"They're not there now!" Manning snapped. "I don't like it, not after
what you've told me. We're going to look for them."

"With stunners?"

"Yes. Right now Mara is out at the field clearing several of the fliers
to use in scouting for them."

Rynason stacked the boxes of weapons and power-packs on the floor where
Manning indicated. There were about forty of them--blunt-barrelled guns
with thick casing around the powerpacks, weighing about ten pounds each.
They looked as statically blunt as anvils, but they could stun any
animal at two hundred yards; within a two-foot range, they could shake a
rock wall down.

"How many men are we taking with us?" Rynason asked, eying the stacks on
the floor.

Manning looked up at him briefly. "As many as we can get. I'm calling a
militia; Stoworth and Lessingham went into town to round up some men."

So he was going ahead with the power-grab; Malhomme had been right. No
danger had been proven yet, but that wouldn't stop Manning--nor the
drifters he'd been buying in the town. Killing was an everyday thing to
them.

"How many of the Hirlaji do you think we'll have to kill to make it look
important to the Council?" Rynason asked after a moment, his voice
deliberately inflectionless.