“I’ll be very careful. We’ll take every precaution.”
“We?”
“You’re coming, of course. I can’t imagine you staying away.”
Copper nodded.
“You shouldn’t worry so much,” Kennon teased. “You know we men live forever.”
“That is true.”
“And if I’m right you’re just as human as I. And you’re capable of living as long as I do.”
“Yes, sir,” Copper said. Her voice was unconvinced, her expression noncommittal.
“You females,” Kennon said in quick exasperation. “You drive a man crazy. Get an idea in your head and it takes triatomate to blast it out. Now let’s go.”
Two hours brought them back to the volcanic area, and knowing what to look for, Kennon located the pockmarked mountain valley. From the air it looked completely ordinary. Kennon was amazed at the perfection of the natural camouflage. The Pit was merely another crater in the pitted ground. He dropped to a lower altitude, barely a hundred feet above the sputter cones. “Look!” he said.