_"My Congratulations, Captain Carse!"_
A few minutes later the trap was in readiness.
It had been swiftly planned and executed, and it promised well. Both
the inner and outer doors of the smaller port-lock lay ajar. Hawk
Carse was gone from view. The only figure visible there was that which
lay sprawled face-downward on the ground close to the inner door of
the port-lock.
The figure seemed to have been stricken down in sudden death. It was
clad in the trim yellow smock of a coolie of Ku Sui. It was limp, its
arms and legs spreadeagled, and it lay there as mute evidence that the
dome of the asteroid had been attacked.
To one entering from outside, the figure was that of a dead coolie.
The coolie that had worn those clothes was dead; his clothes now
covered the wiry length of freckle-faced Ban Wilson.
Ban played the game well. His face lay in the ground, pointed away
from the lock, so he could not see what was going to happen behind
him: but before the Hawk had directed him to take off his suit and don
the yellow smock, he had glimpsed, rising swiftly over the
southernmost barrier of hills that edged the valley, three black dots
coming fast toward the asteroid in straight, disciplined flight, and
he knew that the leader of the three was Dr. Ku Sui.
As he lay limp on the ground, playing his important part as the decoy
of the trap, he knew that his life depended on the action and the
skill and the timing of Hawk Carse. But he did not worry about that.
He had implicit faith in the Hawk, and trusted his life to his
judgment without a tremor.
Still, it was hard for Ban to throttle down his excessively nervous
nature and maintain the dead man pose for the long silent minutes that
crawled by before there came any sound from behind. The Jupiter-light,
flooding down on him from the glittering blue sky above, was hot and
growing hotter, and of course he began to itch. Had he had the freedom
of his limbs, he would not have itched, he knew; it happened only when
he had to keep absolutely still; he cursed the phenomenon to himself.
Minute after minute, and no sound to tell him what was happening
behind, or how close the three approaching figures had come, or
whether Carse was at all visible or not--and the mounting, maddening
itch right in the middle of his back!
* * * * *
At last Ban's mental cursings stopped. His straining ears had caught a
sound.
It was quickly repeated, and again and again--the heavy, grating noise
of metal on metal. The boots of space-suits on the metal floor of the
port-lock. They had arrived!
Ku Sui would be there, close behind him; probably gazing at his
outflung figure; probably puzzled, and suspicious, and quickly looking
around for the enemies that had apparently killed one of his coolies.
With a raygun in hand--and guns in the hands of the two others with
him--glancing warily around over the guard-chamber close to the
port-lock, and the main buildings beyond, and the whole area inside
the dome, and seeing no one.
And then--approaching!
Ban could tell it by the silence, then the harsh crunch of the great
boots against the powdered, metallic upper crust of ground. But he lay
without an eyelash's flickering, a dead coolie, limp, crumpled. He
heard the crunch of boots come right up to him and then pause; and the
feeling that came to his stomach told him unmistakably that a man was
looking down on him....
Now--while Ku Sui's attention was on him--now was the time! Now!
Otherwise the Eurasian would turn him over and see that he was white!
It seemed to Ban centuries later that he heard the welcome voice of
the Hawk bark out:
"You are covered, Dr. Ku! And your men. I advise you not to move. Tell
your men to drop their guns--_sh!_"
The sound of the voice from the guard-chamber was replaced by two
spits of a raygun. Unable to restrain himself, Ban rolled over and
looked up.
He saw, first, the figure of the Hawk. Carse had stepped out from
where he had been concealed, in the guard-chamber, and was holding the
gun that had just spoken. Standing upright, close to the inner door of
the port-lock, were two suit-clad coolies. Ban saw that they had
turned to fire at Carse, and that now they were dead. Dead on their
feet in the stiff, heavy stuff of their suits.
Dr. Ku Sui was standing motionless above him, and through the open
face-plate of the Eurasian's helmet Ban could see him gazing at Hawk
Carse with a strange, faint smile on his beautifully chiselled,
ascetic face.
The Hawk came towards them, the raygun steady on his old foe; but
while he was still yards away, and before he could do anything to
prevent it, the Eurasian spoke a few unintelligible words into the
microphone of his helmet-radio. Carse continued forward and stopped
when a few feet away. Dr. Ku bowed as well as he could in his stiff
suit and said courteously, in English:
"So I am trapped. My congratulations, Captain Carse! It was very
neatly done."
