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.Oh, there were some that thought the Posleen would nevercome; just like there are some that planned on getting drunk enough not tonotice.But most of us realized that they might, and thought about what wewould do about it.Generally, that was 'head for a defense point and hold out until we'rerelieved,' but even that is wishful thinking; the Posleen will overrun thosein an hour or two.There's no way that the Army is going to be back beforewe're all snacks.""Was this your plan from the beginning?" Elgars asked.She carefully leanedover the edge and lowered the wires into the ammoniated muck in the bottom,pressing the wires and spray can deep into it."No," Wendy said with a sigh that could barely be heard over the grinding ofthe other motors; the material in the bottom was mostly anhydrous ammonia andthe mixture was harder than cookie dough.The motors were designed to drive against liquid and although they were aboutthirty percent overrated for that, they were quickly reaching the point wherefailsafes were going to pop out."My plan had been to be in the emergencycrews; they would have been at the front lines, trying to hold the Posleenback for as long as possible.But that presumed that we got some warning; Idon't know why we didn't.""So the longest that the defense points could hold out is.what?" Elgarsasked, wiping her gloves off on a rag and jumping back to the catwalk.Shewalked back over to the central console and started shutting down the pumps."Three to six hours," Wendy said."That's the estimated time for a Posleenforce to eliminate ninety percent of resistance and presence.Of course,nobody says that, but I've seen the estimates.That presumes this wasn't justa Lamprey, but if it was there wouldn't be Posleen down here already."Page 243ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlShe keyed the information terminal and dove into the database.She had toenter her password twice, but she finally found the appropriate file."Two hours after reduction of primary defense that's the security forces in Asection ninety percent of the population will have been removed," Wendy said,referring to the document."Within six hours after reduction, ninety-eightpercent will have been removed.""I guess we're in the two percent then," Elgars said."I think it's a bit pessimistic," Wendy answered."But there's one way to findout." She keyed up a schematic of the Sub-Urb then opened up the emergencyservices database."I was wondering, earlier, how we could figure out wherethe Posleen are.I finally realized you could track them by emergency calls."She pulled up the call records and patched them into the schematic."We'vebeen on the run for four and a half hours.Penetration was about five hoursago, I'd guess." She scrolled the schematic back five hours."See the reddots? Those are calls, both initiating calls and support calls.There's abunch of them around the entrances and then they spread out." She scrolled theschematic forward in time andElgars could see what she meant; the red dots spread out with a solid"outline" for a while then started to dissipate."You can see that there's starting to be fewer people to put in calls," Wendysaid emotionlessly."This is by two hours after the entry; we were on our waydown at that point.Cafeteria 3-B is already well inside the Posleenperimeter; Dave was gone by then or shortly afterwards." She scrolled itoutward further and now there was a light scattering of red dots."At thispoint, almost all the population areas have been overrun and the Posleen arescattering into the industrial sectors.And trying to track them is pointlessbecause nobody is calling for help anymore.""So in four more hours?" Elgars asked, tapping at her console."There will probably be three or four thousand people alive, trapped andhiding in various compartments," Wendy said coldly."Out of two million tostart.""And they're not getting out, right?" the officer said, looking at hersharply."They're for all practical purposes dead.""As a doornail." Wendy nodded [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]