The next morning, the rain was pouring down over the camp, leaving everybody but the children in a dour mood. «We can't get up there in this weather.» Alonzo explained for the N'th time. «The valley's a real quig-mire of sand and water. We've checked.» «I just hope the alarmsystem don't short out.» Baines mumbled. «From what I understood, it was originally ment for indoors use.» Morgan just sighed. «Well, I taped over the joints with some tar-tape, but I don't know if it'll hold.» «Oh, come on guys!» Bess smiled, trying to ease the mood. «It'll stop raining in a moment, I'm shure.» Danziger came in, shaking water from his hair, towing the two protesting, muddy and soaked children after him. «Now you stay indoors when I say so!» He found two thick towels, wrapping the kids, and putting them in-front of the heater. «Besides, it's time for your homework, anyway.» He threw himself down on a chair, looking just as gloomy as the others. Bess brought him a steaming cup of coffee, and a towel. «Why don't you guys do something useful, rather than sit here sulking because of a little rain?» She said: «There are boots to be soled and mended, backpacks to be darned and re-padded. And we need to decide what first to bring down from the pod...» Soon she had them all occupied, and the rain was forgotten for a while. When it still was pouring down the next morning, the mood around the breakfast table was no lighter than the heavy, gray clouds that hung above their camp. Even Bess couldn't manage to cheer them up much, having made a special breakfast for them, trying. «Thanks Bess.» Danziger mumbled seeing the table set with all sorts of berry-jellies, fresh and dried fruits, some canned milk, semolina, and several sorts of nuts, seeds and kernels. «Looks good.» He smiled reassuringly to her, and sat down at the table with the others. «Tastes good too.» Julia said, munching a bowl of semolina sprinkled with fruit and nuts. «Well.» Bess smiled back, «I thought there was no need to save it all, since we have new provisions waiting for us up there.» She nodded towards the tent door, roughly in the direction of the supply-pod. «Right!» Danziger grinned, setting an example to his advance team, digging into the food. «Wow, I never thought semolina actually could taste something much...» He chewed, looking surprised for real. «But mixed with some of this...» His smile widened. As they ate the best breakfast in a longer time than they cared for to remember, the clouds broke up, and the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. «It's drying up out there.» Alonzo said as he came in after his guard-shift, kicking mud of his boots: «I think we could be able to go in only a couple of hours time.» «You see?» Danziger grinned. «Bess' sunshine breakfast did the trick.» He gave her a wink, and headed out to start making preparations right away. «Right. Alonzo, you and I and Morgan take his L.T.V. and go ahead, once it's dry enough. His vehicle got broader tires than the others, and is the only one we have, capable of traversing that loose sand. The rest of you wait here 'till we give signal, then you take the rest of the L.T.V.'s up to the ridge by the brook, where we start building the other vehicles, and load them with supplies. It'll take some work, but we'll get it done, right?» To his surprise, the crew cheered, eagerly getting ready. «They're like kids on Christmas Day.» Alonzo smiled. Danziger didn't understand, but Alonzo just shrugged. «I'll tell you 'bout it later.» Morgan busied himself, filling their canteens with water, and looked nervous and skittish as usual, constantly scanning the forest for movement. «Grendlers?» Baines asked quietly as he worked on fixing something on his vehicle. Morgan just gave him a sour face back, reminding him that things were not for-gotten. Within four hours, they were on their way, driving carefully along the slick and narrow east-bank along the brook, which had become a frothing river from the rain. They made it to the life-pod in good time, and Danziger climbed out of the L.T.V. stretching his legs. «You can see the perimeter from here.» Alonzo explained, pointing towards the wood-clad ridge a couple of miles away. Danziger narrowed his eyes, looking in the direction Alonzo pointed out. Seeing the glint of electric blue in-between the trees, he gasped. «That's the perimeter? From here, I can see at least three lines!» Morgan stuck his head out of the life-pod. «It's six lines high, actually. Didn't know how to split it without ruining it.» He said coming out. «This pod is raided. Nothing left.» He looked at Alonzo. «Well, that's how we found it. And a lot of Grendler-tracks to go with it.» Morgan nodded, but didn't say anything. «Well, let's go.» Danziger headed for the L.T.V. getting ready to move on. «Er... John, we'll have to walk from here.» Morgan mumbled. «What?» He gave Morgan an incredulous look. «It's to steep