Mia MacIver stared at Cosmo in disbelief. "You--you're not the
Renegade! I don't believe it."
"It's lucky for you, I am," he said dryly.
She held her hands straight down at her side, small fists clenched.
"Lucky? Father thought you were his friend and you killed him. I'd
rather be dead than owe you anything."
"Listen, Mia, get this straight. I didn't kill your father."
"Of course, you'd say that." Her chin trembled; she set her jaw
stubbornly. "Who'd believe the Renegade?"
Cosmo made a weary gesture, turned back to the runaways who'd been
listening with interest.
"Get off your knees," he said. His tone was embarrassed. "The Security
Patrol is scouring the countryside for you right now. Take to the
forest where the planes can't follow. Make for the mountains. My
men...."
"By Nemi!" the Buddha-faced Mercurian ejaculated suddenly. He pointed
at Mia who was slipping through the window to her study. "The girl is
escaping. After her, Tong!"
The Venusian serf leaped in pursuit, but Cosmo halted him with a lifted
hand. "She won't go far." He turned back to the Mercurian. "I give the
orders," he said.
The moon-faced little man bowed good-naturedly. Cosmo realized he
wasn't even armed.
"What are you doing with this pair of cut-throats?" he asked.
"We understand one another," the Mercurian replied blandly. "I act as
a governor. My presence restrains them from indulging in an excess of
blood letting."
"Who sent you to me?" Cosmo asked shrewdly. "Was it Penang-ihtok?"
The Mercurian shuddered. "Yes. A violent man, that Penang-ihtok. An
outcast Fozoql."
"He's safe then?" Cosmo interrupted. "Bemmelman doesn't suspect him?"
"No."
"Good." He frowned, said: "Go now. Your time is short."
Without a word the odd trio filed off. Cosmo watched them around the
corner of the plantation house, then sprang through the window of Mia's
study.
The girl was at the telecast. She had tuned in the fat Commissioner of
the Security Patrol.
"What?" the Commissioner's voice rumbled from the audio. His jowls were
shaking; his image wildly agitated. "Are you sure, Owner MacIver? The
Renegade at your plantation with the serfs from the Bemmelman place?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned away from the Visoscreen, but
Cosmo could still hear his voice shouting orders at some underling.
"Contact the radio patrol planes! Order them to converge on the
MacIver plantation! The Renegade! Good Lord, man, d'ya realize what a
feather it'll be in our caps? Hurry!"
The fat Commissioner swung back into the visoscreen. "I'll have a dozen
patrol planes there in ten minutes. What does he look like, Owner
MacIver? Who is he?"
"He is ..." began Mia, then discovered Cosmo standing beside the
boxlike transmitter on the wall. He flashed her a faintly wolfish grin.
* * * * *
Mia gasped, brought her hand to her throat. Her high firm breasts
heaved wildly beneath the yellow tunic.
"What's wrong, Owner MacIver? What's wrong?" came the excited voice
from the audio.
Mia's wide gray eyes brimmed with hate.
"He is ..." she began again, but the screen went dead. Cosmo had yanked
the transmitter from the wall. Wires like tentacles dangled from the
back of the box. He dropped it to the gray straw matting.
"That won't help!" Mia's voice was triumphant as she backed away. "You
can't escape. They'll come from all directions."
Again Cosmo grinned. He jumped, seized Mia, swung her off her feet.
"Let me go!"
"You're coming with me." His voice was grim. "I'd rather the
Commissioner didn't find out I'm the Renegade just yet."
"Put me down! Are you mad?" Mia's long, bare legs thrashed wildly. She
hammered at his chest. "You can't escape by yourself, let alone with
me."
He calmly pinioned her flailing legs, strode out the window to the edge
of the patio. Dropping her to her feet, he fumbled in his pocket, drew
forth a whistle, put it to his lips, blew.
No audible sound resulted. The note was too high, too shrill to be
detected by human ears.
Mia MacIver quit squirming, gaped at him blankly.
Cosmo's eyes searched the dense pearl gray cloud ceiling. He blew twice
more on the soundless whistle.
There was a disturbance in the cloud layer directly overhead as if
tremendous fans were boiling the impenetrable fleecy ceiling into a
froth. Then a huge grotesque shape plummeted from the clouds. With back
flailing wings, the monster settled to the ground.
