"Disarm them?" Lome sounded dubious. "Is that wise, sir? They wont like it, and if the Ayutha should attack at night-"
"Guns won't save them," interrupted Dumarest curtly. "But some trigger-happy fool could break the truce. The rafts can be armed in case of emergency, but if anyone opens fire without waiting for orders, he will be court-martialed and shot. I mean that, captain."
Louk swallowed, thinking of Corm, the way he had died. Rumor had exaggerated the incident, forgetting the mercy of the shot, concentrating instead on the captain's disobedience. "Yes, sir."
"And see that my orders are obeyed as given." Dumarest's voice matched the anger on his face. "I want no further compromises. That line should be finished by now, would have been if you hadn't dallied." To a junior officer he said, "What is the weather report?"
"Some cloud, with a high possibility of rain, sir."
"Wind?"
"None, and the air should remain steady."
"You expect the rain when?"
"At nightfall, sir. It should be widespread over the entire lofios area."
"Good." To the waiting colonels Dumarest said, "Now, gentlemen, I am at your service."
They sat at a table in a room paneled with softly grained wood, wine standing beside maps, glasses of water, jugs of ice. Comforts for a heated day. But the comfort was illusory, the meeting more of an inquisition than Dumarest would have liked.
"About Captain Corm," said Stone. "I know his father. He is disturbed by the reports. Did you actually kill him?"
"I shot him to save him pain."
"Couldn't he have been saved?"
"He was burning. We were under attack. Men would have died to bring him to shelter, and we would have saved nothing but a corpse." Dumarest shrugged. "That is a detail. The truce is more important. As I told you, the agreement is that they will not harm any of our people. In return, I gave a similar promise. I believe they will keep their word. I intend to make certain that we do."
"The line," said Paran. "A barrier?"
"A test." Dumarest riffled the papers before him, found the one he wanted. "I ordered Captain Louk to send men to search the ground around those villages that were destroyed. The latest ones. This is their finding. Nowhere could they find any sign that the ground had been disturbed other than by our own people." He looked at their blank faces. "Don't you realize what this means?"
"The Ayutha are savages," said Oaken. "They wouldn't leave tracks."
"We are assuming they are using gas. If so, it must be transported in containers of some kind. Unless they approached actually within the villages, those containers must have been launched by some apparatus. We had men alert, on guard-did they report seeing any of the Ayutha?"
"No," said Paran. "I made a point of questioning each man. They were masked, of course; that is why they survived, but…" He broke off, frowning.
"The Ayutha are close enough to humans-in fact, are human-be to affected by the same gases that we are. They don't have the technology to make respirators. If they released gas, they must have done it from a distance, or some of them would have been affected." Dumarest looked around the table. "No one has ever reported seeing any of the Ayutha at any place which has been attacked," he said deliberately. "No signs were found of any launching apparatus when I searched for them. As far as I can determine, there is only one logical answer. The Ayutha aren't responsible for this trouble at all."
He leaned back, waiting for the explosion, the burst of unthinking protestation, inevitable from men who had firmly made up their minds.
Oaken said, "Are you out of your mind, marshal? Are you telling us that none of this has happened?"
"I'm saying that as far as I know, the Ayutha aren't responsible."
"That's ridiculous!" Oaken scowled. "Just what kind of a deal did you make up in the hills? Did they brainwash you or something?"
Paran said, "Careful, colonel."
"What for? In case he treats me like he did the captain? You heard what he said. All those people, men, women, children, and he says that those savages aren't behind it. They have to be!"
Stone, less explosive, more shrewd, said, "What are you saying, marshal?"
"You heard what I said, colonel." Dumarest glanced at Oaken. "Some of you may not want to hear it-it could be interesting to find out why. In most wars, some people usually manage to make a profit. A war needs an enemy; the Ayutha are convenient Maybe they have to stay the enemy until certain deals are completed."
"I know what you mean, Earl," said Paran grimly. "But, take it from me, nothing like that is going on here."
"As far as you know, colonel," reminded Dumarest. He didn't press the matter; it had served to shock them, to gain their attention. "Look at the evidence. Not one of the original messages says anything about the Ayutha; all they rave about is monsters. Well, we know why: the gas had affected their minds. Add to that the fact that no traces of launching apparatus have been found, that no Ayutha dead were discovered, that when I spoke to them they denied they had ever attacked a village, that monitoring rafts discovered no trace of any moving body of men in the area under attack, and I think we have a very good reason for assuming their innocence."
"Assuming?"
"We can't be positive without more proof," admitted Dumarest. "That is why I ordered the construction of the line. No one can pass it without being seen. I've had men and rafts search the lofios area, and no trace of the Ayutha has been discovered. Now, if another village is destroyed, what must we assume?"
"I see your point," said Stone. "If they weren't in the area, then they couldn't have done it."
"They could." Oaken was definite. "They are cunning; they could leave the hills to the north and swing in a circle past the ends of the line. Damnit, marshal, you don't need me to tell you that."
"Outside the lofios the ground is pretty open," said Dumarest patiently. "Rafts will spot any movement." He reached for another paper. "This is the computer findings on the attacks. When you look at the map, they seem absolutely random, but that doesn't make sense if directed by a force operating from the hills. Men can travel on foot only so far in a day. Equipment would be heavy, and the danger of discovery enhanced the farther they penetrated. Yet villages close to the hills were missed and others, much more distant, attacked."
Oaken scowled. "So?"
"You're convinced the Ayutha are the enemy. I'm trying to show you that they needn't be. For example, if I wanted to ruin the economy of Chard, I could work from the city, delivering stores, maybe, cases containing gas and timed charges. Any chemist could make such things. If that was the case, then the random pattern makes sense."
Another shock, but now they were not so quick to protest. He had shaken their iron confidence, shown them that what seemed to be obvious was not always the correct answer. As they sat, brooding, he filled a glass with water, added ice, sat with the frosted container in his hand.
Oaken said, "You put up a good argument, marshal, but it isn't good enough. You say the Ayutha can't be responsible; I say they are. No civilized man would spread nerve gas among harmless people. They told you they hadn't done it, and you believed them. Why? How can the ones you spoke to know everything that's going on?"
"That's right," said Stone. "And they've changed. You saw that for yourself. The flame bombs they used-how would primitives have made them without help? And if they had help to make those things, they could have had more." He added pointedly, "You must have thought of that."
"Yes," said Dumarest.
"And guessed who could be responsible?"
"Yes," he said again.
"Those damned social workers!" Oaken slammed his fist on the table. "Of course! We assumed they had been killed, but suppose they hadn't? Some of them were clever and skilled with their hands. They could have been taken prisoner, forced to teach the Ayutha to make gas, other things. There's your answer, marshal. I say to hell with the truce. Let's go in now and end this thing once and for all."