“It’s Dardie,” he whispered reassuringly. “Go to sleep.”
It might have been hours later, or minutes, when Dard came suddenly awake. He lay rigid, listening. There was no sound in the old house, not even the creak of a board. But he pulled out into the cold and crawled to the window. Something had awakened him, and the fear he lived with put him on guard.
He strained to see all the details of the bright white and black landscape. A shadow moved between moon and snow. There was a ’copter coming down, making a silent landing just before the house. Figures leaped out of it and flitted to right and left, encircling the dwelling.
Dard ran back to scoop Dessie out of the warmth of the bed, clapping his hand over her mouth. Her eyes opened, wide with fear. as he put his lips close to her car.
“Go down to Daddy,” he ordered. “Wake him!”
“Peacemen?” She was shaking with more than cold as she started down the stairs. “Say that I think so. They came in a ’copter.” That was the one thing he had not been able to guard against surprise from above. But they had so few of the ’copters left, now that it was forbidden to manufacture any of the prepurge machines. And why should they use one to raid an insignificant farmhouse sheltering a child a cripple and a boy? Unless Lars’ work was important—so important that they dared not allow him to pass along his findings to the underground.
Dard watched the dark shapes take cover. They were probably all around the house by this time, moving in. They wanted to take the inhabitants alive. Too many cornered scientists in the past had cheated them. So they would move slowly now—slow enough to—Dard’s smile was no more than a drawn grimace.He still had one secret, one which might save the Nordis family yet.
Having watched the last of the raiders take cover Dard ran down into the kitchen. The fire was still burning and before it crouched Lars.
“They came by air. And they have the house surrounded,” Dard reported in a matter-of-fact voice. Now that the worst had at last happened he was surprisingly calm. “But they don’t have their trap completely closed as they are going to discover!”
He brushed past Lars and jerked open the cupboard doors. Dessie stood beside her father, and now Dard threw her a bag.