Mia screamed, tried to squirm free.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
"It's just a bird," he assured her.
"Just a bird, hell!" Mia shuddered. "That thing's a nightmare. What is
it?"
"An Ormoo."
The Ormoo cocked its red-brown eye at Cosmo, rubbed its gunmetal gray
beak against his leg, emitted a pleased raucous squawk.
Mia flinched. The beak looked capable of severing Cosmo's leg like a
twig. From wing tip to wing tip the Ormoo extended over sixty feet.
Its pearl gray plumage was a perfect camouflage as it drifted through
Venus' eternal cloud blanket.
"Down!" shouted Cosmo.
The Ormoo crouched to its breast like a hen setting on her eggs. A
saddle was strapped to its back.
"Cosmo!" cried Mia in terror, struggling to wrench free.
The Ormoo cocked its head again, eyed the frantic girl gravely as a
robin might watch a beetle.
"My God, Cosmo, that thing wants to eat me. I'll--I'll have hysterics."
He laughed, flung her astride the saddle. Holding onto her naked ankle,
he vaulted up behind.
"Up!" he shouted.
The Ormoo lurched to its feet. It took a few ungainly steps, launched
itself into the air with a powerful drive of its legs. The massive
wings lashed the air like flails as it spiraled upward.
Mia clung to Cosmo with terror.
"Take me back, Cosmo. I won't tell the Commissioner you're the
Renegade. I'll lie like a Martian diplomat. Only make this monstrosity
go down! Please Cosmo!"
He put an arm about her waist, steadying her.
"Don't be frightened. He won't hurt you so long as I'm here."
"The hell you say," said Mia between chattering teeth. "I tell you that
bird considers me in the same light as a juicy worm."
Already, the tenuous mist was closing around them. The Ormoo still
spiraled upward. Cosmo saw a patrol flash by beneath them, pause like
a humming bird over the patio. Another, then another streaked in from
different directions.
Mia MacIver leaned over all at once, shrieked in a despairing voice:
"Help! Help!"
"You little wretch," Cosmo grinned, clapped his hand over her mouth.
She bit him.
He jerked his hand away. Before she could cry out again, the wool-like
cloud blanket smothered them. Everything disappeared in moist white
fleece. Mia slumped forlornly in Cosmo's powerful arm.
"Home," Cosmo shouted.
The giant bird wheeled off at an angle, wings beating with the rhythmic
swish of waves lapping at a beach. Guided by some peculiar sixth sense,
it headed by the shortest route for the Cloud Mountains.
For a while, the whish--swish of the Ormoo's wings was the only sound.
It was like flying through a warm blinding blizzard.
"Does it know where it's going?" Mia twisted about in Cosmo's arm,
curiosity overcoming her terror. Already her brown piquant features
dripped with moisture. Her damp yellow tunic clung to her pliant figure
like skin.
"Yes. The patrol planes can't navigate in these clouds. But the Ormoo
can. It flys by instinct."
She relaxed, laid her damp black curls against his shoulder.
"Cosmo, why did you turn renegade?"
Her attitude had undergone such an about face that his green eyes
hardened warily.
"It's a long story."
Mia snuggled deeper in his arms. "Was it because your father and mother
were killed and Bemmelman stole your plantation?"
"That was part of it. My nurse fled with me to the Cloud Mountains.
The Jovians trailed us, hunted us for months, then we fell in with a
party of outlaws. They were rough men, but kind. I didn't understand
much that was happening at the time, but later I managed to piece it
together. I swore I'd make Bemmelman pay."
He laughed mirthlessly. "It was no use. The authorities weren't
interested in hearing anything against him. I thought maybe if I could
get concrete evidence, that would force them to act. I broke into his
manor house. I was discovered, but I got away. I was wearing a hood to
conceal my features. The newscasters played it up. The hooded man. The
Renegade. I suddenly found myself notorious--an outlaw."
"But you raided other plantations. You stirred up the serfs!" She
couldn't keep the edge of hate and accusation out of her voice.
