羊毛战记 Part 4 The Unraveling 43

　　43,　　But old folks—many feign as they were dead;Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.,　　“Do you understand what you’re proposing we do?”,　　Knox looked up at McLain, met her wrinkled and wizened eyes with as much confidence as hecould muster. The tiny woman who controlled all the silo’s spares and fabrication cut an oddlyimposing figure. She didn’t have Knox’s barrel chest or thick beard, had wrists barely bigger thantwo of his fingers, but she possessed a wizened gray gaze and the weight of hard years that made himfeel but a shadow in her presence.,　　“It’s not an uprising, ” he said, the forbidden words moving easily with the grease of habit andtime. “We’re setting things to right.
”,　　McLain sniffed. “I’m sure that’s what my great-grandparents said.” She pushed back loose strandsof silver hair and peered down at the blueprint spread out between them. It was as if she knew thiswas wrong but had resigned herself to helping rather than hindering it. Maybe it was her age, Knoxthought, peering at her pink scalp through hair so thin and white as to be like filaments of glass.,　　He looked down at the blueprint and smoothed the sharp creases in the fine paper. He wassuddenly aware of his hands, how thick and grease limned his fingers appeared. He wondered ifMcLain saw him as a brute, storming up here with delusions of justice. She was old enough toconsider him young, he realized. Young and hot tempered, while he thought of himself as being oldand wise.,　　One of the dozens of dogs that lived among Supply’s stacks grunted discontentedly under thetable as if all this war planning were spoiling its nap.,　　“I think it’s safe to assume IT knows something is coming, ” McLain said, running her small handsacross the many floors between them and thirty-four.,　　“Why? You don’t think we were discreet coming up?
”,　　She smiled up at him. “I’m sure you were, but it’s safe to assume this because it would bedangerous to assume otherwise.”,