“You can’t — ” Mort started to snap, and Earrin also tensed as he saw what must be coming and connected it with the absence of his family.
“We can!” the woman cut in. “There are too many of us here. You could stop us from getting her into a building, of course, but you don’t have hands enough to keep all of us from her air hose. That could be pulled away very easily, couldn’t it?”
“You couldn’t — no one could do a thing like that!”
The woman shook her head. “They all react the same. These idealists. They think no one would do what they can’t bring themselves to do. No imagination. If the reasons are strong enough, a person can bring himself to do anything, no matter how unpleasant, Mort. We’ve found that out.”
“In an oxygen dream, I suppose.”
“That’s right. Still no originality. First they don’t believe, then they get insulting. Was it Betty’s mother who went with Genda to spoil our air?”
“Yes.” Mort could see nothing to be gained by denying the fact, though his conditioning againstfalsehood was not quite as overwhelming as Earrin’s.
“Then we’ll give you a while to decide. When she comes back we’ll all tell her the situation. You can have fun while Genda explains why duty to the faith requires you both to defy us, and let Betty be turned into a — what’s that nice insulting term? — an oxygen junky. You can assure each other that your child is too well brought up to yield to the awful temptation of breathing happily. You and your wife can argue with Genda either way you like. We won’t take Betty away just yet; it may be a while before there’s any point in it.
The jail air may still be good, but I’m sure its plants have been spoiled by Genda and the other pure-nose, so maybe we couldn’t convert Betty there, and she’d be in the way here in the lab. She might even cause damage, as your invader did in the other one — throwing critical cultures around like an animal!
“But let’s keep the rules clear, Mort. You and your family will stay around here until you decide to help the work. If you try to leave, especially to go back to the city, a certain air hose will be in danger.
We oxygen-wasters are going to make sure that the oxygen in the jail isn’t wasted — except, of course, for a couple who will stay outside to see that you behave. You may go out to Earrin’s raft, of course, if there’s enough air for you there. You two — ” she indicated two of the largest men in her group — ”stay outside for a while. Keep close to the young lady — she’s not to go out to the raft-and make sure none of these people does anything I wouldn’t like. I’ll send someone out to take your places before we’ve breathed up too much of what’s still there. Come on, you others.”
Earrin interrupted the group’s departure.
“I suppose this is an old trick of yours, as you say. Does that mean you have my wife and daughter hidden away somewhere, too?”
The woman turned back to him, and the rest of the group stopped to listen. “No,” she said without hesitation. “They don’t seem to have been on your raft all day. We looked and could tell you had a child there, but neither it nor your wife has been seen. We’ve had work parties all over the peninsula and even on the islands gathering material for the lab here, and none of them saw anyone. We had a guard on your raft for a while, to be honest — ” she tilted her head at one of her companions — ”but he got sick and had to come ashore. Wherever your wife is, she went of her own free will, if you can trust those monsters you associate with.”
“And if I can trust your word,” Earrin returned pointedly. The woman made no response to this, and a minute later all but the two guards, Earrin, Mort, and Betty had disappeared. There was an indistinct sound of voices from the jail, and then Zhamia and Genda emerged. The latter appeared highly indignant, the expression being partly concealed by her mask and clearly revealed by her body set.
A few words brought both parties more or less up to date. The women had seeded about two thirds of the oxygen plants in the jail, but it would take a day or two for the new organisms to take over. None of this, however, was going to prevent the young Hillers from running things as they pleased, the part of the situation which bothered Earrin the most. He growled this fact aloud, and Mort agreed glumly.
“I don’t see what we can do about it, though,” the teacher added.
“How about that animal who hid in the water Genda asked. “I suppose there’s no way it can be useful.” Fyn ignored the implied contempt, and answered slowly.
“I was just wondering about that,” he said. “This version of Bones isn’t very large, but — you know, he does have a certain advantage. I’ll have to thank that bossy female for reminding me of it. You folks wait here; I expect he’s in or under the raft, and I want to talk to him before it’s too dark to read signals.”
Without waiting for agreement, Earrin plunged into the water. The two guards had heard the conversation and looked rather uneasy but couldn’t decide on any action. The orders, after all, had been definite that the prisoners could visit the raft if they chose. Of course, there had not at that time been any suggestion that one of the Invaders might be there. They drew a little apart from the others and talked in a low tone.
Even Genda made no effort to listen in. The wait was brief. Earrin reappeared in waist-deep water, and the Observer popped up beside him almost at once. The two waded ashore and approached the guards.
They stopped within two meters of the pair, and Earrin spoke.
“This is the Invader, as YOU call him, that you folks held prisoner for a long time in Hemenway. Hedidn’t much like the things you did to him. He is not violent by nature, being intelligent, but he agrees with me that it would be a waste of effort to inconvenience ourselves very greatly to keep people like you breathing.”
“He’s too small to worry about,” retorted one of the guards. “What could he do to a grown man?”
“That depends on the environment, as people so often say,” replied Earrin. “Your leader just pointed out one of the possibilities to me. In a fight where muscular strength was the key, I agree you ‘d have him recaptured in no time. However, he has the rest of us to help him, and one big advantage which might make that help unnecessary.”
“What’s that?”
“He doesn’t have to breathe — in fact, he can’t. He has no vulnerable air lines. If you fight with him, what do you think you could do to keep those ropy arms from pulling your hoses in the first ten seconds?
Want to try?” Earrin paused for a few seconds to let his audience think. “If you do, start in. We find it inconvenient, as I said a moment ago, to have our actions restrained by you people. If you think a fight would be impractical, get inside that jail with the rest of your junky friends, and tell them that any head sticking out of the water gets its hose pulled loose instantly. Think fast.”
They thought, though not very fast. They expostulated. They even begged; it seemed that facing their termagant leader under the circumstances was almost as frightening as losing their masks.
Earrin was not at all sure that he could, in fact carry out his threat; but Bones probably could, and in any case it seemed that the young Hillers were in no position to doubt his word. He was not lying; he fully intended to do what he had said.
The two finally went through the air lock. A renewed babble of voices sounded inside the jail; though words could not be made out very well, most of the listeners who could do so grinned behind their masks.
Then there was a brief silence, and rather to Earrin’s surprise a head popped out of the water. The Nomad did not have to test his firmness; Bones reacted instantly. A tentacle whipped out, its four-fingered tip seized the air hose and jerked. The tube pulled away from its cartridge but not from the mask; the latter left its wearer. There was a glimpse of furious female features, and the head disappeared under water again. A moment later shrieks could be heard from inside the jail; apparently the woman lacked the hangup about keeping unprotected eyes closed under water.