VI
"Identify yourself, please." The quiet words from the speaker in no wayappeared to coincide with the picture on the screen. The spacer that hadmatched their orbit over Dis had recently been a freighter. A quickconversion had tacked the hulking shape of a primary weapons turret ontop of her hull. The black disk of the immense muzzle pointing squarelyat them. Ihjel switched open the ship-to-ship communication channel.
"This is Ihjel. Retinal pattern 490-Bj4-67--which is also the code thatis supposed to get me through your blockade. Do you want to check thatpattern?"
"There will be no need, thank you. If you will turn on your recorder, Ihave a message relayed to you from Prime-four."
"Recording and out," Ihjel said "Damn! Trouble already and four days toblowup. Prime-four is our headquarters on Dis. This ship carries a covercargo so we can land at the spaceport. This is probably a change of planand I don't like the smell of it."
There was something behind Ihjel's grumbling this time, and withoutconscious effort Brion could sense the chilling touch of the other man's_angst_. Trouble was waiting for them on the planet below. When themessage was typed by the decoder Ihjel hovered over it, reading eachword as it appeared on the paper. He only snorted when it was finishedand went below to the galley. Brion pulled the message out of themachine and read it.
IHJEL IHJEL IHJEL SPACEPORT LANDING DANGER NIGHT LANDING PREFERABLE CO-ORDINATES MAP 46 J92 MN75 REMOTE YOUR SHIP VION WILL MEET END END END
Dropping into the darkness was safe enough. It was done on instrumentsand the Disans were thought to have no detection apparatus. Thealtimeter dials spun backwards to zero and a soft vibration was theonly indication they had landed. All of the cabin lights were offexcept for the fluorescent glow of the instruments. A white-speckledgray filled the infrared screen, radiation from the still-warm sand andstone. There were no moving blips on it, nor the characteristic shape ofa shielded atomic generator.
"We're here first," Ihjel said, opaquing the ports and turning on thecabin lights. They blinked at each other, faces damp with perspiration.
"Must you have the ship this hot?" Lea asked, patting her forehead withan already sodden kerchief. Stripped of her heavier clothing she lookedeven tinier to Brion. But the thin cloth tunic--reaching barely halfwayto her knees--concealed very little. Small she may have appeared tohim--unfeminine she was not. In fact she was quite attractive.
"Shall I turn around so you can stare at the back, too?" she askedBrion. Five days' experience had taught him that this type of remark wasbest ignored. It only became worse if he tried to answer.
"Dis is hotter than this cabin," he said, changing the subject. "Byraising the interior temperature we can at least prevent any suddenshock when we go out--"
"I know the theory--but it doesn't stop me from sweating," she snapped.
"Best thing you can do is sweat," Ihjel said. He looked like aglistening captive balloon in shorts. Finishing a bottle of beer he tookanother from the freezer. "Have a beer."
"No thank you. I'm afraid it would dissolve the last shreds of tissueand my kidneys would float completely away. On Earth we never--"
"Get Professor Morees' luggage for her," Ihjel said. "Vion's coming,there's his signal. I'm sending this ship up before any of the localsspot it."
* * * * *
When he cracked the outer port the puff of air struck them like theexhaust from a furnace. Dry and hot as a tongue of flame. Brion heardLea's gasp in the darkness. She stumbled down the ramp and he followedher slowly, careful of the weight of packs and equipment he carried. Thesand burned through his boots, still hot from the day. Ihjel came last,the remote-control unit in his hand. As soon as they were clear heactivated it and the ramp slipped back like a giant tongue. As soon asthe lock had swung shut the ship lifted and drifted upwards silentlytowards its orbit, a shrinking darkness against the stars.
There was just enough starlight to see the sandy wastes around them, aswave-filled as a petrified sea. The dark shape of a sandcar drew upover a dune and hummed to a stop. When the door opened Ihjel steppedtowards it and everything happened at once.
Ihjel broke into a blue nimbus of crackling flame, his skin blackening,charred, dead in an instant. A second pillar of flame bloomed next tothe car and a choking scream, cut off even as it began. Ihjel diedsilently.
Brion was diving even as the electrical discharges still crackled in theair. The boxes and packs dropped from him and he slammed against Lea,knocking her to the ground. He hoped she had the sense to stay there andbe quiet. This was his only conscious thought, the rest was reflex.Rolling over and over as fast as he could.
The spitting electrical flames flared again, playing over the bundles ofluggage he had dropped. This time Brion was expecting it, pressed flatto the ground a short distance away. He was facing the darkness awayfrom the sandcar and saw the brief, blue glow of the ion-rifledischarge. His own gun was in his hand. When Ihjel had given him themissile weapon he had asked no questions, just strapped it on. There hadbeen no thought that he would need it this quickly. Holding it firmlybefore him in both hands he let his body aim at the spot where the glowhad been. A whiplash of explosive slugs ripped the night air. They foundtheir target and something thrashed voicelessly and died.
In the brief instant after he fired a jarring weight landed on his backand a line of fire circled his throat. Normally he fought with a calmmind, with no thoughts other than the contest. But Ihjel, a friend, aman of Anvhar, had died a few seconds earlier and Brion found himselfwelcoming this physical violence and pain.
