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and knees along a lesser branch until she reached a point where sheaves of
floatwood foliage overhung the lagoon. Here she straddled the branch, grasped
two of the leaf stems, drew them cautiously apart and was looking down on the
swirling reed tops two hundred feet below.
The area where she d set down the car had been widened, the plants thrust
aside and mashed down so that she could see a patch of open water. There were
other indications that a surface craft had broken a way in from the lagoon.
Nile saw nothing else, thought for a moment the car already had been destroyed
or hauled off. But then she heard a series of clanging metallic sounds, partly
muffled by the wind. Somebody was down there, perhaps engaged in forcing open
the car s doors.
She waited, upper lip clamped between her teeth, heard no more. Then one end
of the aircar edged into view, turning slowly as if it were being pushed
about. A moment later all of it suddenly appeared in the open area and on the
canopy
Nile s thoughts blurred in shock.
Parahuans. . . .
Some seventy years ago they d come out of space to launch almost simultaneous
attacks against Nandy-Cline and a dozen other water worlds of the Hub. They d
done considerable damage, but in the end their forces were pulled back; and it
was believed that by the time the Federation s warships finished hunting them
through space, only insignificant remnants had survived to return to their
undiscovered home worlds. It had been the last open attack by an alien
civilization against a Federation planet even planets as far out from the
Hub s center as Nandy-Cline.
And we became careless, Nile thought. We felt we were so big no one would dare
come again. . . .
With a kind of frozen fascination, she stared at the two bulky amphibious
creatures squatting on the car, thickly muscled legs bent sharply beneath
them. A swarm of reflections based on various old descriptions of Parahuans
went through her mind. The bluish-gray torsos and powerful arms were enclosed
by webbings of straps, holding tools and weapons. The bulging eyes on the big
round heads were double-lensed, the lower sections used for underwater vision
and lidded in air, as they now were. A vocal orifice was connected to a
special air system above the eyes. The two Parahuans below seemed to be
gabbling at others outside her range of vision, though the wind drowned most
of the sounds they were making.
Well, they had dared come again . . . and they already must be in considerable
number on the unsuspecting planet, establishing themselves in and under the
floatwood islands in recent months. The little figure in the gutted
laboratory, the small devil brooding vengefully over the mutilated husks of
human bodies, was made in their image.
It changed her immediate plans. In this storm-swept multileveled mountain of
dense vegetation she d felt reasonably safe from human searchers. But she
could take no chances with these aliens until she knew their capabilities. She
shifted back on the branch, then halted watchfully. In the water of the lagoon
beyond the reeds something was moving. Nile couldn t make out details, but it
was a very large creature, dirty white in color. As she stared, it sank slowly
below the surface and was gone.
She scrambled back along the branch under cover of the leaves, got to her feet
as soon as she reached more solid support, and retreated hurriedly into the
forest. In their first campaign the Parahuans had brought a formidable
creature along with them which took part effectively in the fighting. It was
animalic in behavior, though there was some evidence that it was a gigantic
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adaptation of the Parahuan life form. Reportedly it had sharp senses, was
equally agile on land and in water, and difficult to stop with ordinary
weapons.
What she d seen out in the lagoon just now was one of those creatures a
Parahuan tarm.
Eyes shifting quickly about as she moved on, she paused here and there for an
instant. Her knife reached out, slashed stem, seed pod, blossom, fleshy leaf,
chunky tentacle from one or another familiar tacapu or plant form. They bled
tinted dust, tinted sap, quickly turning to streaks and blots of green, shadow
blue, cinnamon, chocolate brown, gray and white on Nile s body, arms, legs,
face, hair, equipment. Breaking outline, blending form into background . . . a
trick used in stalking floatwood species wary and keen-sighted enough to avoid
undisguised human hunters.
It might not be sufficient disguise now. Humans had a variety of life
detection instruments. No doubt, Parahuans had them. For many such devices,
one human being in the floatwood became simply one life form blurred among
many life forms. But the distinctive human scent remained, and sharp senses
read it as well as instruments. She could take care of that presently. To do
it, she d have to get back to the area of Ticos laboratory. . . .
Her mind halted a moment. Ticos laboratory! Nile made a sound of muted fury.
If he d left a clue for her anywhere, given any time to do it, he d left it
there! She d felt she was overlooking something. She hesitated. If she hadn t
been in partial shock because of what she d come upon
She returned along the route she d followed from the laboratory to the lagoon,
staying some thirty feet above what should be her actual trail.
And presently: a special minor area of agitation in the mass of wind-shaken
growth below and ahead. A shimmer of blue-gray.
Nile sank smoothly to the floatwood branch she was crossing, flattened herself
against it, then carefully shifted position enough to let her peer down.
The Parahuan was coming out of a thicket beneath her, following another
branch. He crept along on all fours. It looked awkward, but his motion was
fairly rapid and showed no uncertainty. He came to a parallel bough, paused,
took a short hop over to it, went on. He seemed indifferent to the fact that
he was several hundred feet above the sea. So they were capable climbers. As
he reached a curtain of secondary growth, another Parahuan appeared, trailing
the leader by twenty-five feet, and vanished behind him. Nile checked two
minutes off on her watch. No more aliens had showed up the pair seemed to be
working alone. She went up twenty feet, hurried back in the direction of the
lagoon.
It had startled her that they d been able to pick up her trail so promptly in
this vast green warren. The odds seemed all against that, but there was no
question that they were following it. Both carried guns, heavy-looking
thick-barreled devices fastened to the web of straps about their trunks. The
one in the lead had a curved box attached to the top of his head, a number of
tubes projecting from its sides and twisting about in the air with a
suggestion of sentient searching. The second Parahuan carried a much smaller
instrument directly above the vocal slit in the upper part of his head. That
probably was a communicator.
Nile dropped back down, found a place to wait. There d been a practical detail
in the information contained in the old war records: the lower half of a
Parahuan s head was the best point to aim at to put them out of action
quickly. Second choice was the lower torso. . . .
The leading Parahuan came into sight again on a lower branch, edging out of a
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