Life was ended. Brion's mind contained nothing but despair and the pain
of irretrievable loss. If his brain had been complete master of his body
he would have died there, for at that moment there was no will to live.
Unaware of this his heart continued to beat and the regular motion of
his lungs drew in the dreadful sweetness of the smoke-tainted air. With
automatic directness his body lived on.
"What you gonna do?" Telt asked, even his natural exuberation stilled by
this. Brion only shook his head as the words penetrated. What could he
do? What could possibly be done?
"Follow me," a voice said in guttural Disan through the opening of a
rear window. The speaker was lost in the crowd before they could turn.
Aware now, Brion saw a native move away from the edge of the crowd and
turn in their direction. It was Ulv.
"Turn the car--that way!" He punched Telt's arm and pointed. "Do it
slowly and don't draw any attention to us." There was sudden hope,
which he kept himself from considering. The building was gone and the
people in it all dead. That fact had to be faced.
"What's going on?" Telt asked. "Who was that talked in the window?"
"A native--that one up ahead. He saved my life in the desert, and I
think he is on our side. Even though he's a native Disan, he can
understand facts that the magter can't. He knows what will happen to
this planet." Brion was talking, filling his brain with words so he
wouldn't begin to have hope.
Ulv moved slowly and naturally through the streets, never looking back.
They followed, as far behind as they dared, yet still keeping him in
sight. There were fewer people about here among the deserted offworld
storehouses. Ulv vanished into one, LIGHT METALS TRUST LTD. the sign
read above the door. Telt slowed the car.
"Don't stop here," Brion said. "Drive on around the corner, and pull
up."
Brion climbed out of the car with an ease he did not feel. There was no
one in sight now, in either direction. Walking slowly back to the corner
he checked the street they had just left--hot, silent and empty!
A sudden blackness appeared where the door of the warehouse had been,
and the sudden flickering motion of a hand. Brion signaled Telt to
start, and jumped into the already moving sandcar.
"Into that open door--quickly before anyone sees us!" The car rumbled
down a ramp into the dark interior and the door slid shut behind them.
"Ulv. What is it? Where are you?" Brion called, blinking in the murky
interior. A gray form appeared next to him.
"I am here."
"Did you--" There was no way to finish the sentence.
"I heard of the raid. The magter called together all of us they could to
help them carry explosives. I went along. I could not stop them and
there was no time to warn anyone in the building."
"Then they are all dead--?"
"Yes," Ulv nodded, "all except one. I knew I could possibly save one,
and I was not sure who. So I took the woman you were with in the desert,
she is here now. She was hurt, but not badly, when I brought her out."
Guilty relief flooded through Brion. He shouldn't exult, not with the
death of everyone in the Foundation still fresh in his mind. But at that
instant he was happy.
"May I see her?" he asked Ulv. He was seized by the sudden fear that
there might be a mistake. Perhaps Ulv had saved a different girl.
* * * * *
Ulv led the way across the empty loading bay. Brion followed closely,
fighting down the temptation to tell him to hurry. When he saw that Ulv
was heading towards an office in the far wall, he could control himself
no longer and ran on ahead.
It was Lea, lying unconscious on a couch. Sweat beaded her face and she
moaned and stirred without opening her eyes.
"I gave her _sover_, then wrapped her in cloth so no one would know,"
Ulv said.
Telt was close behind them looking in through the open door.
"_Sover_ is a drug they take from one of their plants," he said. "We got
a lot of experience with it. A little makes a good knock-out drug, but
it's deadly poison in large doses. I got the antidote in the car, wait
and I'll get it." He went out.
Brion sat next to Lea and wiped her face clean of dirt and perspiration.
The dark shadows under her eyes were almost black now and her elfin face
even thinner. Yet she was alive, that was the important thing. Some of
the tension drained away and he could think again. There was still the
job to do. After this last experience she should be in a hospital bed.
Yet this was impossible. He had to drag her to her feet and put her back
to work. The answer might still be found. Each second ticked away
another fraction of the planet's life.
