Snap nodded. But that 'graph was never made. An exclamation from Moa
made us all turn. The gamma mirrors were quivering! Grantline had
picked our signals! With what was undoubtedly an intensified receiving
equipment which Snap had not thought Grantline able to use, he had
caught our faint zed-rays, which Snap was sending only to deceive
Miko. And Grantline had recognized the _Planetara_, and had released
his occulting screens surrounding the ore.
And upon their heels came Grantline's message. Not in the secret
system he had arranged with Snap, but unsuspectingly in open code. I
could read the swinging mirror, and so could Miko.
And Miko decoded it triumphantly aloud:
"Surprised but pleased your return. Approach Mid-Northern Hemisphere
region of Archimedes, forty thousand off nearest Apennine range."
The message broke off. But even its importance was overshadowed. Miko
stood in the center of the radio room, triumphantly reading the little
indicator. Its beam swung on the scale, which chanced to be almost
directly over Anita's head. I saw Miko's expression change.... A look
of surprise, amazement, came over him.
"Why--"
He gasped. He stood staring. Almost stupidly staring, for an instant.
And as I regarded him with fascinated horror, there came upon his
heavy gray face a look of dawning comprehension. And I heard Snap's
startled intake of breath. He moved to the spectro, where the zed-ray
connections were still humming.
But, with a leap, Miko flung him away. "Off with you! Moa, watch him!
Haljan, don't move!"
Again Miko stood staring. I saw now that he was staring at Anita!
"Why, George Prince! How strange you look!"
Anita did not move. She was stricken with horror; she shrank back
against the wall, huddled in her cloak. Miko's sardonic voice came
again:
"How strange you look, Prince!" He took a step forward. He was grim
and calm. Horribly calm. Deliberate. Gloating like a great gray
monster in human form toying with a fascinated, imprisoned bird.
"Move just a little, Prince. Let the zed-ray light fall more fully."
Anita's head was bare. That pale, Hamlet-like face. Dear God, the
zed-ray light lay gray and penetrating upon it!
Miko took another step. Peering. Grinning. "How amazing, George
Prince! Why, I can hardly believe it!"
Moa was armed with an electronic cylinder now. For all her
amazement--what turgid emotions sweeping her I can only guess--she
never took her eyes from Snap and me.
"Back! Don't move either of you!" she hissed at us.
Then Miko leaped at Anita like a giant gray leopard pouncing.
"Away with that cloak, Prince!"
I stood cold and numbed. And realization came at last. The faint
zed-light had fallen by chance upon Anita's face. Penetrating the
flesh; exposed, faintly glowing, the bone line of her jaw. Unmasked
the art of Glutz.
Miko seized her wrists, drew her forward, beyond the shaft of
zed-light, into the brilliant light of the Moon. And ripped her cloak
from her. The gentle curves of her woman's figure were so
unmistakable!
And as Miko gazed at them, all his calm triumph swept away.
"Why, Anita!"
I heard Moa mutter, "So that is it?" A venomous flashing look--a shaft
from me to Anita and back again. "So that is it?"
"Why, Anita!"
Miko's great arms gathered her up as though she were a child. "So I
have you back! From the dead, delivered back to me!"
"Gregg!" Snap's warning, and his grip on my shoulders brought me a
measure of sanity. I had tensed to spring. I stood quivering, and Moa
thrust her weapon against my face. The grids were swaying again with a
message from Grantline. But it was ignored.
In the glare of moonlight by the forward window, Miko held Anita, his
great hands pawing her with triumphant possessive caresses.
"So, little Anita, you are given back to me!"