With one hand I fumbled with the buttons on my black, bare-midriff blouse, fastening them. I then found the wrist watch in the handbag and slipped it on my wrist. It was four fifty-one. It was still dark, but it was August and it would be light early.
Abruptly, on an impulse, I turned down a small side road, one of dozens that led from the highway.
There would be no way of knowing which one I had taken.
I had seen no pursuit.
I began to breathe easier.
My foot eased up on the accelerator.
I glanced into the rear-view mirror. I turned to look. It did not seem to be a car, but there was something, unmistakably, on the road behind me.
For an instant I could not swallow. My mouth felt dry. With difficulty I swallowed.
It was several hundred yards behind me, moving rather slowly. It seemed to have a single light. But the light seemed to light the road beneath it, in a yellow, moving pool of illumination that coursed ahead of it. As it neared, I cried out. It was moving silently. There was no sound of a motor drive. It was round, black, circular, small, perhaps seven or eight feet in diameter, perhaps five feet in thickness. It was not moving on the road. It was moving above the road. I switched off the lights on the Maserati and whipped off the road, moving toward some patches of trees in the distance.
The object came to where I had turned off the road, seemed to pause, and then, to my horror, turned gently in my direction, unhurried. In the yellow circle of light I could see the grass of the field, bearing the marks of my tires. Always the object, smoothly, not seeming to hurry, with the yellow light beneath it, approached more closely.
The Maserati struck a large stone. The engine stopped. Wildly I tried to start it again. There was a whine, then another. And then the ignition key only clicked meaninglessly, again and again. Suddenly I was bathed in yellow light and I screamed. It hovered over me. I fled from the car, into the darkness. The light moved about, but it did not catch me again.
I reached the trees.
In the trees, terrified, I saw the dark disklike shape hover over the Maserati. A bluish light then seemed, momentarily, to glow from the shape.
The Maserati seemed to shiver, rippling in the bluish light, and then, to my horror, it was gone.
I stood with my back against a tree, my hand before my mouth.
The bluish light then disappeared.
The yellowish light switched on again.
The shape then turned toward me, and began to move slowly in my direction. I found that I clutched the handbag. Somehow I had seized it, instinctively, in running from the car. It contained my money, jewelry, the butcher knife I had thrust into it before leaving the penthouse. I turned and ran, wildly, through the dark woods. I lost my sandals. My feet were bruised and cut. My blouse was torn. Branches caught at my clothing and hair. A branch lashed my belly and I cried in pain. Another stung my cheek. I fled. Always the light seemed near, but it did not catch me. I ran from it, forcing my way through the brush and trees, scraped and torn. Time and time again it seemed on the verge of illuminating me, yellow on the trees and brush only feet from me, but it would pass by, or I would turn away from it and run again. I stumbled on through the woods, my feet bleeding, gasping for breath. My hands, my right clutching the handbag, fought the brush and branches that tore at me. I could run no further. I collapsed at the foot of a tree, gasping, each muscle in my body crying out. My legs trembled. My heart pounded.
The light turned my way again.
I scrambled to my feet and ran wildly before it.
Then I saw some small lights beyond the trees and brush some fifty yards in front of me, in a sort of clearing in the woods.
I ran toward them.
I stumbled wildly into the clearing.
'Good evening, Miss Brinton,' said a voice.
I stopped, stunned.
At the same time I felt a man's hands close on my arms from behind. I tried weakly to free myself but could not.
I shut my eyes against the reflection of yellow light from the ground. 'This is point P,' said the man. I recognized his voice. It was that of the larger man who had been in my penthouse in the afternoon. He no longer wore his mask. He was dark haired, dark eyed, handsome. 'You have been very troublesome,' she said. Then he turned to another man. 'Bring Miss Brinton's anklet.'
4 The Slave Capsule
The man holding me guided me from where I stood to a place at one side of the clearing. The other man accompanied him, and some others.
The yellow light flashed off, and the dark, disklike shape settled gently to the grass of the clearing.
It was still dark, but could not be long before morning.
In one of the lights I saw a hatch in the top of the disk open. A man crawled out. He wore a black tunic. The other men were dressed conventionally, those I saw then in the clearing.
Some further lights then, gradually, increased in intensity.
I gasped.
In the center of the clearing there was a large, dark shape, much larger than the small one, but not particularly different in design or appearance. It might have been thirty feet in diameter, perhaps some seven or eight feet in thickness. It rested on the grass. It was made of black metal. There were various ports in it, and hatch apertures. A large door, in the side facing me, had been opened. It opened in such a way as to touch the ground and formed a sort of ramp, by means of which the ship could be loaded.
'Who are you? What is this?' I had whispered.
'You may release her,' said the man to he who held me.
He did so.
I stood among them.
I could now see there was a truck at another side of the clearing. Boxes of various sized were being removed from it and being placed in the ship. 'Did you like your collar?' asked the man, pleasantly. Inadvertently my fingers went to my throat.
He stepped behind me and tore open the top button of my black, bare-midriff blouse. I felt a small key being inserted into the small, heavy lock. The collar sprung open.
'You will doubtless have another,' he said. He handed the collar to another man, who took it away.
He regarded me.
I still clutched the handbag.
'Let me go,' I whispered. 'I have money. Here. And jewelry. And much more. It's yours. Please.'
I fumbled in the handbag and thrust the bills and the jewelry into his hands. He handed the bills and jewelry to another man. He did not want them. The men now began to bring, not gently, certain large, square boxes from the truck, which they placed near the large, open hatch on the ship.
I clutched my handbag in my right hand, half-opened. Sick.
The large man took my left hand and removed the wristwatch from it. 'You will not need this,' he said. He handed the watch to another man. The time was five forty-two.
The men unloading the truck began to unsnap the sides of the large wooden boxes placed near the open hatch on the ship.
I watched in horror.
Inside each, secured with heavy straps and buckles, attached to rings in the box, was a girl. Each was unclothed. Each was unconscious. Each was gagged. Each wore a collar.
The men freed the girls, removing from them the gags and collars, and fastening on the left ankle of each what appeared to be a steel band.
They were then carried, unconscious, into the ship.
I screamed and turned to run. A man clutched at me. My hand tore the butcher knife from my handbag and I slashed wildly at him. He cried out in pain, holding his cut, bloody sleeve. I stumbled and got up to run. But they were all about me, encircling me. I raised the knife to strike at them, wildly. Then I seemed my whole hand and wrist and arm was struck with some fantastic, numbing shock. The knife fell from my fingers. I sobbed with the pain. One of the men picked up the knife. Another took me by the arm and dragged me back before the large man. I was hunched over, and looked up at him, sobbing, tears in my eyes. The large man replaced a small implement in his jacket pocket. It resembled a pocket flashlight. But the beam that had struck me I had not seen.
'The pain will not last long,' the man informed me.
'Please,' I begged him. 'Please.'
'You were superb,' he said.
I looked at him, numbly.
The man whom I had slashed with the knife stood behind him, holding his arm, grinning.
'Have your arm attended to,' said the large man. The other grinned again and turned away, going toward the truck.
One of the men from the dark, disklike shape, the smaller one, which had followed me, approached. 'There is little time,' he said.
The large man nodded. But he did not seem perturbed, nor hurried.
He looked at me, carefully. 'Stand straight,' he said, not ungently. I tried to stand straight. My arm still felt paralyzed from the shock. I could not move my fingers.
He touched the bloodied cut on my belly, where the branch had struck me. Then, with his hand, he lifted my head, turning it, looking at the cut on my cheek. 'We are not pleased,' he said.