"Good as new in a minute," Telt said, banging down the heavy medbox. He
watched intently as Ulv left the room. "Hys should know about this
renegade. Might be useful as a spy or for information. Of course it's
too late now to do anything, so the hell with it." He pulled a
pistol-shaped hypodermic gun from the box and dialed a number on the
side. "Now, if you'll roll her sleeve up I'll bring her back to life."
He pressed the bell-shaped sterilizing muzzle against her skin and
pulled the trigger. The hypo gun hummed briefly, ending its cycle with a
large click.
"Does it work fast?" Brion asked.
"Couple of minutes. Just let her be and she'll come to by herself."
"Killer!" Ulv hissed from the doorway. His blowgun was in his hand, half
raised to his mouth.
"He's been in the car--he's seen it!" Telt shouted and grabbed for his
gun.
Brion sprang between them, raising his hands. "Stop it! No more
killing!" he shouted this in Disan. Then he shook his fist at Telt.
"Fire that gun and I'll stuff it down your throat. I'll handle this." He
turned to face Ulv who hadn't raised the blowgun any closer to his lips.
This was a good sign. The Disan was still uncertain.
"You have seen the body in the car, Ulv. So you must have seen that it
is that of a magter. I killed him myself, because I would rather kill
one, ten or even a hundred men rather than have everyone on this planet
destroyed. I killed him in a fair fight and now I am going to examine
his body. There is something very strange and different about the
magter, you know that yourself. If I can find out what it is, perhaps we
can make them stop this war, and not bomb Nyjord."
Ulv was still angry, yet he lowered the blowgun a little. "I wish there
were no offworlders, that none of you had ever come. Nothing was wrong
until you started coming. The magter were the strongest, and they
killed, but they also helped. Now they want to fight a war with your
weapons and for this you are going to kill my world. And you want me to
help you?"
"Not me--yourself!" Brion said wearily. "There's no going back, that's
the one thing we can't do. Maybe Dis would have been better off without
offplanet contact. Maybe not. In any case you have to forget about that.
You have contact now with the rest of the galaxy, for better or for
worse. You've got a problem to solve, and I'm here to help you solve
it."
Seconds ticked by as Ulv, unmoving, fought with questions that were
novel to his life. Could killing stop death? Could he help his people by
helping strangers to fight and kill them? His world had changed and he
didn't like it. He must make a giant effort to change with it.
Abruptly, he pushed the blowgun into a thong at his waist, turned and
strode out.
"Too much for my nerves," Telt said, settling his gun back in the
holster. "You don't know how happy I'm gonna be when this thing is over.
Even if the planet goes bang, I don't care. I'm finished." He walked out
to the sandcar, keeping a careful eye on the Disan crouched against the
wall.
* * * * *
Brion turned back to Lea whose eyes were open, staring at the ceiling.
He went to her.
"Running," she said, and her voice had a toneless emptiness that
screamed louder than any emotion. "They ran by the open door of my room
and I could see them when they killed Dr. Stine. Just butchered him
like an animal, chopping him down. Then one came into the room and
that's all I remember." She turned her head slowly and looked at Brion.
"What happened? Why am I here?"
"They're ... dead," he told her. "All of them. After the raid the Disans
blew up the building. You're the only one that survived. That was Ulv
who came into your room, the Disan we met in the desert. He brought you
away and hid you here in the city."
"When do we leave?" she said, in the same empty tones, turning her face
to the wall. "When do we get off this planet?"
"Today is the last day. The deadline is midnight. Krafft will have a
ship pick us up when we are ready. But we still have our job to do. I've
got that body. You're going to have to examine it. We must find out
about the magter--"
"Nothing can be done now except leave," her voice was a dull monotone.
"There is only so much that a person can do and I've done it. Please
have the ship come, I want to leave now."
Brion chewed his lip in helpless frustration. Nothing seemed to be able
to penetrate the apathy she had sunk into. Too much shock, too much
terror, in too short a time. He took her chin in his hand and turned her
head to face him. She didn't resist, but her eyes were shining with
tears, tears trickled down her cheeks.
"Take me home, Brion, please take me home."
