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raider away from it.
 Otherwise  Wergard scowled, chewed his lip.  Has there been anything in the
projection pattern to show it s split again?
She shook her head.  No. But if you re thinking it could detach a section
small enough to get in through a personnel lock and turn off the building s
barrier 
 That s what I m thinking.
Danestar shrugged, said,  I wouldn t be able to tell that, Wergard. I ve been
watching the projection. But it would be too minor a difference to be
noticeable. It may have done it.
He was silent a moment.  Well, he said then,  it has the gadget it came for
now. We ll see what it does next. He added, without change of tone,
 Incidentally, it doesn t have all of it, does it?
Danestar gave him a startled glance.
 How did you guess? she asked.
A half-grin flicked over Wergard s tense face.  It s the sort of thing you d
do. You ve been hanging on to that valise as if there were something very
precious inside.
 There is, Danestar agreed.  It s not very big, but the specimen won t work
without it. And when those things in the
Pit realize it s gone, they won t be able to replace it.
 Very dirty trick! Wergard said approvingly. He glanced at the valise.
 Supposing we manage to get out of this alive
how useful could the item become?
 Extremely useful, if it gets to really capable people. As far as I could make
out, it must embody all the essentials of that system.
Wergard nodded.  We ll hang on to it, then. As long as we can, anyway. We may
have to destroy it, of course. Think
the thing could spot there s a part missing?
 It could if it has a way of testing it, said Danestar.  But if the
specimen s been reassembled and resealed, nothing will show. . . . There the
creature comes now!
They watched its emergence from the main building. It poured out of the
landing lock area, swung west across the central square, moving swiftly. It
might be carrying the specimen with it, as it had carried the shuttle.
 Coming back here! Wergard remarked some seconds later.  And if it can open
sectional barriers, it can open the main
Depot lock in the control building. . . . 
Danestar knew what he meant. The Pit creature might believe it had achieved
its objective in regaining the lost signaling instrument and simply leave now.
She began to feel almost feverish with hope, warned herself it was much more
probable it did not intend to let any human being in the Depot remain alive to
tell about it.
Page 29
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Her gaze shifted again to the patterns in the projection field. No further
changes had been apparent, but a sense of dissatisfaction, of missing some
hidden significance, still stirred in her each time she studied them. I m not
seeing everything they should tell me, she thought. She shook her head
tiredly. Too much had happened these hours! Now her thinking seemed dulled.
She heard Wergard say,  It s stopped for something!
It had come to an intersection, paused. Then suddenly it veered to the right,
moved swiftly past three buildings, checked again before a fourth. A probing
fire tentacle reached toward the building, and defense barriers promptly
blazed into activity.
The creature withdrew the tentacle, remained where it was, half submerged in
the street. Activated by its proximity, the defense field continued to flare
while one or two minutes passed. Then the field subsided, vanished. The
creature moved forward until some two-thirds of it appeared to be within the
building. Barely seconds later, it drew back again, swung away. . . .
 It caught somebody inside there! Wergard said.  It couldn t have been
looking for anything else. How did it know some poor devils had holed up in
that particular section?
The intercom signal on the viewscreen burred sharply with his last words, then
stopped. They stared at it, glanced at each other. Neither attempted to move
toward the switch.
The intercom began ringing again. It rang, insistently, jarringly, with brief
pauses, for a full minute now before it went silent.
 So that s how! Wergard said heavily. He shrugged.  Well, if it or a section
of it can manipulate a barrier lock and reproduce shortcode impulses, it can
grasp and manipulate an intercom system. Not a bad way to locate survivors. If
we don t answer 
 We can t stay here, anyway, Danestar told him, frowning at the projection
field. She had spoken in an oddly flat, detached manner.
 No. It s mopping up before it heads home and now it can apparently cut off [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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