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"In this weather?" Lambert said. "Kurians don't like cold. I think it would kill 'em. No, it's holed up. Brother Mark, could it be in the river somewhere? They look aquatic."
"That I don't know," Brother Mark said.
Lambert continued. "I was in a sort of a park that re-created their home planet-not Kur, which I think is warmer. It was quite warm, with shallow water."
"Boat still seems likely," Moytana said. "Mobile."
"No, it's high up," Ediyak said. "If it gets in trouble, it just launches itself into the air. They can glide for miles."
"How do you know?" Lambert said.
"I heard . . . before I defected over," she replied. "A friend in the underground told me he'd seen one glide away from a fire they'd started in his tower. He sailed off like he was in a glider."
Moytana was studying a map on the wall. "The bridge," Moytana said.
"Bridge?" Lambert said.
"New Bridge, the people in Owensboro call it. Just east of the city. Suspension bridge with two high pylons."
Lambert shook her head. "Too easy for us to get to."
"Not necessarily. Both ends are guarded."
"I've crossed it, a couple weeks back," Duvalier said. "North to south. I had a picture of a Moondagger and some letters, claimed I was looking for him. Smugglers bribe their way across all the time. One of the smugglers told me that it's actually harder to go north to south than the other way. Going north, they just check to make sure you aren't bringing weapons and ask about your business."
Moytana nodded. "The Kurians don't want their Ohio populace slipping across the river any more than they want Kentuckians visiting Ohio. That Kurian can get high enough so it's got a clear view of the power plant. The bridge and power plant can't be more than ten miles apart, I don't think. Clear line of sight, that is-not by road. Escape by air. Escape by boat. Escape by highway. It's perfect."
"Just guesswork," Gamecock said. "You know how many old cracking towers and water tanks and cell towers we've hit because somebody theorized that a Kurian just had to be there? All we came away with was a lot of rust on our gloves and birds' nests. I still say we wait for good, strong daylight and take out the Reapers. A Kurian's just a big bucket of ugly without his walking teeth."
"Not guesswork," Moytana said. "Our scouts have seen some new uniforms on that bridge recently. We've been paying attention because of this armored column reputed to be up from Bloomington way and it's the only intact bridge within sixty miles of Evansville. We keep a close watch on it through a telescope. There are some troops in big woolly overcoats that have showed up. All tall men in winter duty hats. They don't do anything; they just keep an eye on the Ordnance regulars. They look like high-level security types. Be easy for a Reaper to look like one from a distance, especially at night. He'd just pull his hat down and turn his collar up. We thought they might be there to clamp down on desertions or make sure smugglers aren't bringing necessities into Kentucky. But maybe not."
They worked out the details of Duvalier's reconnaissance, and Moytana took her out to find a pair of Wolf drivers for her. The nights were coming earlier and earlier, and they wanted to get her to the power plant by nightfall.
While Duvalier was off scouting the plant, Valentine spent an hour with his rifle and a weighted satchel on his back, training in an old grain elevator in Evansville. It had a similar-loading escalator that Valentine thought similar to the suspension cabling on the bridge, though the bridge's was larger and more graceful looking. He did a good deal of climbing on the inside of the elevator in the dark, getting used to the feel of hanging and climbing and resting. Then, when his muscles couldn't take the load anymore, he practiced balance work, using the gun as a balancing pole.
Duvalier returned the next morning while Valentine was sleeping. She was exhausted and smeared with coal dust and rust streaks. After everyone had gathered again, she gave a somnam- bulistic report, correcting a few details on the vol's map and delivering the unwelcome news that a platoon of Moondaggers now occupied the power plant as well.
"How do we get at the Kurian without it getting away?" Gamecock said. "In the time it takes my Bears to fight their way onto the bridge, it could escape."
"We don't even know it's there," Brother Mark said. "And even if it is there, it will in all likelihood be presenting itself as a garbage can or a loose wire hanging from a floodlight."
"Not in this weather, I don't think," Valentine said. "It'll be inside where it's warm."
"I might be able to find it," Brother Mark said. "There's just one difficulty, however. It would have to be communicating with its Reapers. Or even better, feeding."
"Is that all?" Duvalier said. "You let me in to the plant again, and I'll arrange that."
"How?" Valentine asked, unaccountably nervous at the idea.
"I'll know that when I get there."
"When will we attack the bridge? Strong daylight?" Lambert asked.
"No," Valentine said. "We'll need dark, with no moon. The bridge is too well-guarded for anything else."
"I don't like breaking up my Bears," Gamecock said. "They're too used to working together as a team."
"You won't have to," Valentine said. "That bridge is a job for a whole regiment-which we don't have-or one man. If he's there, I'll get him."
