_Scar Balta_
Sime breakfasted on one of the juicy Martian tropical pears, and as he
dug into the luscious fruit with his spoon he looked about the
spacious dining hall, filled with wide-eyed tourists on their first
trip to Mars, blissful and oblivious honeymooners, and a sprinkling of
local residents and officials.
Through broad windows of thick glass (for on Mars many buildings
maintain an atmospheric pressure somewhat higher than the normal
outside pressure) could be seen the north banks of the canal, teeming
with swift pleasure boats and heavily loaded work barges. Down the
long terraces strolled hundreds of people, dressed in garments of
vivid colors and sheer materials suitable to the hot and cloudless
days. Brilliant insects floated on wide diaphanous wings, waiting to
pounce on the opening blossoms.
But the terrestrial agent felt that in this scene of luxury there was
a menace. Out of sight, but instantly available, were frightful
engines of destruction, waiting to be mobilized against the Earth
branch of the human race. And on that distant green planet were people
much like these, unconscious still of the butchery into which they
were being deftly maneuvered by calculating psychologists, expert
war-makers.
His meal completed, Sime sauntered out into the wide, clean streets of
North Tarog. He purchased a desert unionall suit, proof against the
heat of day and cold of night, and a wide-brimmed Martian pith helmet.
Hailing a taxi, he relaxed comfortably in the cushions.
"Nabar mine," he told the driver.
The driver nosed the vehicle up, over the domed roofs of the city and
over the harsh desert landscape. The rounded prow cut through the thin
air with a faint whistling, and the fair cultivated area along the
canal was soon lost to sight.
* * * * *
After half an hour the metal mine sheds grew out of the horizon. But
even from a distance of several miles Sime could see that everything
was not as it should be. There were no moving white specks of the
laborers' white fatigue uniforms against the brown rocks, and no
clouds of dust from the borium refuse pile.
The levitator screws of the taxi sank from their high whine to a
groan, and the wheels came to the ground before the company office. A
man in the Martian army uniform came out. His beetle-browed face was
truculent, and his hand rested on the hilt of his neuro-pistol.
"No visitors allowed!" snapped the guard.
"I'm not exactly a visitor," Sime objected, but making no move to get
out of the taxi. "I'm an engineer sent here by the board of directors
to see why the output of this mine has dropped. Where's Mr. Murray?"
"All settled!" the guard retorted. "Murray's in jail for mismanagement
of planetary resources, and the mine's been expropriated to the
government. Now, you--off!"
The driver needed no further order from his fare. The taxi leaped into
the air and tore back toward the city. It was clear that the military
rules of Mars brooked no nonsense from the civilian population, and
that the latter were well aware of it.
"Fast work!" Sime said to himself with grudging admiration. Murray was
a trusted agent of the terrestrial government. It was he who had first
uncovered the war cabal. Sime knew his face well from the stereoscopic
service record--a bald, placid man of about forty, a bonafide
engineer, a spy with an unbroken record of success, until now. And a
fighter who asked no odds, who could manage very well on less than an
even break. Well, he was up against something now.
They passed the line of shield-ray projectors, North Tarog's first
line of defense against an attack of space, hovered over the teeming
streets and parks, and settled on the pavement at the Hotel of the
Republic. Sime wanted to go to his room and think things over.
* * * * *
From the concealment of a doorway an officer with a squad of soldiers
came up quickly.
"You are under arrest!" said the officer, placing, his hand on Sime's
shoulder, while the soldiers rested their hands on their
neuro-pistols.
"Would it be asking too much to inquire on what charge?" Sime asked
politely.
"Military arrests do not require the filing of charges," the officer
explained stiffly. "Come out of there now, Mr. Hemingway."
"I demand to see the terrestrial consul," Sime said, getting out.
"How about my fare?" asked the taxi-driver.
Sime put his hand into his pocket, where he kept a roll of
interplanetary script; but the officer restrained him.