and rocky, even for the buggy. It could hardly make it in dry conditions, and now the ground is probably wet and...» Danziger didn't wait until he finished, just started walking. «Come on, Morgan.» Alonzo said, following the mechanic. As they reached the last, steep climb up towards the pod, Morgan had fallen behind, trudging through the heavy sand. Spurred by the sight of the pod so close, Alonzo challenged Danziger to a race up the last slope, and they set off, laughing. Morgan watched them struggle upwards, reach the top, taking a few steps forward, and then stop dead in their tracks. Instinctively, Morgan ducked behind the nearest rock, carefully peaking around it. Two shaggy looking figures emerged from the trees, pointing a Mag-Pro at Alonzo and Danziger, motioning for them to drop their weapons, and rise their hands. «Penal-colonists!» He breathed. «I knew it wasn't Grendlers raiding that pod!» He ducked down again, carefully tapping in the code, calling the camp. «Yale. We got trouble.» He whispered, quickly explaining the situation: «Penal-colonists. They've got John and Alonzo. Stripped them for their gears and weapons. You better get Walman and Baines up here as quickly as possible. Do it the way we agreed. Have someone drive them up to the ridge, then return with the vehicle. We do not want to loose any or anyone! I'll se what I can find out. I'll call back!» He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Why did these things always happen to him?! He eased his way up the slope, making as little noise as possible. Slowly lifting his head over the rim, he saw the two men holding Danziger and Alonzo at gunpoint. And in front of them lay a blooded and naked figure sprawled on the sand. «Jason!» He wasn't shure if he said it out loud or just thought it, but the two penal-colonists didn't appear to have heard him. Carefully scanning the woods behind them, Morgan couldn't see any others, but he had a feeling that there were. Suddenly, one of the men gave Jason a solid kick, shouting at him, motioning towards the perimeter. Jason shook his head, trying to sit up. Danzigers face were white with anger, but he didn't move. Morgan ducked down, sending another message back to the rescue team already on their way. Then he crawled sideways into the forest finding some cover between the trees, easing his way closer. When next he had eyecontact with the group, Jason saw him. Morgan froze. His brother signaled for him to circle the two colonists, and take them by surprise from behind. To the others, though, it just looked as if the man was cowering. Morgan gave a short nod, then disappeared from sight. Danziger and Alonzo stood with their backs to a tree, glaring defiantly at their two captors. They knew that the man laying on the ground could not be Morgan, but his brother. And Danziger was shure it was all an act from Jason's side, trying to lure them into giving the code for the perimeter. He hadn't really trusted the man before, and he shure as hell didn't trust him now! If he hadn't been at gunpoint, he would not have hesitated to give him a few kicks himself, were it really hurts! He'd been right about the guy. He was spying on them from the inside, long enough to know their weaknesses. But Morgan showing up was probably not part of the plan. Jason had thought him safely dealt with, as he took his place on the advance team. When Danziger and Alonzo didn't seem to be willing to spill their secrets about the perimeter, and how to dis-arm it, the two colonists started to kick the naked man again, with renewed anger. «It can't be dis-armed from out here.» Danziger lied, his feet itching to help with some kicks. «Besides, only that running coward there, Morgan, knows how to do it!» He spat in Jason's direction. He could just as well play the game, but to his own ends. Alonzo first looked slightly baffled, then he understood. «Yeah! That little rat was leaving us, not wanting to tell us the code. Said the pod was his since he found it! Bureaucratic vermin.» The two penal colonists looked puzzled at eachother. Then one of them stepped forward, hoisting Jason up from the ground by his neck. «So he knows the code, does he!» The man grumbled, staring him right in the eye. «And he doesn't want to share! Now, that's gratitude for you!» He brought his knee up, making Jason double over, this time in real pain, and Danziger had to fight to hide a grim smile. «Oh, I don't think he knows the dis-arming code. He never thought of that. Just like the time when he set off that Geo-lock, remember.» Danziger looked towards Alonzo, who nodded. «Yeah. He killed a Terrian in the attempt. Greedy little rat! Almost got us killed for it!» Their two captors was getting more and more confused, and thereby more angry. «Shut up, you scum!» One of them yelled, and whacked Alonzo over the mouth with the butt of his Mag-Pro. Danziger tensed, but held still. «We don't