* * * * *
The two puffed-out, metal-gleaming figures faced each other for a
moment without speaking. And in the silence, Ban Wilson, watchful,
with a raygun he had drawn from his belt, fancied he could _feel_ the
long, bitter, bloody feud between the two, adventurer and scientist,
there met again....
Carse spoke first, his voice steel-cold.
"You take it lightly, Dr. Ku. Do not rely too much on those words you
spoke in Chinese. I could not understand them--but such things as I do
not know about your asteroid I have already guarded against; and I
think we can forestall whatever you have set in action.... You will
please take off your space-suit."
"Willingly, my friend!"
"Watch close, Ban," said the Hawk.
Dr. Ku Sui unbuckled the heavy clasps of his suit, unscrewed the
cumbersome helmet, and in a moment stepped free. At the suit slid to
the ground, there stood revealed his tall, slim-waisted form, clad in
the customary silk. He wore a high-collared green silk blouse,
tailored to the lines of his body, full trousers of the same material,
and pointed red slippers and red sash, which set the green off
tastefully. A lithe, silky figure; and above the silk the high
forehead, the saffron, delicately carved face, the fine black hair.
Half-veiled by their long lashes, his exotic eyes rested like a cat's
on his old enemy.
The Hawk moved close to him, and swiftly patted one hand over his
body. From inside one of the blouse's sleeves he drew a pencil-thin
blade of steel from its hidden sheath. He found no other weapon.
Stepping back, he quickly divested himself of his suit also.
"And now, Captain?" the Eurasian murmured softly.
"Now, Dr. Ku," answered Carse, once again a slender, wiry figure in
soft blue shirt and blue denim trousers, "we are going to have a
little talk. In your living room, I think.
"Ban," he continued. "I don't believe there's anyone else who can even
see the asteroid, but we have to be careful. Will you stay on guard
here by the port-lock? Good. Close its doors, and yell or come to me
if anything should occur."
He turned to the waiting Eurasian again.
"You may go first, Dr. Ku. Into the laboratory, and then to the living
room of your quarters."
* * * * *
They found Friday on guard where he had been stationed in the
laboratory. The big Negro, on recognizing the Eurasian, grinned from
ear to ear and gave him what he considered a witty greeting.
"Well, well!" he said with gusto, "--come right in. Dr. Ku Sui! Make
yourself at home, suh! Sure glad to have you come visitin' us!" He
laughed gleefully.
But his words were wasted on Dr. Ku. His eyes at once fastened on the
case of coordinated brains, standing at one side. Carse noticed this.
"No. Dr. Ku," he said. "I have not touched the brains. Not yet. But
that's what we're going to talk about." He motioned to one of the four
doors connecting the central laboratory with the building's wings.
"Into your living room please, and be seated there. And no sudden
moves, of course: I have a certain skill with a raygun. Friday, keep
doubly alert now. Better take off your suit. I will call for you in a
few minutes."
Ku Sui walked on silent feet into the first division of his personal
quarters, the softly-lit living room. A lush velvet carpet made the
floor soft; ancient Chinese tapestries hid the pastelled metal of the
walls; books were everywhere. It was a quiet and restful room, with no
visible reminder of the asteroid and its controlling mechanics.
Dr. Ku sank into a deep armchair, linked his fingers before him and
looked up inquiringly.
"We were going to talk about the brains?" he asked.
* * * * *
Carse had closed the door behind him, and now remained standing. He
met the masked green eyes squarely.
"Yes." He was silent for a little, then, quietly and coldly he went to
the point.
"You'll be interested to hear that I have talked with the brains and
been relieved of my premise to destroy them. They requested something
else. Now I have committed myself to attempt their restoration into
living bodies."
"So?" murmured the Eurasian. "So. Yes, Captain, that is very
interesting."
"Very." The Hawk spoke without trace of emotion. "And some courtroom
on Earth will find more than interesting the testimony of your
re-embodied brains."
Dr. Ku Sui smiled in answer. "Oh, no doubt. But, my friend--this
transplantation--you accept its possibility so casually! Won't it
prove rather difficult for you, who have never even pretended to be a
scientist?"
"Not difficult. Impossible."
