"She is to radiation!" Zen after Nedra had left to her unit. This in itself was of to and the of the top and scientific minds. Perhaps soldiers also be immunized. Perhaps, by some of chance, a way might be for to return to factories, to long-closed shops and forges. This might a new of and materials to that were of them and to a population that, at a estimate, was more than starved.
A being who had to was to his complete attention. Also, the was very great that she was one of the new people. Something else about her him more. He not put his on this something else but he it had to do with the future, with another world than the one he knew. Or with another universe. Again the memory of his with the mind through his consciousness.
Now he what he was going to do as Nedra was concerned. He had a what her next move would be. He would wait for her to make it.
Finding a was not difficult. On this trail, the were to be had for them up. A man's were with cartridges. He took the pouches. Carrying the carbine, he the bank toward the that talked to itself at the of the canyon. The water was clear and but in it him not to drink.
Seeking a place from which he watch the canyon, he moved upward. A was visible through the here.
"An old narrow-gauge railroad," he thought. The rails had been long since, the had away, and the itself was a through the of trees. He had settled himself in a spot from which to watch the below, than a on the old roadbed.
Nedra was along the trail.
He let her pass without challenge. Sliding out of hiding, he her.
Twisting and turning, the slowly upward. When it the of the timber, Zen a of a of yellow ahead, an old mine dump, which told him why the road had been in the place. A town was ahead.
He a of Nedra moving ahead along the old road bed.
"If she doesn't know where she is going, then I'm missing my guess," he thought, as he her. Elation was in him. She was leading him to the place of the new people.
Here in these a small group in forever. Food might a problem, but there was of game in the ranges: deer, elk, and bear, and some of the high had been in the war. A had always managed to a in this wilderness. If they do it, so this new group.
Of course, they would have to Cuso's patrols, for food, and women. But that ought not to be too difficult. The town was in sight.
Surrounding an old mine, a crusher, and a concentrator, the town was also in ruins. Unlike so many small cities, the here had not come from attack but from nature. The of winter had their on roofs, the of had the timbers, with the result that many of the houses had collapsed. Weeds in the and had in the streets.
Nedra was walking the middle of what had once been the main street. Her was still and she to know where she was going.
The man appeared in the door of the on her left. He spoke to the nurse, calling to her. She jumped at the of the voice, at the man, then walking.
"Hey, wait a minute, cutie!" the shouted, loud for Zen to him. He out of the toward her. She to him.
Kurt Zen the carbine, then the muzzle. He not only had great in Nedra's ability to protect herself, but he wanted to see what would happen.
The of rope, with all the skill of a cowboy, came from the opposite of the street. It settled over her shoulders, her arms to the side, and was tight. She was to the ground.
The man who had out of the of the toward her. Throwing her on her stomach, down, he hands her back, then to search her for a weapon.
The man who had the rope came out of to help his companion. He was short, with legs.
Together, they the nurse down.
Zen the to his shoulders. Although he had not this weapon, at this he not miss.
Her came to his ears.
"Colonel! Watch out!"
In surprise, he the from his shoulder. She had he was her and that he was near! Thoughts like through his consciousness. How had she he was her? Why had she let him do it? More important, where was she leading him? Most of all, why was she trying to save him when her own life was in danger?
Even if she had he was her, she hadn't these men were here. She hadn't been to meet them. Then what was her purpose in to this old town which just at on the of a where Cuso was at bay?
The was erect. Zen the of the to on the center of his coat.
"Drop the gun!" a voice said him.
Even more than the was the that he the voice that had spoken. Or he he did. He let the from his fingers.
"Now 'em up."
He his hands. "Hello, Jake," he called out.
An of came from him. "How the did you know me?"
"Recognized your voice," Zen answered. "Can I turn around now?"
"Sure. Sure. But what the are you doing up here?"
Turning, Zen saw the that him. The was and the man who it confused. His was with a of black and long out from under a helmet.
