He paused, seeing all their eyes on him, then went on, “It is this. Anything, literally anything, which will increase the probability of a successful Escape must be and will be done! I have admitted publicly the possibility of failure, and urged decentralization against possible reprisals, but privately I admit no such thing! We can, we must, escape on this attempt! Is this understood?”
They all nodded, some, he noted, more enthusiastically than others.
“Very well,” he continued, “we’ll begin by considering the plan originally put forward by Anderson, the modifications it has already undergone at our hands, and the further changes which I intend to introduce now…”
Several basic assumptions were called for in the plan, but from what they knew of Bug psychology and military organization these assumptions were justified. The first one was that the location of the prison planet would be unknown to the vast majority of enemy officers on active service. Given that, a hypothetical Bug warship—a small vessel, so badly damaged in battle that its hyperdrive generators kept dropping it into normal space at short and erratic intervals as it limped home—could be brought on the scene. The plight of this hypothetical ship could be such that when it materialized near the prison planet it would be forced to land quickly on the night side, its condition so grave that it was unable or unwilling to go into orbit. It would not be aware, naturally, of the other Bug ship already in orbit around the planet, and it could be assumed that after the damage it had sustained in a recent engagement, its crew or even its communications equipment was in no fit state to maintain a round-the-clock radio watch.
But instead of the unarmed scoutship only containing a pilot, which had been envisaged by Anderson, this one would be the Bug equivalent of a corvette with a crew of four—the assumption, again strongly justified, being that the Bugs looked after their own just like humans and that they would feel more constrained to risk rescuing four of their people than they would one. And it would be a risk from their point of view, because a rigorous examination of data gathered from De-briefing had established the fact that there were only about thirty Bugs on the guardship, that a study of the behavior of these beings during the transfer of prisoners showed them to be an unusually timid and overcautious lot, and that it seemed fairly certain that if they weren’t actually Bug civilians they were a pretty low order of military.
That was not surprising, because the job of guarding a planet called for a phlegmatic disposition and a capacity to resist boredom rather than sharpness of intellect. But while the dullness of mind might play into the hands of the escapers, the proven timidity of the guards represented a real danger. There was always the possibility that the guards, on seeing one of their ships damaged by enemy action and crash-landed, might be panicked into bombing it if, as the original plan called for, there was no sign of life about the wreckage. They might consider it more important to keep the wreck from falling into the hands of the prisoners than take the risk of rescuing colleagues who were probably all dead anyway.
“… That is why I’ve decided that the dummy must show some signs of life,” Warren went on briskly. “Also the placing of the dummy ship is critical in that it must not be more than seventy miles from either of the two mountains where its metal sections are presently concealed, this being the maximum distance they can be transported while the guardship is below the horizon, and the site must be well served by roads or accessible by sea. No matter how we look at it, this places the site within a ten mile radius of Andersonstown, and Major Fielding warns me that we may be stretching coincidence a little too much to have the ship apparently land where the farms and prison population are thickest when in the darkness they could have landed anywhere in two whole continents.”
Warren rose and half-turned toward the wall-map behind him, lifting his pointer as he continued, “Bearing all this in mind I’ve decided to place the dummy half a mile south of town, just here. Major Fielding assures me that this will not arouse Bug suspicions, because what could be more natural than for a badly damaged ship to land as close to the lights of a town as possible, especially on a planet deep inside its own territory where it would have no reason to expect the natives to be unfriendly.”
Ignoring Kelso and Hutton, who were fairly stuttering with surprise and incredulity, he went on, “The advantages of this site are obvious. The non-metal framework of the dummy can be transported to the town and stored long before E-Day, more than half of the metal sections can be moved by sea, which will be less trouble than by road as well as freeing manpower for the convoy which must come overland, and the accommodation for the people working on the ambush tunnels is readymade, which is the reason I’ve already ordered Hutton’s mining specialists into town…”
“But … but…” began Kelso, the first of them to become articulate. “I mean … that is, I understand now why you insisted on more and more street-lighting at night. It seemed stupid at the time … Uh, sorry, sir, but you know what I mean. But even so, considering the cowardice of the guards, isn’t it unlikely that they would risk landing so close to the town…?”
Warren sat down again and said, “When the time comes the risk will not seem great to them, Lieutenant. Let’s suppose that in coming down so close to town the ship lands practically on top of a farmhouse, setting fire to it with its tail-flare and burning the occupants. This is an unfortunate but allowable coincidence. Angered by the killing we’ll suppose that the human prisoners from town attack this hypothetical ship which, although damaged by battle and a hard landing, still has its C-7 projector operable. The attack will be repelled and in the process all the farms in the immediate vicinity will be burned. I don’t foresee there being much left of Andersonstown, either.
“When the guardship rises, which on that day will be an hour before dawn,” Warren continued, “it will see the fires. Later, when it climbs higher, it will have a birdseye view of the nicest little scene of devastation that a Bug could wish to see. Certainly there will be ample evidence that someone is alive and kicking in the dummy ship. The risk of sending down a rescue party will seem negligible, and the Bugs in the guardship should not have their suspicions aroused at all, because the whole area around the dummy will be burning furiously and all our people who are not directly attached to assault groups will be seen to be hightailing it out of town by road and sea, all making like panic-stricken refugees for all they are worth.
He stopped speaking to look at the faces around the table.
All Sloan’s teeth were showing and his eyes glared their approval. Kelso’s face was split by a grin of sheer delight as he murmured, “Man! Oh, man…!” But Warren had been expecting some such reaction from Sloan and Kelso and they hadn’t let him down. It was the others who were causing him anxiety now. Fielding had been cooperative but coldly disapproving since she had learned of his plans. Hynds was staring at him over his ridiculous spectacles, his mouth grim. Hutton seemed to be still partially in shock, although it was he who spoke first.
“Do we have to destroy the town, sir?”
To Warren it seemed odd that an officer whose technical ability and capacity for improvisation had been the greatest single factor in the successful preparations for the Escape should cavil at a little destruction of property. The Major was going soft, and Warren did not know as yet whether to be glad or angry.
“I’m afraid we do, Major,” he said impatiently. “As I’ve already said, anything goes which will in any way improve our chances. And surely you realize that after the Escape the condition of the town will not matter, although here I must stress again that the projected destruction of Andersonstown is information restricted to the present company. Others besides yourself, Major, may have a sentimental attachment for it and may want to make trouble.