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When he could control his voice, Oakes asked: “What happened?”
“The clones raised the usual fuss when we put them outside. They know what it’s like out there, of course. I suppose we didn’t pay as close attention as we should. Suddenly, they were screaming, ‘Nerve Runners!’”
“Your people buttoned down, of course.”
“Everything shut up tight while we tried to spot the boil.”
“So?”
Lewis stared at the bottle in his hands, took a deep breath.
Oakes waited. Nerve Runners were horrible, yes—it took three or four minutes for them to do what other demons did in a few eyeblinks. Same result, though.
Lewis sighed, took another swallow of the wine. He appeared calmer, as though Oakes’ presence told him that he really was safe at last.
“They attacked the Redoubt,” Lewis said.
“Nerve Runners?”
“The clones.”
“Attacked? But what weapons . . .”
“Stones, their own bodies. Some of them smashed the sewage baffle before we could stop them. Two clones got inside that way. They were infected by then.”
“Nerve Runners in the Redoubt?”
Oakes stared at Lewis in horror. “What did you do?”
“There was a wild scramble. Our mop-up crew, mostly E-clones, locked themselves in the Aquaculture Lab but Runners were in the water lines by then. The lab’s a shambles. No survivors there. I sealed myself in a Command room with fifteen aides. We were clean.”
“How many did we lose?”
“Most of our effectives.”
“Clones?”
“Almost all gone.”
Oakes grimaced. “Why didn’t you report, ask for help?” He tapped the pellet at his neck.
Lewis shook his head. “I tried. I got static or silence, then someone else trying to talk to me, trying to put pictures in my head.”
Pictures in his head!
That was a good description of what Oakes had experienced. Their safe little secret communications channel had been penetrated! Who?
He voiced the question.
Lewis shrugged. “I’m still trying to find out.”
Oakes put a hand over his own mouth. The ship? Yes, the damned ship was interfering!
He did not dare speak openly of that suspicion. The ship had eyes and ears everywhere. There were other fears, too. A Nerve Runner boil had to be met by fire. He envisioned the Redoubt a mass of cinders inside.
“You say the Redoubt’s all right?”
“Clean. Sterilized, and we have a bonus.” Lewis took another long swallow of wine and grinned at Oakes, savoring the suspense he read in the Ceepee’s face. The Ceepee was so easy to read.
“How?” Oakes did not try to hide his impatience.
“Chlorine and heavily chlorinated water.”
“Chlorine? You mean that kills Nerve Runners?”
“I saw it with my own eyes.”
“That simple? It’s that simple?” Oakes thought of all the years they had lived in terror of these tiniest demons. “Chlorinated water?”
“Heavily chlorinated, undrinkable. But it dissolves the Runners. As a liquid or a gas, it penetrates all the fine places to get every one. The Redoubt stinks, but it’s clean.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m here.” Lewis tapped his chest, took another swallow of wine. Oakes was reacting strangely. It was unsettling. Lewis put down the bottle of wine and thought about the report he had read on the shuttle coming shipside. Legate to the Scream Room! Were there no limits to what the old bastard might do? Lewis hoped not. That was how to control Oakes—through his excesses.
“You are, indeed, here,” Oakes agreed. “How did you get . . . I mean, how did you discover . . .”
“Those of us in the Facilities Room had all of the controls in front of us. We started dumping whatever we could find to . . .”
“But chlorine—how did you get chlorine?”
“We were trying salt brine. There was an electrical short, a wide-scale electrolytic reaction in the brine and we had chlorine. I was on the sensors at the time and saw the chlorine kill some Runners.”
“You’re sure?”
“I saw it with my own eyes. They just shriveled up and died.”
Oakes began to see the picture. Colony had never put chlorine and Nerve Runners together. Most shipside caustics had little effect groundside anyway. Potable water was produced with filters and flash heat from laser ovens. That was the cheapest way. Fire worked on Nerve Runners. Colony had always used fire. Another thought occurred to him.
“The survivors . . . how . . .”
“Only those locked into a sealed area before the infection spread were saved. We flushed everything else with chlorine gas and heavily chlorinated water.”
Oakes imagined the gas killing people and Runners, the caustic water burning f
lesh . . . He shook his head to drive out such thoughts.
“You’re absolutely sure the Redoubt is safe?”
Lewis stared up at him. The precious Redoubt! Nothing was more important.
“I’m going back dayside.”
Belatedly, Oakes realized he should show more human concern. “But my dear fellow, you’re wounded!”
“Nothing serious. But one of us will have to be at the Redoubt all of the time from now on.”
“Why?”
“The cleanup was pretty bloody and that’s causing trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“The surviving clones, even some of our people . . . well, you can imagine how I had to clean up the place. There were necessary losses. Some of the surviving clones and a few of the more irrational among our people have . . .” He shrugged.
“Have what? Explain yourself.”
“We’ve had to handle several petitions from clones and there were even a few of our people who sympathized. I have Murdoch down there standing in for me while I came up to report.”
“Clones? Petitions? How are you handling them?”
“The same way I handled the food problem.”
Oakes scowled. “And . . .the sympathizers?”
Again, Lewis shrugged. “When we sterilized the area around the Redoubt, the other demons returned. They’re a fast and efficient way to solve our problem.”
Oakes touched the scar of the pellet at his neck. “But when . . . that is, why didn’t you send someone up to . . .”
“We stayed until we were sure we were clean.”
“Yes . . . yes, of course. I see. Brave fellows.”
“And can you imagine what would happen if word of this leaks out?”
“You’re quite right.” Oakes thought about what Lewis had said. As usual, Lewis made the right decisions. Astringent but efficient.
“Now, what’s this I hear about Legata?” Lewis asked.
Oakes was outraged. “You have no right to question my . . .”