know what kind of game you're playin', but we shure ain't falling for it!» He turned towards Jason, pointing towards the perimeter. «You're gonna get that thing down, now!» He kicked him hard in the rear, sending him sprawling. «I don't know, honestly! They lie, because they don't like me! Please don't hurt me!» The man whined, doing a far to good mimic of Morgan. Danziger's stomach turned with disgust. «Who's the liar? You probably signed the papers that sent these men here!» Alonzo snarled, wiping blood from his mouth. «Good boy! You've got the idea!» Danziger thought, seeing the words take effect. The colonists were shure confused now, turning against their leader as well. «If we just can keep this going long enough for help to get here. Morgan's shure to have gotten away.» He shot a glance at Alonzo. His face looked a mess, but at least it didn't bleed to much. Just some cuts then. The two penal-colonists scowled suspiciously at their three prisoners. «You! Get on your feet!» The man in charge said to Jason, who warily did as he was told. «Help him over!» The man motioned for Danziger with his Mag-Pro. «What?» Danziger pretended not to understand. «Help him over the perimeter! You said it couldn't be dis-armed from outside, didn't you?!» The colonist leered towards him, and Danziger cursed himself inwardly. What if Morgan had told Jason about the crate of Mag-Pro's buried just outside the pod? «But, the Digi-lock is wired too. If you tamper with it, you'll get zapped. The perimeter can only be turned off from inside the pod! » He lied again. «That's the ingenious part of it all!» He launched a kick at Jason, ramming the mans thigh, sending him to the ground. The butt-end of the Mag-Pro sent Danziger slamming back into the tree, his ribs aching violently from the blow. «We, do the kicking around here!» The other of the colonists hissed. «I've noticed!» Danziger moaned. «What the devil are you two morons doing?!» Morgan stepped out from the woods, hands on his hips, and glared at the two penal-colonists as if he would eat them alive. «Didn't I tell you to wait for my signal?» He walked briskly up to the leader of the two. «Didn't I tell you not to interfere with the Advance Team?» He pulled the Mag-Pro out of the mans hands, pushing him out of the way. «Let them go!» He ordered the other, who was still aiming his weapon at Alonzo and Danziger. «Hunh?» The man goped, incomprehensive. «They're of no use to us, dumbkopf!» Morgan said into his face. «I changed the digi-codes, I know the right dis-armament code! Not this whiny bureaucrat.» The two penal-colonists were as dumbstruck as the other three men, looking at the newcomer. Morgan turned towards his brother. «And as for this... twin, of mine...» He aimed the Mag-Pro, and fired without hesitating. «Good riddance!» He grinned, turning back to the colonists. They grinned widely, recognizing their true leader. «Man, Jason. I didn't know...» One of them started, laughing nervously. «I thought you said you took care of him!» The other one said, suspicious. «Yeah, so did I!» Morgan sneered, looking at his brothers lifeless body with contempt. «But now I'm shure!» He grinned. The two penal-colonists laughed, to loud. «What do we do with them two?» The former leader of the two asked. «Send them back to their Advance Team. I intend for them to die slowly. By starvation. Their supplies are out, save a few fruits and nuts, and a couple of rabbits they caught for supper. They won't last long.» He dismissed them with a wave of the hand. «Oh, and Danziger... Don't let anyone go outside the perimeter. I will have anyone shot who tries.» Danziger was shaking, as much with shock and horror, as with anger, as the two penal-colonists started showeing him and Alonzo back the way they had come. «By the way...» Morgan said, holting the group. «Tell the guys back there to stand guard round the camp, will you lads? I don't want anything to happen to my friends. There are Grendlers out there.» He nodded towards the forest, and the two colonists grinned. «Aye, aye, sir!» One of the men whistled, and soon four more penal-colonists emerged from the bushes, got their instructions, and started to tow their prisoners with them back to camp. «That's that taken care of.» The colonists leader grinned wickedly to Morgan, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. «Shall we open our present soon, boss?» «Soon enough!» Morgan grinned calmly back. «Soon enough!»