"Never mind now," he said ironically. "You are a guest of the
government." Then to the driver he added:
"Get on, now! Get on! File your claim at the divisional office."
The driver departed, outwardly meek before the power of the military,
and Sime was hustled into an official car. He had little hope that his
demand to see the terrestrial consul would be complied with, and this
opinion was verified when the car rose into the air and sped over the
waters of the canal to South Tarog. It did not pause when it came over
the military camps there--the massive ordnance depots in which were
stored new and improved killing tools that had long been idle in that
irksome interplanetary peace.
They flew on, over the desert, until the Gray Mountains loomed on the
horizon. On, over the tumbled rocks, interspersed with the strange red
thorny vegetation common in the Martian desert.
Far below them, in a ravine, a cylindrical building was now visible,
and toward this the car began to drop. It landed on a level space
before the structure. A sliding gate opened, and the car wheeled into
a sort of courtyard, protected from the cold of night by an arching
roof of glass.
Sime was hustled out and led into an office located on the lower floor
of the fortification, or whatever the structure was.
As he saw the man who sat at the desk he gave a startled explanation.
"Colonel Barkins!"
* * * * *
The elderly, white-haired man smiled. He brushed back his hair with a
characteristic gesture, and his twinkling blue eyes bored into those
of the I. F. P. special officer. The colonel wore the regular uniform
of the service; his little skullcap, with the conventionalized sun
symbol denoting his rank, was on the table before him. He put out his
lean, strong hand.
"Surprised to see me, eh, Hemingway?" he inquired pleasantly.
Sime managed an awkward salute. "I don't quite understand, sir. You
gave me my instructions at the Philadelphia space port just before I
made the _Pleadisia_. She's the fastest passenger liner in the solar
system: I've barely landed here, and it seems you got here before me.
It don't seem right!"
Sime watched the colonel narrowly, a vague suspicion in his mind, and
he thought he saw a slight flicker in the man's eye when Sime spoke.
But the colonel answered smoothly, with a hint of reproof.
"Never mind questioning me now, Hemingway. The mission is important. I
want to know if you remember every detail of what I told you." He
nodded to the men, and they filed out of the room. "Repeat your
orders."
"Nothing doing, Colonel!" Sime replied promptly and respectfully. "In
fact, Colonel, you can go to hell! This is the first time that a man
of the I. F. P. has turned traitor, and if your men hadn't so
thoughtfully taken my neuro I'd be pleased to finish you right now!"
"But you observe I have a neuro in my hand," remarked the colonel
pleasantly, "and so you will remain standing where you are."
* * * * *
So saying, he slipped off the white wig he was wearing, wiped his face
so that the brown powder came off, and sat, obviously pleased with
the success of his masquerade, useless though it was. He was a typical
Martian, dark, sleek-haired, coral-skinned.
"I hate to send a man to his death mystified," said the Martian after
a moment, "so I'll explain that I am Scar Balta!"
"Scar Balta!"
"You've heard of me?"
"Uh--yes and no," Sime suddenly remembered the girl of the evening
before--the imperious little Martian. She had warned him of Scar
Balta.
"If I do say it," said the Martian, "I am the best impersonator in the
service of the interests I represent. I did not expect to get
information of great value from you, but we do not neglect even the
most unpromising leads."
He pressed a button; two Martian soldiers answered promptly.
"Take this man to the cell," Balta ordered. "Provide him with writing
materials so that he can write a last message to his family. In the
morning take him to the end of the ravine and finish him with your
short sword."
"Yes, Colonel!"
"The fellow's a colonel, anyway," Sime thought as they led him away.
They led him downward, along a straight corridor that evidently went
far beyond the boundaries of the ravine fortress. In places the walls,
adequately lit by the glow-wands the guards carried, were plainly cut
out of the solid rock; in others they were masonry, as though the
channel were passing through pockets of earth; or--the thought
electrified him--through faults or natural caverns.
