"Suppose we go on," Garth said slowly. "I didn't tell you this, but the reason the poison hit Brown was because my antitoxin was too old. He had a short dose, too. The other men—well, they'll go under themselves in a day or so. You, too."
Blue smudges showed under the girl's eyes. "Oh," she said after a moment. "So it's like that."
"Just like that."
Paula's stubborn chin tilted up. "I don't care—there's still a way. We'll be all right at night, you said. Well, we'll do our traveling and fighting by night."
"Fighting?"
"The Zarno. Garth, we've got to do it, somehow. Once we find that power-source, we can use it! There'll be weapons the Ancients left, I'm sure of it. The murals at Chahnn showed they had weapons, strong enough to conquer the Zarno. If we can get those—"
"You're crazy," Garth said. "Plain crazy. What the hell do you expect me to do about it? Sampson would knock my block off if I tried to stop him now."
But he was thinking: we're losing more than a chance to find the Ancient's power-source. I'm losing my chance to find the cure for the Silver Plague.
"No," he said stubbornly.
Paula's lip curled. "I should have known better than to ask you for help. I'll handle this myself." She unholstered her gun.