Morgan waited until Danziger and Alonzo was safely on their way down the slope, then aimed his small side-arm carefully towards the back of the head of the first penal-colonist, then fired. The man slumped to the ground without a sound. The other man heard the low whine of the charge, turned round, saw his dead mate, and tried to call out, but Morgan's expert aim didn't miss its mark the second time either. Making shure he was alone, Morgan turned off the perimeter with the remote, dragged his brothers lifeless body inside, then turned the perimeter on again, from the outside. «Two down, how many more to go?» He hissed, shouldering his Mag-Pro, heading into the woods. Back at the ridge by the brook, Walman and Baines lay in hiding behind a large tree-trunk, watching the sandy basin. «Here they come! There's four of them.» Walman hissed, putting down his Jumper. «Get ready!» Baines carefully looked over the trunk seeing the penal-colonists in Morgan's L.T.V. come speeding towards them, just as Morgan had called in and said they would do; towing Danziger and Alonzo behind them. The two men struggled to stay on their feet in the loose sand, stumbling along. «Aim carefully! They're armed to their teeth!» He hissed over the gear, getting affirmatives from his tree comrades hiding somewhere nearby. He didn't have to tell them what would happen to their two friends if they missed even one of the bad-guys! «OK. On my mark....» He mumbled, watching them come closer through his aim. «Now!» The four Mag-Pro's fired as one, and the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. Danziger slammed into it, then fell backwards in the sand, laying still. «Woops, big-guy's down. We better get down there quick.» Walman hurried down the steep slope, sliding on the sand, reaching Danziger the same time as Baines reached Alonzo. «He's OK, just knocked the wind out of himself.» Alonzo coughed, reaching for the canteen Baines handed him. «Hey, Danziger.» Walman slapped his face, reviving him. He moaned and grunted, emptying Walman's canteen, coming to his senses. «What...» He looked around, confused. «Morgan's backup team, to the rescue!» Walman grinned, helping him to his feet, leading him to the top of the ridge. «Where's the camp?!» Danziger goped, seeing no trace of the tents at the clearing down on the end of the brook. «We moved it, for safety, when Morgan called in the distress signal. Not even he knows where it is. None of us do. Covered our tracks, like last time.» Baines smiled. «Would've taken them some time to find it, if things had gone bad up there. Given us time to regroup.» «Yeah? They could have tracked you by your gears!» Danziger said glumly. «Nope. Left their gears behind. If we don't give a lightsignal by nightfall, Yale and the kids are to move out of here with all speed in the cover of the darkness.» Walman said. «But we're not in the clear yet. There still might be some pen's in the woods up there. We haven't found their camp yet, or the L.T.V.» Danziger looked over the five people making up this crew. «Who's up there?» He asked warily. «Zero's looking for the vehicle Jason took, and we've got four people searching the terrain, plus Morgan heading towards them from the other side.» «Morgan!» Danziger ground his teeth together, swallowing bile. Alonzo looked to the ground, looking pale. «What? Something wrong? He called in, just after he'd sent these four down here with you, then headed into the woods, looking for others.» «Yeah, right. We'll probably never see the hide or tale of that double-crossing scum ever again. And that won't be too soon for me either!» Danziger spat with disgust, taking Walman to the side, filling him in. Julia came over to them after finishing taking care of Alonzo's swollen lips, checking Danziger from head to toe with her medi-glove. «A few bruises, dehydrated, but otherwise OK.» She said. «What happened up there?» She urged, but Danziger just shook his head, not wanting even to think about it anymore, and walked away. Walman looked to Alonzo. He just stared on the ground in-front of him, shaking his head too. «They'll tell you later.» Walman said, looking seriously at Julia. «That bad?» She whispered. Walman just sighed, nodding. The other team called in negative on finding anyone or anything, standing in-front of the supply pod. «No Morgan?» Baines asked. «Nope. No trace. You said he called in, saying he was coming our way?» Cameron asked. Baines confirmed. «Well, we couldn't have missed him. We've never been out of eyecontact with eachother for a second. And these woods aren't that big and dense.» Baines gave his final orders, and broke contact. «They say they found a naked body up there, inside of the perimeter. Would that be Jason?» Baines asked Alonzo, as he knew he wouldn't get no answer from Danziger. Alonzo looked up, surprised. «Inside?» Baines nodded. «Shot at close range with a Mag-Pro. No pretty sight, they said. Couldn't tell which one. Head's blown off.» «And Bess is up there with them?!» Danziger suddenly loomed over Walman, angry and horrified. «We don't really know who was who.» Alonzo said. «At least I don't. They switched parts so fast and so often, you couldn't tell in the end. It fooled the pen's, and us as well.» «I could tell!» Danziger sneered. «So could I!» Morgan came up behind them, covered in blood, mud and sand. «I slipped in the