Exiled from Earth

16

Kori grabbed his arm and stopped him. “No, I’m serious. We can do it!”

Lou said, “In a few days they’ll have ruined Big George, maybe killed him. And if we try to stop them, they’ll take it out on Bonnie.”

“What?”

“That’s what Marcus just told me. If he doesn’t like the way we behave, Bonnie’ll suffer for it.”

“But he can’t…”

“Yes he can. And he will. I bet he’d even enjoy it.”

Kori’s face turned as red as the setting sun. “That pudding-faced pipsqueak. I’ll…”

Now Lou took Kori’s arm. “Hold on. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

He felt Kori’s surge of anger fade away, saw his face return to normal, except for a sullen smoldering in his eyes.

“What do we do now?” Kori asked.

“I don’t know,” said Lou. “What was your scheme all about? How can you signal for government troops?”

“Oh that— With the navigation satellites.”

“Navigation satellites? How…”

“They have sensors on them to detect nuclear explosions.”

“They what?”

Kori started walking toward the dorm again, and Lou trudged along beside him. “It’s a holdover from the old days, before the world government disarmed all the nations,” Kori explained. “All the navigation satellites have a special array of sensors to watch out for nuclear explosions. If anybody sets off a bomb on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, or even in space, the government is alerted instantly Inside of a few hours, there’s an inspection team at the site of the explosion to find out what’s going on. An aitried inspection team With troops ready to follow at an instant’s notice.”

“But nobody’s set off a bomb for…”

“I know, but the government still has the teams, and they even hold practice drills. I was an advisor to a group of new recruits two years ago.”

Lou chuckled. “I guess once a government agency gets a job to do they keep on doing it, whether it’s needed or not.”

“Don’t complain,” Ron said “Now then, the bombs I’ve been making are stored in caves at the far end of the island. If one of them went off, and a satellite spotted the blast, there would be an inspection team here in a matter of hours.”

“Can you set them off?”

“Them?” Kori laughed “One will be enough. If they all go off they’ll wipe out this entire island. Do you know how much destructive force even a single kiloton contains?”

When they got to the dormitory, Lou sent Kori up to get Bonnie. He didn’t want to talk inside of any building. Too easy to plant electronic bugs indoors. As he stood by the dormitory entrance, Lou got the feeling he was being watched. Nerves, he told himself. But he knew that if he were in Marcus’ place, he’d have guards out watching the troublemakers. And we’re going to make enough trouble to slide this island into the sea, if we have to, Lou thought unsmilingly.

They ate a quick dinner in the cafeteria and then walked out to the beach. Walking ankle-deep through the warm-lapping waves with the surf booming on the reef a kilometer out, they talked over their plans as the dying red sun stretched their shadows fantastically before them.

“I’ll need at least two days to round up the proper equipment,” Kori was saying.

“Make it one day,” Lou answered over the roar of the surf. “Big George doesn’t have two days to spare.”

Kori glanced at Bonnie, then looked at Lou. “We want to do this right. If we rush, something might…”

“One day,” Lou said flatly.

Shrugging, Kori agreed “All right. One day.”

“Where can we plant the bomb without setting off all the others?” Bonnie asked.

“That’s why I wanted the extra day,” Kori said, “to find the best location. Probably the best thing to do is to bury it in the beach sand across the island from the storage caves. That ought to be safe enough.”

“Will it make a big enough explosion for a satellite to see if you bury it?” Lou asked.

Kori laughed. “Have no fear. A few feet of sand isn’t going to smother one of my toys.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll need two things,” Kori said, more seriously “A car to carry equipment and everything, and a diversion so I can get into the storage caves and do what I must do without being stopped by the guards.”

“What about the guards at the caves?” Lou asked.

“There’s usually only one. I think I can handle him easily enough.”

“You’re sure?”

Kori drew himself up to full height. He towered several inches over Lou, but he still looked spindly. “My friend, I was a national fencing champion five years ago. I still keep in good shape. Besides that, I’m sneaky. I’ll ask the guard to help me carry some equipment and then hit him when his hands are full and his back turned.”

Laughing, Bonnie said, “My hero.”

“Never mind,” Lou said “Heroics are exactly what we don’t need. We need good, sneaky, practical action that works. I don’t want to win any moral victory, we’ll all end up dead that way.”

Kori nodded.

“Okay,” Lou continued, “so you need a car and a diversion. We’ll figure that out, shouldn’t be too tough a problem. But the big question is, how do we protect Bonnie?”

“She’s got to disappear,” Kori said.

“Great How do we do it?”

Silence.

They walked slowly under the purpling sky. A surge of sea curled around their ankles, then ebbed away. A lone gull glided low over the waves, calling sadly as if looking for long-vanished friends.

Finally Bonnie said, “Big George! I could stay in his compound for a day or so. There are plenty of trees and bushes to hide in and the guards never go in there.”

“With the gorilla?” It was too dark to see Kori’s face, but his voice sounded aghast.

“We’re friends,” Bonnie said. “We’ve known each other since George was born.”

“He wouldn’t hurt her,” Lou agreed. “Or anybody else, for that matter. Trouble is, he’d want you to play with him. You wouldn’t be able to stay hidden. He’d give you away.”

“No, not if I explained it to him.”

Kori shook his head. “I know you think a lot of that animal, and his intelligence has been boosted. But I wouldn’t plan to stay inside that fence with him for ten minutes, let alone twelve hours or more.”

“Oh, you’ve seen too many movies,” Bonnie said. “George wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

They went on talking, planning, arguing until- it was completely dark. The stars filled the night and the shimmering band of the Milky Way arched across the sky, bright and beckoning.

“Look up there!” Kori said.

In the darkness they could see his shadowy outline pointing skyward. Looking up, Lou saw one star moving silently, purposefully through the heavens, as if it had detached itself from its normal position to carry out some mission.

“Is that one of the satellites?” Bonnie’s voice floated through the dark against the basso background of the surf.

Kori glanced at his luminescent wristwatch. “Yes. And right on schedule.”

“Thank God,” said Lou.

Lou didn’t sleep much that night, and the next day at the computer building he hardly paid any attention to his work. He went through the motions, but his mind was racing, thinking about all that had to be done that night. Get the car for Kori, get Bonnie into hiding, create a diversion that will draw off the guards long enough for Kori to work unnoticed.

Toward the end of the afternoon, Lou couldn’t stay cooped up in the control room any longer. He stepped outside and took a deep breath of warm, salt-smelling air.

Then the quiet afternoon was shattered by the tortured scream of an animal. A scream of rage and pain and fear.

“George!”