Enemies of the System Read Online Free PDF Page B

E-hours is all that going to take?” asked a fair-haired woman, a seasons technician with great experience of the Saturn micro-system. “It will be dark in another seven hours, won’t it? What happens if no one has arrived by then?”
    â€œWe’ve still eight or nine hours of daylight, haven’t we?” another voice asked.
    These questions were never answered.
    A row of dark heads appeared over the roadside embankment. Heads and shoulders, eyes, low brows. Scrutinizing the group of tourists. Regarding the wrecked bus. Nobody moved. Metal crackled.
    Those dark heads and withered unimaginable faces had such a petrifying effect on the tourists that tides of time seemed to drift by like the clouds overhead. Then one of the animals hopped up from the bank and stood alertly on the highway. It took another leap, bringing it almost under the trailing skirt of the LDB. It curled back its lips and showed grey teeth.
    The tourists shrank away, closing ranks. They were confronting something which filled them with an overwhelming sense of dread. The unknown had hitherto formed no part of their existence; everything that was regimented and comfortable quailed before this demon. Its darting gaze, its stance, challenged the rules they lived by.
    â€œLook …” began Kordan. But he had nothing to say.
    The animal was 1.5 meters high. It remained where it was, in a crouch, content, master of the situation. Two of its fellows scrambled up the bank and joined it, standing slightly in its rear. The three of them waited, teeth bared, snouts twitching. The tourists could hear their continual sniffing, and the rasp of their nails on the road surface.
    Roughly human-shaped, the animals possessed disproportionately long arms and large paddle-like front paws, which hung to the ground. Their feet were flat and almost round, and studded with calluses. The faces were startling, the sandy flesh contorted into whorls; the effect was of a cross between man and mole, with deep-sunk little eyes set behind an armored nose, and bristling hair covering most of the skull. The bodies were covered with patchy fur.
    Hete Orlon began to sob.
    â€œThe Id!” exclaimed Takeido, not without relish.
    Far from showing fear, the mole-creatures evinced signs which could be interpreted as eagerness to get at the tourists if only they knew how. The tourists watched as more creatures came swarming up the embankment. A dozen of them climbed nimbly up, to stand behind their leader. Their confidence was growing. They dared to look away from the tourists, grunting to each other and licking their furry lips.
    Some sort of decision was arrived at between them. The leading mole-creature took a step forward, raising a paw at the same time. As he did so, a well-aimed boot struck him squarely in the muzzle.
    With a cry, the creature clutched at his face. Blood burst from under his paw. He swung round, blundering among his companions. With one accord, they all turned. With one accord, they all ran, jumped and fled down the bank. In a moment, they were gone. The cottony landscape appeared deserted again.
    Vul Dulcifer walked forward and retrieved his boot. He sat on the grey road surface, pulling it on methodically. His rough features betrayed no expression.
    The tourists found their tongues again. The spell was broken.
    They spread out across the road, peering anxiously through the thick light, arguing amongst themselves as to whether Dulcifer’s violent action was justified. Had the animals been merely curious?
    â€œIt was a moment for individual action, comrades, not a committee meeting,” said Dulcifer. He remained sitting in the road, looking at them.
    Among the party was a general purposes doctor, a silent man called Lech Czwartek, who was noticeable because he alone of the party wore a small goatee beard. He spoke now, addressing his remark to Dulcifer.
    â€œYou realize that you have now convinced those animals that we are