Em put his hand on the door and then said in a tone of resignation, "It's bolted from the inside, and judging from the strength of this metal it will take hours to burn through it with a hand phasor."
Sam drew in a long breath and puffed it out making his mustache stand up. A worried look crossed his face. He aimed his hand phasor and started shooting at the palm switch with continuous fire.
“It won’t do any good,” said Ben. “You’re just going to deplete your power pack.” As he said this he was desperately trying to think of an alternative plan. He had to think of something, otherwise thousands of rebels were going to die being hacked to pieces.
Then the door started to open.
Em was still leaning partially against it and had to quickly brace himself to keep from losing his balance. Abruptly he found himself face to face with a phasor rifle and looking into the eyes of the man behind it.
Corporal Winterrose jumped back and then, not wanting to make any noise, he whispered, "Crap, you startled the hell out of me."
Sam raised his phasor and started to shoot, but Em pushed his hand down. "Wait," he said.
"'Wait' is right," whispered Corporal Winterrose. "I'm on your side. And I was just coming to give you a hand."
No time for chatter, thought Ben. He pushed his way past Sam, Em, and Corporal Winterrose and into the scent room. He stepped over the two men lying on the floor. "Come on," he said and started down the walkway behind the scent racks.
Corporal Winterrose caught up with him and grabbed his arm. "They're still working on getting the doors open," he said.
"Getting the doors open?"
Corporal Winterrose had a blank look on his face. "Yeah, didn't you know?"
"Know what?"
"The destroyer's phasor welded them shut. I thought you did it on purpose."
"No we didn't," replied Ben. "But it's damn lucky for the foot soldiers that we did."
"How many men are there?"
"Twenty-three, including Hurd."
Ben turned and pointed to the men behind him and then to the different rows. He wanted them to spread out.
The lights were bright, which made him feel like a duck in a shooting gallery. He walked stealthily down the corridor, and when he was three quarters of the way to the end, he came to a halt. He could hear Hurd's men talking at the other end of the scent rack. He slowly peeked around the corner.
From this vantage point he could see nothing but two men about ten paces away. They were talking quietly while staring toward the front of the tower, probably watching the cutting of the doors.
He signaled for Em and Viella to stay behind, and then quickly stepped past the aisle. He went to the end of the corridor and again peered around the corner. Now he could see the control room and the scent release doors. Damn, he thought as he pulled back. The doors are open, and they're getting ready to launch a scent. I hope to hell that's the first one.
And then he could hear Hurd giving the commands. "Bring the scents," he yelled.
Two men walked over and unloaded a scent from the first rack. They carried it to a small launching pad near the opening and set it down, then they walked back for the next scent. The four men in front of the control panel started working, pushing switches and programming information into the computer.
The small drive motor began to hum and the scent lifted silently off the pad, into the air, and shot out the opening.
It's time to act, thought Ben. From the corner of his eye he could see Roqford slinking down the aisle between the computer banks. He motioned to Em, pointing at his phasor and then pointing down the aisle, thus giving him the message to shoot the two men.
Ben made sure his phasor was set on stun and then he surveyed the situation. There were four men standing in front of the control panel and one in front of the computer banks. In the middle of the room near the launching pad stood a patroller with black stripes around the sleeves of his uniform. This was the man in charge when Hurd wasn't around. Two more men were standing near the door of the repair shop with cutting tools in their hands. They had been working to free the doors. Hurd was standing on the opposite side of the launching pad, and the two loaders were walking back to get another scent.
Ben spun around the corner, aimed his phasor, and squeezed off a shot. The loader nearest to him went down. That was the signal for the rest of the rebels. Ben moved his hand with the phasor in it, slightly to the right, aimed, and squeezed off a second shot. The man with the stripes on his sleeve stiffened and fell to the floor.
Almost simultaneously Sam, who had snuck past the two loaders near the middle of the scent racks, stepped out at the far end and brought down the other loader near Hurd. At the same time, Em unerringly squeezed off his two shots. Sweyn raced to the furthest scent rack, on the far side, and fired a shot at one of the repairmen. It caught him on the shoulder with enough force to spin him around and knock him to the floor, paralyzed. The other man ducked through the repair shop doorway before Sweyn could fire again.
