"To the rear, march," Sam said.
"Didn't Yuri say he spotted four Terran buggies?" I said as I swung the rig into a wide U-turn.
"He did."
"It may mean one of 'em is alien."
"Now, I wonder who they could be."
Sam knew as well as I. Reticulans.
"What'll we do?" Sam asked. "Can't shoot the portal. Go off-road again?"
"Yeah. Looks like they don't want to close with us. If we can lose them off the screen―do they have a drone up?"
"Don't see one."
"Good. Let's get off the road and make like rocks again. Maybe we can fool them."
"We'll be the most prominent feature of the landscape, should they be looking for us."
"I dunno," I said. "I thought I saw some large rock formations off to our right when we were parked. Maybe the lay of the land changes farther down."
It didn't, and our pursuers kept pace with us as we raced toward the tollbooths. We were doing top speed. There was no way we could outrun them and our alternatives were dwindling to a very few.
"Should we turn and fight?" Sean asked. "Liam and I are game if you are."
Carl said, "Are they really following us, or are we just getting paranoid? Maybe they're not the same vehicles Yuri saw."
"The thought has occurred to me," I said. "Could be we're just a little too jumpy. Want to pull over and see if they pass us by?"
A moment's deliberation. Then, "Not really," Carl said.
"Another blip. Holy hell," Sam interjected.
"What?"
"Another Roadbug."
"Now that's a first," I marveled. "Don't recall ever seeing three Bugs this close together. I wonder what's up."
I rolled over onto the shoulder lane as the Bug whooshed by, then steered out toward the fast track again.
"There's gotta be something unusual on the other side of that portal," Sam ventured. "What, though?"
"A new fast food joint," I said.
"Yeah, and the Bugs want it all to themselves. That one shouted the same warning at us."
"Play it back," I told him. Sam did so. The message was identical. "Why are they just warning us? Why don't they stop us?"
The answer came about twenty minutes later. We had been cruising along while keeping a wary eye on our pursuers, who had faded back to the edge of scanner range. Suddenly, weird pulses of light flashed in the mist ahead. I braked hard and pulled over to the shoulder lane.
A shimmering, diaphanous tunnel of blue fire covered the roadway ahead, extending for as far as we could see. Crackling discharges snaked through it and dazzling starbursts of energy appeared within. The phenomenon straddled the roadway like an arched canopy, its walls formed by flaming prominences and rainbows of pale luminescence. There was something almost biblical about it―like a manifestation of the wrath of Yahweh. I half expected a booming voice to say, "BEYOND THIS POINT THOU SHALT NOT GO." But words were unnecessary; the message was clear.
"No wonder the Bugs didn't bother to shoo us away," Sam said. "No one in his right mind would drive through that."
"Oh, I don't know," I said airily. "It could be a car wash."
"Where's the slot for the fifty-credit piece?"
I came to a complete stop about three truck-lengths away. The rest of the squadron had kept formation but now were edging back into the fast lane to get a better look.
"What the bloody hell is it?" Sean was first to ask. "I mean it's obvious what it is, but what's it made of?"
I sat watching the dancing plumes of fire for a few seconds before answering. "I don't know. Plasma, pure force, maybe. Who knows. But can someone come up with a convincing argument that this thing doesn't extend all the way to the portal?"
"Not I," Sean said.
"Doubt if we can go around it," Carl said.
"I should think," Yuri offered, "that to be an effective barrier it would have to extend all the way to the commit markers. Don't you agree?"
"Unfortunately, yes," I said.
"Our 'friends' have stopped," Sam announced. "Wonder if they can see it through the smog."
"Well, if they can't, what they're seeing on the scanners is probably puzzling the hell out of them. Which is good." I took a deep breath. "Okay, gang, what are we gonna do?"
"I say we turn and have it out with 'em," Carl voted. "No way do I want them chasing us off-road."
"We'd be tangling with five vehicles, four of them we know to be heavily armored and possibly heavily armed," I said. "What chance would we stand?"
"With what I've got? Come on. Let's take 'em."
"Carl, I have no doubt you and Lori would be able to get through, but I'm thinking of the rest of the members of this expedition. We're out of missiles, Sean and Liam's buggy is unarmed. If it were just me and Sam―"
"Jake."
I turned around to look at Susan. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she had stopped crying. She regarded me now with kind of grim determination that was almost disturbing in the way it transformed her basically pleasant features. It was a Susan I had not seen before.
"Don't let those bastards take us," she said. "Do anything you have to."
I nodded. "That's all I wanted to hear." Flicking the mike back on, I said, "Right. Let's get 'em."
"Hooray!"
"Tell you what we're going to do," I continued. "Carl, you take the vanguard, and I'll lead the infantry behind you. Sean and Yuri, I want you right up against my starboard beam all the way, and if you see anything parked off road on that side, drop back and hug my tail. Got it?"
"Affirmative."
"Right you are."
"Carl?"
"Yeah."
"Can you conjure up a Green Balloon?"
"Sure can."
"Shoot one at 'em. Without scanners, they won't see us until we're on top of them."
"We'll have to hang back a while," Carl said. "We can't follow too close or it'll knock our gear out―not mine, just yours. The Chevy's immune to it."
"Can you regulate the speed of that thing?"
"Yeah, but even at maximum it's pretty stow."
"Well, give it all it's got."
"Right."
"We'll have to time it just right," Sam told me. "I'll track it and tell you when to go."
"Good. Are we all ready?"
"Set," Carl reported as he turned the Chevy around and began rolling slowly back uproad.
I did another U-turn and got in behind him.
After everyone was in position, I said, "Okay, Carl, let her go."
"Remember, it's gonna blank you guys out until it gets out of range. Even your engines."
"It can suppress nuclear reactions?" Sam asked wonderingly.
"That's right. Maybe it'd be better to shut 'em down."
With Sam's help, I scrammed the engine and did a quick power-down, but left the screens up on auxiliary power.
"Ready," I said. Sean and Yuri reported the same.
"Okay, here goes," Carl said evenly.
A sparkling, translucent, chromate-green sphere, about a meter and a half in diameter, sprang full-blown from the roof of Carl's automobile. Our screens instantly went down, along with the rest of the instruments that had been left on. The auxiliary motor died with a whine. The globe hovered above the roof for a split second, then took off directly over the rig.
"Hey," I yelled, though Carl couldn't hear me. "Wrong direction!"
Through the back window of the Chevy, I saw him throw up his hands in exasperation. Apparently, he had aimed the thing when the car had been turned the other way, and he'd forgotten. He stabbed at the dashboard to set up another launch, but before he could fire again the area to our rear let up with a series of quick, brilliant flashes. The ports polarized, but the ice-flats threw back a dazzling light. I couldn't see much through the rearview mirror.
The source of the flashing began to recede and auxiliary power returned. The communications board lit up.
"I'm back," Sam said. "That thing knocked me right out. What's happening?"