TW09 The Lilliput Legion NEW (28 page)

They all nodded in silent agreement.

"Last, but not least, there's the question of the Lilliputians," Forrester said. "Your report says that they're unaccounted for. What the devil do you mean, they're unaccounted for?"

"Well, after the battle in the club, we never saw any of them again,"

Delaney said. "The two groups of Lilliputians went at each other pretty hard. I'd guess that most of them were killed and the survivors perished in the fire."

"You'd
guess?"

"A guess is the best that any of us can do, sir," Andre said. "That's why, officially, the report reads that any possible survivors were unaccounted for."

Forrester sighed and shook his head. "I'll have to assign extra Observers to that time zone and have them keep an eye out. Although how they'll ever find any Lilliputians in a warren like New York City is beyond me. Still, it'll have to be attempted. If any of them survived, and if they should start to reproduce . . ."

"I'm not sure that we have anything to worry about there, sir," Lucas said. "All the Lilliputians we saw were male. That doesn't mean there aren't any female Lilliputians hidden away somewhere, but it would stand to reason that Drakov would want to control their population and not encumber himself with Lilliputian offspring. Besides, all the hominoids we've ever encountered have been mules, incapable of reproduction."

"And if any of them did live through the fire," Delaney said, "I feel sorry for the little bastards. 20th Century New York is a hard city to survive in if you're normal sized. They'll have to keep out of sight and struggle for survival, with not only humans to be wary of, but stray cats and dogs, and the city's teeming rat population . . ." He shook his head. "I wouldn't give you much for their chances of survival."

“
Tyler! Seth!
What was all that noise?"

"Nothing, Mom!"

She opened up the door to the boys' bedroom and saw them sitting on the floor, surrounded by all their G.I. Joe and Rambo action figures and all the military paraphernalia that went along with them.

"What was that crash I heard?" she said.

"Oh, nothing, Mom," said Tyler. "We were just playing.”

She gave a quick glance around the room to see if anything was broken.

"Well, try to play quietly, okay?" she said. "We've got company, remember?"

"Sure, Mom. We're sorry. We’ll try to be quiet."

"Good. See that you do."

She closed the door.

The two boys exchanged glances, then Tyler got up and went over to the door, opened it a crack and peered out.

“It's okay," he said. "The coast is clear."

His brother reached underneath the bed and pulled out the food they'd swiped from the kitchen of the co-op apartment. Several of the "action figures" suddenly came to life and started to attack the food.

"Boy!" said Seth, grinning ear to ear. "This sure beats having hamsters!"

Index