Hurd, with a seething red face, dropped to the floor behind the small launching pad. He drew his phasor with vengeance and fired at Ben. But his angle of fire was poor and the red streak burned into one of the metal scents.
Em stepped beside Ben. He switched his phasor from stun to kill and started cutting through the control panel with a continuous beam. Wires sparked, screens went dead, control circuits ceased to function, and indicator lights on the control board blinked out. Small spirals of smoke wisped into the air and small rivulets of metal oozed onto the floor. The scents would no longer be flying.
Viella had worked her way to the far end of the room and crawled down the walkway between the computer banks. When the action began she stood up and fired two shots at the outside controllers. They both went down, but as she started to withdraw a hand reached out, closed around her wrist, and yanked her forward. Her stunner went spinning to the floor.
She had been unaware of the man standing on the other side.
"Bring her over here," yelled Hurd from behind the launching pad. He was motioning to the man in a hurried manner. "Quick, you fool. Hurry!"
Ben saw Viella being dragged across the floor. Her free arm was flailing about in protest, but she couldn't reach her captor. He had her back to his chest and was using her as a shield.
Ben brought his phasor to bear on the man dragging Viella, but he couldn't get a clear shot. He turned and fired a shot at Hurd, but it was high off the mark as Hurd ducked behind the pad again.
"Stop!" yelled Ben at the man who had captured Viella. But the man ignored him. Ben found his line of fire and pulled the trigger. The blue beam shot across the room and hit Viella full in the chest. She went down leaving the controller exposed and vulnerable. Ben fired another shot and the man went down in back of her.
"You think you can stop me." There was anger in Hurd’s voice. "But you're just a fool like the rebels.” He fired his phasor, and the red bolt hit near the top of Viella's head. "I have my phasor aimed at the girl. If you don't throw down your guns, I'll kill her."
Ben turned toward Sam. If he could . . . No, he was in the wrong position.
"Throw them down, now," yelled Hurd again.
Em had no chance. Ben surveyed his position, but the pad was in his line of fire.
"Alright," said Ben. He stood up and threw his gun on the floor.
"And the rest of you," said Hurd in a loud voice. "Do it now.”
Sam stepped forward and tossed his gun on the floor. He was followed by Gaal and Sweyn, who did the same.
That's not all of you," yelled Hurd. He was counting as the guns hit the floor.
Em threw his gun down.
"It won't do you any good," said Ben. "Your scents are no longer operational, which means you've lost the war." Ben was pointing at the burned out control panel. "Let the girl go and negotiate with us. Perhaps we can keep you out of prison by banishing you to another planet where you can live a meager life wi
th your wife. Maybe we'll even throw in the picture of Teddy Roosevelt."
Ben's last remark infuriated Hurd. He stood up and aimed his phasor at Ben. "You've ruined my plans for a magnificent empire." His face was distorted with rage. "I'm going to kill you," he growled between clenched teeth. He began to squeeze the trigger. "Die," he whispered.
A blur of gold streaked through the air with unimaginable speed, and it brought with it, death. It seemed to Ben that it was impossible for an animal to move so fast.
A swipe of Roqford's paw struck Hurd's gun hand forcing it to his chest before he could pull the trigger. At the same time Roqford's head butted Hurd with such force as to knock him off his feet. He sailed over the guardrail and through the opening of the scent doors.
That ended the negotiations with Hurd.
As soon as Sam saw what had happened he rushed over to the opening and stuck his head over the ledge until he could see Hurd falling away. “I’m the one who stole your cigars, you dirty bastard!” he yelled.
Ben looked out the opening just in time to see Hurd plummeting toward his death, while at the same time Hurd raised his fist and shook it in anger as if to say, ‘if only I could get my hands on you for stealing my cigars, I would punish you severely.
And that was the end of Hurd.
Sam left the opening and hurried over to Viella. She would be paralyzed another twenty-five or thirty minutes, but she could hear what he was saying. "We've done it," he said. "We've defeated Hurd, and now the city belongs to the people."
Ben could almost see a smile beneath her frozen face.
Chapter Sixty-Nine