It was several minutes before the Birds showed up at an easy half-trot,one looking at the ground, the other ahead and around. Thesolution, such as it was, was to post lots of pickets, and the brigadier hadassigned several companies to the duty. If they alarmed the birds and arboreal animals, thegeneral cacophony might draw the attention of unfeathered Birds. Varlik wondered what they could see.
When they reached the post and the grinning Sergeant Bahn, theylet the logs roll off their now-sore shoulders, panting, sweating copiously. He continued to fire his rifle, however, and withhis partner, Bik-Chan, killed or wounded their pursuers. It occurred to Varlik to look at the Bird rifle in his hands, look for the serialnumber. I made further use of a library console, and found essentiallynothing.
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