“We’re on the trail of those spies!” I yelled from the dark interior. “Get that barrier out of our way!”
They hesitated, and Doriza threw in the speed-ahead lever. We smashed through and away. Cries rang in our wake, and slugs struck the rear of the vehicle. Two burned clear through the metal. I opened a panel to kick them out, and they scorched my foot, clear through the stout shoe sole.
“We must abandon this car, it’s marked.” Doriza was cutting speed. “Let’s jump, here in the shadows.”
I jumped through the open panel, and managed to stay on my feet, catching and helping Doriza as she jumped after me. The car hummed onward, and smashed loudly into the wall beyond. Guards ran into view from a doorway, chattering loudly.
Every back was toward us. We stole forward, and into the guardroom they had abandoned. I saw dials and mechanism of both televiso and speaker system. A couple of twists and pulls, and I had them out of commission.
“Slovenly discipline,” I growled. “They should have left at least one man in charge.”
Dropping the telltale red cloak Doriza had given me—how long ago? Yesterday?—I caught up instead a blue military cape, the property of some officer. There was also an ornate helmet, which I jammed on my head. “Stoop,” Doriza counseled. “You’re taller than any man on Dondromogon. Now, maybe you’ll get away with—whatever you’re getting away with.”
Emerging, I strode toward the wreck. A man saw my cape and helmet of authority. “Attention!” he called, and they stiffened respectfully.
“How close is the point of contact with the enemy?” I demanded with official brusqueness.
One pointed the way. “Not far, sir. We’re the last message-relay station. Everything’s in order, and—”
“Thanks,” I said, and beckoned Doriza. We walked past. I wondered what I could have done if these men had paused to think I might be the culprit for whom Gederr was clamoring.
Up ahead was a cross-tunnel, and beyond that a fork. We heard men talking and moving in the distance. Doriza pointed to an inscribed door.
“The way to the works below. I’ve seen it on the televiso. The mined floor of the main chamber has a second cavern below.”
I scowled. “As I remember, Gederr said he had blocked all advance tunnels of the Newcomers, except at one spot. What kind of explosives will he use?”
“Glare-rays,” said Doriza. “You wouldn’t know, Barak, the Newcomers haven’t any such. It’s a special vibration-speed that sets atoms at a pitch ready to fly violently apart. Anything it involves can be exploded at the first touch of fire.”
“Anything?” I repeated. “Weapons, men, earth? Doriza, can you operate such a ray?”
“I think I can.”
“Then come,” and I pushed open the panel.
The elevator cage was waiting, and its operation not hard to study out. Quickly we sped down and stepped forth into another great chamber, bright and echoing. A sentry confronted us.
“Your pass?” he demanded.
I chose to bluster it out. “What kind of idling goes on here?” I snapped at him. “I’m from the Council, to see if the report is true—that you haven’t made all ready for the ambush.”
“But we have,” he protested.
“You give me arguments, you insolent upstart? Where’s your commander?” I turned to face an officer that hurried up. “This sentry needs to be disciplined, taught respect for his superiors,” I scolded. “What have you to say, sir, about the laxity and slowness of work here?”
“But we’re ready and more than ready,” the officer assured me. “Look, sir,” and he pointed. “This whole cavern is dug out to completion, the overhead roof thinned for the explosion. See the play of glares upon it.”
I looked, and nodded as if in sour agreement. The earth floor was a maze of cables and coils, and here and there, strategically placed, were little wheeled stands with mechanisms atop. From each of these beat upward a cone of glaring golden light against the rough ceiling. It blinded me to look at them.
“The glares,” Doriza murmured.
I gazed at the men on duty. “Is nobody armed? What if the Newcomers get in here?”
The officer shook his head. “You know that weapons would be our own destruction. Electro-automatics, disintegrators, ray-sabers—they all give off flame. And a touch of flame in any one of these glare-fields would explode the whole chamber, and the solid soil around it, into atoms.”
I glanced toward the far end. “Up yonder I see no glares.”
“Of course not. Beyond and above is the point that coincides with the narrow approach left for the Newcomers.” The officer studied me narrowly. “If you are from the Council, why are you ignorant of all these things?”
It would be a difficult question to answer plausibly, but I was spared the task. Someone hurried from a little televiso shack and saluted the officer.
“Orders, sir. Important. We’re to withdraw immediately. The Newcomers are advancing, and the forces above will take over operation.”
“Of course,” the officer said, and turned from me to shout commands. Men began to hurry away past us, toward the elevator, eager to quit the post of danger.
“Come, Doriza,” I said softly, and she followed me along a wall. “Here’s one of those explosion mechanisms. If we can bring it between us—”
She did something to turn it off, and we trundled it along on its wheels. I pointed to the spot above which the entry-point was said to be, and toward it we went, unchallenged and unnoticed. We reached the earthy far wall, and it was steep, but with the point of my ray-saber I dug pits for hands and toes. Up I scrambled to the ceiling. There I paused, hanging like a bat.
“Disintegrator,” I called down to her.
“Dare we?”
“We must dare!”
She tossed me the disintegrator pistol. I turned it on and fate favored me once again. No explosion occurred. I tunnelled upward, upward, and climbed up the slanting chimney-like tunnel I made. Moments later, I broke into open air above.
I was in a necklike passage. Lying flat, I looked each way.
