Silence. I watched thirty seconds tick off on my suit clock, then I
made Harry scream:
"George! Good God, George.... Arrgh!"
I hoped the scream was a good one. Honest, it almost scared me. Poor
George and Harry: I had killed them off quick enough. Now I had to
invent new characters. For a brief moment I wondered what had happened
to Clair and Gramps, but then I pushed them out of my mind. I couldn't
afford to think of that now.
I let six minutes pass. It was agonizing, but I did it. Then I did my
best to invent two new voices.
"So, here's the spot, Mike. Funny, I don't see them."
Mike had a high, squeaky voice. "Hah-hah, don't worry, chief. They'll
be around."
"I don't find your humor amusing. So--Mike. Mike! Look...."
I let my voice trail off. If this wasn't so damned serious, it could
have been amusing. I was really living the part.
Mike said: "God, chief, both of 'em. Shrivelled up like that, burned to
a crisp. Chief--"
"What can you do? I told them not to play games with it until I came,
and they just didn't know how to work the damper. Fools, they could
have killed us all. Well, suppose we take care of those people in the
domes."
"You mean like this, chief?"
"Certainly, like this. No one asked them to butt in here."
* * * * *
I didn't say anything else for a while. I could feel myself sweating
under the helmet, and momentarily, at least, I had run out of things to
say.
Someone else came to my rescue. For the first time, one of the other
party attempted direct intercom communication.
"Hey you out there," a voice said. "This is Reardon, in charge of this
outfit." He sounded afraid. "Lay off or we'll blast these two prisoners
I got...."
"You're telling me to lay off?" I demanded, trying to think of
something to say. "You're telling me to lay off? That's rich."
"What do you mean?" The voice was still frightened, and I began to feel
a little better. They had fallen for this so far all the way.
"What do I care what you do to those two? They're a couple of
homesteaders who happened to barge in here, an old man and a girl. Go
ahead, kill 'em. What's the difference, you'll follow in a couple of
minutes."