There are many foolish and dangerous things that can be done, such assmoking next to high octane fuel and putting fingers into electricalsockets. Just as dangerous, and equally deadly, is physically attackinga Winner of the Twenties.
Two men hit Brion together, though this made very little difference. Thefirst died suddenly as hands like steel claws found his neck and in asingle spasmodic contraction did such damage to the large blood vesselsthere that they burst and tiny hemorrhages filled his brain. The secondman had time for a single scream, though he died just as swiftly whenthose hands closed on his larynx.
Running in a crouch, partially on his knuckles, Brion swiftly made acircle of the area, gun ready. There were no others. Only when hetouched the softness of Lea's body did the blood anger seep from him. Hewas suddenly aware of the pain and fatigue, the sweat soaking his bodyand the breath rasping in his throat. Holstering the gun he ran lightfingers over her skull, finding a bruised spot on one temple. Her chestwas rising and falling regularly. She had struck her head when he pushedher. It had undoubtedly saved her life.
Sitting down suddenly he let his body relax, breathing deeply.Everything was a little better now, except for the pain at his throat.His fingers found a thin strand on the side of his neck with a knobbyweight on the end. There was another weight on his other shoulder and athin line of pain across his neck. When he pulled on them both thestrangler's cord came away in his hand. It was thin fiber, strong as awire. When it had been pulled around his neck it had sliced the surfaceskin and flesh like a knife, halted only by the corded bands of musclebelow. Brion threw it from him, into the darkness where it had comefrom.
He could think again and he carefully kept his thoughts from the men hehad killed. Knowing it was useless he went to Ihjel's body. A singletouch of the scorched flesh was enough.
Behind him Lea moaned with returning consciousness and he hurried on tothe sandcar, stepping over the charred body outside the door. Thedriver was slumped, dead, killed perhaps by the same strangling cordthat had sunk into Brion's throat. He laid the man gently on the sandand closed the lids over the staring horror of the eyes. There was acanteen in the car and he brought it back to Lea.
* * * * *
"My head--I've hurt my head," Lea said groggily.
"Just a bruise," he reassured her. "Drink some of this water and you'llsoon feel better. Lie back. Everything's over for t
he moment and you canrest."
"Ihjel's dead!" she said with sudden shocked memory. "They've killedhim! What's happened?" She tensed, tried to rise, and he pressed herback gently.
"I'll tell you everything. Just don't try to get up yet. There was anambush and they killed Vion and the driver of the sandcar, as well asIhjel. Three men did it and they're all dead now, too. I don't thinkthere are any more around, but if there are I'll hear them coming. We'rejust going to wait a few minutes until you feel better then we'regetting out of here in the car."
"Bring the ship down!" There was a thin edge of hysteria in her voice."We can't stay here alone. We don't know where to go or what to do. WithIhjel dead the whole thing's spoiled. We have to get out--"
There are some things that can't sound gentle, no matter how gently theyare said. This was one of them. "I'm sorry, Lea, but the ship is out ofour reach right now. Ihjel was killed with an ion gun and it fused thecontrol unit into a solid lump. We must take the car and get to thecity. We'll do it now. See if you can stand up--I'll help you."
She rose, not saying anything, and as they walked towards the car asingle, reddish moon cleared the hills behind them. In its light Brionsaw a dark line bisecting the rear panel of the sandcar. He stoppedabruptly. "What's the matter?" Lea asked.
The unlocked engine cover could have only one significance and he pushedit open knowing in advance what he would see. The attackers had beenvery thorough and fast. In the short time available to them they hadkilled the driver and the car as well. Ruddy light shone on torn wires,ripped out connections. Repair would be impossible.
"I think we'll have to walk," he told her, trying to keep the gloom outof his voice. "This spot is roughly a hundred and fifty meters from thecity of Hovedstad, where we have to go. We should be able to--"
"We're going to die. We can't walk anywhere. This whole planet is adeath trap. Let's get back in the ship!" There was a thin shrillness ofhysteria at the edge of her voice, as well as a subtle slurring of thesounds.
Brion didn't try to reason with her or bother to explain. She had aconcussion from the blow, that much was obvious. He made her sit andrest while he made what preparations he could for the long walk.
Clothing first. With each passing minute the desert air was growingcolder as the day's heat ebbed away. Lea was beginning to shiver and hetook some heavier clothing from her charred bag and made her pull it onover her light tunic. There was little else that was worth carrying. Thecanteen from the car and a first-aid kit he found in one of thecompartments. There were no maps or radio. Navigation was obviously doneby compass on this almost-featureless desert. The car was equipped withan electrically operated gyro-compass, of no possible use to him. He diduse it to check the direction to Hovedstad, as he remembered it from themap, and found it lined up perfectly with the tracks the car had cutinto the sand. It had come directly from the city. They could find theirway by back-tracking.
Time was slipping away. He would like to have buried Ihjel and the menfrom the car, but the night hours were too valuable to be wasted. Thebest he could do was put the three corpses in the car, for protectionfrom the Disan animals. Locking the door he threw the key as far as hecould in the blackness. Lea had slipped into a restless sleep and hecarefully shook her awake.
"Come," Brion said, "we have a little walking to do."