“Rented car.”
“Is he alone?”
“I don’t think so. There’s several new campers up on the mountain.”
“We noted the activity. Rented car, hmmm?”
“Look, Nils, this guy had better not have an accident in that car. I got a funny feeling about this one. He’s big trouble.”
“No doubt of it,” Hellstrom agreed. “They’ve sent in the first team.”
From the Hive breeding record.
This new group must be watched with extreme care. This includes all of the breeding batch designated Fractionated Actinomycin Nucleotide Complex Y (FANCY) series. Although they offer us a great potential in several specializations desperately needed by the Hive, they may harbor a strain of instability. This instability may be evidenced in a heightened breeding drive, in which case it can be diverted to the Hive’s advantage. However, other symptoms may crop up and should be reported to Breeding Central immediately.
Hellstrom sat in reflective silence after the emergency meeting of his Council. He felt that the entire Hive had become something of what he imagined a hunted submarine to be: rigged for silent running. All power systems, including ventilation, were operating at minimums; water interchange with the deep underground river that ran their turbines and was their major water source had been put under special observation to prevent anything from entering it that might arouse Outside suspicions when that water reached the Snake River system.
Hellstrom wondered how much Peruge and his cohorts knew about Project 40. It had been a question left unanswered by the Council meeting. The Outsiders could not know everything about Project 40, nor was it likely they knew anything about the Hive as yet. Hellstrom felt confident of this. At the barest suspicion that something like the Hive existed, they would be in here with an army. Some accommodation had to be reached with these Outsiders before they learned too much. The deaths were regrettable, but they had followed as an inevitable consequence of Porter’s death. That had been an error.
We have lived too long in the security of our camouflage, he thought. We have become too bold. Making films did that, and all the necessary intimate arrangements with Outsiders that grew out of the films. We have underestimated the Outsiders.
Hellstrom suppressed a weary sigh. He missed Old Harvey. The present security team was a good one, but Old Harvey had possessed a special ability, a balancing wisdom. The Hive needed him now more than ever, and all they had of Old Harvey’s legacy was his favorite protégé, Saldo. Was Saldo that which came out of the vats new? Saldo had undergone a profound maturing since the night of the hunt. The transformation appeared to Hellstrom in some ways like a metamorphosis. It was as though, on that fatal night, Saldo had really inherited Old Harvey’s wide experience and wisdom. Hellstrom knew he was leaning on Saldo for the same kinds of support he had learned to expect from Old Harvey. Whether Saldo could bear up to these demands remained to be seen. Thus far, he had shown bursts of brilliance and imagination, but still . . . Hellstrom shook his head. It was difficult to lean on a young and untried member of the new breed in a crisis such as this one. But who else did he have?
The Council meeting had started at noon in a screening room that occupied one entire corner of the barn-studio. It was a room of outwardly conventional appearance: oval table flanked by massive chairs, Hive-made of heavy extrusion plastic to counterfeit teak. A pull-down screen filled one end of the room, a speaker on each side of it against the ceiling corners, and a small double-glass window at the other end leading into the projection room. The walls were baffled and hung with loosely draped heavy fabric to dampen random sounds.
Saldo had remained behind the others at Hellstrom’s request. The bullet scar along his jawline had not completely healed. It stood out whitely against his dark skin. The hawkish features remained relaxed now, but there was a steady alertness in his brown eyes. Hellstrom recalled now that Saldo was also of the S2a-1 series on the female side. That made him one of Hellstrom’s cousins. The younger man had been picked from prime stock and subjected to all of the proper chemical reinforcements. And now, Saldo represented a nice convergence of the functional traits upon which the Hive relied so heavily.
“We must be prepared at every level to respond quickly and thoroughly if anything goes wrong,” Hellstrom said, looking up and starting the conversation as though Saldo had shared the preceding reverie. “I have sent messages to all of our special fronts Outside that they must be prepared to proceed on their own if we are lost. All records alluding to such fronts have been made ready for demolition.”
“But have we anticipated every contingency?” Saldo asked.
“The question I’ve been asking myself.”
“I know.” And Saldo thought: Our prime male is too tired. He needs rest and we cannot give him that rest. Saldo felt in this moment extremely protective toward Hellstrom.
“You were right to suggest that Peruge probably will be carrying special electronic equipment,” Hellstrom said. “At the very least, he’ll be transmitting his position and condition to monitors Outside. I’m sure of it.”
“Those people on the mountain.”
“To them, yes. We must know the nature of his equipment as soon as possible.”
“I’ve made all the preparations for that,” Saldo said. “Nils, shouldn’t you get some rest?”
“No time. Peruge is on his way and he’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
“The what?”
Hellstrom explained the allusion, then, “How many people do you think he has on the mountain?”
“There are at least ten people camping up there. They could all be his.”
“That many?” Hellstrom shook his head.
Saldo nodded, sharing Hellstrom’s disquiet. The idea of at least ten people snooping into the Hive’s affairs created a profound disturbance of his inbred caution and conditioning.
“Does Linc have anyone he can send up the mountain to play camper with those others?” Saldo asked.
“He’s looking into it.”
“Linc is bringing this Peruge personally, isn’t he?”
“Yes. But we mustn’t assume that Peruge trusts Linc.”
“Linc was no match for Peruge, that’s obvious,” Saldo said. “I heard his account.”
“Learn from that,” Hellstrom said. “It’s good to have our own Outside fronts, including a deputy sheriff, but each one creates its own problems. The more we expose ourselves, even in seeming secrecy, the more danger we’re in.”
Saldo tucked this lesson into his memory. One did not put out agents with complete impunity. The very existence of an agent carried its own message when that agent was exposed. If Peruge suspected Lincoln Kraft, that revealed something about the Hive. Saldo vowed to remember this when the present crisis was past. He had no doubt that they would surmount present difficulties. His trust in the prime male, Hellstrom, was profound.
“Peruge may possess a device to reveal that we’re probing for his equipment,” Hellstrom said.
“I have given instructions to monitor for that,” Saldo said.
Hellstrom nodded, pleased. Thus far, Saldo had anticipated every contingency that had arisen in Hellstrom’s own mind—and some that had not. Prime breeding stock always showed its worth in the crunch. Saldo possessed a penetrating intelligence. The younger male would be of inestimable value to the Hive when he had been tempered and fully trained.
“What excuse have you prepared if he detects our probes?” Hellstrom asked.
“I want to discuss that with you. Suppose, for the film in progress, we are making a sound track with a great deal of complex mixing. It would be perfectly explainable electronic activity. The visit of this Peruge surely could not be expected to interrupt that. We have a schedule to keep. Any interference with Peruge’s equipment could be explained by this work.”