Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [80]
“Did they now? At least we know where they’re going.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think there’s any way we can get there in time.”
“I can,” Sean said grimly.
Fortunately, the river ran close by the cube, and Sean dashed back out the door, still stark naked, dived in, and disappeared under the water. Adak touched his bump gingerly. “Musta got him outta bed or somethin’,” he said. “I coulda loaned him some pants anyway, if he’d stopped long enough . . .”
Megenda was already at the shuttle’s controls and Dinah O’Neill was just about to climb in when a disturbance on the river caused her to pause. She was here to suss out this planet and its peculiarities, after all.
Her eye had been caught by the sight of the river ice bursting open, frothing with bubbles, then geysering three feet in the air as a large silvery seal jumped onto the bank. She was about to turn away when the seal turned into a well-built naked man, one of her favorite tourist attractions.
The man ran into the cube, and Dinah smiled.
“You comin’?” Megenda grunted.
“In a moment,” she said, and her wait was rewarded. After a few minutes the door to the cube was flung open and the naked man ran out, jumped back into the water, and disappeared beneath the ice.
She saw Adak O’Connor standing in the doorway, scratching his head, looking slightly nonplussed, not much the worse for wear, and not terribly surprised at his visitor’s appearance. Perhaps she was being unimaginative in her assessment of the possibilities of this place.
20
Southern Continent
Oh, Lordee, thought Johnny, kidnapping’s come back into vogue! This is ridiculous. “And so,” he said aloud, “just how many d’you think you can cram in my copter?”
Zing Chi smiled with pleasant malevolence. “You will call for others.”
At that point, Loncie snorted, Pablo guffawed, and Johnny just grinned.
“Man, you’re looking at the sole and only copter available in this or any other Petaybean hemisphere. And I only got so much fuel left in the tanks. So stop waving that thing at me like it could argue the case for you.”
’Cita noticed that the light had gradually faded while they stood talking; it was becoming hard to see the men.
Youngling, you are safe? Coaxtl’s rumbly mental voice was like a warm blanket.
“Yes,” she answered, automatically looking around to spot her friend.
At the edge of the ring of armed workers she could dimly make out the shadowy form of the boy she had seen earlier from the copter. Beside him, a pair of eyes shone. ’Cita knew it was Coaxtl. Then she saw the next pair of eyes, lower down, and the outline of a pair of smaller tufted ears. Another pair of eyes was beside Coaxtl’s then, and, coming from the darkness, another and another and another.
She was about to tug at Captain Johnny’s sleeve to point out what she saw when someone screamed and, all at once, several other people did, too.
“Quiet!” Zing Chi hollered. “Quiet, you morons! What is the matter with you?” He strode into the crowd and smacked the first screamer he met. But when he raised his hand to smack the next, a tall man, Zing Chi’s head tilted back as his gaze traveled up and up and up, into the snarling face of a standing polar bear.
The crowd suddenly grew much more dense, as the hundred or so workers shrank toward the copter and the ring of Petaybean snow lions and polar bears, wolverines and wolves, and other large animals stalked slowly forward.
Zing Chi retreated until he came up against Johnny. Johnny had taken the opportunity to draw his sidearm, and now he gave ’Cita an inquiring glance.
Just then Coaxtl’s voice spoke in her head. None will hurt you, youngling. But these ones are a plague to the Home and we have come to see that they go no further.
’Cita pulled Johnny’s shoulder down and whispered this information in his ear.
Johnny covered Zing Chi and said, “If those weedwhips of yours will burn, I suggest you build a fire. These critters don’t like fire very much.”
“I guess you don’t want to tell them the bad news, eh, Captain Johnny?” Pablo asked.
“What bad news?” Zing Chi asked.