He could only brush her sodden hair back from her face then and force
himself to smile at her. The particles of time were running out, faster
and faster, and he no longer knew what to do. The examination had to be
made. Yet he couldn't force her. He looked for the medbox and saw that
Telt had taken it back to the sandcar. There might be something in it
that could help. A tranquilizer perhaps.
Telt had some of his instruments open on the chart table and was
examining a tape with a pocket magnifier. He jumped nervously and put
the tape behind his back when Brion entered, then relaxed when he saw
who it was.
"Thought you were the creepie out there, coming for a look," he
whispered. "Maybe you trust him--but I can't afford to. Can't even use
the radio. I'm getting out of here now, I have to tell Hys!"
"Tell him what?" Brion asked sharply. "What is all the mystery about?"
Telt handed him the magnifier and tape. "Look at that. Recording tape
from my scintillation counter. Red verticals are five-minute intervals,
the wiggly black horizontal line is the radioactivity level. All this
where the line goes up and down, that's when we were driving out to the
attack. Varying hot level of the rock and ground."
"What's the big peak in the middle?"
"That coincides exactly with our visit to the house of horrors! When we
went through the hole in the bottom of the tower!" He couldn't keep the
enthusiasm out of his voice.
"Does it mean that--"
"I don't know. I'm not sure. I have to compare it with the other tapes
back at base. It could be the stone of the tower, some of these heavy
rocks got a high natural count. There maybe could be a box of
instruments there with fluorescent dials. Or it might be one of those
tactical atom bombs they threw at us already, some arms runner sold them
a few."
"Or it could be the cobalt bombs?"
"It could be," Telt said, packing his instruments swiftly. "A badly
shielded bomb, or an old one with a crack in the skin, could give a
trace like that. Just a little radon leaking out would do it."
[Illustration]
"Why don't you call Hys on the radio, let him know."
"Don't want Grandaddy Krafft's listening posts to hear about it. This is
our job--if I'm right. And I have to check my old tapes to make sure.
But it's gonna be worth a raid, I can feel that in my bones. Let's
unload your corpse." He helped Brion, then slipped into the driver's
seat.
"Hold it," Brion said. "Do you have anything in the medbox I can use for
Lea. She seems to have cracked. Not hysterical, but withdrawn. Won't
listen to reason, won't do anything but lie there and ask to go home."
"Got the potion here," Telt said, cracking the medbox.
"Slaughter-syndrome is what our medic calls it. Hit a lot of our boys.
Grow up all your life hating the idea of violence, it goes rough when
you have to start killing people. Guys breakup, breakdown, go to pieces
lots of different ways. The medic mixed up this stuff. Don't know how it
works, probably tranquilizers and some of the cortex drugs. But it peels
off recent memories. Maybe for the last ten, twelve hours. You can't get
upset about what you don't remember." He pulled out a sealed package.
"Directions on the box. Good luck."
"Luck," Brion said, and shook the technician's calloused hand. "Let me
know if the traces are strong enough to be bombs." He checked the street
to make sure it was clear, then pressed the door button. The sandcar
churned out into the brilliant sunshine and was gone, the throb of it's
motor dying in the distance. Brion closed the door and went back to Lea.
Ulv was still crouched against the wall.
* * * * *
There was a one-shot disposable hypodermic in the box. Lea made no
protest when he broke the seal and pressed the needle against her arm.
She sighed and her eyes closed again. When he saw she was resting
easily, he dragged in the tarpaulin-wrapped body of the magter. A
workbench ran along one wall and he struggled the corpse up onto it. He
unwrapped the tarpaulin and the sightless eyes stared accusingly up into
his.
Using his knife, Brion cut away the loose, bloodsoaked clothing.
Strapped under the clothes, around the man's waist, was the familiar
collection of Disan artifacts. This could have significance either way.
Human or humanoid, it would still have to live on Dis. Brion threw it
aside, along with the rest of the clothing. Nude, pierced, bloody, the
corpse lay before him.
In every external physical detail the man was human.
Brion's theory was becoming more preposterous with each discovery. If
the magter weren't alien, how could he explain their complete lack of
emotions? A mutation of some kind? He didn't see how it was possible.
