sake.
'Contact Fort Apache.'
The automatic signal was sent out. There was a pause. Across the street, Pedro and Pauncho had the fire under control but were still swearing.
'Fort Apache does not respond.'
'That's not possible,' said Stack.
'Repeat: Fort Apache does not respond.'
Chantal's hand went to her throat. She fiddled with the chain of her crucifix.
'Attempt to override. Try the personal channels for Brevet Major General Marshall Younger, Colonel Vladek Rintoon, and so on down the chain of command.'
Federico worked in silence, a few lights on the dash going on and off.
'No response registered.'
'Is Fort Apache down?' Stack asked.
'Fort Apache reads normal. It does not respond.'
Chantal knew that this was what she had been sent to America to deal with. She had a moment of doubt. She tried to overcome it.
'We can't do anything until morning,' she told Stack. 'Let's get some sleep. Get in the car, and I'll drive you to the motel. You are staying at the motel?'
Stack was thinking five minutes behind. He shook his head.
'Yeah…uh…'
'Good. I'll take a room. We can be at the church tomorrow.'
She got behind the wheel, and opened the passenger door. Bewildered, Stack got in. By the time they reached the motel, he was asleep—unconscious?—in his seat, head hanging against the safety belt.
She left him there and, unable to find a nightman, broke into a room.
III
Lauderdale was inspecting his androids. The whole troop stood to attention under the cellophane shrouds in the store-room. Seven-feet-tall, andiropomorphic and faceless under their helmets, they looked a little like the robot in the movie
The Robo-Troopers were Captain Lauderdale's special field of expertise. The Cav didn't use them that often any more, following the wave of anti-android feeling that had swept the nation after the Governor of Los Angeles send them into the Watts NoGo to break up a peaceful demonstration against the USA's links with Greater Rhodesia. Some programmer's minor error had led to an override of the androids' prime directive and a massacre of 1594 people. Most Agencies had quietly scrapped their android programs after that, or diversified into different branches of robotics. Hammond Maninski Inc., out of the fortress city of Pittsburgh, was rumoured to be experimenting with the Donovan Treatment, putting human brains in android bodies—as in the British police teevee show,
He ran a systems check on the master control console. The androids hadn't moved since the last inspection. Really, Lauderdale ought to detail someone to dust them down more often. They hadn't been used in action for eighteen months, and had only been trotted out for parades and display inspections after much nudging. Lauderdale resented the downplaying of his discipline. He felt like a spare man at Apache, assigned to odd jobs like looking after official visitors rather man performing the duties he had signed up for.
Colonel Rintoon had ordered everyone to double-check their own areas of the fort. He believed there was a murderer loose somewhere, and that he had gained access to and exit from Younger's kitchen by some as-yet unknown means. Everyone was supposed to be searching for clues. Lauderdale agreed with Captain Finney's diagnosis. Younger had been killed by his own kitchen equipment. The physical presence of a killer hadn't been necessary. Finney had explained that a murderer could tamper with the kitchen by tapping into the central system of the fort, but Rintoon insisted on believing the evidence of the power outages and the thats and maintaining that Apache was inviolate. Rintoon was near the edge. Problems were popping up beyond the parameters of his programming.
None of the androids had bloody fingers. Then again, Lauderdale hadn't expected them to.
He took one last look around the store-room, turned off the lights, and stepped outside into the corridor.
Lieutenant Rexroth was running by, a print-out streaming from his hand.
They bumped together. Rexroth saluted.
'Sorry, Captain.'
Lauderdale was irritated. 'What's the hurry, Rex?'
'Major Faulcon has to see this.'
They walked, almost jogging, along together.
'What's important?'
'Younger's orders. They were sealed in his own terminal files. Captain Finney gave me the codes and told me to access them. They're germane.'
'Shouldn't you be taking them to Colonel Rintoon then?'
Rexroth stopped short. Lauderdale could tell the cmer officer was conflicted about something. He wanted to talk, but thought he shouldn't.
'What is it, Rex?'
Rexroth looked at the print-out, and over his shoulder. There was no one else in the corridor.
'What did Younger say?'
'I…I can't follow it…it's about chain of command.'
Lauderdale took the print-out. Rexroth didn't fight him for it. Lauderdale started reading from the top.
'Directive Five, sir.'
Lauderdale looked down for it. It was triple-starred.
'It was scrambled three times. And marked MOST URGENT.'
Lauderdale read. 'IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH OR INCAPACITY,' Younger had written, 'COMMAND OF FORT APACHE IS TO DEVOLVE TO MAJOR HENDRY FAULCON. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS COLONEL VLADEK RINTOON TO ASSUME TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CONTROL OF THE OUTPOST.'
'I don't understand,' Lauderdale said. 'This is against all procedures.'
'Look down again. It's in the notations at the bottom.'
