14TRAVIS’ BACK WAS BRACED against blanketed packs as he steadied a piece of light-yellow bark against one bent knee scowling at the lines drawn on it in faint green.
“We are here then ... and the ship there—” His thumb was set on one point of the crude map, forefinger on the other. Buck nodded.
“That is so. Tsoay, Eskelta, Kawaykle, they watch the trails. There is the pass, two other ways men can come on foot. But who can watch the air?”
“The Tatars say the Reds dare not bring the ‘copter into the mountains. After they first landed they lost a flyer in a tricky air-current flow up there. They have only one left and won’t risk it. If only they aren’t reinforced before we can move!” There it was again, that constant gnawing fear of time, time shortening into a rope to strangle them all.