There _had_ to be something alien, about the dead man before him. The
future of a world rested on this flimsy hope. If Telt's lead to the
bombs proved to be false, there would be no hope left at all.
Lea was still unconscious when he looked at her. There was no way of
telling how long the coma would last. He would probably have to waken
her out of it, but didn't want to do it too early. It took an effort to
control his impatience, even though he knew the drug needed time to work
in. He finally decided on at least a minimum of an hour before he should
try to disturb her. That would be noon--twelve hours before destruction.
One thing he should do was get in touch with Professor-Commander Krafft.
Maybe it was being defeatist, yet he had to make sure that they had a
way off this planet if the mission failed. Krafft had installed a relay
radio that would forward calls from his personal set. If this relay had
been in the Foundation building, contact was broken. This had to be
found out before it was too late. He thumbed on his radio and sent the
call. The reply came back instantly.
"This is fleet communications. Will you please keep this circuit open?
Commander Krafft is waiting for this call and it is being put directly
through to him now." Krafft's voice broke in while the operator was
still talking.
"Who is making this call--is it anyone from the Foundation?" The old
man's voice was shaky with emotion.
"Brandd here. I have Lea Morees with me--"
"No more? Are there no other survivors from the disaster that destroyed
your building?"
"That's it, other than us it's a ... complete loss. With the building
and all the instruments gone I have no way to contact our ship in orbit.
Can you arrange to get us out of here if necessary?"
"Give me your location, a ship is coming now--"
"I don't need a ship now," Brion interrupted. "Don't send it until I
call. If there is a way to stop your destruction, I'll find it. So I'm
staying--to the last minute if necessary."
Krafft was silent. There was just the crackle of an open mike and the
sound of breathing. "That is your decision," he said finally. "I'll have
a ship standing by. But won't you let us take Miss Morees out now?"
"No. I need her here. We are still working, looking for--"
"What answer can you find that could possibly avert destruction now?"
His tone was between hope and despair. Brion couldn't help him.
"If I succeed--you'll know. Otherwise, that will be the end of it. End
of transmission." He switched the radio off.
Lea was sleeping easily when he looked at her, and there was still a
good part of the hour left before he could wake her. How could he put it
to use? She would need tools, instruments to examine the corpse, there
were certainly none here. Perhaps there were some he could find in the
ruins of the Foundation building. With this thought he had the sudden
desire to see the wreckage up close, and talk to the men he had seen
working there. There might be other survivors. He had to find out.
Ulv was still crouched against the wall in the outer room. He looked up
angrily when Brion came over, but said nothing.
"Will you help me again?" Brion asked. "Stay and watch the girl while I
go out. I'll be back at noon." Ulv didn't answer. "I am still looking
for the way to save Dis," Brion said.
"Go, I'll watch the girl!" Ulv spat the words in impotent fury. "I do
not know what to do. You may be right. Go. She will be safe with me."
Brion slipped out into the deserted street and half running, half
walking, made his way towards the rubble that had been the Cultural
Relationships Foundation. He used a different course than the one they
had come by, striking first towards the outer edge of the city. Once
there he could swing and approach from the other side, so there would be
no indication where he had come from. The magter might be watching and
he didn't want to lead them to Lea and the stolen body.
Turning a corner he saw a sandcar stopped in the street ahead. There was
something familiar about the lines of it. It could be the one he and
Telt had used, but he wasn't sure. He looked around, but the dusty,
packed-dirt street was white and empty, shimmering in silence under the
sun. Staying close to the wall and watching carefully, Brion slipped
towards the car. When he came close to the rear tracks he was positive
it was the one he had been in the night before. What was it doing here?
Silence and heat filled the street. Windows and doors were empty and
there was no motion in their shadows. Putting his foot on a bogey wheel
he reached up and grabbed the searing metal rim of the open window. He
pulled himself up and stared at Telt's smiling face.
Smiling in death. The lips pulled back to reveal the grinning teeth, the
eyes bursting from the head, the features swollen and contorted from the
deadly poison. A tiny, tufted dart of wood stuck innocently in the brown
flesh on the side of his neck.