Footfall

“The outer ducts need you most,” Takpusseh said. “Empty the collectors into the bag. Wipe the sides. For this day’s mission, circle this way, spinward.” His trunk described a clockwise arc. “Go as far as you can, prove your endurance, then come out at any grill. Summon the first warrior you see. Any warrior will escort you to your cells.”

Would the fithp really allow prisoners to explore their air duct system? Arvid and Dmitri seemed as bemused as Wes, but they were obeying, looping the line loosely around themselves.

Best to assume that he’d be watched. Even so, Wes would enjoy the chance to spy a little. Certainly the Soviets would… Nikolai was being urged into the hole. Arvid and Dmitri followed.

They’ll assume that we’ll want to stay together, but I don think we’ll have to. Wes moved toward the opening.

A branch of living hose looped around his ankle. “Pause a moment,” Takpusseh said. “Dawson, you are to be separated from the others. From this moment Raztupisp-minz is your teacher. When you see a warrior, tell him, ‘Raztupisp-minz.’ ”

Wes shrugged. The Soviets hadn’t been good company lately. “The cause, I attack you?’

“The cause, we decide this. Go.”

He moved through the air duets, cleaning as he went. The work was not difficult. Do what they want for now. Dmitri wants us docile. He may be right, for now.

He worked until he was too tired to go on: five or six hours, he thought.

There were wing nuts on the outsides of the grills. Fingers had to reach through the grills to turn them. That was easy enough:

the wings were five inches across, suited to fi’ digits. Wes was talking to himself before he realized that the screws turned the wrong way. Takpusseh must have wondered if the humans would be reduced to screaming for help through the grills.

He called to two passing warriors. “Take me to Raztupisp-minz.”

One stopped. “Wes-Dawson? You are to go to a restraint room.” Wes paused to refasten the grill, then moved away between the warriors.

Lorena brought the teapot. “More tea. Comrade Marshal?” she asked.

“Thank you, no,” Marshal Shavyrin said. He glanced at the clock on the wall, then at Lorena.

Pavel Bondarev saw, and made a tiny gesture of dismissal. Lorena left the room. Bondarev thought she closed the door heavily, but if so, Marshal Shavyrin did not notice it.

“It is fantastic,” Shavyrin said. A hastily assembled report with bright red coven lay on Bondarev’s desk next to Bondarev’s ancient brass telescope. Shavyrin lifted the report and idly thumbed through the pages. “Fantastic,” he repeated.

“I agree,” Bondarev said. “Yet we must believe—”

The telephone chirped. Bondarev touched a button to put the telephone on amplifier. “Bondarev.”

“Petrovskiy.”

“Da, Comrade Chairman!” Bondarev said. “We have prepared the report you ordered. Marshal Shavyrin is here.

“Good. You are well, Leonid Edmundovich?”

“Da, Comrade Chairman.”

“Very well. General Bondarev, you have spoken with the American generals?”

“Da. What they ask is barely possible, Comrade Chainnan.”

“Will it succeed?”

Bondarev looked helplessly at Shavyrin. The Marshal was silent for a moment, then said, “Comrade Chairman, who can know? Yet it may be the only possible plan. The timing, however, is very critical.”

“And your recommendation? Do we do this?”

Shavyrin was silent.

“Well?” the Chairman demanded.

“It is very critical,” Shavyrin said finally. “Part of their plan depends on their Pershing missiles. They are to fire them from Germany, to attack the alien spacecraft. Many of those missiles will come toward the Soviet Union. There will be no way to know their real targets-which might be Moscow or Kiev or our remaining missile bases.

“There is more,” Shavyrin continued. “Whenever we have launched missiles, the aliens have bombarded the base from which they came. They will attack our remaining bases. Few strategic rocket forces will remain after this battle. If the Americans do not use their missiles, we will be disarmed and nearly helpless, and they will retain their strategic striking power. Suppose they do not launch their Pershing missiles, but keep them. They could destroy us within minutes, whenever they wanted, and we would be unable to retaliate.”

Narovchatov’s voice came onto the line. “Is it your recommendation that we do not cooperate with the Americans?”

“No, Comrade First Secretary,” Shavyrin said. “But it is my duty to make you and the Chairman aware of all the implications.”

“We have very little time,” Chairman Petrovskiy said. “The American President is waiting for my answer. He says the situation is desperate. I am inclined to agree. I must give him our decision now.”

“All depends on the Pershing missiles,” Shavyrin said. “If the Americans do not launch them-for any reason-then it is unlikely that our missiles will get through the enemy defenses. If the Americans are successful, then some of our missiles will reach their targets.”

“Bondarev?” the Chairman demanded.