Free Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber Page B

and piled twigs on top of the decapitated tree to broaden its summit.
    These days, the Forbidden City was almost deserted. Except for Mother and her elite guards, everyone lived in the periphery.
    327th approached the stump with small, irregular steps. Regular vibrations would have been perceived as someone walking, whereas irregular sounds could pass for small landslides. He just had to hope he didn't stumble on a soldier. He started to crawl until he was less than two hundred heads from the Forbidden City and could make out the dozens of entrances excavated in the stump, or rather the heads of doorkeeper ants blocking the way in.
    Their broad heads, shaped by some freak of genetics, were round and flat, like big nails, and fitted the openings they guarded exactly.
    These living doors had already proved themselves in the past. At the time of the Strawberry Plant War, seven hundred and eighty years earlier, the city had been invaded by yellow ants. All the surviving Belokanians had taken refuge in the Forbidden City and the doorkeeper ants had entered backwards, sealing the entrances hermetically.
    It had taken the yellow ants two days to force their way in. The doorkeepers had not only blocked the holes but also bitten them with their long mandibles. The yellow ants had attacked the doorkeepers a hundred to one and had finally broken through by digging into the chitin of their heads. But the living doors had not been sacrificed in vain. The other federal cities had had time to muster reinforcements and the city had been liberated a few hours later.
    The 327th male certainly had no intention of facing a doorkeeper alone. He was counting on being able to dive in when one of the doors opened, to let out a nurse laden with some of Mother's eggs for example.
    Just then a head moved and opened to let through a guard. No chance that time. If he had tried, the guard would have come straight back and killed him.
    The doorkeeper's head moved again. He crouched down on all six legs, ready to spring. But no, it was a false alarm, she was only shifting her position. It must really give you cramp to press your neck up against a wooden collar like that.
    Suddenly he could wait no longer. He charged at the obstacle. As soon as he was within range of her antennae, the doorkeeper spotted his lack of passport pheromones. She moved back to block the opening better, then let out alarm molecules.
    Foreign body in the Forbidden City! Foreign body in the Forbidden City! she repeated like a siren.
    She twirled her claws to intimidate the intruder. She longed to advance and fight him but they had received strict orders. Blocking the way took precedence over everything.
    He had to act quickly. The male had an advantage: he could see in the dark, while the doorkeeper was blind. He rushed forward, avoided the mandibles striking out blindly and plunged to seize their roots, slicing through them one after another. The transparent blood flowed and the two stumps continued to wave about harmlessly.
    However, 327th still could not get in with the corpse of his adversary blocking his way and her rigid legs leaning against the wood by reflex. What was he to do? He put his abdomen against the doorkeeper's forehead and pulled. The body jerked and the chitin eaten away by the formic acid started to melt, giving off grey fumes. But the head was thick. He had to have four tries before he was able to force his way through the flat skull.
    There was just room. On the other side, he discovered an atrophied thorax and abdomen. The ant was nothing but a door.
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    competitors : When the first ants appeared, fifty million years later, they had to watch their behaviour. The distant descendants of the wild, solitary tiphiid wasp, they had neither big jaws nor stings. They were small and puny, but not stupid, and quickly realized it was in their interests to copy the termites and unite. They founded villages and built rough cities. The termites soon started to