"Mr. Hendricks?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Open up with the starboard tube, full power, concentrated beam, at
any spot halfway between here and the river. At once."
"At once, sir!"
* * * * *
The ray generators hummed instantly, their note deepening a moment
later. The ray bit into the dry, sandy soil, boring steadily into the
earth, making an opening over twice the height of a man in diameter.
The fine, reddish-brown dust of disintegration hung swirling above the
mouth of the tunnel at first, and then, as the ray cut deeper into the
earth, settled quickly and disappeared.
"Cease operation, Mr. Hendricks!" I commanded. "Keep the generators
on, and stand by for further orders."
As soon as Hendricks' quick acknowledgment came back, I called down to
Tipene.
"Tell your friend to inspect the little hole we drilled," I said.
"Tell him to crawl down into it, if he wishes to see how deep it is.
And then inform him that we have several ray tubes like this one, and
that if he does not immediately produce his hostages, unharmed, we'll
rise above his city and blast out a crater big enough to bury the
_Ertak_."
Tipene nodded and communicated with the aged Aranian, who had cowered
from the shaft in the earth disintegrated by our ray, and who now,
very cautiously, approached it, flanked by his two far from eager
guards.
At the lip of the slanting tunnel he paused, peered downward, and
then, circling cautiously, approached the lidded tunnel whence he had
emerged.
"He agrees," Tipene called up sullenly. "He will deliver Inverness and
Brady to us. But we must come and get them; he says they have
barricaded themselves in one of the cubicles, and will not permit any
Aranian to approach. They still have their atomic pistols; the
Aranians did not realize they were weapons."
"Very well; tell him a party from the ship will be ready in a few
seconds. You will go with us as interpreter; you understand how to
communicate with them."
* * * * *