"I had to leave the hunt and make good time to catch you--I don't feel
like being disappointed." The viciousness in Helsed's smooth voice
crept into the open. "And I have a score to settle with you anyway."
He jerked the terrapin's door shut, and its nose gun started to swing
around.
Torcred spun and ran, crouching, knowing the girl would follow. They
plunged over the dune-top close together; the terrapin's gun wavered
and did not fire, then its motor snarled into life and it bounded after
them.
Torcred, with Ladna close behind, ran panting down the windward slope,
straight toward a cluster of domed, sunken structures. Sheer amazement
of the pillbox-dwellers must have kept them alive so far; every moment
he expected a murderous barrage.
It came. The nearest pillbox erupted flame, and beyond it others. The
explosions rolled flatly, echoless across the desert. Torcred caught
the girl round the waist and flung her down beside him; hugging the
ground, he raised his head slightly and looked back.
The terrapin swerved agilely among spouting columns of sand. Then all
its wheels left the ground at once, it tilted in the air and rolled
over and over down the long slope of the dune. Black smoke poured from
its punctured armor.