Captain Future 04 - The Triumph of Captain Future (Fall 1940) (13 page)

AS THE snarling planetary monsters crouched to spring, Captain Future heard the crescendo humming of a rocketflier. It had been hovering above the Museum and now began speeding off in the night. He understood instantly the meaning of it.

“Simon, the Life-lord hovered over this place in a flier. He released those beasts on us by unlocking every door and gate here! He knew the beasts would scent us and follow the trail.”

“How could that devil unlock all the doors from a flier hovering above?” the Brain cried.

“He could do it easily,” Curt explained, without taking his eyes off the crouching creatures. “A master-wave of a certain frequency opens every electro-lock here. The Life-lord knew that secret frequency. He played it down on the Museum and cages from a big projector”

There was no time for further explanation. With a nightmare cacophony a group of blood-chilling shrieks, a group of the beasts started charging.

Two huge, furry, six-legged Charonian korlats, a scaly, fanged Venusian swamp-tiger, and a roaring Earth lion charged viciously at the scientific wizard.

Curt’s proton pistol blasted out a pale beam that swung from one fierce, onrushing shape to another. It knocked the first ferocious attackers into stunned, unconscious heaps.

But others kept coming on — a gliding Jovian crawler, whose one eye glared at Curt from its protoplasmic body, and a slinking, Saturnian blue grass-tiger. More of the great carnivora from the unlocked cages were entering the Museum at every moment.

The creatures, released from their confinement, couldn’t get out of the grounds. The gates of high surrounding walls had not been unlocked by the Life-lord. So the beasts, scenting human prey inside the Museum, were streaming in through its opened doors. Now they padded through the dark halls in their bloodthirsty search.

Curt heard fearful screams and roars as some of the animals fought — among themselves in the halls and outside ground. But most of them pressed toward the hall of archives, in which Captain Future and the Brain were trapped.

Curt’s proton beam piled a heap of stunned monsters in front of him. As he held off the creatures, he was mentally damning the Life-lord’s diabolical cunning. Twice now he had set traps for the Life-lord. Twice had the syndicate master ingeniously turned his own trap against him.

Over the bedlam of shrieks and howls of crowding planetary monsters, Curt Newton heard a distant, booming cry.

“Grag’s in trouble!” he exclaimed. “Simon, we’ve got to get to him!”

Snatching up the Brain’s case with his free hand, Curt triggered-ahead swiftly. His pale proton ray cut a path through the raging animals He plunged among them, and fought his way through the Galleries of Planetary and Saturnian Archaeology, toward Grag’s voice.

Grag was in the big, dark Gallery of Science. The robot writhed on the metal floor, gripped by an enormous, formless, metal-eating
Silicae.
The whiplike cilia had seized the robot, and the powerful digestive acids were already playing on him to ingest him.

CAPTAIN FUTURE’S proton ray, set to full strength, blasted the gray monster in half. Grag rose to his feet, furiously.

“The creature meant to eat me, Master!” the robot boomed wrathfully. “I was trying to get to you “.

“Grag, take my pistol and fight to hold the things off a few moments. I’m going to try something.”

Curt’s keen eyes, roving desperately to find a way out of this appalling situation, had lighted on one of the spherical ato-generators. Though it was an exhibit of The Gallery of Science, it was in perfect working condition.

Hastily, while Grag held off the circling monsters, Captain Future ripped wires from another machine exhibit. He connected the output terminals of the ato-generator to the metal floor of the vast hall. He started the atomic motor of the machine humming. Then, before switching in its electric generator, he shouted to Grag.

“Get up on a’ pedestal, Grag. Quick!”

The pedestals were constructed of a plastic that was a dielectric. They would insulate them from the floor.

Curt, holding the Brain, had already climbed on the pedestal of the humming ato-generator. Grag hastily scrambled onto another nearby pedestal. All at once the roaring animals charged forward.

But Captain Future threw in the dynamo of the powerful ato-generator. The mechanism delivered all its tremendous electric current through the wires — into the metal floor!

The terrific voltage was conducted through the metal floors of all the Museum’s halls and corridors. The planetary monsters who had invaded the building were stunned — or so painfully startled that they beat a hasty retreat from the building.

In a few moments, all the terrified animals were either gone or senseless. Curt Newton turned off the ato-generator.

