"You'll find him," Walsh said, grinning. "I'm sure of it."
* * * * *
The trip to Venus came off without a hitch. I did a lot of thinking on
that trip. I thought about Mars and the revolt there. And I thought
about Colonel Leonard Walsh and how he was supposed to be quelling that
revolt. Ever since Walsh had taken command, ever since he'd started
pushing the natives around, there'd been trouble. It was almost as if
the whole damned planet had blown up in our faces the moment he took
over. Swell guy, Walsh.
Venus was hotter than I'd expected it to be. Much too hot for the tunic
I was wearing. It smelled, too. A funny smell I couldn't place. Like
a mixture of old shoe and after-shave. There were plants everywhere
I looked. Big plants and small ones, some blooming with flowers I'd
never seen before, and some as bare as cactus.
I recognized a blue figure as one of the natives the pilot had told me
about. He was tall, looking almost human except that everything about
him was elongated. His features, his muscles, everything seemed to have
been stretched like a rubber band. I kept expecting him to pop back to
normal. Instead, he flashed a double row of brilliant teeth at me.