The radio Zen's pack was small but very powerful. It did not look like a radio at all; there was no and no of power. Only the and the its true nature.
He the phone into his ear, the against his throat, then up the piece of plastic that was red on one end and green on the other. Wires ran from each end of this to the small box that the transmitter.
"Red goes to the right hand," he muttered. "Green to the left. Or is it the other way around?" Making up his mind that red to the right, he closed his around the ends of the plastic tube, then the on top of the small box that the transmitter.
The moved on the dial.
"Calling nine nine," he spoke. "This is six one calling nine nine." He the call three times, then sat on his to an answer.
"Come in six one," the said. "What color is red?"
"It's green this week," Zen answered promptly.
"What color was it last week?"
"Last week? Um. Oh, yes. No color."
"And that means—"
"White. This is Kurt Zen, colonel, intelligence, reporting. Connect me with General Stocker."
Satisfied with the identity of the caller, the said, "Just a minute, colonel, I'll see if the will talk to you."
"Tell him it's important," Zen urged.
"They always say that," the sighed. "I'll put you through as soon as I can."
"Kurt, boy, where are you?" General Stacker's voice into a microphone. The general's voice always boomed, he was always hearty, he was always sure that while might look black right now, they would work out all right in the end. By the time the voice Zen's earphone, it had been into a squeak. Kurt he an note in the and he if the had the end, and was it not as he had supposed.
"In hell, general," Zen answered. He told where he was and what had happened. "Cuso's out the last pass by which we can an against him. This whole area is with radiation."
"How will we that out of his now?"
"That's for the staff to decide. I have more news."
"Yes? Talk, Kurt, and fast. You don't that you—"
"Yes. I I think this nurse may be it. I don't know yet." Zen what had happened.
"Damn it, Kurt, do you to tell me that if she comes alive, you will know she is to the radiation, and hence must be one of the new people? But if she comes dead, or so with that she will die a days, then you will know she was just like all the of us?" Even through Zen's earphone, the general's voice had to boom.
"That's the way I see it," Zen answered.
"But goddammit—Are you hurt, Kurt?" The general's voice was solicitous. "Are you all right?"
"Damn it, I'm in my right mind," Zen answered. "I was in a when the blast off. Don't you think I've got to take cover?" Stocker's him. "Sorry, sir," he an later.
"It's all right, boy. I know that nerves in combat. But this nurse—"
"That's the way I see it, sir," Zen said doggedly. "I permission to her."
"If she comes alive, you mean?"
"I would it if you would stop me of that possibility."
"Oh. So you are in her?"
"Well, what if I am? She's a kid."
"They all are, boy. They all are—until you to know them. As to permission to her, you've not only got it, but it's an order. We've got to out about these new people. One of them appeared in President Wilkerson's private office this and told him to call off a planned landing in Asia."
"Really?" Zen said. "In the President's office!"
"That's what I said."
"Did it happen? I mean, was anyone present?"
"No one the President's secretary. She's under right now, from shock. She God Almighty Himself had come walking in. The old man is not in much shape." Stocker's voice of strain. "I've got my orders from Wilkerson himself and I'm them on to you. Find these new people! Follow that nurse to if you have to."
"Right, sir."
"Report to me when you have something to report—that is, something going to with her. Off." Zen as he the phone out of his ear. He the into the pack and it over his shoulder. The count was but it was still too high for safety. He looked up the trail. Wounded men were but Nedra was not in sight.
The men were no longer a unit, but had individuals, each one only on his own survival. Patriotism had gone from their minds, they no longer gave a about saving their country, but were only in saving their own lives.
Far up the trail, Zen see a tall moving upward. The nurse! He the pair of from his shoulder. Through the powerful Nedra's was very clear. He saw her move to the of the and a man who the to walk downhill. Somehow she got the man to his and started him along the trail. He and fell. Again the nurse him but this time she no attempt to him. Instead, she got to her own feet.
Zen the man had died as he fell.
She on up the slope.
Down below, and then came to a halt. Turning, Zen saw that a station was being set up there. The fast; already they were the men to the end of a truck, where an station had been set up. But, fast as they worked, they were too late to help the majority of the wounded. The of the Zen, so he returned his attention to the nurse.
She was in the middle of the again. The avalanche, directly ahead of her, had stopped her progress. A man was with her.
