204
On your return to Aztec, you find that Cutter’s crew of mechanics have repaired the damaged vehicles and that the convoy is ready to leave. The appearance of a new face causes a stir, especially when the news breaks that Yuma is a clan base. Jaeger is questioned at length and reveals one piece of information that is of special interest to Pop Ewell. He knows the exact radio frequency used by the Californians at their Pine Valley outpost. Pop tries to make contact with them, but the signal is too weak to make any sense of their reply.
As you are handing over the food that was found during your scouting mission, Cutter voices the colony’s fears about what has become your most pressing problem—water. In the fierce, daytime heat, there are many, especially the children and the wounded, who have already begun to suffer severe dehydration. During your absence, a small group led by Avenal was sent to the Gila River to try to fill the spare water containers. However, they found what little there remained of the river water was so polluted that not even a ten-fold dosage of purification tablets could neutralize all the toxins. One Tucson colonist, crazy with thirst, drank some and died an agonized death.
Cutter and the other convoy leaders are gravely worried. Morale within the colony is at an all-time low, and unless a new water supply is found quickly, discipline is likely to collapse with disastrous consequences. It comes, therefore, as a welcome surprise when Jaeger provides, quite off-handedly, a solution to the problem.