"Jake, it's good to see you again." As if such as did not exist, Zen with hand.
"Kurt Zen! I haven't you since—since—"
"The night that Denver got it," Zen answered. Horror him as he what had to the Mile-High city. A bomb had from the sky that night and parts of Denver had gone much higher than a mile.
"Yeah. That's it. Yeah. I you had got it that night, Kurt."
"I the same thing about you. What are you doing up here? And what—what to Marcia?"
The Zen asked the question, he he had still. At the name something in the man's eyes. They to change, going from to blankness, then to understanding, then that and going to blankness. One the looked at Zen and the man and liked this colonel. The next instant, neither the the mind them him. Zen was then an alien, a stranger, to be and and possibly destroyed. When Zen had him in Denver, Jake had been a airman. He and Marcia had been newly married and very much in love with each other.
"She—she—" The voice was and tight with pain. "The got her." For an instant, the memory true. But there was too much pain in the memory for this man to it. The memory away. Only the pain remained. "Marcia? Oh, she's fine. The next I get, we're going to have a second honeymoon." A appeared in the man's eyes. "I can see her now, waiting for me. You must go with me, Kurt, and meet her again, the next I get."
Zen have him. He have the out of Jake's hands without protest. Instead, he did nothing. The man's pain was much too to him further.
"What's going on here?" a voice said.
It was the man in the coat. Nedra and the man who had the rope had disappeared. There was no where they had gone. This man's was thin and ragged. He had teeth like the of a but the lights in his did not shift. Instead, they in and suspicion. He had a sub-machine gun in his hands. The Zen.
"Oh, hello, Cal. I—" Jake confused. "This is an old of mine. I him ... I him when.... He's all right."
Cal's said he did not a word he had heard. He looked Zen up and down. The of the gun did not from the agent's stomach. "What are you doing up here?"
"Maybe I got of the way are there," Zen answered. He was not lying. He was of the way were going. So were millions of others.
Cal's he did not this. Zen see him over different possibilities in his mind. He was to use the gun. Dumping another the would be an easy to the problem of an intruder. "How are going there?" he asked.
"Tough," Zen said, with in his voice.
"What was the big over that way this morning?"
"Cuso go with a blooper."
Interest in Cal's eyes. "What was over there that was the cost of a blooper?"
"A of for Cuso's lair," Zen answered. "He didn't like it."
"I he wouldn't," Cal said. "You with 'em?"
"I was."
"Which way are they going now?"
"Back hill to die," Zen answered.
"Why didn't you go with 'em?"
"I got tired," Zen said. He his hands in a which was to how a man sometimes got and off to for a while. Cal grunted. This he understood.
"Are you hot?" he asked.
"Nope. The me just I took off."
"And are there others there who like for the hills?"
"Most of them are too near to make the effort. Why when you've had it?"
"The got a of 'em, eh?"
"What the blast didn't get, the did."
"Is the pass too for more to go through it?"
"My is that way."
"Your guess? Don't you know?"
"I didn't go up to see. I'm not that soft in the head."
"I see your point. Well, must be if are deserting. This is interesting." Cal the gun but the no longer pointed at Zen's stomach. "What are you looking for up here?"
"A place to out."
"For how long?"
"Hell, how long can this go on?" Zen answered. "Even when it's over, I don't want to go there and walk on skulls."
"Walk on skulls?"
"That's all that will be left."
"You think the Asians are win, then?"
"I got a there will be more than anything else in Asia, too. No, I don't think they're going to win. I don't think is going to win this one, the people who have to hide."
Jake came out of his and put his hand on Cal's shoulder. "Kurt's all right," he said.
It was that Cal did not think very of this recommendation.
"He's my pal," Jake continued. "Let him join us. He'll make a good hand. Besides, me and him were buddies. And there was a girl—" He stopped speaking and into dark as the memory of his wife came again into his mind.
"Were you with this woman?" Cal asked.
