"Meaning what?"
"He has seen that girl many times. Ten years ago, when there was no
threat of Tollgamo, he was in Arron. She was just a child then. He
played with her. And he has loved her ever since."
They came to the kiosk, entered its dark interior. It was merely a roof
over a circular metal bench, with a waist high railing. Thirty feet
down, the sea inlet was a black ribbon of water. The yellow tunnel at
the bottom of the opposite cliff was dark now, but further up the inlet
there were lights and activity.
Allen sat with a hand gripping Garga's mailed arm. Across the
background of his mind he was trying to plan ... he could seize this
amourous woman's weapons. But then what? Would Leh be able to come
here now? Leh, who had mentioned diving from here, with a way of escape
from the inlet.
"Tollgamo loves Peters' daughter?" Allen was murmuring.
"Yes. It is sure, although he would not have it known. And he is
planning tonight, before we attack Arron, to--"
A dark figure near them suddenly materialized. For a second Allen
thought that it was Leh. But it was Rhool! Rhool who doubtless had seen
Garga coming here, and followed her.
In that tense second Allen was aware that Rhool was drawing a weapon.
And Allen leaped, catapulted with lowered head. He caught Rhool in the
stomach, knocked him backward. But the Gort's weapon had stabbed, a
hiss of violet light. It missed Allen; struck Garga. She went down.
On the metal floor of the kiosk, Allen rolled with the giant Rhool.
The Gort had no chance to use his weapon again. Allen in a second or
two was on top of him, pounding his head against the metal floor. It
cracked, and his big body quivered and lay limp.
Allen jumped up. He was aware of a commotion on the catwalk bridge. A
running figure. And men back in the glare at the end of the street;
men shouting, and then running forward. The figure on the catwalk was
Leh. He came plunging into the kiosk. Allen was bending over the fallen
Garga. She was dying, with bloody foam gushing at her mouth. But she
was trying to smile, her eyes staring at Allen. Contrition swept him.
This Amazonian woman-warrior.... Trained to be a cruel machine. But she
had remained only a woman; and she was dying now; just a woman staring
with her last wistful gaze at the Earthman she loved so that she might
take the image of him with her into the Great Beyond.