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sense of his own frailty. If things went wrong here, his connection with
Dreendom would be broken.
Oh, do be careful, Lutt, Ryll thought.
Lutt ignored this, too intent on watching the action. Humperman on his left,
camera at her shoulder the way he had instructed, was capturing her own view
of things, carrying on a running commentary to explain her pictures. Subiyama
walked beside her, talking into the electronic clipboard. Lutt heard only
part of Subiyama's recording.
". . . and on my right is Lutt Hanson, Jr., the scion of the Hanson empire,
proving to the universe that he's a working newsman."
Good copy! Lutt thought. I hope it gets through.
He saw the green light at the corner of his image focus telling him he was
transmitting and being received. Then they were out onto level high ground
with a shattered inceram parapet directly ahead. Wounded and dying Legion
troops and broken robots lay all around. The replacements marched through and
over the casualties. Lutt crouched and recorded. He saw Humperman bend over
and dash to the left, there to aim her camera over the broken parapet.
Subiyama crouched beside him, still recording into her more primitive device.
". . . with heavy casualties here at the Legion Command Center but the brave
defenders are mounting a counterattack."
Lutt heard the loud static pops of deflector rays but the system was invisible
except for occasional bursts of purple light.
Subiyama focused on the same phenomenon, recording: "The much-touted French
deflector-ray system appears to have been breached but is working once more.
I can see the laser hits overhead and in
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Lutt turned with his camera at nearby motion and saw a squad of six-legged
robomedics emerge from the command complex. They began ministering to the
wounded and dying, removing some of the casualties on inceram stretchers.
Lutt followed this action with his camera, adding his own commentary as he
shot.
"The Chinese attack on this French stronghold appears to have inflicted heavy
casualties. You can see the Legion artillery on the high ground beyond us
beginning to return, the fire. We can assume the Chinese also are taking
heavy losses."
He aimed the camera as he spoke, watching through the lens as the guns belched
black and silver clouds. The ground trembled with the explosions and his
armor's mike system attenuated the sound automatically to protect his ears.
From her position crouched by the shattered parapet, Humperman called back to
him: "Air attack nine o'clock."
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Lutt saw her turn and aim her camera. He did the same, seeing a dark swarm of
aircraft in the middle distance. Bursts of purple light appeared in the swarm
as the Legion artillery found the range.
"Let's get off of here!" Subiyama shouted. "This place is a target."
She led the way at a crouching run whose speed surprised Lutt. He followed,
keeping his camera more or less turned toward the attackers while he explained
what was happening.
Once beyond the parapet, he found himself on brittle brown Venusian stone that
crunched underfoot.
This shaded into a slippery red sandlike surface much softer than an Earth
beach. It slowed him dramatically.
Recalling the Venus survival pamphlet, Lutt thought: Keep moving! The
Venusian hotfoot is no joke.
Ryll, observing all of this, could not refrain from comment. You don't even
feel the tragedy!
You just see it all through your cold, emotionless newsman's eyes.
That's the way it is, Ryll baby. Now stop distracting me unless you want us
killed. This is the war you wanted to see.
I no longer want to see it. Let's go back inside.
And leave a great story? You are nuts! Now shut up!
Subiyama leading and Humperman right behind, they passed a staging area for
casualties. Opaque inceram cocoons covered most of the wounded but a few
cocoons had transparent insets that showed men wrapped in bloody blankets.
Lutt paused for a few close-ups through the transparent insets. None of the
legionnaires or robomedics took offense at this activity. They appeared
familiar with news coverage and even pointed to areas where the attackers were
being shot down.
Humperman ran up beside him and shouted: "Are you sure they're getting all of
this back on
Earth?"
"As long as that green light shows in your image screen."
"Can they talk to us through this thing?"
"When we're in transceive mode. I'll show you later."
Ryll, observing the air attackers approaching, feeling the vorcamera Spirals
as possibly his last link with all that was Dreen, experienced mounting
terror. Some of this began to bleed through
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Please, Lutt, Ryll begged. Let us go somewhere safe.
You told me your life was dull. I'm doing you a favor, Ryll. And at no
little expense.
I've changed my mind!
Too late, Ryll baby!
When it became apparent There would be no deflecting Lutt from this course,
Ryll subsided into
Dreen analysis and probing of the Earther. To Ryll's surprise, he learned
that Lutt on rare occasions showed compassion for others. For Ryll, however,
Lutt felt no such emotion. Ryll was an alien irritant, as unworthy of
consideration as a brute animal.
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