CHAPTER X
_Georg Escapes_
I come now to recount events at which I was not present, and the detailsof which I did not learn until later. Fronted by Tarrano, in those fewseconds of confusion, Georg made his decision to escape even at the costof leaving Elza and me. He murmured his hurried good-bye. The moment hadarrived. He could see Tarrano dimly through the sparks. He leapedbackward, through that wall of electrical disturbance which surroundedus. The sparks tore at him; burned his clothing and flesh; the shock ofit gripped his heart. But he went through; crept for the balcony. It wasdark out there. He would have rushed for Tarrano instead of the balcony,but as he came through the sparks he had seen that the barriersurrounding our tower was momentarily lifted. Argo had cut it off toadmit Tarrano a few moments before. He had not yet replacedit--absorbed, doubtless, in watching in his finder what Tarrano wasdoing with us. He must have seen Georg reach the balcony; and jumpedthen to replace the barrier. But too late. Georg was over the balconyrail with a leap. The insulated tubes were there--upright gleaming tubesof metal extending downward to the platform below. Tubes smooth, and asthick as a woman's waist.
Georg slid down them. The barrage, above him on the balcony, had beenreplaced. He saw below him the figure of Argo come running out. A weaponin each hand. The burning pencil-ray swung at Georg, but missed him ashe came down. Had it struck, it would have drilled him clean with itstiny hole of fire. Then Argo must have realized that Georg should betaken alive. He ran forward, swung up at Georg the paralyzing vibrationswhich Tarrano at that instant was using upon Wolfgar and me.
Georg felt them. He was ten feet, perhaps, above the lower platform; andas he felt the numbness strike him, he lost his hold upon the tube-pipe.But he had presence of mind enough to kick himself outward with a lasteffort. His body fell upon the onrushing Argo. They went down together.
Argo lay inert. The impact had knocked him senseless, and had struck hisweapon from his hand. Georg sat up, and for a moment chafed histingling, prickling arms and legs. He was bruised and shaken by thefall, but uninjured.
Within our tower, Tarrano was still occupied with us. Georg leaped tohis feet. He left Argo lying there--ran over the spider-bridge; down aspiral metal stairway, across another bridge, and came upon the smallpark-like platform which stood at the bottom of the other tower. He hadpassed within sight of a few pedestrians. One of them shouted at him;another had tried mildly to stop him. A crowd on a distant terrace sawhim. A few of their personal flashes were turned his way. Murmurs arose.Someone at the head of one of the escalators, in a panic pulled analarm-switch. It flared green into the sky, flashing its warning.
The interior-guards--seated at their instrument tables in the lowerrooms of the official buildings--had seen Georg in their finders. Thealarm was spreading. Lights were appearing everywhere.... The murmurs ofgathering people ... excited crowds ... an absurd woman leaning downover a far-away parapet and screaming ... an ignorant, flusteredstreet-guard on a nearby upper terrace swinging his pencil-ray down atGeorg.... Fortunately it fell short.
For a moment Georg stood there, with the gathering tumult aroundhim--stood there gazing up at that small tower. The tower wherein thePrincess Maida was confined. It was dark and silent. Black rectangles ofdoors and casements, all open--but barred by the glow of the electricalbarrage surrounding it.
Georg jerked from his belt the cylinder Wolfgar had given him. Metallic.Short, squat and ugly, with a thick, insulated handle. He feared to useit. Yet Wolfgar had assured him the Princess Maida was prepared. Hehesitated, with his finger upon the switch-button of the weapon. But heknew that in a moment he would be too late. A searchlight from an aerialmast high overhead swung down upon him, bathing him in its glare ofwhite.
His finger pressed the trigger. A soundless flash of purple envelopedthe tower. Sparks mounted into the air--a cloud of vivid electricalsparks; but mingled with them in a moment were sparks also of burningwood and fibre. Smoke began to roll upward; the purple flash was gone,and dull red took its place. The hum and angry buzz of outragedelectricity was stilled. Flames appeared at all the tower casements--redflames, then yellow with their greater heat.