At last they came to the end. One of the guards unlocked a metal door,
motioned his prisoner into the prison cell. A light-wand, badly run
down and feeble, with only a few active cells left, gave the only
light. As the door slammed behind him, Sime took in the depressing
scene.
* * * * *
The stone walls were mildewed, leprous. The only ventilation was
through small holes in the door. Chains, fastened to huge staples in
the uneven stone floor, with smooth metal wrist and ankle cuffs, were
spaced at regular intervals, and musty piles of canal rushes showed
where some forgotten prisoner had dragged out his melancholy last
days. Sime was glad they had not chained him down. Probably didn't
consider it necessary unless there were many prisoners, who might rush
the guards.
"Ho, there, sojer!"
The voice was startling, so hearty and natural in this sad place. Sime
saw something coming out of a far corner. It was a man in the blouse
and trousers of civilian wear; a bald and good-natured man, with a
shocking growth of beard.
"Murray's the name," said this apparition with mock ceremony. "And
you?"
"I'm Hemingway, Sime Hemingway. Sergeant Sime Hemingway, to be exact.
Suppose you'd like to hear my orders?"
"I don't get you," said Murray, shaking hands.
"I mean," Sime explained elaborately, "that I'd like to know if you're
Scar Balta, or really Murray, as you say you are."
The other laughed.
"I'm Murray, all right. Feel this scalp. Natural, ain't it? That's one
thing Balta won't do--shave off his hair. Too vain. He'd hate to have
the Princess Sira see him that way. Ever hear of her? Say, she's a
raving beauty. This Balta'd like to be elected planetary president,
see--to succeed Wilcox, who has bigger plans. There's always been a
strong sentiment for the old monarchy, anyway. The oligarchy never did
go big. Follow me?"
"Yeh; go on."
* * * * *
"Well, this Princess Sira has ideas. She wouldn't mind sitting on the
throne again. Her great-great-grandpa was jobbed and murdered, and the
nobles who did it formed a closed corporation and called it a
republican government. So Sira started holding audiences, and gained a
lot of power. Among the people--even among some of the nobles.
"Get the idea? Scar Balta is one of the electors. If he married Sira
he'd have the backing of the monarchists, and of course he's done a
lot for the bosses. They'd elect him to head off the monarchists,
anyway. Then heigh-ho for a war with the Earth, to kill off a lot of
the kickers--and soft pickins in a lot of ways. Neat, huh?"
"Very neat!" Sime assented drily. "But we won't live to see it.
Anyway, I won't. They're going to bump me off in the morning."
"As they have a lot of our men," Murray agreed. "But they won't do it
in the morning. Or for several days. Look here!"
He held up his hand. On the back of it was what appeared to be a boil.
"But it isn't a boil," Murray explained. "That was done by a stream of
water, fine as a needle, under a thousand pounds pressure. They held
it there for a minute at a time--I don't know how many times, because
I keeled over. Any time I was willing to give them the information
they wanted they'd turn it off. Wasn't important info, either. But
what is it to them, how much they make me suffer for a trifle?"
Sime couldn't help the lump that rose in his throat. Men like Murray
certainly justified the world's faith in the service.
"Listen, old man," Sime said in a low voice, "out in the corridor--"
But Murray squeezed his hand warningly, pulled him to the floor.
"Might as well get some sleep," the old man said in ordinary tones.
"Plenty cool here. Let's lie together."
He kept his hold on Sime's wrist, and, by alternately squeezing and
releasing, began to talk in a silent telegraphic code.
"Don't say anything of importance," he spelled out. "They have mikes
in here to pick up all we say. Probably infra-red telenses too, so
they can see what we do."
So Sime told him, as they huddled together in simulated sleep, about
the walled passages, and they speculated on the possibility of felling
the guards and breaking their way to freedom through some underground
cavern. But at last they slept soundly to await the tortures of the
next morning.