PLATINUM POHL by Frederik Pohl Read Free Book Online Page B

best informed, and I wanted to think about that for a while.
     
    What I was waiting for took almost an hour to come. The boys were getting a little sloppy; they should have been after us before this.
    The radio buzzed and then blared: “Unidentified vessel at one three five, zero seven, four eight and seven two, five one, five four! Please identify yourself and state your purpose!”
    Cochenour looked up inquiringly from his gin game with the girl. I smiled reassuringly. “As long as they’re saying ‘please’ there’s no problem,” I told him, and opened the transmitter.
    “This is Pilot Audee Walthers, airbody Poppa Tare Nine One, out of the Spindle. We are licensed and have filed approved flight plans. I have two Terry tourists aboard, purpose recreational exploration.”
    “Acknowledge. Please wait,” blared the radio. The military always broadcasts at maximum gain. Hangover from drill-sergeant days, no doubt.
    I turned off the microphone and told my passengers, “They’re checking our flight plan. Not to worry about.”
    In a moment the Defense communicator came back, loud as ever. “You are eleven point four kilometers bearing one eight three degrees from terminator of a restricted area. Proceed with caution. Under Military Regulations One Seven and One Eight, Sections—”
    I cut in, “I know the drill. I have my guide’s license and have explained the restrictions to the passengers.”
    “Acknowledged,” blared the radio. “We will keep you under surveillance. If you observe
vessels or parties on the surface, they are our perimeter teams. Do not interfere with them in any way. Respond at once to any request for identification or information.” The carrier buzz cut off.
    Cochenour said, “They act nervous.”
    “No. They’re used to seeing us around. They’ve got nothing else to do, that’s all.”
    Dorrie said hesitantly, “Audee, you told them you’d explained the restrictions to us. I don’t remember that part.”
    “Oh, I explained them all right. We stay out of the restricted area, because if we don’t they’ll start shooting. That is the Whole of the Law.”
    7
    I set a wake-up for four hours, and the others heard me moving around and got up too. Dorrie fetched us coffee from the warmer, and we stood drinking it and looking at the patterns the computer had traced.
    I took several minutes to study them, although it was clear enough at first look. There were eight major anomalies that could have been Heechee warrens. One was almost right outside our door. We wouldn’t even have to move the airbody to dig for it.
    I showed them the anomalies, one by one. Cochenour just looked at them thoughtfully. Dorotha asked after a moment, “You mean all of these are unexplored tunnels?”
    “No. Wish they were. But, one: Any or all of them could have been explored by someone who didn’t go to the trouble of recording it. Two: They don’t have to be tunnels. They might be fracture faults, or dikes, or little rivers of some kind of molten material that ran out of somewhere and hardened and got covered over a billion years ago. The only thing we know for sure so far is that there probably aren’t any unexplored tunnels in this area except in those eight places.”
    “So what do we do?”
    “We dig. And then we see what we’ve got.”
    Cochenour said, “Where do we dig?”
    I pointed right next to the bright delta of our airbody. “Right here.”
    “Because it’s the best bet?”
    “Well, not necessarily.” I considered what to tell him, and decided the truth was the best. “There are three that look like better bets than the others—here, I’ll mark them.” I keyed the chart controls, and the best looking traces immediately displayed letters: A, B and C. “A runs right under the arroyo here, so we’ll dig it first.”
    “Those three because they’re the brightest?”
    I nodded, somewhat annoyed at his quickness, although it was obvious enough.
    .“But C over here is the