Old Harvey began to regret that he had not included a selective hormone suppressant in his preparations. The subtle chemical signals that one animal could send to another had their uses at times, but they introduced complexities now. He kept his attention on the trees, however, leaving the cattle for Saldo and the others to scan. Nightsight gave his surroundings a faint silver cast, as though the light came from within every object he saw.
She will hear us coming and she will try to hide in a tree, he told himself. It’s her style.
He couldn’t say why or how he knew this from just one afternoon’s observation, but he felt certain of it. She would hide in a tree.
Old Harvey heard a night bird call from far off to his right and felt his heartbeat quicken. He was not too old for the sweeps. Perhaps it would be a good thing to go out occasionally with the workers.
The words of Nils Hellstrom.
Unlike other creatures who struggled against their environment, the insect learned early to seek its protective embrace. He created an endless wardrobe of camouflage. He and his environment became one. When predators came, he was nowhere to be found. So artistic were his methods of deception that predators could crawl upon his body in their search for prey. He did not choose merely one means of escape, but countless means. Not for him speed or the treetops, but both of these, and more.
Tymiena saw one flank of the sweep just as the first searchers saw her, confirming Old Harvey’s prediction. Early in her flight, she had tripped in a rabbit hole and sprained her left ankle. The pain had forced her to make the climb into a low oak where she had braced herself in a notch and taken off the shoe on the injured foot. She sat wedged in the notch about twenty feet up, the little automatic held firmly in her right hand now. A powerful little pen-size flashlight was in her left hand, her thumb on its switch.
The ankle throbbed with a fiery pain that made thought difficult. She wondered if she had broken a bone.
Running cattle gave her the first indication of trouble. She heard them snorting above the pounding of their hooves as they passed. Then came a mysterious swish-swish hissing. This sound grew louder until it circled her tree and stopped. She could just make out the darker shadows of the hunters in the blackness. They had formed a rough circle all around her.
In panic, she thumbed the flashlight switch, swept its beam in a short arc around the part of the circle that faced her. At first sight of the nightmasks and stunwands, she gasped, recognizing deadly menace. Without thinking, she began shooting.
The words of Nils Hellstrom.
Perhaps, in time we will become fully functional as are those we copy. We will develop faces without expression; only eyes and mouth; just enough to keep the rest of the body alive. No muscles to smile with, or frown with, or in any way to betray what’s lurking beneath the surface.
The little automatic erupted as a monstrous surprise to the Hive’s hunters. Five of them were dead before Tymiena was brought tumbling from the tree by a concentration of stuns. Old Harvey was among those killed, his nightmask shattered and a bullet in his brain. Saldo suffered a bullet burn on his jaw, but his shouted command brought order to the frightened workers. They had been full of “hunt juice,” as the old-timers put it, and the Outsider female’s attack had raised them to a deadly pitch. They leaped in to finish her off with their hands, but Saldo’s cry stopped them. In the end, it was Hive discipline that kept them off her.
Saldo moved up to the unconscious female, issued swift orders. Someone must run to inform Nils. The dead must be returned to the vats. That was what good workers deserved. Thus, they became one with all. “Into the vats old, out of the vats new.”
When his orders were being obeyed, he knelt to examine the unconscious female. Her flashlight still glowed in the grass. He pushed his nightmask back onto his head, used the flashlight to help his examination. Yes, she was still alive. It was difficult to conduct the examination calmly. He felt hate filling him. This one had harmed the Hive. Nils needed her, though. The Hive needed her. Saldo managed a kind of calm as he continued his examination. She appeared to have no broken bones. A painful ankle, obviously. It was swelling and discolored. Workers had suffered much worse, though, and gone on with their tasks. He directed that her weapon be found and returned to the Hive.
Old Harvey’s death neither saddened nor gladdened him. Such things occurred. It would have been better had it not happened, but the reality could not be avoided. The reality had placed him in command of the search troop and he was required to give correct orders. That was how Old Harvey had taught him to behave.
There was the Outsider female to be sure of first. He judged that she could be revived for questioning. That would please Nils. It pleased Saldo now. He began to sense a greater interest in this female. She was possessor of fascinating odors. There were alien Outsider soaps and perfumes over faint, but familiar, musks. He bent close to sniff at her, the first Outsider female he’d ever encountered alone in the wild. Beneath the dominant acridity of her fear there were exciting odors. He slipped a hand under her blouse, felt a breast, found it full and firm under a restraining garment. He knew about such garments from his training for key worker roles. It was called a bra and was fastened with metal hooks at the back. She was a true female, apparently no different from females of the Hive, and the available evidence said she was fertile. How odd these wild Outsiders were. He moved his hand down under her waistband, explored the pubic hair and genitals, brought the hand out and smelled it. Yes, fertile. So it was true that Outsider females wandered around when they were fertile. Did they go on a mating hunt of some kind as a brood mother was supposed to do? The books, the films, and the lectures of his education had not prepared him for the actuality, although he could rattle off the facts readily enough. She excited him and he wondered if Nils would entertain a suggestion that she be kept for breeding. It would be interesting to breed with her.
A female in his band snarled at him then, a wordless sound of deep menace. Another said, “This Outsider female isn’t a breeder! What are you doing with her?”
“I investigate,” Saldo said. “She is fertile.”
The one who had snarled at him found her voice, “Many of these wild ones are fertile.”
The other said, “She killed five of us. She’s fit only for the vats.”
“Where she probably will go when we have finished questioning her,” Saldo said. He spoke without trying to conceal an abrupt feeling of sadness. This Outsider female would be destroyed by the questioning; no doubt of it. That was happening to the captive male and it could be no different for the female. Such a waste. Her flesh would be good for nothing but the vats.
He arose, restored his nightmask to its position over his nose, and said, “Bind her and carry her to the Hive. See that she does not escape. Two of you go to her vehicle. Bring it in for salvaging. Erase its tracks. There must be no sign remaining that this female and her companion were in our vicinity. See to it.”
The orders came from his mouth as Harvey had taught him, but Saldo felt a form of despair that such commands were necessary. The responsibilities of leadership had fallen upon him so abruptly. A remote part of his awareness realized that Harvey’s choice of so young a worker as second-in-command on this search had been a training gesture. A promising young worker needed this experience. Another part of Saldo’s awareness rested securely in his sense of competence. He was a specialist in Hive security. He trusted his own responses. Despite his youth, he felt perfectly fitted for the task at hand, as though the entire Hive were reacting through his person. Harvey had lived beyond his day, had paid for a mistake with his life. It was a serious loss to the Hive. Nils would have the news of it by now and there would be concern, but for the moment, Saldo knew he must proceed alone. His was the seat of command.