Robert saw Gailet wince in revulsion as she obviously recollected how she had been used. Without opening his eyes, Fiben reached out and took her hand. “Where does that leave us now?” Robert asked Uthacalthing.

“Both common sense and honor would demand the Gubru keep their bargain with Earth. It’s the only way out of a terrible bind.”

“But you don’t expect them to see it that way.”

“Would I remain confined here, on neutral ground, if I did? You and I, Robert, would be with Athaclena right now, dining on khoogra and other delicacies I’d cached away, and we would speak for hours of, oh, so many things. But that will not happen until the Gubru decide between logic and self-immolation.”

Robert felt a chill. “How bad could it get?” he asked in a low voice. The chims, too, listened quietly.

Uthacalthing looked around. He inhaled the sweet, chill air as if it were of fine vintage. “This is a lovely world,” he sighed. “And yet it has suffered horror. Sometimes, so-called civilization seems bent on destroying those very things which it is sworn to protect.”

“After them!” cried the Suzerain of Beam and Talon. “Chase them! Pursue them!”

Talon Soldiers and their battle drones swooped down upon a small column of neo-chimpanzees, taking them by surprise. The hairy Earthlings turned to fight, firing their ill-sorted weapons upward at the stooping Gubru. Two small fireballs did erupt, emitting sprays of singed feathers, but for the most part resistance was useless. Soon, the Suzerain was stepping delicately among the blasted remains of trees and mammals. It cursed as its officers reported only chim bodies.

There had been stories of others, humans and Tymbrimi and, yes, thrice-cursed Thennanin. Had not one of them suddenly appeared out of the wilderness? They had to all be in league together! It had to be a plot!

Now there were constant messages, entreaties, demands that the admiral return to Port Helenia. That it join with the other commanders for a conclave, a meeting, a new struggle for consensus.

Consensus! the Suzerain of Beam and Talon spat on the trunk of a shattered tree. Already it could feel the ebbing of hormones, the leaching away of color that had almost been its own!

Consensus? The admiral would show them consensus! It was determined to win back its position of leadership. And the only way to do that, after that catastrophe of an Uplift Ceremony, was to demonstrate the efficacy of the military option. When the Thennanin came to claim their “Garthling” prizes, they would be met with force! Let them engage in Uplift of their new clients from deepspace!

Of course, to keep them at bay — in order to return this world for the Roost Masters — there must be complete surety that there would be no attacks from behind, from the surface. The ground opposition had to be eliminated!

The Suzerain of Beam and Talon refused even to consider the possibility that anger and revenge might also have colored its decisions. To have admitted that would be to begin to fall under the sway of Propriety. Already, several good officers had deserted down that path, only to be ordered back to their posts by the sanctimonious high priest. That was particularly galling.

The admiral was determined to win their loyalty back in its own right, with victory!

“The new detectors work, are effective, are efficient!” It danced in satisfaction. “They let us hunt the Earthlings without needing to scent special materials. We trace them by their very blood!”

The Suzerain’s assistants shared its satisfaction. At this rate, the irregulars should soon all be dead.

A pall fell over the celebration when it was reported that one of the troop carriers that had brought them here had broken down. Another casualty of the plague of corrosion that had struck Gubru equipment all over the mountains and the Vale of Sind. The Suzerain had ordered an urgent investigation.

“No matter! We shall all ride the remaining carriers. Nothing, nobody, no event shall stop our hunt!”

The soldiers chanted.

“Zooon!”

She watched as the hirsute human read the message for the fourth time, and could not help wondering whether she was doing the right thing. Rank-haired, bearded, and naked, Major Prathachulthorn looked the very essence of a wild, carnivorous wolfling … a creature far too dangerous to trust.

He looked down at the message, and for a moment all she could read were the waves of tension that coursed up his shoulders and down his arms to those powerful, tightly flexed hands.

“It appears that I am under orders to forgive you, and to follow your policies, miss.” The last word ended in a hiss. “Does this mean that I’ll be set free if I promise to be good? How can I be sure this order is for real?”

Athaclena knew she had little choice. In the days ahead she would not be able to spare the chimpower to continue guarding Prathachulthorn. Those she could rely upon to ignore the human’s command-voice were very few, and he had already nearly escaped on four separate occasions. The alternative was to finish him off here and now. And for that she simply had not the will.

“I have no doubt you would kill me the instant you discovered the message wasn’t genuine,” Athaclena replied.

His teeth seemed to flash. “You have my word on that,” he assured her.

“And on what else?”

He closed and then reopened his eyes. “According to these orders from the Government in Exile, I have no choice but to act as if I was never kidnapped, to pretend there was no mutiny, and to conform my strategy to your advice. All right. I agree to this, as long as you remember that I’m going to appeal to my commanders on Earth, first chance I get. And they will take this to the TAASF. And once Coordinator Oneagle is overruled, I will find you, my young Tymbrimi. I will come to you.”

The bald, open hatred in his mind simultaneously made her shiver and ako reassured her. The man held nothing back. Truth burned beneath his words. She nodded to Benjamin.

“Let him go.”

Looking unhappy, and avoiding eye contact with the dark-haired human, the chims lowered the cage and cut open the door. Prathachulthorn emerged rubbing his arms. Then, quite suddenly, he whirled and leaped in a high kick landing in a stance one blow away from her. He laughed as Athaclena and the chims backed away.

“Where is my command?” he asked tersely.

“I do not know, precisely,” Athaclena answered, as she tried to abort a gheer flux. “We’ve scattered into small parties and even had to abandon the caves when it was clear they were compromised.”

“What about this place?” Prathachulthorn motioned to the steaming slopes of Mount Fossey.

“We expect the enemy to stage an assault here at any moment,” she replied honestly.

“Well,” he said. “I didn’t believe half of what you told me, yesterday, about that ‘Uplift Ceremony’ and its consequences. But I’ll give you this; you and your dad do seem to have stirred up the Gubru good.”

He sniffed the air, as if already he were trying to pick up a spoor. “I assume you have a tactical situation map and a datawell for me?”

Benjamin brought one of the portable computer units forward, but Prathachulthorn held up a hand. “Not now. First, let’s get out of here. I want to get away from this place.”

Athaclena nodded. She could well understand how the man felt.

He laughed when she declined his mock-chivalrous bow and insisted that he go first. “As you wish,” he chuckled.

Soon they were swinging through the trees and running under the thick forest canopy. Not much later, they heard what sounded like thunder back where the refuge had been, even though there were no clouds in the sky.