"Hendrick brought me breakfast. Biggest event of the day so far.
Cadmann's down there somewhere along the Amazon."
Nowhere did she see Cadmann. She went back up toward the veranda, then stopped to look back.
Something lay beside the stream, about where the minefield ended. Wasn't that clothing? She strained to see. A body? She ran up to the veranda, sloshing coffee, and found Jerry. "Is someone out there?"
He laughed softly. "Laundry. The stuff Ricky and Phyllis wore when they chopped up the gland sacs, and Cadmann's clothes, and your robe. They all stink of speed. I hope you took a damned good shower. If a grendel gets a whiff of you... "
That was why. She clapped her hands happily. "You don't have to worry." She closed her eyes and forced herself to remember. "The speed stuff. They've already made everything up?"
Jerry pointed up past the veranda, where Stu now lounged near the makeshift Skeeter pad. "We have two tanks of stuff that will drive any red-blooded grendel into hysterics. Bank on it."
She lost Jerry's next words as Cadmann scrambled up from below the wall. His fatigues were very clean, with sharp permacreases. He had shaved; there was new life in his step; he looked more rested than he could possibly be.
She came to him. He put an arm around her, gave her a formal peck of a kiss and said, "Come with me?"
They walked down and around the perimeter again.
"They won't come here," she said. "Why would they?"
"I don't know. But that's just it. We don't know much about grendels."
"The big ones are dead. How many did you kill down there?"
"Hundreds. A thousand? Maybe more. Certainly not all of them."
"They grow so fast. They'd have to eat a lot."
He nodded agreement. "But there's a lot to eat. Each other, of course.
All our crops. Anything that moves. We'll be on rationing for a long time."
The way led back down, across the front of the house, then up to where the Snail Head ridge parted the Amazon. Cadmann helped Mary Ann up the rocks to the white boulder where Terry sat, his rifle still across his knees.
Terry grinned down at Cadmann. "What's the word?"
"Johannesburg. You've been up here all day, Terry."
Terry stretched. "I like it here, you know? Good view. I can see right down the Amazon."
"Terry," Cadmann said calmly, "if anything comes up the Amazon you'll be cut off. You can't move fast enough—"
Terry's eyes darted from Mary Ann to Cadmann. "Now, Cadmann. You know perfectly well nothing's going to get this far. Let the damn grendels kill each other off in the lowlands. In our copious free time we'll go down and kill off the last half dozen and reclaim our territory."
"Just how serious—"
"Then again, I could hide in the basement with the rest of the cripples and think about Justin and Sylvia and wonder what's going on outside. Cadmann, I lost my legs thinking we had it all figured out. They aren't coming. They can't come. And when they get here you'll want sentries." He wasn't smiling. "Leave me here. I'm fine."
Cadmann's mouth opened and shut again. Finally he nodded. "First sign of trouble, sing out. We'll send somebody to get you."
Terry seemed infinitely relieved. "Right. Thanks."
Cadmann turned and started back down the rocks. "Cadmann!" Terry called.
"Yeah?"
"I just wanted you to know. You're a good man, Weyland. We couldn't have done any better." Terry's mouth thinned in a smile. Then it was as if they ceased to exist for him. He turned and peered down his rifle scope into the Amazon.
The cattle pens had been built in haste. Fifty head were crowded into them. They lowed and milled restlessly. Cadmann said, "We can protect them, somewhat. But there's someone we can't."
She didn't know what he meant until he led her to the Joe cages. Missy and her children and relatives stared at Mary Ann through the wire-mesh cage doors, their huge dark eyes identically terrified.
"I thought that you should have the honors," he said.
Mary Ann unlatched the cage doors one at a time. At first the Joes sat there motionless. Then Cadmann reached in and with great gentleness lifted Missy out (her paws held immobile in his fingers) and nuzzled her. "Goodbye, old girl. We'll miss you." He handed her to Mary Ann.
"Do we have to?"
Cadmann shrugged.
"Oh." She set Missy on the ground. Missy sniffed the air, then ran south, up into the mountain. One at a time, the other Joes followed.
"And now what?" she asked.
"We wait. Walk around and inspect the guard, I guess. Or look into the crossbow making. Or—"
"We can just walk for a while." You feel useful, and I have you to myself.
They walked the zigzag through the minefield, up to the low perimeter wall. The plain was still thinly veiled with mist, but the northern mountains were visible as dark jagged peaks.
A pterodon swooped down from above them, its gauzy wings stretched as it arced through the sky. Cadmann looked after it as it disappeared into the clouds. His eyes were dark-ringed but alive with speculation.
He helped her down the rocks. She felt the tightness of his muscles, could smell the fatigue on his breath. He must have spent much of his life like this. This must be what most of war was like: preparations and fear. When Cadmann's comcard buzzed, she knew.
"Chief," Joe's voice said, "Jerry says we have some movement down on the plain. "
"It's started. Are you sure?"
"No, not really. Just—something's moving around the stream. Could have come down from the glacier, for all I know. What have you seen swimming through your living room?"
Cadmann was receding, moving faster than she could. He said, "Not one damn thing, ever."
Jerry met Cadmann as they crossed the stream, handed him a pair of binoculars. "Take a look. Cad."
He walked carefully through the minefield and peered down. "Those are grendels. Two. Hard to tell, but I'd say they were pretty small." He shifted the lenses. "And a couple more coming out of the Miskatonic..."
A curious expression touched his face. The binoculars traced and retraced a short arc.
"Shit," he said. "Get into the house. Don't let anyone bathe in the living room, or throw any kind of refuse into it. The Amazon feeds right down into the Miskatonic—"
Jerry's eyes widened. "People soup."
"Yeah. Then send someone for Terry—"
A shot, and then a volley. Cadmann swiveled toward the glacier. Terry waved at him as his comcard buzzed. "Cadmann, grendel coming up the Amazon. I got him, but it's bad news—"
"Terry, listen closely. Where's the corpse?"
"I hit it and it went on speed, ran in a big circle and back into the water. I can see it. It looks dead now, but it's half in and half out of the water. The tail is still... Cad, it's bleeding and it's still in the water!"
Jerry and Cadmann exchanged horrified glances. "That's it."
Cadmann screamed into the card as he ran toward the zigzag. "Omar, Rick—get that corpse out of the water now. Maybe it's not—"
Jerry, falling behind, yelled, "We should have diverted the stream—"
"Oh, great," Cadmann replied. "Tell me again, three weeks ago."
Mary Ann ran for the house, her heart thundering in her chest, the words This is it. This is it... yammering over and over in her mind.
Chapter 32
THE KEEP
I have paid my price to live with myself on terms that I will.
RUDYARD KIPLING, Epitaphs: The Refined Man
There were five grendels below Carolyn. Four were just clear of the mist; to the naked eye they were mere specks, wide apart and still separating.