He was developing a strong
distaste for those structures. And he had no intention of returning to
the city again.
He lounged about with Soriki for the rest of the afternoon, watching
the ceaseless activity of the aliens. It was plain that they were
intent upon packing into the cargo hold of their ship everything they
could wrest from the storage house. As if they must make this trip
count double. Was that because they had discovered that their treasure
house was no longer inviolate?
In the late afternoon Hobart and Lablet came back with one of the work
teams. Lablet was still excited, full of what he had seen, deduced, or
guessed during the day. But the captain was very quiet and sober, and
he unstrapped the wrist camera as soon as he reached the flitter,
turning it over to Soriki.
"Run that through the ditto," he ordered. "I want two records as soon
as we can get them!"
The com-tech's eyebrows slid up, "Think you might lose one, sir?"
"I don't know. Anyway, we'll play it safe with double records." He
accepted the ration pack Raf had brought out for him. But he did not
unwrap it at once; instead he stared at the globe, digging the toe of
his space boot into the soil as if he were grinding something to
powder.
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