Order of Magnitude

XLVII. To Rouse a Sleeping Giant

      "This way; hurry," Jacques told the large group of parvs. "He's out cold, but he won't stay that way forever. Team two, tie him down. Carefully, now."

      "Right away, dear," Meghan, Team two's leader, said with a salute. She and a thousand others crawled up the blankets of the sleeping human, each one holding onto a long length of twine. Once they were over the hurdle of the man's stomach, they leapt down in unison to the floor and fastened the twine to a nearby heating vent. Then they waited for team three to come down with the twine around his legs. Finally Jacques joined them from above, his rope tied across the human's throat.

      The man was starting to stir in his sleep. They didn't have much time left; he could wake up at any minute. Jacques hurried up to the giant's heaving chest, along with Team Five, who carried two glass vials per 20 members.

      "Almost ready!" Jacques shouted near the man's face, making him stir again. Team Five approached the human's waddling neck and waited. "Go!"

      All at once, the parvs emptied their vials onto their pins and jammed them unanimously into the man's throat. That woke him up. His eyes fluttered open and he let out a loud scream, the force of which knocked Jacques onto his back.

      "What's going on?" the man boomed, struggling to move. "What's happening?"

      "Look who's awake," Jacques shouted into a bullhorn. "About time."

      The man coughed, and moved his head left to right. "What is this?"

      "Down here, fat boy," Jacques said. The giant struggled to move his head downward toward the sound, but that caused him to wince in pain and made his blood spread.

      "Help me," he choked out. "I can't move, please."

      "Sorry, Charlie, can't do that. I'm the one who tied you up in the first place."

      The man struggled against the twine. "Who are you?"

      "Just a concerned citizen dealing with a threat." He laughed and patted the man gently on his chest, more for effect than anything else. "Me and my friends here just injected you with Cyadyne."

      "Cya-what?"

      "It's a nice, relatively fast-acting poison that your scientists have used on scores of us."

      The human struggled again, tears flowing. "Why are you doing this? I don't know you guys. I've never done anything to you."

      "Your species already has. We're just evening the odds."

      The giant screamed out loud, trying to get somebody, anybody to help. In his wild thrashings, the twine across his stomach came loose from the heating grate, and his arm flung up, throwing Jacques and several others to the floor. He tugged at the rope holding his neck, and brought his hand down on any parv that was within striking distance. After a few minutes of coughing, clawing and smashing, the man finally let out a gasp and died, his hands stained red with the blood of his attackers.

      "Everybody check in," Jacques shouted when it was over. "Team captains, assess the losses."

      One by one, the parvs reported their casualties to their leader. When all was said and done, they had lost forty SubTerrans, the most they've ever suffered at one time. Somberly, the teams collected their twine and headed back for the tunnel hatch.

      "Meghan," Jacques said when almost everybody had gone. "I need to talk to you."

      "Yes, dear?"

      Jacques stared at her for a long moment. "What happened?" he finally asked. "Your rope came loose."

      "I'm not sure. I was positive that it was secured."

      "But it wasn't. You're the leader, you need to address this."

      "I'm really sorry, honey. Next time, I-"

      Jacques slapped her into silence. "You better hope there is a next time." He got in real close and spoke in a threatening whisper. "We lost a lot of parvs tonight. That is on you."

      "I- I'm sorry."

      "Yeah, you are." He shook his head, barely holding back his anger. "What do you think is going to happen if we have many more problems like this? What if you screw up again next time and forty more die? Have you thought about that? Have you wondered what will happen with this revolution if these guys actually start fearing for their safety on easy missions? We've been doing so well so far, we can't have you getting sloppy on us now." He softened his features and put his arms around Meghan's shoulders. "I don't mean to yell at you," he said. "But this is too big of an operation to fail. You understand that, right?"

      Meghan nodded her head, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry."

      "I know," he said and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Come on, babe. It's time to go home." Jacques smiled and led his shook girlfriend back down into the tunnel, leaving behind another corpse for the police to find in the morning.