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The adder hesitated. It came out of the hole and began to move toward them again....

And there was another crash of thunder and a vivid splash of lightning. The snake turned away and squirmed through the hole.

“What’s going on?” Sorensen asked. “Is the thunder frightening them?”

“No, it’s the lightning!” Drake said. “That’s why the Quedak was in such a rush. He saw that a storm was coming, and he hadn’t consolidated his position yet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The lightning,” Drake said.

“The electrical storm! It’s jamming that radio control of his! And when he’s jammed, the beasts revert to normal behavior. It takes him time to re-establish control.”

“The storm won’t last forever,” Cable said.

“But maybe it’ll last long enough,” Drake said. He picked up the direction finders and handed one to Sorensen. “Come on, Bill. We’ll hunt out that bug right now.”

“Hey,” Recetich said, “isn’t there something I can do?”

“You can start swimming if we don’t come back in an hour,” Drake said.

In slanting lines the rain drove down, pushed by the wild southwest wind. Thunder rolled continually and each flash of lightning seemed aimed at them. Drake and Sorensen reached the edge of the jungle and stopped.