The trim and interior of the tower was burning. The protons Georg hadflung at it with his weapon had broken the electrical barrage. Theinterference heat had burned out the connections and fired everythingcombustible within the tower. A terrific heat. It began to melt and burnthe _blenite_.[10] The upper portion of the tower walls began tocrumble. Huge blocks of stone were shifting, tottering; and they beganto fall through the glare of mounting flames and the thick black smoke.
[Footnote 10: A cement or mortar used in stone constructions--evidentlypartially combustible.]
Georg had tossed away his now useless weapon--emptied of its charge. Hewas crouching in the shadow of a parapet. The city was now in turmoil.Alarm lights everywhere. The shrilling of sirens; roaring of megaphonedcommands ... women screaming hysterically....
A chaos, out of which, for a few moments, Georg knew no order couldcome. But his heart was in his mouth. The Princess Maida, within thatburning building....
He had located the tiny postern gate at the bottom of the tower whereWolfgar had told him she would appear. The barrage was gone; and in amoment she came--a white figure appearing there amid the smoke that wasrolling out.
He rushed to her. A figure wholly encased in white _itan_[11] fabricwith head-mask, and tubes from its generator to supply her with air.Wolfgar had smuggled the equipment in to her for just this emergency.She stood awkwardly beside Georg--a grotesque figure hampered by theheavy costume. Its crescent panes of _itanoid_ begoggled her.
[Footnote 11: A universal insulating fabric, as rubber insulateselectricity and asbestos bars heat.]
Behind him, Georg could hear people advancing. A guard picked them outwith a white flash. The mounting flames of the tower bathed everythingin red. A block of stone fell near at hand, crashing through themetallic platform upon which they were standing. Broken, it saggedbeneath their feet.
Georg tore at the girl's head-piece, lifted it off. Her face was pale,frightened, yet she seemed calm. Her glorious white hair tumbled down inwaves over her shoulders.
"Wolfgar--he----" She choked a little in the smoke that swirled aroundthem. Georg cut in: "He sent me--Georg Brende. Don't talk now--get thisoff."
He pulled the heavy costume from her. She emerged from it--slim andbeautiful in the shimmering blue kirtle, with long grey stockingsbeneath.
A spider incline was nearby. But a dozen guards were coming up it at arun. With the girl's hand in his, Georg turned the other way. Peoplewere closing in all around them--an excited crowd held back by the heatof the burning tower, the smoke and the falling blocks of stone. Someoneswung a pencil-ray wildly. It seared Georg like a branding-iron on theflesh of his arm as it swung past. He pulled Maida toward the head of anescalator a dozen feet away. Its steps were coming upward from the plazaat the ground level. Half way up, the first of an up-coming throng weremounting it.
But Georg again turned aside. He found Maida quick of wit to catch hisplans; and agile of body to follow him. They climbed down the metalframe-work of the escalator sides; down under it to where the invertedsteps were passing downward on the endless belts. Maida slid into one ofthem, with Georg after her, his arms holding her in place.
They huddled there. No one had seen them enter. Smoothly the escalatordrew them downward. Above them in a moment the tramp of feet soundedclose above their heads as the crowd rushed upward.
They approached the bottom, slid out upon a swinging bridge whichchanced at the moment to be empty of people. Down it at a run; into thepalm-lined plaza at the bottom of the city.
Down here it was comparatively dim and silent. The alarm lights of theplaza section had not yet come on; the excitement was concentrated uponthe burning tower above. The crowd, rushing up there, left the plazamomentarily deserted. Georg and Maida crossed it at a run, scurried likefrightened rabbits through a tunnel arcade, down a lower
cross-street,and came at last unmolested to the outskirts of the city.
The buildings here were almost all at the ground level. Georg and Maidaran onward, hardly noticed, for everyone was gazing upward at thedistant, burning tower. Georg was heading for where Wolfgar had an aerosecreted. A mile or more. They reached the spot--but the aero was notthere. They were in the open country now--Venia is small.Plantations--an agricultural region. Most of the houses were deserted,the occupants having fled into the city as refugees when threats andorders came from Washington the day before. Georg and Maida came upon alittle conical house; it lay silent, heavy-shadowed in the starlightwith the glow of the city edging its side and circular roof. Beside itwas an incline with a helicopter standing up there on a private landingstage.... Georg and Maida rushed up the incline.