mud up there.» He grimaced, «Knocked my self out on the slide down.» He pointed towards a mud-slide on the hillside. «Cut my self too...» «You care to tell me what the hell's going on here, Martin?» Danziger emphasized his last name, deliberately, as Julia started to check Morgan over with the medi-glove. Morgan coughed violently, wiping his mouth. «I knew something was wrong from the day I laid eyes on that creep. He must have killed Shana as soon as they were out of sight, turned round, and followed us back.» Danziger looked as if he were about to commit murder, then he paled. «Your side arm!» He hissed. «Yeah. I gave it to her, for protection, when she wouldn't listen to me when I told her... No, I begged her not to go with him. I told her to hide it on her body.» Julia looked at her glove, shaking it, re-setting it's functions. «But you furnished him with all he needed?» Danziger said angrily, still not convinced he would ever trust this person again. «Yeah. I rigged his cloths with tracking devices. Same with their gears. He was shure to find most of them, but, he didn't find the one I hid in this.» He patted the gun-holster. That's how I found Shana. I buried her where I found her.» «That's why you were late for breakfast and came back so muddy that morning?» Baines asked. Morgan nodded. «He'd slit her throat with a wire. She probably never noticed what happened.» Morgan sat down heavily on his vehicle as Julia seemed to be finished with her scan. His face was ashen, and his hands shaking. «The only wrong she ever did, was having a crush on me. - Bess told me she'd told her once. And I helped her get killed, by pushing him right into her arms.» He made a grimace. «Why didn't he just take her with him?» Alonzo asked. «She would never betray us. Not even for him. And he was in a hurry, wanting to get back here before us probably, but got delayed when he had to drive out of our range, knowing we could track him. «You mean, that when I talked to him that morning...» Baines started. «He was probably driving right next to you, on a parallel course.» Morgan nodded. Danziger narrowed his eyes, looking at Morgan who was more hanging than sitting on the side of his L.T.V., wrecked by another coughing-spell. «You knew all along, and you didn't tell us?!» Morgan tried to smile. «I knew he wouldn't do anything until we got here. He wanted the Mag-Pro's most of all, along with the rest of the supplies. So, I hung back when I saw the life-pod was raided, knowing it had to be him, or someone working for him. No Grendler knows the code to a locked door!» «Why?» Walman shook his head. «Why what?» «Why did he do it?» «To make shure we wouldn't make it to New Pacifica. He had his orders. He didn't crash, he was landed here. There were nothing missing from neither crew or supply holdings. Remember, you set me going through it all, just to keep me busy and out of your way, both before and after coldsleep. Nothing missing. But he didn't know that, so he lied till his mouth ran over with it.» «So, while he were studying you, you studied him?» Danziger asked. Morgan snorted. «Much to study. We both received the same sim-training in V.R. up until we were five. This kind of training.» He flourished his right hand to the scene of dead bodies around him. «He loved it, I didn't, so I hid my skills so thoroughly that even I didn't know they existed. I became a bureaucrat of heart and mind.» He coughed again, this time pinkish froth hung at the left corner of his mouth. He wiped it away. Danziger called for Julia, but Morgan waved her away. «'Tis nothing. I just knocked up the broken ribs when I fell. I'll be OK.» He tried to smile, but another coughingspell sent him to the ground, unconscious. «Quick.» Julia ordered. «He's probably got a punctured lung.» She scanned him nervously, then sat back on her heals, looking puzzled at her glove. «What?» Danziger knelt down beside her. «Is he OK?» Julia shook her head. «I don't know. The medi-glove...» Then she checked again. «What the...» She shook the glove. Morgan moaned, then sat up, still groggy. «Whoa. I'll never get used to that.» He complained, rubbing his sore ribcage. Then he saw Julia staring at him. «Yeah, that's another side-effect from the Genesis project.» He mumbled: «You heal quicker. Makes a good solider, you know.» He smiled bleakly. «But it hurts even worse than the wound itself, draining you for energy. That's why I fainted. Going on minimal rations don't help the cause much either.» Julia looked again to her glove. Morgan had gone from as good as dead to well recovered in a matter of minutes, if the gloves readings were to be trusted. She didn't believe it. «What the devil are you, pal?!» Danziger stepped back, sounding scared: «Some kind of super-human?» Morgan got up stiffly, still sore and aching: «You tell me. Your guess' as good as mine.» Then there came a horrible wail from the woods behind them.