“Quick. Out of here; before they get over it and attack us again.”

“The archives, lad — “ the Brain exclaimed.

“I learned what I wanted to find out there,” Captain Future replied. “Come on, Grag.”

Grag hastily picked up the Brain. They emerged from the Museum, into the dark grounds. A hellish din of shrieks, howls and roars told of released beasts prowling and fighting amid the vegetation.

Curt and the two Futuremen pressed toward the street gate. The scientific wizard used his pistol to clear the way of animals that still sought to attack them.

They reached the locked gate in the wall, passed through it, and relocked it behind them.

“Whew, that was a nasty place to be trapped in!” Curt breathed, mopping his brow in relief. “Damn the Life-lord for his cunning! Simon, we’re up against one of the most deadly antagonists we’ve ever had.”

“Aye, lad, worse than the Wrecker or the Moon Master. The man who could find the Fountain of Life and organize the System-wide Lifewater syndicate is no mean enemy.”

“I found out in there what record was stolen from the archives,” Curt said keenly. “The ‘History of Martian Visits to Saturn in Prehistoric Times’ was missing from the file, Simon. That must be the record Zin Zibo mentioned as having been stolen. That record must have contained forgotten archaeological evidence by the old Martian Machine-masters when they reached Saturn. They found the Fountain of Life.

“A man, who knew that fact, as the Life-lord did from the Machine City inscription, could figure out the Fountain’s location from that ‘History.’ It would be of no value to an uninitiated person. The Life-lord must have done that.”

SIMON pondered that theory before he added his own.

“And then he stole the record so no one else could figure out the secret from it. He had already stolen the jewel — inscription in the Machine City. If we knew who did that.”

“We’d have our man,” Curt agreed. “But it might have been any of our suspects. They all did some research in these archives. Even Khol Kor would have easy access to them. That’s a blind alley now. What’s more important right now is to find out just where all our suspects have been in the last hour. If one of them’s the Life-lord, and if it was the Life-lord who staged that deadly attack on us just now, the Planet Police agents trailing our suspects may be able to tell us which one is our man.”

They returned hastily toward Planet Police headquarters. The short Saturnian night was almost over.

But the streets and parks still lay sleeping and deserted under the shining Rings and changing moons.

When they entered the Police offices, Ezra Gurney showed amazement at sight of Curt’s appearance.

“What in the world’s been happenin’?”

Captain Future explained crisply.

“Better call the authorities at once,” he concluded. “Those beasts roaming in the Museum grounds must be put back in their cages.”

The old marshal hastily made the call. There was excitement in his faded eyes as he swung back to Curt.

“Haven’t Otho and Joan returned yet?” Curt demanded.

“No and I’m gettin’ plenty worried about ‘them,” Ezra confessed.

Curt’s face tightened. What had happened to Otho and Joan? He was concerned about the girl. She was pretty important to Captain Future. As a matter of fact, while he had been fighting the monster horde, it was almost as though she had been next to him, helping him and Grag.

“The Life-lord struck quickly at us in the Museum, Ezra,” Captain Future’s voice hammered. “We’ve got to get that devil, or he’ll get us. What about the agents you set to trail our four suspects? Any report?”

Ezra’s face fell. “Martin Graeme and young Renfrew Keene slipped their trailers. Don’t know where those two are. Khol Kor’s in his office, an’ Sus Urgal is at his hotel.” He picked up a slip of paper from the desk. “An’ here’s the answer of Commander Anders to that message you had me send him.” Curt glanced at the brief reply he had, asked Ezra to send to Planet Police General HQ at Earth.

“Just as I expected,” he muttered. He raised his gray eyes gain to the old marshal. “Send out a general order to pick up Graeme and Renfrew Keene at once. I’ll see Khol Kor and Sus Urgal later.”

“You’ve a clue to the Life-lord’s identity, lad?” the Brain asked quickly in his metallic voice.

“Maybe: I’m not sure,” Curt Newton said, his tanned face thoughtful. “But I want to question Keene.”

While they waited, they knew that night would soon be over. Curt paced to and fro. The wizard of science chafed at this enforced inaction, and in addition he was worried about the missing Otho and Joan.

Finally Ezra Gurney answered a televisor call. When he turned, there was a little hope on his weather-beaten face.

