Dan turned the corner. Directly before him was a large white marble
building with a lawn on either side of a broad flight of steps, and
guards on the sidewalk, the steps, and in emplacements in the shrubbery
on either side of the steps.
One of them saw Dan and casually snapped a shot at him. Dan got back
around the corner fast and looked around. On both sides of the street,
men were lying flat at the bases of the buildings, or crouching in
doorways. Down the street, they were running up a block to the left.
Up the middle of the street came a tank. It paused just out of sight
from the building around the corner, and an amplified voice boomed out,
"This is the War Ruler. Get out of that building before the count of
thirty, or we clean you out."
A voice began to count. There was a sound of fast footsteps on the
sidewalk around the corner, and half a dozen men carrying guns came
into view. Dan recognized some of the men who had searched the place
where he'd landed his boat. One of them, not yet quite in a position to
see the tank, called out irritably, "All right, you. Get out here!"
Then he caught sight of the men lying at the base of the buildings, and
crouched in the doorways. He fired.
Flashes of light came from the men by the buildings. There was a roar
and a grind and the tank rolled forward. A whistle blew. Dan heaved a
mataform transceiver toward the emplacement at the base of the stairs,
and an instant before it landed, he mentally pronounced a key word.
In the emplacement, he jerked the men away from their gun before they
could fire a shot. He knocked them senseless, grabbed a rifle, and
sprang up onto the staircase, with the intent of sprinting to the
other side and diving into the emplacement there. Halfway across the
steps, there was a sensation as if someone had smacked him between the
shoulder blades with a rifle butt. He saw the stairs coming up to meet
him, and then he saw nothing.
* * * * *
He came to with a pretty face smiling at him through a sort of fog. The
fog cleared away, and a highly attractive nurse was looking at him very
admiringly. She said, "Sir, you have a visitor."
Dan glanced around and saw Kielgaard, a sorrowful look on his face.