John Rackham (16 page)

"There is no more to do at this
moment," Jasar declared. "We have been busy, truly, and we have laid
a destructive train or two, but we are held for the moment by a ridiculous
lack." He saw that Silvana had seated herself by Haldar*s crudely
contrived table, so felt free to sit also. "You'd think, in all this
profusion of wiring and cables, we would be able to find a spare length, but it
is not so. We need a piece about six spans long, what Jack would call twelve
yards. We have looked everywhere.
In vain!"

"This
is important?" Jack stared at them. "I brought a great length of wire
away with me, but I left it back there on the cabinet top, when we were
attacked by that beetle. Shall I bring it?"

At
Jasar's nod he retraced his steps swiftly, glad of the chance to run things
through his mind. Silvana was famous. Of course she was. He had guessed as
much anyway. Haldar had known her on sight, called her "Lady," but
she had wanted it hidden. Why? He could think of no good answer. The coil of
wire lay where he had dropped it, beside the now lifeless sections of the
beetle body. He shouldered it and made his way back in haste. Without intending
to, he came so quietly to the nook where they were that they were not aware of
his approach.

".
. . and we have all done things, because of this war, that we would not have
done otherwise. The less said of those, the better. He need never be told.
There is
a fine
nobility about him that I would not
see spoiled, an idealism that we might all envy, and feelings that are all too
tender for this vicious world we find ourselves in."

Ears
flaming, Jack backed away, allowed the coil to bang against a rail noisily, and
approached once more. Haldar stood, and stared as he reached for and fingered
the wire. "This is ferrite recording strip," he said. "How did
you come by it?"

Jack
told him, emphasizing how careful he had been to cover his traces. "In any
case, Garmel will not trouble us for some time. He is together with another,
from the ship that has just come in. We heard them talk."

"That
could be important. Tell me what they said, every word, as much as you
can."

Unwillingly,
Jack reported the conversation as accurately as he could remember. He watched
Silvana's face go gray. The others looked savage too.

"I
suppose we should not condemn," she said, when he was done. "After
all, to the Hilax we
are
little better than vermin.
But it is difficult to excuse them all the way. Except for size, they are as
humanoid as us."

"Begging
your parden"—Jasar was gruff—"that is no longer the point at issue,
now. Will this wire do, Haldar?"

"It
will indeed. In fact, had I the choice I could not have asked for better. But
it is still a gamble, Jasar. For all we know to the contrary, Garmel may have a
trick circuit built into this belt!"

"What
do you plan to do?" Silvana demanded, and Hal-dar explained.

"So
long as I wear this belt Garmel can put his finger on me."

"I
understand that. He had a similar arrangement with me. But I was wired. You
have no wires!"

"No.
This is a remote-control device, with its own built-in power. That is what we
have to gamble on, that if we can drain the power from it, the danger will vanish,
and the belt will loosen enough for me to slip out of it."

"And if you gamble
wrongly?"

"Then
I shall die. At the least, it will crush me to death. It would be better if you
did not watch. Come, Jasar; we know the spot."

"I
will come too," Jack offered. "Speed will count.
In
which direction are you the smaller, up or down?"

"Down!"
Haldar growled. "It may catch me by the leg, which will be bad
enough, but I have no fancy for it crushing me around the neck, or head!"

They
had moved along the catwalk, were now halted by one of the power-boxes. Haldar
pulled a lever, spun the wheel to free the cover, and pointed to a slot.
"You know what to do, Jasar, when I give you the word. Now, Jack, cut me a
length for a loop about here." Jack sliced the wire, passed it over, and
Haldar took it, drew his stomach in as far as he could, and worked the free end
of the wire under until he could bend it back and twist it. Then he twisted the
other end onto a copper tag in the framework. Taking a second length, he
managed to get that under the belt too, twisting it secure, then handed the
free end to Jasar, who held it firm.
"Now for it,
eh?"
He made a stiff grin. "Better have your beamer ready . .
. for me
..
.
just
in case we've guessed the wrong answer."

"It
won't come to that," Jasar said confidently. "Say when!"

Haldar hooked his thumbs in the belt, stood
very erect, took a breath, and set his jaw. "Now!" he said, and Jasar
plunged the end of the wire into the slot. In that instant there
came
a high-pitched buzz from the belt, a lambent blue glow
wreathed the metal web, and Haldar tugged frantically at it, dragging it down
...
over his hips
...
to his knees . . . and Jack leaped forward to aid, gripping,
feeling the fizz and tingle of power, dragging strongly down. Haldar got one
leg out, hopping unsteadily. The high-pitched wail dived suddenly into a low
and loud growl of power
...
and Jack
heard from behind him the full-throated blood-chilling sound of a scream.
Forgetting all else he turned and ran like a madman to where they had left
Silvana all alone in the nook. As he reached the corner and saw, his heart
almost stopped.

There,
on the plastic-topped slab they had used as a makeshift table, was a thing like
a spider, hairy-legged, bulbous-bodied, and as big as a sheep, rustling as it
moved, and Silvana, backed in terror into the corner, had her arms over her
head as long hairy feelers reached out to investigate her. Cold, furious,
deliberate, Jack made no error of judgment this time. He drew and aimed the
beamer at that bloated body, holding down on the stud, playing the needle beam
to and fro, seeing the legs twitch wildly in death, seeing the bloated body
burst and disappear in a swirl of evil fumes. He ceased only for as long as it
took to reset the focus and then wash the whole thing away with a wider beam
that not only destroyed all lingering traces of the foulness, but eradicated
the better part of Haldar's table into the bargain. Then he eased off on the
stud, feeling an ache in his arm. He went forward through the stench, holding
out his hand to her.