“The Police have picked up Renfrew Keene at his lodgings. They’re bringing him here. But they haven’t been able to find Graeme.”

WHEN the officers brought Renfrew Keene into the office, the young Earthman’s blond face looked haggard and desperate. His eyes were haunted, almost wild, as he faced Captain Future.

“Where have you been tonight?” Curt demanded.

“I’m not telling,” young Keene answered sullenly.

“Hear that, Cap’n Future?” cried Ezra. “He’s the man you’re after. He made the attack on you in the Museum.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Keene denied.

“He could be the Life-lord, all right,” Simon muttered thoughtfully. “Though Graeme’s been missing, too.”

“Me, the Life-lord?” Young Keene laughed mirthlessly. “You must be crazy.”

“You told us you came to Saturn to look for your father, Thomas Keene,” Captain Future stated.

Renfrew Keene nodded sullenly. “That’s right. My father disappeared here while he was searching for the Fountain of Life.”

“You’re lying, Keene!” Curt Newton declared harshly. “Thomas Keene never disappeared. You are Thomas Keene!”.

The others were thunderstruck by the charge. Then Ezra Gurney round his voice.

“But, Cap’n Future. Thomas Keene was an elderly man. Khol Kor remembered talking to him. He told us this boy’s father was old.”

“Yes, Thomas Keene was an elderly man.” Curt nodded grimly. “Until he drank the Lifewater.”

“Name o’ the Sun!” Ezra exclaimed, aghast. “You mean this young feller is really the old man, Thomas Keen?”

“Of course he is,” Curt Newton said. “I suspected it when Khol Kor said that Thomas Keene, though an old man, had remarkably resembled this young Renfrew Keene. That message I had you send to Earth was a code inquiry. I wanted to learn if Thomas’ Keene had ever had a son. He hadn’t, the answer stated conclusively. So I knew this was Thomas Keene himself.”

Thomas Keene — the blond young Earthman who had been masquerading as his own son — seemed to wither before the charge.

“Yes, it’s true,” he said dully. “I’m Thomas Keene. I drank the Lifewater here, months ago, and it made me young. I’ve been drinking it ever since.”

His voice continued without emotion as he stared hauntedly, “I came here months ago, hunting for the Fountain of Life, wanting to be young again. I tried to find the secret in the Museum archives, but the essential record had been stolen. Then, as I wandered around in vain search, the syndicate secretly began to sell the Lifewater. I realized then that somebody else had already found the Fountain. I bought the Lifewater. It made me young again. To prevent anyone from knowing what I’d done, I pretended to be my own son, come, from Earth to search for myself. “Then I learned that I must drink the Lifewater every few months thereafter, or, die horribly. I’ve spent all my money since then, buying the stuff from the, syndicate’s secret agents here in Ops. Now my money is gone, and they won’t give me any more. I’ll die soon. I wish I’d never heard of the Lifewater!”

Captain Future’s eyes narrowed, Was Keene’s story true, or was he really the Life-lord, cunningly covering up the exposure?

“You say the, record you wanted from the archives was gone when you looked for it months ago,” he repeated. “What record?”

“The old ‘History’ of Martian visits in the far past. If it hadn’t been gone, I might have learned the location of the Fountain myself.”

Despite his apparent sincerity, the old planeteer was entirely unconvinced.

“He’s tellin’ a pack of fancy lies, Cap’n Future,” Ezra Gurney cried. “He came here lookin’ for the Fountain. He found it. He drank the Water and became young. Then he started organizin’ a syndicate to sell the Life-water everywhere.

Tonight he tried to kill you!”

“I didn’t!” Keene denied heatedly.

“Where were you the last two hours?” Curt pursued.

“I went to one of the secret syndicate outlets here in Ops, to beg them to give me the Lifewater before I die,” Keene answered desperately. “That’s why I shook off the Police shadow.”

“Did they give you the Lifewater?” Curt demanded.

Keene shook his head. “No one was there! It looked as if there’d been a fight of some kind. Doctor Qarth, the syndicate vendor of the Lifewater, lay murdered. The others were gone.”

Captain Future stiffened at this information... He swung swiftly to Ezra Gurney.

“Ezra, we’re going to that place Keene mentions. If it’s one of the syndicate outlets, or has been, we may learn something there. Return to the
Comet,
Grag, and wait for orders. I’m taking Simon with me.”