He took a chart from a drawer, spread it out on a table top. "The
simplest way would be to cut these two wires. When the Lhari land, we'll
be there, waiting for them. On board the Lhari ship, there must be full
records--coordinates of their home world, of where they go for their
catalyst fuel--all that."
Bart whistled. "But won't the crew defend the ship? You can't fight
energon-ray guns!"
Montano's face was perfectly calm. "No. We won't even try." He handed
Bart a small strip of pale-yellow plastic.
"Keep this out of sight of the Mentorians," he said. "The Lhari won't be
able to see the color, of course. But when it turns orange, take cover."
"What is it?"
"Radiation-exposure film. It's exactly as sensitive to radiation as you
are. When it starts to turn orange, it's picking up radiation. If you're
aboard the ship, get into the drive chambers--they're lead-lined--and
you'll be safe. If you're out on the surface, you'll be all right inside
one of the concrete bunkers. But get under cover before it turns red,
because by that time every Lhari of them will be stone-cold dead."
Bart let the strip of plastic drop, staring in disbelief at Montano's
cold, cruel face. "Kill them? Kill a whole shipload of them? That's
murder!"
"Not murder. War."
"We're not at war with the Lhari! We have a treaty with them!"
"The Federation has, because they don't dare do anything else," Montano
said, his face taking on the fanatic's light, "but some of us dare do
something, some of us aren't going to sit forever and let them strangle
all humanity, hold us down, let us die! It's war, Bart, war for
economic survival. Do you suppose the Lhari would hesitate to kill
anyone if we did anything to hurt their monopoly of the stars? Or didn't
they tell you about David Briscoe, how they hunted him down like an
animal--"
"But how do we know that was Lhari policy, and not just--some fanatic?"
Bart asked suddenly. He thought of the death of the elder Briscoe, and
as always he shivered with the horror of it, but for the first time it
came to him: Briscoe had provoked his own death. He had physically
attacked the Lhari--threatened them, goaded them to shoot him down in
self-defense! "I've been on shipboard with them for months. They're not
wanton murderers."
Raynor Two made a derisive sound. "Sounds like it might be Three
talking!"