"Doesn't it strike you there's a great deal of similarity between
your case and mine. Your father has been murdered, supposedly by the
Renegade. It looks like Bemmelman is getting ready to expand."
"He--he wouldn't kill me!" said Mia indignantly. "Would he?"
"No," said Cosmo, a smile quirking the corners of his wide, grim-lipped
mouth. His lean, narrow jaw and thin, hooked nose gave him a saturnine
cast. "But I wouldn't put it past him to kidnap you. Remember the
Blue Venus. I happen to know Bemmelman's been anxious to repeat that
experiment, but a beautiful Terran girl is hard to get."
She shivered slightly, said: "That's preposterous! He wouldn't dare!
Would he?"
But Cosmo had leaped to his feet. "There's a plane coming!" he said in
an edgy voice.
A surface flying car flashed to the edge of the patio, stopped, settled
to the ground. The extreme altitude of the bullet-shaped vehicle
was under three hundred feet, Cosmo knew. But even that height was
impractical for flight on Venus, roofed as the planet was by the
low, swirling cloud blanket. As a rule, the planes barely skimmed the
surface.
A door in the monoloid hull swung open. A heavy set man got out.
"Why it's Hal Bemmelman," exclaimed Mia. "What does he want?"
"Speak of the devil," drawled Cosmo.
* * * * *
Bemmelman strode across the patio, his eyes on Cosmo, said in a
disagreeable voice: "If it isn't the fortieth-century troubadour."
Cosmo's features set blankly. He didn't reply.
"Mia." Bemmelman took both the girl's hands in his big paws. "I've
bad news. Yes sir, very bad news. Three of my serfs ganged my second
overseer, chopped him to pieces with grass knives."
"What?" Mia's eyes dilated in horror.
"They got him from behind, I guess. Then they broke into the arsenal.
They're armed, Mia, and heading this way. I dropped everything to fly
over and warn you."
"Coming this way?" Mia firmly disengaged her hands. "But why?"
"They're trying to reach the Cloud Mountains and join the Renegade.
Your place lies directly between mine and the mountains."
"The Renegade!" Mia's level gray eyes frosted with hate. "The rurals
can't catch him. He makes monkeys out of the Security Patrol. What is
he? A wizard?"
"You've heard the news?" Bemmelman interrupted. "The Renegade was at
my place last night. I've been worried about you, Mia, alone here on
the edge of the mountains. Yes sir, I came to take you to my plantation
until we have these murderous serfs behind bars."
"But I'm quite safe. I--I...."
"This isn't Earth, Mia," he said in a silky voice. "I haven't much
time. No sir. I must return to organize the pursuit. We'll teach those
brutes a lesson they won't soon forget."
"If you catch them," put in Cosmo in an amused voice.
"We'll catch them!" Bemmelman turned his small, brown, pig-like eyes on
Cosmo. "Yes sir, and the Renegade, too."