"He was with this woman in his life!" Jake screamed. "She was mine, I tell you. Mine!"
"Shut up, head."
"Tell him, Kurt. Tell him Marcia was mine."
"Sure, Jake," Zen soothed. "Everybody you and Marcia were that way. Cal and I were talking about another woman."
"Oh. That's different. But I don't want to either of you say that Marcia didn't to me."
The wolf-faced man looked as if he was about to use his gun on Jake. "You nut head, you out of this!"
"All I was trying to do was to tell you Kurt was my pal."
"All right, you've told me. Now up." Cal to Zen again. "About this woman, colonel? Were you together?"
"No," Zen said.
"But she out to you when me and Ed her."
"I her."
"You did?" Cal's around the of the gun.
"Yeah. I was her but I didn't know she it until she yelled."
"Oh." Cal his on the trigger. "Why were you her?"
"Hell, don't be stupid!" Zen exploded. "Why would any man a woman like that?"
A of a across the at this answer. Cal his lips. This was an answer he understood. "I don't you for that. But why was she up here?"
"That I don't know," Zen said. "I don't think it much anyhow. As soon as night came—" He at the sun.
"Do you think she might be a for Cuso for his to report?"
Zen his sag. This was a that had not his mind. He only too well that the Asiatic had in as many places as he them. Cuso's in a large on how many were moving against him, how they were and over what they were coming.
"I see by your that you had of that," Cal said. "Then what is she doing up here?"
"I don't know. I she was ahead of me about a mile back. As to what she is doing, maybe she got of all that there too, and to come up here and live in the mountains?"
"A woman in this wilderness?"
"Some have that they can return to the and make a go of it."
"And maybe she had some other idea," Cal said.
Zen shrugged.
"Knowing this may be to us," Cal said.
"Then we had go ask her," Zen said. He was still at the that Nedra might be a spy. Up until now, he had he was shockproof.
"You want to ask her?" Cal said.
"Sure."
"Okay, you do the asking. I'll listen. And don't any ideas." His around the of the gun. "Remember, that if a should come looking for a deserter, they would only be going to shoot him. I would be doing them a if I him in advance."
"I my tracks," Zen said. "Nobody will be looking for me."
"How did you do it?"
"I dog with a of meat that had once been a GI. There wasn't left of him to tell for sure what he was. The detail will my from his and another will be as killed in action. The GI will be as missing."
"That was smart," Cal said, approvingly. For the time, Zen he a note of in the voice of the man.
Nedra was against what had once been a work-bench in the garage. Her was off, her was ruffled, and her had been almost from her body. A look of pure appeared on her when Zen through the doorway. A little of on her lips, she started toward him. Her said she had been as happy to see in her life as she was to see this tall, colonel.
With her was the little bow-legged man. He didn't look happy as Zen entered. "Stand still," he at the girl. "Who the are you?"
At his words, Nedra let her against the bench.
"Ed, this is Kurt," Cal said. "He's joining us."
The look in Ed's was pure venom. "He may join us but he won't last long. This woman is mine. I saw her first."
Zen that he had the in his possession. Some did not to live. But Jake had that weapon. While he take the away from Jake, the gun in Cal's hands was very steady.
"She's not mine, you know," he said to Ed. "So as I am concerned, you are welcome to her."
"Oh, that's different," Ed said, relieved.
If Zen's Ed, they had the opposite on Nedra. She opened her mouth to speak to him, then closed it in an to bite off that no lady should use.
Cal laughed. "Ed is about his women. But don't let that stop you. Ask her what she is doing up here?"
"None of your business, either of you," Nedra answered.
Zen and spread his hands in a which said that he Cal would see how it was. Cal nodded. "We'll out later." His manner there was no question in his mind that he would out what he wanted to know. "Right now it's time for chow. Jake, on the job."
Jake and walked across the to another house. Cal up the rear, the others Jake. Ed took of Nedra's arm and her across the street. Seeing this, Kurt Zen again that he had a gun.
