One such group milled about Arthur, the commander of this overgrown war band, this expedition that was more like a wandering mob. Even in the low tunnel, where the walls were narrow and everyone had to bend over, a steady hum of discussion flowed back toward Eric from Arthur and his closer associates.
“Security, that was why they were able to smash us so suddenly. Our security was never tight enough. There were leaks.”
“There are always leaks. The trouble was in our communications. We failed to hear about the leaks fast enough to plug them up.”
“I think Walter’s right. The trouble lay right there in security. All the chiefs had a spy system of one sort or another and we never really got going on counterespionage.”
“In that case, how do you account for—”
Eric glanced back at Roy who was staying the regulation distance of fifteen paces behind him. “Hear them?” be asked the Runner. “They’re still fighting yesterday’s battles. This is how they win. With their mouths.”
“Oh, they’re Strangers. What do you want? They don’t do things our way and we don’t do things theirs.”
Eric was surprised. He and Roy had evidently reversed positions since yesterday when they had first met. Roy still found Stranger ways very funny, but was forcing himself to be tolerant of them. Why?
As the harsh white light of Monster territory expanded ahead of them, he slowed down and waited for Roy to catch up with him. He was curious about what was going on inside the Runner, the only member of this ridiculous crowd for whom he felt any kind of kinship.
But just as Roy came abreast, all the way up front, the first man in the long line stepped out from the piece of Monster furniture and into whiteness.
There was a rapid, chattering sound. The man screeched once, danced a single, mad, despairing step—and fell over on his face. Everyone froze.
After a while, the man who was next in line edged forward carefully, poked his head out and stared upward. They watched him relax. “Only one,” he said in a loud, carrying whisper. “Only one and Dan’s sprung it. Nothing else in sight.”
Silently now, they crept forward and, one by one, slipped out of the exit. They formed a loose, nervous group around the dead man, eyes whipping from his contorted body to anywhere in the great Monster whiteness from which danger might abruptly materialize and focus on them.
The sprung trap hung from the enormous piece of furniture directly above, its wires hanging slack except for a fitful shudder which occasionally rippled through them like a last lingering memory of the life they had just taken.
Roy moved up to Eric and slung his spear. Then he put his hands on his hips and gestured at the trap with his chin. “We came across one of those about five auld tang synes ago. Your uncle knocked it out. You can’t poke a spear in front of it—it won’t go for a spear: there has to be living flesh. What you do, you stick your foot out under it and pull back fast. A bit too slow and,” he clicked his tongue, “no foot.”
Arthur the Organizer had been listening. “You know traps,” he said to Roy. “We can use you up front as, a scout. From now on, you travel well ahead of the main body.”
“I know a bit about traps,” Roy told him disgustedly, “but I’m no Trap-Smasher. I’m a Runner. You want a scout, at least use an Eye. Eric, here, is an Eye.”
“Both of you then. You’ll be our advance party. All right: somebody grab the body and take it back inside to headquarters for sewerage. We’ll wait for you.” He pointed to the trap and thought carefully for a few moments before speaking. “Now, the way I see it—and either of you feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong—is that this trap was set in place a relatively short time ago. I base this hypothesis on a single fact: the trap wasn’t there last sleep-period, when refugees were still arriving. If this is so—and mind you, I’m only thinking out loud, not coming to anything hard and fast just yet—we can conclude that it was all that coming and going of refugees and messengers, the noise and inevitable clumsiness of the wounded making their way here that attracted the Monsters’ attention. They tend to set up traps in places where there are plentiful signs of our activity. All right: does my theory hold together so far?”
“Great, Arthur,” said a man who had edged up. “Terrific. You’re right on the head. What a mind! What I’m interested in is, where do you take the idea? How do you figure next?”
“What a mind!” Roy whispered bitterly to Eric. “To figure out that the trap was installed between last night and now—that takes an Organizer, that takes brains! Well, what can you expect? Guys don’t even know the difference between a Runner and an Eye!”
Arthur, arms folded on his chest, head down, was walking back and forth in front of his anxiously listening followers. “Here’s where I take the idea, at least as a preliminary approach. Understand, it’s not completely worked out just yet. It seems to me that if the Monsters are aware of our activity in the neighborhood of this particular piece of furniture, if they’ve seen enough of us swarming in and out of it to justify a trap, and a brand new type of trap, at that, then it’s likely that they’re on the alert in this entire area. And that, in turn, leads to three conclusions. One, that a scouting party in advance of the main body is doubly necessary, and that the scouts have to be watchful as hell. Two, that until we’re a good distance from here, the expedition proceeds in absolute silence, using nothing but hand signals for communication. And three, well, we ought to take a good hard look around before we start out. It’s possible we’re under observation by the Monsters at this very moment!”
At this, there was a startled look-around by the members of the expedition, all except Eric and Roy who exchanged disgusted glances. As a matter of course, in the last few minutes, they had each been turning periodically in one direction and another to see if there were any sign of the Monsters in the surrounding whiteness. After a trap had claimed a victim, who but a stupid Stranger would do anything else?
But, a bit later, as they had gone off ahead of the rest along the piece of Monster furniture on their way to the distant wall, Roy’s attitude seemed to have changed again.
“After all,” he said, as if arguing with himself, “it’s a pretty big war band, the size of Mankind’s whole damn army roster. Takes a real Organizer to handle a bunch this size. An ordinary band captain—like your uncle, I mean—he wouldn’t even know how to hold them together.”
Eric laughed. “Holding them together isn’t half as important as keeping them alive. I don’t think Arthur will be too good at that.”
The Runner grunted noncommittally. Eric puzzled over him in silence as they came to the junction of the furniture and wall, turning right in the direction of the doorway that Mankind had used to get back to the burrows. The door lay on the floor: it had still not been set in place since Eric had gone through. The two of them checked the area for new traps; then, without a word, they heaved the door up and worked it back into its socket. When they went on past it, further along the wall into Monster territory, they both grinned at each other happily: they had just acted as respectable warriors of Mankind.
But what was up with the Runner, Eric wondered? What was going on in his head that he should mock Arthur the Organizer one moment and determinedly find some way to praise him the next—even when he showed such obvious ineptitude as a band leader? There was no time to ask questions now: they were moving deeper into territory where only Roy had been before, and Eric’s job was to follow quietly, learning the way, keeping his ears alert for the first vibrations that would warn of a Monster’s floor-shaking approach.