"Magnetic!"
"Yes. Which might explain our crash. Also this." Jellico held out a
field compass to demonstrate that its needle had gone completely mad.
"We can use the mountain range itself for a guide," Dane said with more
confidence than he felt.
"True enough. But we may have trouble when we head west again." Jellico
let the lenses swing free on their cord about his neck. "If we were
wrecked on purpose"--his mouth tightened and the old blaster burn on his
cheek stretched as did his jaw set--"then someone is going to answer a
lot of questions--and fast!"
"The Chief Ranger, sir?"
"I don't know. I just don't know!" The captain grunted as he adjusted
his pack and started on.
If fortune had failed them earlier, she smiled on them now. Asaki
discovered a cave before sundown, located not too far from a mountain
stream. The Ranger sniffed the air before that dark opening as the
Hunter pilot shed his equipment and crept forward on his hands and
knees, his head up and his nostrils expanding as he, too, tested the
scent from the cave mouth.
Scent? It was closer to a stench, and one ripe enough to turn the
stomach of an off-worlder.
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