"Betta hasn't had her baby yet," said a young voice.
"Thanks for telling me," said Amanda. She searched the circle with her eyes, but she was not able to identify the one who had just spoken. "Let's stick to business for the moment, though. I've got a special job for your best infiltrator - unless one of the neighboring teams has someone better than you have. Have they?"
Several voices told her immediately that the others had not.
"Who've you got, then?"
"Lexy - " the voices answered.
An almost white-haired twelve-year old girl was pushed forward, scowling a little. Amanda looked at her - Alexandra Andrea, from Tormai homestead. Lexy, like the others, was slim by right of youth; but a squareness of shoulder and a sturdiness of frame were already evident. For no particular reason, Amanda suddenly remembered haw her awn hair, as a child, had been so blond as to be almost white.
The memory of her young self brought another concern to mind. She looked searchingly at Lexy. What she knew about Lexy included indications of a certain amount of independence and a flair for risk-taking. Even now, obviously uncomfortable at being shoved forward this way, Lexy was still broadcasting an impression of truculence and self-acknowledged ability. Character traits, Amanda thought, remembering her own childhood again, that could lead to a disregard of orders and to chance-taking.
"I need someone to go in close to the cantonments the occupation troops have set up at Foralie Town," she said aloud. "Someone who can listen, pick up information, and get back with it safely. Note - I said safely."
She locked eyes with Lexy.
"Do you take chances, Lexy?" she asked. "Can I trust you to get in and get out without taking risks?"
There was a sudden outbreak of hoots and laughter from the team.
"Send Tim with her!"
Lexy flushed. A slight boy, Lexy's age or possibly as much as a year or two younger, was pushed forward. Beside Lexy, he looked like a feather beside a rock
"Timothy Royce," Amanda said, looking at him. "How good are you, Tim?"
"He's good," said Lexy. "That is, he's better than the rest of these elephants."
"Lexy won't take chances with Tim along," said the girl who had whistled. Amanda was vainly searching her memory for this one's name. Sometimes when they shot up suddenly, she lost track of who they were; and the tall girl was already effectively an adult.
"How about it, Tim?" Amanda asked the boy. Tim hesitated.
"He gets scared," a very young voice volunteered.
"No, he doesn't!" Lexy turned on the crowd. "He's cautious, that's all."
"No," said Tim, unexpectedly. "I do get scared. But with Lexy I can do anything you want."
He looked openly at Amanda.
Amanda looked at Ramon.
"I can't add anything," he said, shaking his head. "Lexy's good, and Tim's pretty good - and they work well together."
His eyes settled on Amanda's suddenly.
"But do you have to have someone from one of the teams?"
"Who else is there?"
"One of the older ones, then…" his voice trailed off. Amanda looked back at the faces ringed about.
"Team?" she asked.
There was a moment of almost awkward silence and then the girl who had whistled - Leah Abo, the name suddenly leaped into existence in Amanda's mind - spoke.
"Any of us'll go," she said. "But Lexy's the best."
"That's it, then," said Amanda. She put the power to her skimmer, and lifted it off the ground. "Lexy, Tim - I'll meet you after dark tonight, just behind the closest ridge above the meadow north of town. All of you - be careful. Don't let the patrols see you. And get those runners out as fast as you can."
She left them, the circle parted and she hummed up and over the ridge. Foralie homestead lay on a small level space a couple of hundred meters beyond her, on a rise that commanded a clear view in all directions as far as the town itself.
Behind the long, low, timbered house there, she could see the oversize jungle gym that Cletus had, caused to be constructed at Grahame-House and then moved here, after his marriage to Melissa. It had been a device to help him build himself back physically after his knee operation, and there was no reason for it to evoke any particular feeling in her. But now, seeing its spidery and intricate structure casting its shadow on the roof of the long, plain-timbered house beneath it, she suddenly felt - almost as if she touched the cold metal of it with her hand - the hard, intricately woven realities that would be bringing Dow and Cletus to their final meeting beneath that shadow.
She slid the skimmer down to the house. Melissa, with the tall, gray-mustached figure of Eachan Khan beside her, came out of the front door; and they were standing, waiting for her as she brought the skimmer up to them and dropped it to the ground.
"Betta's fine, Amanda," said Melissa. "Still waiting. "What's going on?"
"The occupation troops are down in Foralie Town."
"We know," said Eachan Khan, in his brief, clipped British-accented speech. "Watched them drop in, using the scope on our roof."
"They've got Dow deCastries with them," Amanda said, getting down from the skimmer. He's after Cletus, of course. He plans to come up here to Foralie right away. He may be right behind me - "
The ground under her feet seemed to rock suddenly. She found Eachan Khan holding her up.
"Amanda!" said Melissa, supporting her on the other side. "When did you eat last?"
"I don't rememb…" she found the words had difficulty corning out. Her knees trembled, and she felt close to fainting. A distant fury filled her. This was the aspect of her age that she resented most deeply. Rested and nourished, she could face down a de-Castries. But let any unusual time pass without food and rest and she became just another frail oldster.
Her next awareness was of being propped up on a couch in the Foralie sitting room, with a pillow behind her back Melissa was helping her sip hot, sweet tea with the fiery taste of Dorsai whisky in it. Her head began to clear. By the time the cup was empty, there was a plate of neatly cut sandwiches made by Eachan Khan, on the coffee table beside her. She had forgotten how delicious sandwiches could be.
"What's the rest of the news, then?" Eachan asked, when she had eaten. "What happened to you today?"
She told them.
"… I must admit, Eachan," she said, as she wound tip, looking at the stiff-backed ex-general, "I wasn't too pleased about Cletus asking you to sit on your hands, here - and even less pleased with you for agreeing. But I think I understand it better since I met deCastries, himself. If any one of them's likely to suspect how we might defend ourselves, it'll be him, not those officers with him. And the one thing that'll go farther to keep him from starting to suspect anything, will be finding you puttering around here, keeping house right under his nose while he waits for Cletus. He knows your military reputation."
"Wouldn't call it puttering," said Eachan. "But you're right. Cletus does have a tendency to think around corners."
"Let alone the fact - " Amanda held his eye with her own, "that if something happens to me, you'll still be here to take over."
"Depends on circumstance."
"Nonetheless," said Amanda.
"Of course," Eachan said. "Naturally, if I'm free - and needed - I'd be available."
"Yes-" Amanda broke off suddenly. "But I've got to get out of here!"
She sat up abruptly on the couch, swinging her feet to the floor.
"DeCastries and his escort are probably right behind me. I'd just planned to drop by and brief you-"
She got to her feet, but lightheadedness took her again at the sudden movement and she sat down again, unexpectedly.
"Amanda, be sensible. You can't go anywhere until you've rested for a few hours," said Melissa.