"Of course. But, Jim--"
"Lend it to me, will you? I may need it before I'm finished here."
"Eh?" Crick was startled.
Ronson explained what he meant. Crick's face grew grim. He took an
extra needle gun out of his coat pocket. "I guess maybe you could use a
little help on this job, Jim. Eh, Jennie?" He glanced at the girl.
Fear was on her face. She wanted to run, to get away, forever, from
this place of horror. But some things were more important than running.
"We'll make it a threesome," she said.
"Good girl!" Ronson spoke.
A passage circled the oval cavern. With Ronson in the lead, they
followed it until they came to the spot from which the radiations were
being poured into the cavern. Here was a large room. The passage led
directly into it.
Inside the room was a tremendous array of complex electrical apparatus.
Ronson had never seen anything as good as this in even the best
laboratories back on Earth. He could not even guess the purpose of
most of the equipment, it had been designed by a Martian mind and
constructed by Martian hands--with a Martian goal in view.
Set in the middle of the room were the control panels of the equipment.
Directly above the panels was a smoky visio screen that revealed dimly
what was happening in the cavern. Just rising from his place at the
controls was--the Messenger.
He looked up and into the muzzle of the needle gun Ronson was holding.
A tiny startled reaction played across his poised face, disturbing the
many wrinkles there, then was gone. A smile replaced it.
"Ah, yes. I had just discovered you were missing and I was starting to
look for you."
Behind him, Ronson heard Jennie Ware catch her breath. He knew she was
thinking that they should have run while they had the chance.
"We saved you the trouble, Les Ro," Ronson said.