Chapter 222Grain of Vision

Valerie, because she looked the most grown up, bought the three jerrycans. For some reason she was also the one always carrying her card with her. It surprised me how little I thought of money or such myself. It just wasn't part of my life, as far as I could tell. Again I was glad that there were things I needn't worry about.

It wasn't like I needed to buy food...

Well, nothing you could buy in this country.

Legally...

A mental shrug helped that image out of my mind. Valerie managed to get a grand total of three jerrycans full of gasoline, one for each to carry. We started walking back to the house when doubt was setting in my mind.

"How do we get out?"

Valerie looked up from her smile. "What do you mean?"

I looked thoughtful. "If they can't get out, we can't either. If we can get out, so can they. It's not very high, so they'd be able to jump through any hole we'd make through the roof. And the wood is quit thick for what I've seen. So it would take some time to make a hole in that. Which isn't something you want to do when everything around you is on fire."

Valerie started. "The floor..."

Khuna interrupted. "Is solid concrete. Remember? No basement, no chance of digging. It's kind of strange actually. Though it was probably a storage for something that shouldn't become wet. A concrete silo would become damp over time. Wood would avoid that. And the concrete floor makes it impossible for groundwater to come up."

Valerie wanted to continue but kept silent.

I whispered softly. "The perfect mousetrap..."

Valerie looked surprised. "What?"

I smiled. "The perfect mousetrap. It doesn't exist. Mice learn very well of any fallen brothers, so a trap doesn't keep on working. Only in this situation we'll have a group. You're right about the roof though, but there is another simple solution. Although it's very dangerous."

Khuna looked at me. "Which is?"

I sighed. "Luring them in myself and escaping through the only open door, closed right behind me by you two."

"No." Khuna sounded very definite. "There is no way we're going to let you do that. With nine of them there is no guarantee you'd be strong enough, fast enough or smart enough to that."

"So we have the perfect trap, just not a perfect lure..."

Valerie frowned. "We would need a distraction."

Then, a really strange thought came into my mind. I figured it was to do with my telepathic abilities. I hadn't really used them after that ... incident ... with Nuru and my resulting blindness. Thoughts I wasn't expecting were firing along my nerves, putting images in my brain that fueled my imagination.

My imagination...

That was it!

Images!

I grinned. "I know what we can do."