"That's tough." Melak shook his dark head. "We was gentle with him."
"Yeah," I said. Kapper had been a good guy, and I was mad. "Feed
anybody enough _selak_, and you can afford to be. It's a dirty death."
_Selak's_ made from a Venusian half-cousin of henbane, which is what
scopolamine comes from. It has a terrific effect on the heart. And
Kapper had simply torn himself apart trying to keep from talking while
he was under the influence.
Bucky Shannon made a slow, ugly move to get up. Beamish said,
"Sit down."
There was something in his voice and his bland blue eyes. Shannon sat
down. Melak was looking at Beamish, still grinning.
"Well," he said, "I guess your idea was pretty good after all."
I had a sudden inspiration. The burns were still sore on my body, and
Rapper's tortured face was close to mine, and I took a wild shot at
something I wasn't even sure I saw.
"Yeah," I said. "A swell idea. Why did you try so hard to butch it,
Melak?"
He stopped grinning. Beamish looked forward a little. My tongue stuck
in my mouth, but I managed to say.
"You get it, Bucky. A male _cansin_, Kapper said. The only one
in captivity, maybe even on Venus. Worth its weight in credit
slips. That's why Beamish was so happy to overpay us to get us out
here--because he thought Gertrude could find her boy friend fast, even
if Kapper didn't talk."
I turned to Melak again. "A swell idea. Why did you have those vapor
snakes turned loose on us? Did you think Kapper was enough?"
He struck me, pretty hard, across the mouth. My head banged back
against the booth wall and for a minute I couldn't see anything but
spangles of fire shooting around. I heard Beamish say, from a great
distance,
"How about it, Melak?"
It was awfully still in the booth. I swallowed some blood and blinked
my eyes clear enough to see Bucky Shannon poised across the table like
a bow starting to unbend. And suddenly, somewhere far off over the drum
of rain on the flimsy roof, there began to be noises.
I hadn't been comfortable up till then. I'm no Superman, nor one of
those guys you read about who can stare Death in the eye and shatter
him with a light laugh.
But all of a sudden I was afraid. Afraid so that all the fear I'd felt
before was nothing. And it was funny, too. I didn't know what it was,
then, but I knew what it wasn't. It wasn't Beamish or Melak or those
hard guys beyond the curtains, or even Kapper's body pressed up against
me.
I didn't know what it was. But I wanted to get down on the floor and
hide myself in a crack, like a cockroach.
* * * * *
The others felt it, too. I remember the sweat standing out on Bucky
Shannon's forehead, and the sudden tightening of Beamish's jaw, and the
glitter in Melak's green eyes.
Beyond the curtains there was an uneasy stirring of feet. The confused,
distant noise grew louder. Somewhere, not very far away, a woman began
to scream.
Beamish said softly, "You dirty double-crossing rat." His face was
still dead-pan, only now it was like something beaten out of iron. His
hands were out of sight under the table.
Melak smiled. I could feel his body shift and tense beside me. "Sure,"
he said. "I double-crossed you. Why not? I planted a guy in the circus
hammer gang and he crawled in the sewage lock and tried to get these
punks. I'm glad now he bungled it. Kapper had guts."
Beamish whispered, "You're a fool. You don't know what you're playing
with. I've done research, and I do."
"Too bad you wasted the time," said Melak. "Because you're through."
He threw himself suddenly aside, lifting the table hard into Beamish.
The curtains ripped away and he rolled in them, twisting like a snake.
I yelled to Bucky and dropped flat. Beamish had drawn a gun under the
table. The blast of it seared my face.
The next second four heavy blasters spoke at once. Beamish's gun
dropped on the floor. Then it was quiet again, and I could hear the
woman screaming, outside in the beating rain.
Melak got up. "Sure I double-crossed you," he said softly. "Why should
I split with anybody? Nobody knows about it but us. Kapper couldn't
send word from the swamps when he caught it, and he couldn't send word
from here because he wasn't let.
"That critter'll bring anything I ask for it. Why should I split with
you?"
Beamish didn't answer. I don't think Melak thought he would.
The noise from outside was getting louder. Bucky groaned.
"It's coming from the pitch, Jig. Trouble. We've got to...."
The table was yanked from over us. We got up off our knees. Melak
looked at us. He was shaking a little and his green eyes were mean.
"I don't think," he said, "I really need you guys around, either." He
jerked his head suddenly. "Cripes, I wish that dame would shut up!"
It was getting on my nerves, too--that monotonous, sawing screech.
Melak stepped aside. "Get 'em, boys. I don't want 'em dragging their
outfit down on our necks."
Four blaster barrels came up. My insides came up with them. I was way
beyond anything, then--even panic.
Gow burst in through the doorway.
He was soaked to the skin, tattered, bleeding, and wild-eyed. He
yelled, "Boss! Gertrude...." Then he saw the guns and stopped.
It was very still in the place. Outside there was sound rising like a
sullen tide against the walls. The woman's screaming became something
not human, and then stopped, short.
Gow said, almost absently, "Gertrude went nuts. We'd brought her cage
up from the tank for the show and she--broke out. There wasn't nothin'
we could do. She busted a lot of cages and then disappeared."
Melak snarled something, I don't know what. The wall behind Gow jarred,
buckled, and split open around the doorway. Bamboo fragments clattered
on the floor. Somebody yelled, and a blaster went off.
Gertrude stood in the splintered opening. She looked at us with cold,
mad green eyes, towering huge and blue against the low roof, her hands
swinging and her crest erect.
She let go one wild, whistling screech and came straight toward the
booth. Bucky Shannon touched my arm.
"Climb into your brassies, kid," he muttered. "Here's our chance!"
I caught his shoulder. He followed the line of my pointing, and I felt
him tremble.
Gertrude was coming at us like a rocket express. Behind her wet and
glistening from the hot rain, came three more just like her.