_Into the Void_
Their watches and the clock in the plane were synchronized with Hadley's
time, which was Eastern Standard, and as soon as the plane had reached
eight thousand feet altitude, Jeter spoke into the radiophone and
arranged for a connection with the office of Hadley.
Hadley himself soon spoke into Jeter's ear.
"Yes, Jeter?"
"See that someone is always at your radiophone to listen to us. I'll
keep you informed of developments as long as possible. Everything is
running like clockwork so far. How is it with you?"
"Two additional buildings, older buildings of the city, have been lifted
some hundreds of feet above ground level, then dropped back upon their
own foundations, to be broken apart. Many lives lost despite the fact
that the city will be deserted within a matter of hours. It seems that
the--shall we say enemy?--is concentrating only on old buildings."
"Perhaps they wish to preserve the new ones," said Jeter quietly.
"What? Why?"
"For their own use, perhaps; who knows? Keep me informed of every
eventuality. If the center of force which seems to be causing all this
havoc shifts in any direction, advise us at once."
"All right, Jeter."
Jeter broke the connection temporarily. Hadley could get him at any
moment. A buzzer would sound inside the almost noiseless cabin when
anyone wished to contact him over the radiophone.
Eyer was concentrating on the controls. The plane was climbing in great
sweeping spirals. Its speed was a hundred and fifty miles an hour. Their
air speed indicator was capable of registering eight hundred miles an
hour. They hoped to attain that speed and more, flying on an even keel
above ninety thousand feet.
Both Eyer and Jeter were perfect navigators. If, as they hoped, they
could reach ninety thousand or more, they could cross the whole United
States in four hours or less. They could quarter the country, winged
bloodhounds of space, seeking their quarry.
Jeter studied the sky above them through their special telescopes,
seeking some hint of the location of the point of departure of that
devastating column of light. He could think of no ray that would nullify
gravitation--yet that column of light had been the visual manifestation
that the thing had somehow been brought about.
If this were true, was the enemy vulnerable? Was his base of attack
capable of being destroyed or crippled if anything happened to the
column of light? There was no way of knowing--yet. A search of the sky
above Manhattan failed to disclose any visible substance from which the
light beam might emanate. That seemed to indicate some unbelievable
height. Yet, Kress must have reached that base. Else why had he been
destroyed and sent back to Jeter and Eyer as a challenge?
* * * * *
Jeter's mind went back to Kress. Frozen solid ... but that could have
been caused by his downward plunge through space. And what had happened
to Kress' plane? No word had been received concerning it up to the time
of the Jeter-Eyer departure. Had the "enemy" taken possession of it?
The whole thing seemed absurd. Nobody knew better than Jeter that he was
working literally and figuratively in the dark. He was doing little
better than guessing. He felt sure of but one thing, that the agency
which was wreaking the havoc was a human one, and he was perfectly
willing to match his wits and Eyer's against any human intelligence.
Jeter slipped into the cushioned seat beside Eyer.
The altimeter registered fifteen thousand feet. New York was just a blur
against the abysmal darkness under their careening wings.
"You've never ventured an opinion, Tema," said Jeter softly, "even to
me."
Eyer grinned.
"Who knows?" he said. "It may all be just the very latest thing in
aerial attack. If so, what country or coalition of countries harbor
designs against our good Uncle Sam? Japan? China?"
"How do you explain the Vandercook incident? The bridge thing? The rise
and fall of the other skyscrapers?"
"Some substance or ray capable of being controlled and directed. It
creates a field, of any size desired, in which gravitation is--well,
shall we say erased? Then any solid which is thus made weightless could
be lifted by the two good hands of a strong man, or even of a weak one.
How does that check with your guessing?"
Jeter shook his head ruefully.
"I've arrived at the same conclusions as yourself, Tema," he said. "I
know we're all guessing. I know we're probably climbing off the Earth on
a wild-goose chase from which we haven't a chance of returning alive. I
know we're a pair of fools to think of matching a few drums of gas and a
bunch of popguns against the equipment of an enemy capable of moving
mountains--but what else is there to do?"
"Nothing," said Eyer cheerfully, "and I've got a feeling that you and I
will manage to acquit ourselves with credit."
The radiophone buzzer sounded.
Hadley was speaking.
"One of the very latest types of battle-wagons," he said, "was steaming
this way from the open sea outside the Narrows, ordered here to stand by
in case of need, by the Navy Department. She was armed to the minute
with the very latest ordnance. She carried a full crew...."
* * * * *
Hadley paused. Jeter could hear him take a deep breath, like a diver
preparing to plunge into icy water. Jeter's spine tingled. He felt he
guessed in advance what was to come.
Hadley went on.
The world seemed to spin dizzily as Jeter listened. Out of all the
madness only one thing loomed which served for the moment to keep Jeter
sane. That was the altimeter, which registered twenty-five thousand
feet.
"The battle-wagon--the _U.S.S. Hueber_--was yanked bodily out of the
water. It was taken aloft so quickly that it was just a blur. At least
this was the way the skipper of a Norwegian steamer, a mile away from
the _Hueber_, described it. The warship simply vanished into the night
sky. The exact time was given by the Norwegian. Five minutes before
midnight. At that moment nothing was happening in New York City--nothing
new, that is."
Hadley paused again.
"Go on, man!" said Jeter hoarsely.
"Twenty minutes later the _Hueber_ was lowered back into the water,
practically unharmed. It had all happened so swiftly that the sailors
aboard scarcely realized anything had happened. The skipper of the
warship radios that the sensation was like a sudden attack of dizziness.
One man died of heart failure. He was the only casualty."
Jeter's eyes began to blaze with excitement, as he spoke.
"Now you can tell the world that the thing which causes the havoc
Manhattan is experiencing is not supernatural. It is human--and our
people have no fear of human enemies."
"But why was not the warship dropped somewhere, as the buildings have
been?" asked Hadley.
"Did you ever," replied Jeter, "hear what is described in the best
fiction as a burst of ironic laughter? Well, that what the _Hueber_, as
it now stands, or floats, is! But the enemy made a foolish move and
will live to regret it bitterly."
"I wish I could share your sudden confidence," said Hadley. "Conditions
here, where public morale is concerned, have become more frightful
minute by minute since you left."
Jeter severed the connection.
* * * * *
The altimeter said thirty-five thousand feet. They were still spiraling
upward. Again Jeter surveyed the sky aloft.
The earth below was a blur, save through the telescopes. The two had
reached a height less than a third of what they hoped to attain.
Still they could see nothing up above them. They were almost over the
"shaft" of atmosphere through which the _Hueber_ must have been lifted
and lowered. Suppose, Jeter thought, they had accidentally flown into
that shaft at exactly the wrong moment? It brought a shudder. Still,
Jeter's mind went on, if that had happened they would now, in all
likelihood, have been right among the enemy--for gravity in that shaft
would not have existed for them, either.
But would they have been lowered back to safety as the _Hueber_ and her
crew had been?
Believing as he did that the enemy knew everything that transpired
within its sphere of influence, Jeter doubted that Eyer and himself
would have been so humanely treated.
He had but to remember Kress to feel sure of this.
The altimeter said fifty thousand feet.