"And Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow--I have unbounded respect for his
genius, but brain surgery is a specialty and I really think that this
task would be outside even his capabilities. I am sure he himself
would admit it."
"You are right, Dr. Ku: he has admitted it. We both realize there is
only one person in the universe who could achieve it--you. So you will
have to perform the operations."
"Well!" said Dr. Ku Sui. The smooth, fine skin of his brow wrinkled
slightly as he gazed up at the intent man facing him. "Is this just
stupidity on your part, Captain? Or do you attempt a joke at which in
courtesy I should smile?"
The Hawk answered levelly: "I was never farther from joking in my
life."
* * * * *
With a delicate shrug of his silken shoulders, Ku Sui averted his
eyes. As if bored, he glanced around the room. Slowly he unclasped his
hands.
"I am a very fast shot, Dr. Ku," whispered Carse. "You must not make a
single move without my permission."
At that the Eurasian laughed aloud, a liquid laugh that showed his
even teeth between the finely cut lips.
"But I am so completely in your power, Captain Carse!" He held on to
the last syllable, a low, sustained hiss--and then he snapped it off.
"_S-s-stah!_" His mood had changed: the smile vanished from a face
suddenly thin and cruel; the green eyes unmasked, to show in their
depths the tiger.
"What insane talk! You say such things to me! Don't you know that to
coordinate those brains I worked for years with a devotion, a
concentration, a genius you can never hope even to comprehend? Don't
you realize they're the most precious possession of the greatest
surgeon and the greatest mind in the universe? Don't you understand
that I've fashioned a miracle? Realize these things, then, and marvel
at yourself--you who, with your gun and your egotism, think you can
make me undo their wonderful coordination!"
The tiger returned behind the veil, its power and fury again leashed,
and Dr. Ku Sui relaxed his green eyes once more masked and enigmatic.
Hawk Carse asked simply:
"_Could_ you transplant the brains?"
"You insist on continuing this farce?" murmured the Eurasian. "I would
not be rude, but really you try my patience!"
"_Could_ you transplant the brains?"
Dr. Ku Sui looked at the colorless face with its eyes of ice. With a
trace of irritation, he said:
"Of course! What I have once transplanted, I can transplant again. But
I will not do it--and my will no one, and no force, can alter. Perhaps
it is clear now? In no way can you touch my will. I am sorry that I so
grossly insulted you, Carse, for there are certain things about you
that in a small way I respect. But here you are helpless."
"Not entirely," said the Hawk.
* * * * *
Ku Sui leaned forward a trifle. In that moment, perhaps, he first felt
real concern, for Carse's quiet voice was so confident, so assured. He
attempted to sound him out.
"A gun?" he asked. "Torture? Threats? These against my will? Absurd!
Consider, my friend--even if I seemed to consent to the operations,
could I not easily destroy the brains while ostensibly working on
them?"
"Of course," said Carse, with a faint smile. "And threats and torture
would be absurd. Against your will, Dr. Ku, a more powerful weapon
will have to be used."
The Eurasian's eyes were brilliant with intuition.
"Ah--I see," he murmured. "Eliot Leithgow!"
"Yes, Dr. Ku!"
The two gazed at each other, Carse still with the faint smile, the
other with the face of a statue. Presently the adventurer went on:
"Unfortunately for you, Eliot Leithgow can provide a method of
compulsion neither you nor any other man could ever resist. Not guns,
torture, threats--no. A subtler weapon, worthy of your fine will."
As he spoke, Carse saw the Eurasian's green eyes narrow, and in the
pause that followed he knew that the swift, trained mind behind those
eyes was working. What would it evolve? What move? And those Chinese
words, uttered out by the port-lock--what would they result in, and
when? Dr. Ku Sui was concerned now, the Hawk knew, seriously
concerned, and inevitably, would take serious steps. What was growing
in his resourceful brain? He would have to ward off any trouble when
it came, for he could not know now. He said curtly:
"But enough of that. Now, I have a trifling favor to ask of
you--something concerning the laboratory. Will you please return to
it."
A strange light glimmered for an instant in Dr. Ku Sui's eyes--a
mocking of the slender man before him. Only for an instant; then it
was gone. Gracefully he raised his tall figure.
"The laboratory? Of course, my friend. And as for the favor--almost
anything."