"Is it pointed directly at the City?" Mara asked anxiously, looking down
at the pyramid.
Erick nodded. "Yes, it's placed according--" He stopped, suddenly
stiffening. "Get back! It's time! _Hurry!_"
Jan ran, down the far side of the slope, away from the City, pulling
Mara with him. Erick came quickly after, still looking back at the
distant spires, almost lost in the night sky.
"Down."
Jan sprawled out, Mara beside him, her trembling body pressed against
his. Erick settled down into the sand and dead branches, still trying to
see. "I want to see it," he murmured. "A miracle. I want to see--"
A flash, a blinding burst of violet light, lit up the sky. Erick clapped
his hands over his eyes. The flash whitened, growing larger, expanding.
Suddenly there was a roar, and a furious hot wind rushed past him,
throwing him on his face in the sand. The hot dry wind licked and seared
at them, crackling the bits of branches into flame. Mara and Jan shut
their eyes, pressed tightly together.
"God--" Erick muttered.
The storm passed. They opened their eyes slowly. The sky was still alive
with fire, a drifting cloud of sparks that was beginning to dissipate
with the night wind. Erick stood up unsteadily, helping Jan and Mara to
their feet. The three of them stood, staring silently across the dark
waste, the black plain, none of them speaking.
The City was gone.
At last Erick turned away. "That part's done," he said. "Now the rest!
Give me a hand, Jan. There'll be a thousand patrol ships around here in
a minute."
"I see one already," Mara said, pointing up. A spot winked in the sky, a
rapidly moving spot. "They're coming, Erick." There was a throb of chill
fear in her voice.
"I know." Erick and Jan squatted on the ground around the pyramid of
tubes and plastic, pulling the pyramid apart. The pyramid was fused,
fused together like molten glass. Erick tore the pieces away with
trembling fingers. From the remains of the pyramid he pulled something
forth, something he held up high, trying to make it out in the darkness.
Jan and Mara came close to see, both staring up intently, almost without
breathing.
"There it is," Erick said. "There!"
* * * * *
In his hand was a globe, a small transparent globe of glass. Within the
glass something moved, something minute and fragile, spires almost too
small to be seen, microscopic, a complex web swimming within the hollow
glass globe. A web of spires. A City.
Erick put the globe into the case and snapped it shut. "Let's go," he
said. They began to lope back through the trees, back the way they had
come before. "We'll change in the car," he said as they ran. "I think we
should keep these clothes on until we're actually inside the car. We
still might encounter someone."
"I'll be glad to get my own clothing on again," Jan said. "I feel funny
in these little pants."
"How do you think I feel?" Mara gasped. "I'm freezing in this, what
there is of it."
"All young Martian brides dress that way," Erick said. He clutched the
case tightly as they ran. "I think it looks fine."
"Thank you," Mara said, "but it is cold."
"What do you suppose they'll think?" Jan asked. "They'll assume the City
was destroyed, won't they? That's certain."
"Yes," Erick said. "They'll be sure it was blown up. We can count on
that. And it will be damn important to us that they think so!"
"The car should be around here, someplace," Mara said, slowing down.
"No. Farther on," Erick said. "Past that little hill over there. In the
ravine, by the trees. It's so hard to see where we are."
"Shall I light something?" Jan said.
"No. There may be patrols around who--"
He halted abruptly. Jan and Mara stopped beside him. "What--" Mara
began.
A light glimmered. Something stirred in the darkness. There was a sound.
"Quick!" Erick rasped. He dropped, throwing the case far away from him,
into the bushes. He straightened up tensely.
A figure loomed up, moving through the darkness, and behind it came more
figures, men, soldiers in uniform. The light flashed up brightly,
blinding them. Erick closed his eyes. The light left him, touching Mara
and Jan, standing silently together, clasping hands. Then it flicked
down to the ground and around in a circle.
A Leiter stepped forward, a tall figure in black, with his soldiers
close behind him, their guns ready. "You three," the Leiter said. "Who
are you? Don't move. Stand where you are."
He came up to Erick, peering at him intently, his hard Martian face
without expression. He went all around Erick, examining his robes, his
sleeves.
"Please--" Erick began in a quavering voice, but the Leiter cut him off.
"I'll do the talking. Who are you three? What are you doing here? Speak
up."
"We--we are going back to our village," Erick muttered, staring down,
his hands folded. "We were in the City, and now we are going home."
One of the soldiers spoke into a mouthpiece. He clicked it off and put
it away.
"Come with me," the Leiter said. "We're taking you in. Hurry along."
"In? Back to the City?"
One of the soldiers laughed. "The City is gone," he said. "All that's
left of it you can put in the palm of your hand."
"But what happened?" Mara said.
"No one knows. Come on, hurry it up!"
There was a sound. A soldier came quickly out of the darkness. "A Senior
Leiter," he said. "Coming this way." He disappeared again.
* * * * *
"A Senior Leiter." The soldiers stood waiting, standing at a respectful
attention. A moment later the Senior Leiter stepped into the light, a
black-clad old man, his ancient face thin and hard, like a bird's, eyes
bright and alert. He looked from Erick to Jan.
"Who are these people?" he demanded.
"Villagers going back home."
"No, they're not. They don't stand like villagers. Villagers slump--diet,
poor food. These people are not villagers. I myself came from the hills,
and I know."
He stepped close to Erick, looking keenly into his face. "Who are you?
