“ Listen, Sawyer, I’m sorry, bill there’s nothing —”
The enemy’s voice ended with a dull snap. A flare of light came briefly from the southern horizon, and died.
“ He he he he he—” said the thing in the cave.
Grumbler paused.
THKRRUMMMP! came the shock-wave through the rocks.
Five emissary ears relayed their recordings of the detonation from various locations. It studied them, it analyzed. The detonation had occurred less than fifty meters from the enemy runabout. Satiated, it wheeled around lazily on the hilltop and rolled northward toward the center of the world. All was well.
“ Aubrey, you got cut ojf,” grunted the thing in the cave. “Call me, you coward … call me. I want to make certain you hear.”
Grumbler, as a random action, recorded the meaningless noise of the thing in the cave, studied the noise, rebroadcast it on the long-wave frequency: “Aubrey, you got cut off. Call me, you coward… call me. I want to make certain you hear.”
The seismitter caught the long-wave noise and reintroduced it as vibration in the rocks.
The thing screamed in the cave. Grumbler recorded the screaming noise, and rebroadcast it several times.