Val rolled on the floor and her face lay near my right arm. I saw what
she had in mind. She began to nibble the vile-tasting tangle-cord,
running her teeth up and down it until it started to give. She continued
unfailingly.
Finally one strand snapped. Then another. At last I had enough use of my
hand to reach out and grasp the blaster. Then I pulled myself across the
floor to Ledman, removed the tanglegun, and melted the remaining
tangle-cord off.
My muscles were stiff and bunched, and rising made me wince. I turned
and freed Val. Then I turned and faced Ledman.
"I suppose you'll kill me now," he said.
"No. That's the difference between sane people and insane," I told him.
"I'm not going to kill you at all. I'm going to see to it that you're
sent back to Earth."
"_No!_" he shouted. "No! Anything but back there. I don't want to face
them again--not after what they did to me--"
"Not so loud," I broke in. "They'll help you on Earth. They'll take all
the hatred and sickness out of you, and turn you into a useful member of
society again."
"I hate Earthmen," he spat out. "I hate all of them."
"I know," I said sarcastically. "You're just all full of hate. You hated
us so much that you couldn't bear to hang around on Earth for as much as
a year after the Sadlerville Blast. You had to take right off for Mars
without a moment's delay, didn't you? You hated Earth so much you _had_
to leave."
"Why are you telling all this to me?"
"Because if you'd stayed long enough, you'd have used some of your
pension money to buy yourself a pair of prosthetic legs, and then you
wouldn't need this wheelchair."
Ledman scowled, and then his face went belligerent again. "They told me
I was paralyzed below the waist. That I'd never walk again, even with
prosthetic legs, because I had no muscles to fit them to."
"You left Earth too quickly," Val said.
"It was the only way," he protested. "I had to get off--"
"She's right," I told him. "The atom can take away, but it can give as
well. Soon after you left they developed _atomic-powered_
prosthetics--amazing things, virtually robot legs. All the survivors of
the Sadlerville Blast were given the necessary replacement limbs free of
charge. All except you. You were so sick you had to get away from the
world you despised and come here."
"You're lying," he said. "It's not true!"
"Oh, but it is," Val smiled.
I saw him wilt visibly, and for a moment I almost felt sorry for him, a
pathetic legless figure propped up against the wall of the Dome at
blaster-point. But then I remembered he'd killed twelve Geigs--or
more--and would have added Val to the number had he had the chance.
* * * * *
"You're a very sick man, Ledman," I said. "All this time you could have
been happy, useful on Earth, instead of being holed up here nursing your
hatred. You might have been useful, on Earth. But you decided to channel
everything out as revenge."
"I still don't believe it--those legs. I might have walked again.
No--no, it's all a lie. They told me I'd never walk," he said, weakly
but stubbornly still.
I could see his whole structure of hate starting to topple, and I
decided to give it the final push.
"Haven't you wondered how I managed to break the tangle-cord when I
kicked you over?"
"Yes--human legs aren't strong enough to break tangle-cord that way."
"Of course not," I said. I gave Val the blaster and slipped out of my
oxysuit. "Look," I said. I pointed to my smooth, gleaming metal legs.
The almost soundless purr of their motors was the only noise in the
room. "I was in the Sadlerville Blast, too," I said. "But I didn't go
crazy with hate when I lost _my_ legs."
Ledman was sobbing.
"Okay, Ledman," I said. Val got him into his suit, and brought him the
fishbowl helmet. "Get your helmet on and let's go. Between the psychs
and the prosthetics men, you'll be a new man inside of a year."
"But I'm a murderer!"
"That's right. And you'll be sentenced to psych adjustment. When they're
finished, Gregory Ledman the killer will be as dead as if they'd
electrocuted you, but there'll be a new--and sane--Gregory Ledman." I
turned to Val.
"Got the geigers, honey?"
For the first time since Ledman had caught us, I remembered how tired
Val had been out on the desert. I realized now that I had been driving
her mercilessly--me, with my chromium legs and atomic-powered muscles.
No wonder she was ready to fold! And I'd been too dense to see how
unfair I had been.
She lifted the geiger harnesses, and I put Ledman back in his
wheelchair.
Val slipped her oxymask back on and fastened it shut.
"Let's get back to the Dome in a hurry," I said. "We'll turn Ledman over
to the authorities. Then we can catch the next ship for Earth."
"Go back? _Go back?_ If you think I'm backing down now and quitting you
can find yourself another wife! After we dump this guy I'm sacking in
for twenty hours, and then we're going back out there to finish that
search-pattern. Earth needs uranium, honey, and I know you'd never be
happy quitting in the middle like that." She smiled. "I can't wait to
get out there and start listening for those tell-tale clicks."
I gave a joyful whoop and swung her around. When I put her down, she
squeezed my hand, hard.
"Let's get moving, fellow hero," she said.