Read The Plotters Page 4

and went out. The last thing I saw frombeneath my lids was Beth being dragged toward that diabolical machine.

  My senses were leaving me. I knew that I had to overcome the effects ofthe drug. I knew that I had to get out of that cabin. Somehow I draggedmyself out of the bunk and got a porthole open. I crawled through it anddropped to the floor of the barn.

  There were some loose boards and I pried them further apart and crawledout into the open. I no longer knew what I was doing; I no longerremembered Beth. I only knew that I had to run and keep on running.

  * * * * *

  My broken rib was stabbing into me like a knife. Across my chest thelimb of the tree was a dead weight that crushed me. But now I knew who Iwas and what I was doing.

  Despite the agony I managed to get my hands under the limb. I pushed upand felt it move. The pressure on my chest was gone. Inch by inch I slidout from beneath the huge branch. I staggered to my feet.

  How much time had elapsed I didn't know. I was running again, but now Iwas running toward the dark barn. It wouldn't have taken Ristal long toget started. Maybe by now Beth was.... I shut the thought from my mind.

  I was a few hundred yards away when the first scream came. Through thewind and the pelting rain it came, and it chilled me more than they haddone.

  My chest was aflame with every panting breath I took. But I ran as I hadnever run before. I had to get there before she screamed again. I had tostop them from doing this to her.

  The barn door was locked. I got my fingers under the edge and ripped thewood away from the lock and went on through and into the ship.

  None of them saw me coming. Copperd was tied in a chair, his facecontorted and tears streaming down his face. Three of the men held Bethwhile Ristal and Kresh worked over her. The rest were watching.

  They hadn't taken my _del_ gun from me. But I couldn't use it for fearof hitting Beth. I had it out of my pocket and in my hand as I chargedacross the room.

  * * * * *

  My rush brought me into point-blank range on a line parallel with Beth'sprostrate figure. At the same time her torturers wheeled about to faceme, trapped for an instant in the paralysis of complete surprise. Ristalwas the first to recover.

  "Drop the gun, Marko," he said.

  In my weakened condition, habit governed my reflexes. I almost obeyedthe order. Then Ristal took a single step forward and I swung the muzzleof the gun upward again.

  "You almost had me," I said. "But you are no longer in command. You andKresh will return as prisoners, to face trial."

  I hoped that he would accept the inevitable. Our crew could plead thatthey had done nothing except follow the orders of their commandingofficer. But for Kresh and Ristal there could be no mitigatingcircumstances.

  They would stand trial and they would receive the harshest ofpunishments, exile. It was a bleak outlook for them, and the bleaknesswas reflected in their faces. Ristal's hand flicked to his gun.

  I pulled the trigger and a sizzling bolt of energy leapedforth]

  I fired once and there was the smell of searing flesh.

  "Kresh?" I asked. He looked down at the faceless figure on the floor andshook his head.

  He raised his elbows, leaving his holster exposed. I nodded to one ofthe crewmen and he stepped forward and removed Kresh's _del_ gun.

  "Drop it on the floor," I said. "Then tear off his insignia and lock himin the forward cabin."

  It was the end of the mutiny. But I felt no joy at that. My chest painedintolerably, my shoulders sagged in exhaustion. And I had failed in mymission.

  Beth was all right. I went to her and tore the electrodes from herwrists and ankles and helped her to her feet. She refused to look at me,even allowing me to untie her father by myself.

  "I regret that it turned out this way," I said.

  "How could it turn out any other way?" Beth demanded suddenly. "Do youthink we'd trust you now?"

  Off in the night a siren wailed. I listened while another siren joinedthe first.

  "They're already looking for you," I said. "Which shows how littlechance I would have had of getting to you openly. You'd better be goingnow."

  But as I led them to the door I knew I had to make one more attempt.

  "Professor Copperd, do you think there might still be hope? We of Venuscan offer much to Earth."

  "Maybe there _is_ hope," he said, and he looked brighter than I had everseen him look. "I was reaching the point where I had no faith in thefuture. But now, knowing that you have solved the problems which weface.... Perhaps, if the proper arrangements were made.... But you wouldbe risking a great deal to return. And I can assure you that for a longtime Venus will be safe. So you have no reason--"

  "I have a good reason for coming back," I interrupted. Taking Beth bythe shoulders, I swung her about to face me.

  "I love you," I said. "I started out to trick you and ended by lovingyou."

  Then her arms were about me and her lips were on mine. I felt my facewet with her tears, and I knew that my love was returned. There werestill problems to face, dangers to overcome, but they didn't matter.

  "It may be a year," I said. "Perhaps two years."

  "I'll be waiting. I'll be standing here, waiting for you."

  Now the sirens were very close and there were searchlights sweeping thefields and the woods. I watched Beth and her father walking away andthen I closed the door. I should have felt sad, but I didn't. A year ortwo weren't much. On this planet far from my own, I was leaving myheart, and I would return one day to redeem it.

 
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