Look at his chin--he never shaved with a sharpened stone! Something is
wrong here."
In his hand a rod of pale fire flashed. "The City is gone, and with it
at least half the Leiter Council. It is very strange, a flash, then
heat, and a wind. But it was not fission. I am puzzled. All at once the
City has vanished. Nothing is left but a depression in the sand."
"We'll take them in," the other Leiter said. "Soldiers, surround them.
Make certain that--"
"Run!" Erick cried. He struck out, knocking the rod from the Senior
Leiter's hand. They were all running, soldiers shouting, flashing their
lights, stumbling against each other in the darkness. Erick dropped to
his knees, groping frantically in the bushes. His fingers closed over
the handle of the case and he leaped up. In Terran he shouted to Mara
and Jan.
"Hurry! To the car! Run!" He set off, down the slope, stumbling through
the darkness. He could hear soldiers behind him, soldiers running and
falling. A body collided against him and he struck out. Someplace behind
him there was a hiss, and a section of the slope went up in flames. The
Leiter's rod--
"Erick," Mara cried from the darkness. He ran toward her. Suddenly he
slipped, falling on a stone. Confusion and firing. The sound of excited
voices.
"Erick, is that you?" Jan caught hold of him, helping him up. "The car.
It's over here. Where's Mara?"
"I'm here," Mara's voice came. "Over here, by the car."
A light flashed. A tree went up in a puff of fire, and Erick felt the
singe of the heat against his face. He and Jan made their way toward the
girl. Mara's hand caught his in the darkness.
"Now the car," Erick said. "If they haven't got to it." He slid down the
slope into the ravine, fumbling in the darkness, reaching and holding
onto the handle of the case. Reaching, reaching--
He touched something cold and smooth. Metal, a metal door handle. Relief
flooded through him. "I've found it! Jan, get inside. Mara, come on." He
pushed Jan past him, into the car. Mara slipped in after Jan, her small
agile body crowding in beside him.
"Stop!" a voice shouted from above. "There's no use hiding in that
ravine. We'll get you! Come up and--"
The sound of voices was drowned out by the roar of the car's motor. A
moment later they shot into the darkness, the car rising into the air.
Treetops broke and cracked under them as Erick turned the car from side
to side, avoiding the groping shafts of pale light from below, the last
furious thrusts from the two Leiters and their soldiers.
Then they were away, above the trees, high in the air, gaining speed
each moment, leaving the knot of Martians far behind.
"Toward Marsport," Jan said to Erick. "Right?"
Erick nodded. "Yes. We'll land outside the field, in the hills. We can
change back to our regular clothing there, our commercial clothing. Damn
it--we'll be lucky if we can get there in time for the ship."
"The last ship," Mara whispered, her chest rising and falling. "What if
we don't get there in time?"
Erick looked down at the leather case in his lap. "We'll have to get
there," he murmured. "We must!"
* * * * *
For a long time there was silence. Thacher stared at Erickson. The older
man was leaning back in his chair, sipping a little of his drink. Mara
and Jan were silent.
"So you didn't destroy the City," Thacher said. "You didn't destroy it
at all. You shrank it down and put it in a glass globe, in a
paperweight. And now you're salesmen again, with a sample case of office
supplies!"
Erickson smiled. He opened the briefcase and reaching into it he brought
out the glass globe paperweight. He held it up, looking into it. "Yes,
we stole the City from the Martians. That's how we got by the lie
detector. It was true that we knew nothing about a _destroyed_ City."
"But why?" Thacher said. "Why steal a City? Why not merely bomb it?"
"Ransom," Mara said fervently, gazing into the globe, her dark eyes
bright. "Their biggest City, half of their Council--in Erick's hand!"
"Mars will have to do what Terra asks," Erickson said. "Now Terra will
be able to make her commercial demands felt. Maybe there won't even be a
war. Perhaps Terra will get her way without fighting." Still smiling, he
put the globe back into the briefcase and locked it.
"Quite a story," Thacher said. "What an amazing process, reduction of
size-- A whole City reduced to microscopic dimensions. Amazing. No
wonder you were able to escape. With such daring as that, no one could
hope to stop you."
He looked down at the briefcase on the floor. Underneath them the jets
murmured and vibrated evenly, as the ship moved through space toward
distant Terra.
"We still have quite a way to go," Jan said. "You've heard our story,
Thacher. Why not tell us yours? What sort of line are you in? What's
your business?"
"Yes," Mara said. "What do you do?"
"What do I do?" Thacher said. "Well, if you like, I'll show you." He
reached into his coat and brought out something. Something that flashed
and glinted, something slender. A rod of pale fire.
The three stared at it. Sickened shock settled over them slowly.
Thacher held the rod loosely, calmly, pointing it at Erickson. "We knew
you three were on this ship," he said. "There was no doubt of that. But
we did not know what had become of the City. My theory was that the City
had not been destroyed at all, that something else had happened to it.
Council instruments measured a sudden loss of mass in that area, a
decrease equal to the mass of the City. Somehow the City had been
spirited away, not destroyed. But I could not convince the other Council
Leiters of it. I had to follow you alone."
Thacher turned a little, nodding to the men sitting at the bar. The men
rose at once, coming toward the table.
"A very interesting process you have. Mars will benefit a great deal
from it. Perhaps it will even turn the tide in our favor. When we return
to Marsport I wish to begin work on it at once. And now, if you will
please pass me the briefcase--"
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Planet Stories_ January 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.