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This time the girl could not stem tears. "Oh, Axor !"
"Quiet, you two blitherers," Targovi grated. "What we want is less nobility and more thinking."
He jumped and paced, not man-style but as a Tigery does, weaving in and out among the trees and
around the bushes. His right hand stroked the blade of his great knife over the palm of the left, again and
again. Teeth gleamed when he muttered on the track of his thought.
"I led us hither because I dared not suppose my deed at the command post would go undetected
enough longer for us to rustle transportation and reach the mainland. In that I was right. My hope was
that the Zacharians would show such confusion at the news, being inexperienced in affairs like this, that
we could double back and find means of escape mayhap forcing the owner of a vehicle to cover for us.
After all, they had not been well organized at the post. The hope was thin just the same, and now is not a
wisp. I think their & oneness & makes them able to react to the unforeseen as coolly as an individual,
not with the babble and cross purposes of an ordinary human herd taken by surprise. You heard the
broadcast. Every car and boat will stay in a group of three or more, under guard. Every movement from
the island will be stopped for inspection. This will prevail until we are captured or slain.
"Shall we yield? They might be content to shoot me, and the imprisonment of you two might not be
cruel.
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"You signal a no."
"My mother passed on an ancient sayin' to me," Diana told them. "Better to die on your feet than live
on your knees."
"Ah, the young do not truly understand they can die," Axor sighed. "Yet if any possibility whatsoever is
left us, what can we in conscience do other than try it?"
Still the Tigery prowled. "I am thinking, I am thinking " Abruptly he halted. He drove the knife into a
bole so that the metal sang. "Javak! Yes, it was on my horizon a twisted path But we must needs
hurry, and not give the foe time to imagine we are crazy enough to take that way."
The south side of the Mencius range dropped a short distance before the land resumed its climb. This
was unpeopled country, heavily wooded save where the canyon of the Averroes River slashed toward
the sea, and on the higher flanks of the mountains. Kukulkan had told Diana it was a game and
recreational preserve. The location of the spaceport here dated from troubled early days, when it might
have become a target, minor though it was. Perhaps its isolation had been a factor in the conceiving of the
Merseian plot.
Despite everything, the girl caught her breath at the sight. Clear, apart from a slight golden fleece of
clouds, the sky was pale below, deepening in indigo at the zenith; but still night cast a dusk over the
reaches around her. Heights to north and south walled in the world. Only at the ends of the vale did the
sun-ring shine, casting rays that made the bottom a lake of amber. Where trees allowed glimpses, the hills
above were purple-black, the snow-caps in the distance moltenly aglow. Air was cool on her brow.
Quietness towered.
Wonder ended as Targovi pointed ahead.
Beyond the last concealment the forest afforded was a hundred-meter stretch, kept open though
overgrown with brush and weeds. A link fence, to hold off animals, enclosed a ferrocrete field. Her pulse
athrob but her senses and judgment preternaturally sharp, she gauged its dimensions as five hundred by
three hundred meters. Service buildings clustered and a radionic mast spired at the farther end. Of the
several landing docks, two were occupied. One craft she identified as interplanetary, a new and shapely
version of Moonjumper. The other was naval rather small as interstellar ships went, darkly gleaming,
gun turret and launcher tubes sleeked into her leanness akin to the Comet class, but not identical, not
designed or wrought by humans What ghost in her head blew a bugle call?
Huge and vague in the shadows, Axor whispered hoarsely, "We take the Zacharian vessel, of course."
"No, of course not," Targovi hissed. His eyes caught what light there was and burned like coals. "I was
right in guessing the islanders are as militarily slovenly here as at the centrum, and have armed no watch.
The thought of us hijacking a spaceship is too warlike to have occurred to them. But the Merseians are
bound to have a guard aboard theirs. I know not whether that's a singleton or more, but belike whoever
it is knows how to dispatch a seeker missile, or actually lift in chase." Decision. "However, we may well
dupe them into supposing we are after the easier prey, and thus catch them off balance. The dim light will
help "
When he burst from concealment, Axor carried Diana in the crook of an arm, she would otherwise
have toiled far behind him and Targovi. The pounding of his gallop resounded through her. She leaned
into his flexing hardness, cradled her rifle, peered after a mark.
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It was an instant and it was a century across the clearing, until they reached the fence. Axor's free arm
curved around to keep torn strands off her while he crashed through. Nevertheless, several drew blood.
She barely noticed.
Men ran from the terminal, insectoidal at their distance, then suddenly near. She saw pistols in the
hands of some. She heard a buzz, a thud. Axor grunted, lurched, went on. Diana opened fire. A figure
tumbled and lay sprattling.
Targovi bounded alongside. The cargo carrier was straight ahead. He raised his arm, veered, and went
for the Merseians. Diana's vision swooped as Axor came around too. She glanced past his clifflike
shoulder and saw the Zacharians in bewilderment. They numbered perhaps a dozen.
Targovi mounted the entry ramp of the dock. An airlock stood shut against him. He shielded his eyes
with an arm and began to cut his way in with the blaster. Flame spurted blue-white, heat roiled, air [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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