A Rage for Revenge

46 The Secret of the Barn

I drove back by myself. I needed to think. Halfway back to the Tribe's camp, I made a decision. I counted to ten. It still felt right. I picked up the phone and made a call. "Birdie, Jim. Don't ask questions. Just listen-" I hoped that for once, she would believe me.

Colonel Wright was already waiting for me in front of the barn. She hadn't burned it yet.

Most of the other units had moved out. The children had been loaded onto one of the buses and also moved out. We had passed it on the road.

Colonel Wright was standing in front of the huge open doors. "I think you ought to see what's inside here."

I strode inside.

There was a corral made up of hay bales. The walls of it were eight feet high. I had to climb up a stairway of bundles to look into it.

There were five little worms in the corral, the smallest worms I'd ever seen, small enough to hold in your arms like a baby. And something else.

The floor of the corral was dark and wet with blood.

There were some fragments of clothing scattered about, but it was impossible to identify it as anything more than scraps of cloth. Here were the missing children.

The baby worms looked up at me and trilled. "Prrt?" they asked. One of them made as if to climb up the hay, but it was still too unsure of itself. I realized I was smiling. Baby creatures-of any species-are adorable. Even worms.

How old were these? A week at the most.

This was what Delandro was willing to abandon here. His liabilities. He could always raise more worms, he didn't need these. And he could always find food for them. No, they'd abandoned this place by the time we got here.

But he-or Marcie-had known what I would think; that the renegades considered the worms too valuable to abandon. Except they were wrong.

I knew one thing. If a fanatic is willing to give his own life for a cause, he sure as hell isn't going to have much regard for anybody else's.

I unshouldered my torch. "Everybody out. Once this barn goes, you'll have less than thirty seconds."

Colonel Wright looked at me. "We could take these specimens back with us . . . ?"

I shook my head. "They've already been imprinted. We'd get nowhere with them."

"Imprinted?"

"Uh-huh. You'd better get out of here now." I waited until she was gone. I looked at the baby worms one more time. I said, "I could almost learn to like you little sonsabitches-if only you didn't have such lousy eating habits."

And then I burned them.

They died quickly. I was glad of that.

The fire leapt up the walls and exploded. The roof of the barn was just erupting into flame as I came dashing out the door. I turned around just as it hit the flashover point. A moment later, the top fell in.

I turned to Colonel Wright. "Thanks. You done good, lady. Let's go."

"Will you be wanting anything else, Major?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Can you have a mobile reconnaissance van waiting for me?"

"Any particular reason?"

"There's still one worm unaccounted for. I want him."

She nodded. "Find him fast. Burn him." After what she'd seen here, she didn't need a lot of convincing.

"And the Tribe leaders," I added.

She frowned. "I thought we got them."

"There's at least four of them that weren't among the dead or missing. I don't think they got back here. I don't think they were planning on coming back." I climbed into the Jeep beside her. She eyed me sideways. She knew that there was a lot more going on here than I had told her, but she wasn't going to ask. She turned forward again and put the Jeep into gear.

As we pulled away from the burning buildings, she said quietly, "I want to say something."

"Go ahead. You can't hurt my feelings. I don't have any, anymore."

"I didn't like you when you set this up. I didn't like your briefing. I didn't like the way you handled this mission. Understand this, Major Anderson, or whoever you are-I don't like you. I don't want you in my district. I don't want to ever have to deal with you again. Is that clear, Major Anderson?"

"That's real clear, Colonel. You'll be glad to hear that we're in total agreement. "

"Thank you, Major."

"You're welcome, Colonel."

The van was waiting for me at the edge of the airfield. I tossed the torch in the back, climbed into the driver's seat, and headed back toward Family.