Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (23 page)

He
appeared
to
be
a
little
older
than
the
others.
But
all
of
them,
including
this
man's
enemies,
that
Henry
and
his
Soldiers
had killed,
and
who
now
lay
behind
him—they
were
all
too
young.

He
was
reminded
of
Will,
whose
grave
he
had
visited
only
two days
ago.
He
thought
someone
must
have
looked
down
on
his
son in
very
much
this
same
way
...
did
that
person
feel
then
as
he, Henry,
did
now?

"Bleys?"
he
called
again.
And
he
gave
hand
signals
to
his
people to
flank
the
position
they
were
now
watching.

Remembering
Will,
as
usual,
also
made
him
remember
Joshua, his
other
son,
still
living
on
the
old
farm
on
Association.
In
a
very-true
sense,
he
realized
now,
Will
had
died
so
that
Joshua
would
live. Joshua,
and
all
their
people.

And
some
of
these
young
people
had
died
so
that
Bleys
could live—if
he
lived.
The
others,
so
that
Bleys
would
die.
Did
they
cancel
each
other
out?

Not
in
Gods
arithmetic,
he
thought.

"Henry,
we're
here."
It
was
Toni's
voice,
and
he
looked
up
to
see her
appear
cautiously
out
of
the
bunker
entrance,
stepping
down slightly
into
the
mud
while
waving
a
white
cloth
of
some
sort;
with her
other
arm
she
was
trying
to
support
Dahno,
who
was
also
being held
up
by
Bleys,
coming
out
behind
him.
Henry
did
not
have
to speak
before
several
of
his
Soldiers
leaped
into
the
trench
to
help take
Dahno's
weight,
as,
refusing
to
sit
down,
he
picked
his
way past
a
couple
of
bodies
and
trudged
heavily
toward
a
crude
ramp that
had
been
cut
out
of
the
side
of
the
trench,
farther
down
its length.

"Bleys,
are
you
hurt?"
Henry
said.
"Toni?"

"No,
Uncle,"
Bleys
said.
"Dahno
has
two
needles
in
him,
but
the rest
of
us
are
all
right."

"Is
there
anyone
else
in
the
bunker?" "A
body
or
two,"
Bleys
said,
"and—"

"Two
more
wounded
soldiers,"
Toni
added.
"Please
get
them help."

"Where
is—"
Henry
began
to
call;
and
checked
himself
upon
seeing
that
Mary
Holzer,
their
lead
medician,
was
already
at
Dahno's side
as
he
reached
the
bottom
of
the
ramp.

"I'll
look
him
over,"
Mary
said
in
her
soft
voice
to
James
Cella, her
number
two.
"Check
inside,
Jamie."

She
tried
to
make
Dahno
lie
down
so
that
she
could
examine him,
but
he
refused,
insisting
on
getting
up
the
ramp
and
out
of
the mud-bottomed
trench.

Rather
than
taking
the
ramp,
Bleys
had
vaulted
out
of
the
trench with
the
aid
of
cupped
hands
provided
by
one
of
the
Soldiers;
and now
reached
Henry.
Toni
had
remained
with
Dahno.

"Thank
you,
Uncle,"
Bleys
said
as
he
came
to
a
halt,
looking back
past
Henry
at
the
scattered
bodies
that
had
been
their
attackers.
"I
believe
they
might
have
gotten
in
on
us
before
long."

"Probably
not,"
Henry
said.
"They
would
not
have
needed
to
do so.
They
were
setting
up
a
power
cannon
that
likely
would
have blown
that
place
down
on
all
of
you."

"Do
you
know
who
they
were?"
Bleys
asked.

"I
have
no
idea,"
Henry
said.
"They
aren't
wearing
uniforms."

"Are
there
any
left
alive?"

"Not
so
far,"
Henry
said.
"We
need
to
get
you
out
of
here—no, don't
argue.
These
people
may
have
comrades;
or
if
not,
the
army will
soon
discover
how
they
were
deceived
and
come
back;
we
don't want
them
to
find
us
with
their
own
dead
people."

"But
I
need
to
try
to
find
out—"

"We'll
check
all
the
bodies
and
their
equipment
for
anything
that might
tell
us
what
you
want
to
know,"
Henry
said,
"before
the
rest of
us
leave.
But
you
and
Toni
are
going
now—"
he
pointed
at
a wide,
high-riding
vehicle
approaching
from
an
angle
behind
them, "—and
Dahno,
if
he
can
travel."

The
vehicle
was
one
of
a
type
commonly
called
a
vagen,
a
civilian
adaptation
of
a
high-riding,
boxy
carrier
used
on
many
worlds
to ferry
small
military
units.
It
drew
up
beside
them,
angling
in
at
the last
moment
so
that
its
driver
could
be
next
to
Henry
as
his
window
opened.
Its
fans
threw
up
very
little
dust
from
the
still-damp soil.