The shot reverberated in the chamber of horrors like a clap of thunder.
The lone Anolyn slumped forward, half its head shot away.
With drawn sword, Reiloc leaped past Jupiter. He ran for the glowing
idol, began to hack at one of ten tentacles with his sword. Tabak and
Jupiter were right behind him. They grabbed Lete by either arm, hauled
the bemused cave girl to her feet.
Some of the shock of the Anolyn's sudden death had been transmitted
to the humans under its control. They stared at the profaners of the
temple with pained uncomprehending eyes.
Reiloc snatched up the severed radioactive tentacle, dashed after
Jupiter and Tabak who were half carrying Lete between them.
"This way!" Tabak cried. "This way!"
They burst out of the sanctum into a broad corridor, almost ran over
another Anolyn. Jupiter shot it in its tracks.
No signs of pursuit had developed by the time they reached the ramp.
Lete was recovering from her shock. She struggled wildly, cried:
"What's happening? What are you doing with me?"
"We're escaping," Jupiter grunted.
"But you can't. The first Anolyn we meet will stop us. I don't
understand--"
"Be silent, foolish one," growled Reiloc, "he's the Wanderer!"
"But you're Edir!"
"We're Edir no longer. He's broken our bonds."
Lete seized Jupiter's hand. "Then you _are_ the Wanderer. You weren't
laughing at me back there in the cages. But why--"
"No time now," Jupiter said and plunged onto the ramp.
They ran down it wildly, crazily, reached the canal at the bottom.
"We'll have to--" Jupiter began, when Lete screamed.
"I can feel them!" the cave girl cried. "They're trying to pull me
back! Jupiter--"
She bit her lips, her cheeks suddenly bloodless. "They're gone," she
said in a shaken voice. "They mustn't have guessed who I was."
Jupiter stared at her. Lete's yellow eyes were wide, frightened. She
swallowed miserably.
"We'll have to get that Anolyn off your neck at the first opportunity,"
he said, turned to Tabak. "This canal leads to the _Dra Dur_. Is that
right?"
"Yes," said Tabak in a queer voice; "but Jupiter--"
"What are our chances of getting through now?" he interrupted.
She shrugged slim white shoulders. "Every second we waste here lessens
them."
Without another word, he started along the ledge paralleling the canal.
At regular intervals of about a block ramps led down to the aquaduct
from the surface above. They crossed the mouths of other canals on
narrow bridges. A perfect labyrinth of underground waterways stretched
beneath the city.
At the fifth ramp, Jupiter heard a twang. Something whistled past his
head. He almost lost his footing as he glanced up and saw a dozen
Nehogans on the ramp leading up to the street.
Lete spun around and tried to run, knocking Reiloc into the water
with a splash. Tabak caught her, held the cave girl in spite of her
terrified efforts to escape.
Jupiter dropped to one knee, changing the carbine to automatic, sent a
burst of shots into the warriors above.
They didn't retreat, but with fierce yells charged straight into his
gun. They were possessed, like Moros running amok. The last one was
less than a yard away before he brought him down with a shot through
the chest.
That had been close. He felt weak as he pulled Reiloc from the water.
"They know where we are," the giant Nehogan growled ominously, "our
chances to--"
"Look out!" Tabak screamed.
Jupiter whirled around. He was just in time to see Lete run at him
with Reiloc's sword. The cave girl had snatched it from the Nehogan's
scabbard. Holding it like a lance, she flung herself on Jupiter, her
face contorted with hate!
* * * * *
Jupiter jumped convulsively into the canal. His instinctive reaction
was the only thing that saved him.
He broke water, saw that Reiloc had wrenched his sword away from the
cave girl. He was holding her as she fought furiously to tear herself
away, kicking, clawing at the Nehogan's face with her nails. She had
gone utterly berserk. Jupiter was stunned.
Then he heard Tabak screaming: "Jupiter! Quick! It's the Anolyn!
They've possession of her mind. Hurry!"
He scrambled desperately back on to the ledge.
"You've got to take that Anolyn from her neck! They know everything we
do through her," Tabak cried wildly. "They've been in possession of her
mind ever since we reached the canal. That's how they knew where to
ambush us. Anywhere we go they'll be able to send men to intercept us."
Jupiter nodded grimly. As he prepared the hypodermic of exsrocain, the
Caligan girl pitched in and helped Reiloc pin Lete face-down on the
ledge.
Jupiter's fingers were shaking as he located a spot on Lete's naked
back, plunged the needle between two of her vertebrae.
"One--two--three--four," he counted. Without bothering to test for
consciousness he wrenched the little plum-colored shell from the cave
girl's neck, smashed it against the wall of the aquaduct.
"Carry her!" he ordered Reiloc, and threw his instruments back into the
pack, slipped a fresh drum of cartridges into the carbine. He could
hear the thud of running feet on the ramp leading to the surface.
"Back!" he said tersely. "We'll have to try another way!"
For an hour they followed Tabak through the network of aquaducts,
twisting, cutting down bisecting canals until Jupiter was exhausted.
He and the big Nehogan had been carrying the unconscious wild girl by
turns. Twice they saw Anolyn floating down to the sea like big purple
squids, Jupiter shot them before they could telepath an alarm.
Tabak was in the lead when she stopped abruptly, put her hand to her
mouth.
"What is it?" Jupiter hissed.
"The canal! Look!"
He raised his eyes. The tunnel came to a blind end just ahead. Then he
saw that actually the roof dipped down beneath the surface.
"We've reached the seawall," Tabak said in a stricken voice. "I've
never tried to leave the city by the canals, but I've heard that it was
impossible. I'd forgotten--"