He woke to instant alertness as Susan's fingers encountered the bruise
his pistol had left on his ribs.
"Klev is here," she said.
He sat up, and as he did so the living blanket rolled back. Both
shivered in the sudden chill.
Two Martians stood in the doorway, with Merlo in the lead. The greenish
face of the other was seamed and wrinkled, and the crest atop his head
was shrunken and tattered at the edges. He walked with a stoop, his
movements slow and deliberate. Under his arm he carried a bundle of
Earth clothing.
"Klev," Susan called. "_Tec qua hala mo._"
Klev raised one hand in greeting and spoke to Merlo. The blue-faced
one answered in surly fashion and chirped to his waiting _varlu_. Klev
entered.
Susan noticed Nick shivering and said something to Klev, who returned
to the doorway and spoke once more to Merlo. The blue-faced Martian
produced Nick's jacket with obvious reluctance.
Quickly Nick ran his hands through the pockets. The oxygen sniffer
bottle, half empty now, and the kit of emergency rations were still
there, but everything which could conceivably be used as a weapon had
been removed. He had only the knife at his belt. He started to don the
jacket, but the girl stopped him with a quick gesture.
"Rip off the insignia first," she urged.
Nick saw the point, and sat in one of the peculiar chairs cutting out
the stitches while Klev and Susan talked. Merlo stayed in the hallway,
beyond the _varlu_, watching and listening.
At first the Martian asked brief questions and Susan answered in his
chirping, twittering language. Nick could see Klev's bulging eyes turn
toward him now and then, and would have given much to understand the
thoughts in that alien brain.
Without understanding a word of the conversation he knew when Susan
told of her father's death by the break in her voice. Klev looked at
him angrily for a moment, until she shook her head and continued her
explanations.
Then Klev talked, while Susan grew more and more agitated with each
sentence. Finally Nick could stand it no longer.
"What's he saying?" he interrupted.
"Oh, Nick," she said unhappily. "Representatives of all eleven of the
underground cities are gathering now to plan a mass attack on the
Exploiters' camp."
"But they haven't ever fought back. They can't hope to--"
"They haven't always hidden underground like rabbits," she corrected.
"Once they were a proud race, and even though the Plague and lack of
sunlight have left them weakened and barely alive some of that old
spirit remains.
"But they haven't any proper weapons, and they'll all be killed, and
that's just what the Exploiters want. And, Nick, Merlo is going to take
us before the Council for trial. He's the leader of the group that
wants to fight, to make one last attempt to kill all Earthmen on Mars."
"What will the Council do?"
"Klev doesn't know. They have their own special laws but he isn't sure
how they will interpret them. He's against the attack."
Klev spoke again, gesturing toward Nick.
"What's he saying now?"
She translated hesitantly. "He says I shouldn't have brought you down
here. He can't seem to understand that you've left the Exploiters."
"Damn it, tell him it wasn't your idea."
"Useless. We came together."
"But the Council--"
* * * * *
The prospect of being tried by a council of these alien creatures was
more terrifying to Nick than any combat. In a fight one at least had a
chance to influence the outcome.
"Ask the old one if there's any way to escape," he demanded. "Hell, we
can't just sit here and take whatever Blueface dishes out."
She spoke softly to Klev, and the ancient Martian shook his head
regretfully.
"Then we've got to wait?"
"I'm afraid so. But Klev says he will speak to the Council, and try to
get others to speak for us too."
"But you, Sue. You didn't--"
"I'm an Earth woman," she sighed. "Most of them think now that all
Earth people are like those Gravinol-doped killers."
Her mention of the drug brought the old craving once more into Nick's
thoughts, but this time not too strongly. Resolutely he put it aside.
"Dad and I are to blame," the girl lamented. "If we'd broadcast our
story when we returned to Earth instead of making a private report to
that Harmon monster, all this could never have happened."
The situation looked hopeless, but Nick felt no self-pity. He had
been trained as a fighter in an environment in which fighters were
inevitably killed. But for the first time since childhood he felt
shame. Shame that because of him and his kind this girl had lost even
her uncertain refuge.
Klev rose, patted Susan's shoulder with a long-fingered hand, and
walked to the doorway where Merlo waited.
"He says he'll see if he can find anyone else to speak for us," she
translated his farewell.
She took the bundle of clothing Klev had brought and went into the back
room. A few minutes later he heard her sobbing and glanced through the
archway. She was holding up a pair of ragged brown coveralls much too
large for her slender form, the clothes her father had left behind when
he made his last trip to the surface.
He grew restless under the enforced inactivity and at last moved
experimentally toward the doorway. The _varlu_ allowed him to approach
within a few feet, and then Nick jumped back just in time to avoid a
rubbery tentacle that lashed out at him. A vague hope of escape died as
he realized the superhuman speed of which the creature was capable.
Sue was silent and withdrawn the rest of the day. Several times her
grey eyes filled with tears, but each time she brushed them away before
they overflowed.
And then the waiting ended. This time Merlo was accompanied by half a
dozen other Martians who stationed themselves in the tunnel as guards.
Merlo touched his _varlu_. It contracted about his hand and the Martian
lifted it to his shoulders, where it flattened out and draped itself
like a short cloak.
"He says we should follow him," Susan translated his chirps.
Once during their short walk Nick hesitated and looked back as though
planning a break, but the ominous fluttering of half a dozen _varlus_
told him escape was impossible for the present.
* * * * *
An angry buzzing filled the vaulted room and fully a hundred Martians
turned to stare as the humans were led into the council chamber.
Merlo motioned them to the center and addressed an ancient Martian
who occupied a dais at the far end. The presiding Martian answered at
length, as though Merlo were a person of consequence, and then Merlo
launched into his speech.
He turned now and again to address various sections of the assembly,
and his voice grew louder and faster as he progressed. The Earthman
recognized the sharp, chopping gesture with which he emphasized his
points. A gesture of killing, whether on Earth or on Mars. Merlo was
demanding their death. At last he paused amid nods of approval and
motioned for one side of the room to be cleared.
He waited dramatically as Martians moved out of the way. Then from
a pouch at his waist he drew Nick's pistol, raised it with a clumsy
motion, and fired one shot against the blank wall. The sharp bark of
the propelling charge and the roar of the explosive bullet blended in
a thunderous concussion. Martians leaped to their feet with cries of
rage, and even Susan Jones cupped her hands over tingling ears.
Merlo waited for the uproar to subside. Then, pointing at Nick and
Susan, he concluded with a threatening shout.
Immediately another Martian leaped up and began to speak, also in an
angry manner.
"Damn it, you green-skinned monstrosities," Nick bellowed in English.
"Leave the girl out of this! Can't you see she's been trying to help
you?"
Half a hundred _varlus_ stirred uneasily on Martian shoulders as the
assembly stared uncomprehendingly.
Nick turned to Susan.
"Translate what I said," he snapped.