A small helicopter; its dangling basket was barely large enough fortwo--a basket with a tiny safety 'plane fastened to its outrigger.
In a moment Georg and the girl had boarded the helicopter. She wassilent; she had hardly said a word throughout it all.... The helicoptermounted straight up; its whirling propellers above sent a rush of airdownward.
"These batteries," said Georg. "The guards in Venia can't stop us. Anaero--even if we had it--I doubt if we could get power for it. They'veshut off general power by now, I'm sure."
She nodded. "Yes--no doubt."
As they mounted upward, the city dwindled beneath them--dwindled to anarea of red and green and purple lights. It was silent up here in thestarlight; a calm, windless night--cloudless, save for a gray bank whichobscured the moon.
Ten thousand feet up. Then fifteen. The city was a tiny patch of blendedcolors. Light rockets occasionally mounted now. But their glare fellshort. Georg's mind was busy with his plans. Had the helicopter beenseen? It seemed not. No rocket-light had reached it; and there was nosign of pursuit from below.
Maida crouched beside him. He felt her hand timidly upon his arm; felther shy, sidelong glance upon him. And suddenly he was conscious of herbeauty. His heart leaped, and as he turned to her, she smiled--a smileof eager trust which lighted her face like a torch of faith in the spireof a house of worship.
"You are planning?" she said. "You know what it is we must do?"
He said: "I think so. The _volan_[12] out there is large enough for two.You'll trust yourself to it with me? You're not afraid, are you?"
[Footnote 12: A small winged board without power, used for emergencydescents by volplaning down from disabled aeros.]
"Oh, no," she said. "What you say we must do, we will do."
"We must go higher, Maida. Then, you see...."
He told her his plans. And mounting up there into the silent canopy ofstars, his fingers wound themselves into the soft strands of her hairwhich lay upon him; and his heart beat fast with the nearness ofher.... Told her his plans, and she acquiesced.
Twenty thousand feet. The cold was upon them. Shivering himself, hewrapped her in a fur which the basket contained. At 25,000, they took tothe _vol plan_. It was a padded board a dozen feet long and half aswide. Released, it shot downward; a hundred feet or more, with theheavens whirling soundlessly. Then Georg got the wings open; the descentwas checked; the stars righted themselves above, and once again theearth was beneath.
They had strapped themselves to the board, and now Georg undid thethongs. Together they lay prone, side by side, with the narrow,double-banked wings beneath the line of their shoulders, and therudder-tail behind them. Flexible 'planes and tail, responding toGeorg's grip on the controls.
Fluttering, uncertain at first, like a huge bird of quivering wings,they began their incline descent. A spiral, then Georg opened it to astraight glide northward--rushing downward and onward through thestarlight, in a wind of their own making which fluttered the lightfabric of Maida's robe and tossed her waves of hair about her.
A long, silent glide, with only the rush of wind. It seemed hours, whilethe girl did not speak and Georg anxiously searched the sky ahead.Underneath them, the dark forests were slipping past; but inexorablycoming upward. They were down to 5,000 feet; then Georg saw at last whathe had hoped, prayed for, but almost despaired of. A beam of light tothe northward--the spreading beam of an oncoming patrol. It was highoverhead; but it came forward fast. A sweeping, keenly searching beam,and finally it struck them. Clung to them.
And presently the big patrol vessel was almost above them. It hungthere, a dark winged shape dotted with colored lights. A signal flash--asharp command to Georg, but, of course, he could not answer. Then theDirector's finder picked him out. The _volan_ was fluttering, spirallingslowly as Georg struggled to hold his place.
And then the patrol launched its tender. It came darting down like awasp. A moment more, and Georg and Maida were taken aboard it. The_volan_ fluttered to the forest unguided and was lost in the blacktreetops, now no more than a thousand feet below.
Surrounded by amazed officials, Maida and Georg entered the patrolvessel. Georg Brende, escaped safely from Tarrano! The Brende secretreleased from Tarrano's control! The Director flashed the news toWashington and to Great London. Orders came back. A score of othervessels of this Patrol-Division came dashing up--a convoy which soon wasspeeding northward to Washington with its precious messenger.