Tears streaked Heinrich’s face, but his expression didn’t change.
The eagle folded its wings and dropped like a Kama-kazi. Talons out and screaming defiance, its body jerked as slugs tore through. Feeling all of his bird’s pain, Vintovka’s prostrate body convulsed.
Langel and Pacho ran from opposite sides of the aisles as the intruder was firing upward. Knife-claws extended a foot beyond their knuckles, they hacked at the intruder’s arms, severing them cleanly above the elbows.
Immediately, Jawati and Dabba rushed in and applied tourniquets. They loaded the shocked body onto Jawati’s flat back, the lateral tentacles holding him immobile. Spear retrieved the arms and the weapons. Wirka and Kinzhal picked up Vintovka; Top picked up the dying eagle.
“Jawati here. We are returning to Pinecroft with inoperative LDU, bird, and intruder. All wounded but alive. Have three med teams ready.”
The other three LDUs quickly policed the area, picking up spent cartridges, cleaning up spilled blood.
Five minutes after the intruder alert was sounded, all was outwardly unchanged and tranquil.
Liebchen was trotting through the tunnel to Pinecroft when she heard an LDU behind her. She leaned against the support of a softly glowing lamp, crossed her legs, thrust out her breasts, and smiled sexily.
The LDU came to an abrupt halt. “Liebchen, what does that peculiar posture signify?”
“I saw a girl on television do it and somebody stopped to give her a ride. I think it’s a request for transportation. Are you going to Pinecroft?”
“Climb aboard. But lie down. I’m in a hurry.”
Liebchen added her seventy pounds to the LDU’s three hundred, snuggling her tummy against his back. The LDU strapped her down quickly and took off at a run.
“Is something exciting happening?” Liebchen shouted over the wind noise.
“Dirk is delivering a lecture on the teachings of Lao Tzu,” the LDU said. As he accelerated, the wind blast stopped all further conversation.
In the medical complex at Pinecroft three LDU teams were working under the direction of the CCU.
“They could have stopped him in the sports arena without getting any of themselves hurt,” Guibedo said.
“Yeah, and had that bastard spraying lead through a bunch of kids,” Heinrich said. “Well, so much for your idea about help from the Eastern Bloc.”
“Yah. I see that,” Guibedo said. “This kind of thing has happened before?”
“Third intruder this month. The preliminaries to war.”
As the med teams worked, Gamma LDUs were transcribing the intruder’s mind pattern into the CCU.
THIS IS KGB 501-12 TO CENTRAL, CODE 2297 SUB ALPHA. I HAVE MADE A THOROUGH SEARCH OF DEATH VALLEY AND CAN FIND NO INDICATION THAT HEINRICH COPERNICK OR MARTIN GUIBEDO IS PRESENT. I HAVE MADE CASUAL ACQUAINTANCE WITH SEVERAL LOCALS. MICHAEL SCOTT, NELSON HAYNES, AND ALLEN PRUES HAVE SEPARATELY STATED THAT THEY HAVE HEARD THAT MARTIN GUIBEDO IS IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA. PURSUANT TO MY INSTRUCTIONS, I AM NOW LEAVING FOR THAT LOCATION.
—DAVID JOHNSON
“The intruder’s arms are successfully replaced, Lord Copernick,” the CCU announced. “He will be fully functional in three weeks. Do you want him reprogrammed for life in the valley?”
“He doesn’t deserve it. Send him back with a compulsion to kill others of his type.”
Patricia and Mona wandered into a flatter and shadier section of town where most of the tree houses were one—story affairs. Facilities were laid out for the less athletically inclined, with chessboards and trout streams instead of bridle trails and canoe streams. Quite a few older people were around.
“Most of our senior citizens have moved out this way,” Mona said.
“Wouldn’t they want to be nearer the medical center at Pinecroft?” Patricia asked.
“That was the original plan. But when a group of doctors formed a clinic out this way, most of the seniors moved near it. I guess they prefer a human doctor to an LDU.”
“LDUs
“Hi, Mom!”
“Bobby! What are you doing at this end of town?” Mona said.
“There’s a new physics teacher who just moved in. I want to see if he’s any good. Who’s your friend?”
“Patty, this is my son, Bobby. Bobby, Patricia Cambridge. Patricia is staying with Uncle Martin.”
“Pleased to meet you, Patty. I’m glad to see Uncle Martin isn’t living alone anymore.”
“Uh, it’s good to meet you, Bobby.” Patricia tried not to act as flustered as she was. For one thing, Bobby looked fifteen and Mona looked twenty. And Mona was all red hair and freckles while Bobby was pure ebony. But mostly, you don’t tell your son who’s sleeping with whom!
“Ma, why don’t you come over to my house tomorrow afternoon. Ishtar has been talking about you—that’s my faun, Patty—and I want you to meet my new girlfriend.”
“I’d love to, Bobby. About three?”
“Great, Mom. But I’ve got to run. The introductory seminar starts in ten minutes. Bye!”
“Bye, Bobby!” Mona said. “The schools here function something like those of the old Moslem culture. If there is something you’re interested in, you find someone who can teach you whatever it is you want to know. Then you make a private deal with him. You stay with it until you’ve learned all you want. No grades, no diplomas. But it works.”
“He’s very nice, your, uh, son,” Patty said.
“Adopted, of course. How old do you think I am? Bobby was injured on our land, and Heinrich felt pretty bad about it. The doctors in L.A. couldn’t help Bobby, but of course Heinrich could. When we found out that Bobby was an orphan, the easiest thing was to adopt him.
“He stayed with us for a year, mostly to get his bearings, but he’s fifteen now, so he moved into his own tree house a few weeks ago.”
“He moved out at fifteen?”
“Yes. A bit late, of course, but then the lack of a proper home during his formative years slowed him down a bit. He’s doing all right now.”
“But leaving home at fifteen?” Patty said.
“The age of consent around here is puberty, Patty. Uncle Martin feels that if nature says you’re an adult, who are we to argue?”
“I guess so,” Patty said. Life Valley was going to take some getting used to.
Vintovka and his eagle died on the operating tables.
“You know, Heiny. This man didn’t kill Vintovka. His gun did it.”
“Same difference,” Heinrich said. “He pulled the trigger.”
“Yah, he’s guilty. But without weapons, he couldn’t have done any real damage to us,”
“You have an idea, Uncle Martin?”
“I am thinking about my kidney trees, that take metal out of the soil. I think we can do that backward.”
“A metallic fungus?”
“Too slow. I’m thinking maybe little iron mosquitoes whose larvae eat up the iron in guns and tanks. If we take their guns away, they can’t hurt anybody. We can win the war without having to kill people.”
“You’re going to have to brief me on metallic biochemistry, Uncle Martin, but I think we can do it. How about an aluminum eater to kill aircraft?”
“Sure. That’s easier than iron.”
“We’ll have to hit the entire world simultaneously, or we’ll upset the balance of power,” Heinrich said, thinking hard. “I’ll come up with a bird for a vector… You know that this will knock out more than weapons—the world’s economy, especially transportation and communication, will be destroyed.”