Through the glasses, the man looked as tall and as a peak. No soldier, he was without or other headgear. His hair, white as the on top of a mountain, was in the wind. His looked like a in granite. Zen that he was a of this region, a who had safety in these fastnesses, and who had been out of his place by Cuso's and was this to die. The nurse was talking to him.
Involuntarily, as if they had a will of their own, Zen's started him up the slope. He had taken a dozen steps he the on his wrist.
"To with the count!" he thought. "I'm going up there and her here. She's not going to her life away while I like a below. I don't give a she's one of the new people or not. She's human!"
He the with strides. Then he saw that Nedra was toward him and him back.
"Colonel! You can't come up here."
"I am up there!" he in reply.
"No!"
When he did not stop, she ran toward him. The man with her. Reaching Zen, she his sleeve, him around, and started him the slope. "You can't be here." Her voice was with protest.
"Are you me orders?" Zen growled. Secretly he was pleased she was about him.
"If you will permit me, colonel, I think Nedra's is to save your life," the man spoke. He had a voice like a in the distance, sweet-toned and musical, but with of great strength.
"What about her life?" Zen demanded.
"I'm going now, colonel," the nurse said hastily. "They've set up a station. They will need me there."
"You will need their attention is what you mean," Zen said.
"Colonel, the counter!" she answered.
The was well over the hundred mark and was still rising.
"Come, colonel." Hooking her arm in his, Nedra moving the rough, boulder-strewn trail. Zen did not move. She harder.
"Your life is in here, sir," the man said, politely.
"That is of to me only," Zen answered. "And what about your life?"
"Colonel, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine," the nurse said quickly. "Colonel Zen, Sam West. We'll talk while we walk to the station."
"A to meet you, sir," West said, his hand. His was but there was a of additional power in his fingers.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. West. Do you live around here?"
"Over that way," the man said, over his shoulder.
Again the nurse at Zen's arm. He set his on the trail. "We'll talk right here."
"But you are taking an of Nedra," the man protested. "This area is with and this is neither the time the place to be horses."
"Then why are you two here?"
"I was out of the area as fast as I when I met Nedra," West said. "I would still be out of it, but fast, if you were not stopping me."
"I'm not stopping you," Zen said. "There's the trail. Hit it. Nor you either," he said to Nedra.
"Don't be silly, Kurt," the nurse said. She was with him now.
"All right. But on one condition. Why did you come up here in the place? You the area was hot."
"I—I my head," the nurse said promptly. "My ran away with me. I'm a nurse and men needed my attention. I to them. You will come the with us, won't you?" The him to in her.
"What you your head?"
"Why—shock, I suppose. This is the time I was bombed. Also, the of the wounded. Really, sir, I am a nurse." The way she said the word, being a nurse meant something. The had of and were on the of anger at him.
"I don't a word you have said," Zen said. "You didn't your there in the hole."
"Please, Kurt." Again she at his arm. "I'll talk to you all you want below. But don't try to me to here."
Reluctantly, Zen to the pressure on his arm. Relief appeared in the and the of the man a from some strain. Dimly, he he had that but the picture that through his mind was gone he fit a time and place on it. Going the trail, he the nurse toward a where the had set up to test the amount of to radiation. In doing this, he that she was him in the same direction.
"I don't need the medics," he protested. "I'm all right. I wasn't long to do any damage."
"Of you're all right," she answered. Her was to that of an mother a child.
"You're the one who needs help," he said. He was she had too long.
"I'm going to it if I need it," she said, soothingly.
Zen the occasional of them. West was silent. He did not to be in a hurry.
Zen started to speak to Nedra. The of what he wanted to say was in his mind and he not for it but he that it had something to do with a wish that the world were different and that the were not trying to itself. Why should he be this? The for his a little clearer. He was the world were different so that he might make love to this nurse under that would permit this love to other fruit than frustration, despair, and death.
He himself that a vine-covered somewhere, a place where a man and a woman might live in peace and security, some who play on a that was not with radiation.
"Here is the station," the nurse said. "And—"
"And what?" he asked her when she did not continue.
She gave his arm a squeeze. "And thank you for the dream," she whispered.
As Kurt Zen toward her, how she had what he had been dreaming, her to in a mist.
He plunged, unconscious, to the ground at her feet.