"Some," he admitted with a grin, "though we preyed on other outlaws
principally. But whenever the Security Patrol couldn't solve a crime,
they laid it to the Renegade. The list is astounding: murder, rapine,
theft." He chuckled grimly. "I've even been credited with committing
two killings at the same time over five hundred miles apart."
"But even if you get Bemmelman," Mia pointed out; "what can you gain.
You're still an outlaw. You'll be sent to the disintegration chamber."
"Oh, they'll get me someday," he replied coolly. "But first, I'll drag
down Bemmelman."
* * * * *
The Ormoo flew steadily, strongly. Presently, the girl said:
"Does the Ormoo really understand your commands?"
"A few simple ones."
"Would it obey me?"
"Try it."
"Down," cried Mia.
The Ormoo plummeted toward the surface. Mia clapped her hands,
shrieked: "Up!" Its wings thundered as it gained altitude again.
She twisted around in the saddle. "It obeys me," she laughed
infectiously. She placed her hands, as if to steady herself on Cosmo's
shoulder. All at once, her gray eyes contracted. She gave him a
tremendous push.
Caught completely by surprise, Cosmo lunged desperately for the saddle,
missed. He felt himself slipping faster and faster on the bird's wet
back. There he went over with a rush.
His wildly grabbing hand slid down Mia's bare leg. Like a drowning man
clutching at a straw, his fingers closed about her ankle.
Mia gave a shriek of terror, rolled over on her stomach, hugged the
saddle.
"Let go!" she yelled. "You're pulling me off!" She kicked wildly at the
man dangling pendulum-like from her foot.
Cosmo grunted. He pulled himself up, grabbed her leg just above the
calf. Thrusting his free hand into the Ormoo's feathers, he seized a
large quill, inched himself upward.
Mia was too busy hanging to the saddle to kick at him. She lay stomach
down across the Ormoo's back clinging with the strength of panic.
Cosmo released her leg, got a grip on her tunic. It parted halfway up
her back, leaving him dangling wildly from the huge quill. He caught
her leg again, strained upward until he could grasp the saddle and
heave himself astride.
He sat there, trembling with exhaustion, panting.
Mia still lay stomach down across the saddle sobbing with frustration.
There were red finger weals on ankle, calf and thigh where Cosmo's iron
fingers had dug into her flesh.
He flashed her his sudden grin. "You little devil," he panted. "I ought
to dangle you over the Ormoo's side. See how you'd like it."
A shudder passed through the girl. "I hate you! I hate you!" she sobbed
in frustrated rage.
There was a soothing tempo to the swish-lift of the giant Ormoo's
flight. Mia dozed as the miles fled past, slumped against Cosmo's chest.
Then unexpectedly, the bird wheeled, flapped sharply upward. Its huge
wing tips brushed the face of a cliff. Fog swirled, whipped into froth
by the frenzied wings.
Mia MacIver awakened in terror, clung to Cosmo, pressed her damp
quivering body against him. The bird wheeled again and again, always
gaining altitude.
"We're in the Mountains of the Clouds." Cosmo's green eyes glittered.
"We'll be at the roost any moment."
It was colder. Mia shivered. Then the Ormoo began to settle. Wings
thrashing, it came to rest with a jar.
Nothing was visible but cloud, thick, clinging. The mountains,
thrusting up into Venus' cloud sheath, were perpetually mantled with
the gray vapor. The deep throated roar of a waterfall beat at their
ears like thunder.
Cosmo slid off the Ormoo's back, shouted at Mia to jump. His voice was
drowned in the waterfall. A dash of spray struck his face.
He felt for her ankle, yanked. She came tumbling into his arms with a
scream. Cosmo laughed, bore her lightly across the jumble of sticks
which was the Ormoo's nest, down a long slippery flight of steps
descending into the chasm. Spray drenched them both. The roar was
unbearable.
He paused, fumbled at a section of the cliff. A door swung inward,
revealing a long low chamber hewn from the living rock.
Cosmo carried the wet and shivering girl across the threshold.
Fog swirled about them like steam from a turkish bath. He set her on
her feet, shut the door. The roar of the waterfall was blotted out.
Only the hissing of gas jets which lighted the chamber disturbed the
silence.
"My private entrance." He surveyed his prize. The wet yellow tunic
revealed every subtle curve. "You're a handsome wench, Mia."