Ch. 17Down in the armoury, Marty and the Chief Super studied the recovered E-pad. It was a mixed bag of news. Unscrambled, the three lines read: “Alan hanging on: Lost LM-briefly: Weeny in Puma-tracking Bonita Virago:
The news on Sgt Purvis was a great boost to both men. It helped to balance out the other information, which didn’t indicate that help was imminent, and did little to generate any expectation for an early escape. Their fate hung on a very fine thread. The way things looked, Marty and his friend realised that their futures interlinked, and depended on their own combat prowess and bloody-mindedness. They had their pick of any weapons needed from the abundance of lethal military equipment that was immediately to hand in the armoury.
‘They’ll be banking on starving us out.’ Robb