"Are you hurt?"
he coughed. "Did it touch your'

"Oh
no!" she whispered. "No. You were in time!" Once again she
reached out and clung to him, hugging him violently, fearfully, as if trying
to melt herself into him. "Never leave me alone again, Jack!
Never!"

"I won't!" he
promised savagely. "Not ever again!"

As
she clung tight, shivering, he released one hand, intending to touch her hair,
saw the beamer still gripped there, put it back on his belt,
then
performed his original intention, stroking her golden hair tenderly. She
stirred, leaned her head back to look up at him, and her eyes were deep enough
to drown in.
Something there seemed to pass into him, so that
he felt suddenly light-headed and breathless, and curiously aching inside.

"Will
you believe," she breathed, "that this has never happened before, to
me?"

"Nor
me," he muttered, knowing exactly what she meant, although he could never
have put words to it.
"Never before, Silvana."
Then, inexorably, her mouth seemed to draw him, invite him, to ask without
words, so that without any conscious intention his lips joined hers and
everything stood still for a long time. Until he heard a cough and grunt and
had to come back to the real world, out of breath, as Haldar said, gruffly:

"You managed to make a
mess of my table, lad!"

Releasing
her, Jack turned to him and stammered, "There was a thing . . . like a
spider . . . !"

Haldar
shed his smothered grin instantly. "Did it touch you, either of you, at
all?" He looked strained. "Those things are lethal!"

"It
is quite all right," she declared. "Jack was in good time. We are
unharmed.
But what of your bond?
Did the experiment
work?"

"Near
enough." Haldar lifted his foot to show the broad gold band clenched about
his battered boot. "It's tight, but not enough to hurt. And it has
contracted as far as it can go. I'm free!"

"Not
yet," Jasar growled. "Let's finish the thing right off and get it
over with. Put your foot up there and hold still. I may scorch your boot a bit
but
I’ ll
not hurt you if I can help it." He set
his beamer to
minimum,
and in a short while the gold
band spat sparks and gobs of molten metal, until it fell away free and Haldar
could slap out the few patches of char. And then his grin was huge.

"There's
a weight off me, in more ways than one. I'm obliged to you, Jasar.
To both of you alike.
I had given up hope. But now all we
have to do is tie up the ends of this plan of yours. We have set all the
necessary alarms to fail, to kill all the power, and a time-lag to give us a
chance to make a run for your ship before we blow the whole thing into
radioactive dust!"

"A ship?"
Silvana interrupted, wide-eyed. "You have a ship? You mean
...
there is a chance we may yet
escape7"

"A
chance, yes, but we are a long way and many hazards from it, as yet. The one
great obstacle is one we have not yet mentioned or taken into account."

"What
is that?" Haldar demanded, as Jasar shoved at the wreck of the table to
give himself room to sit on the bench.

"You'll excuse me, lady"—the little
scout ducked his head—"but I have learned, the hard way, never to miss a
chance to sit, rest, or sleep. We are discounting Garmel, Haldar. Because he is
huge, and inhuman, we must not forget his skills and talents. Be sure he would
never be put in charge of a station as vital as this were he a fool. We cannot
afford to make
that
kind of mistake! Is there
any way in which we can spy on him, know what he is about?"

"That would be easy enough, yes.
Remember the chamber where I met him? That is his supervisory room, his
watch-post. Relays keep him informed of everything that happens in all critical
areas. Using those we can overlook him at any time. But why bother,
Jasar?"

"Why?
Because we have laid trips to confuse certain alarm systems, and other trips to
cancel the automatics on the power-units, and yet others that will release the
entire fusion-capacity into destructive overload, plus an assist from my ship.
It's done. All we have to do is start it off. But
...
I am as certain as I sit here
...
I will stake my life, and in fact I am doing just that, in
the belief that Garmel has equipment, emergency resources, that we know nothing
at all about."

"You
may well be right." Haldar shrugged. "If you are, what can
we
do about it?"

"The
most we can do is to hit him, to choose a moment when he is truly right off
guard. You said"—the little scout turned now to Jack—"that he was
entertaining a fellow officer from the newly arrived ship. Did you gain any
impresson of how long that entertainment would last?"

"Not
to measure, no. I gathered that there was no great urgency."

"That
is not nearly good enough. Haldar, if you take us to that spy-room, his
watch-post, will that take us very far out of our way in our run for the
ship?"

"Not at all.
If you remember, we reached it by crossing the brugg-pens, and that is
right in the line you came, our line of retreat. In a way"—he looked
embarrassed now— "I may be able to offer you some hospitality there.
In
my
cage.
If we have time,
that is. Garmel was good to me, in his way."

"We can leave that until we know
more." Jasar stood, put his head on one side in thought. "We'll not
be coming back this way if we can help it, so I ask you to think carefully,
make sure we leave nothing we need, take nothing we do not need."

"Nothing
I want," Haldar growled. "I've shed that belt. Along with it I leave
unpleasant memories. I've nothing to take."