The hunters saw the sheep ripe for harvest. Xabier needed to do something. He pulled a book on photon electronics from its place on the workbench and flipped to metamaterials. He needed to uncloak the hunters.

The middle refrain from Cantata Nº 208 seemed to doubt his resolve. The sheep fidgeted, taking turns climbing on each other’s backs. A line of ewes stood apart from the herd, staring at Xabier who sat at the workbench pondering the music as he fiddled with bits of wire. Bach intended the piece as a hunting song. Its true meaning rang in Xabier’s ear as he combed through the chapter. Soon he knew how to reveal the hunters.

On paper, he drew a map of the far corner of the field. Around the triangle perimeter he marked squares and linked each with a thin wire. A tunable antenna would defeat the cloaking. Do it quickly, find their frequency, and reveal their hiding places. He would have to use the flock as bait.  It would be worth it if he could defeat the hunters.

“Gizon adimentsua naiz, Xabier.” He smiled at his self-proclamation of brilliance.

He picked out the sheep, pointing at two rams, a doe-eyed ewe and her lamb, and an older ewe. He mentally pictured them in the corner of the field waiting for the hunters with their bows and arrows. He would wait on the opposite corner, twisting the knob on the controller and revealing each hunter before they could kill. It might give his sheep a chance.

“Hau lan egin behar da,” he said out loud and under his breath. Xabier knew his plan must work if the sheep had any chance.

In the deep purple glow of dawn, he ran the last wire connecting all of the posts. He ran another length of wire away from the array up the hill and behind a rock. He then hurriedly buried the wire to hide it from view. The only thing left was the bait. He moved the five sheep into the corner of the field and let the others run up the field. 

As the suns rose over the west horizon, he hid himself behind the rock and waited.

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