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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..471250c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #65483 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65483) diff --git a/old/65483-0.txt b/old/65483-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 621e4cb..0000000 --- a/old/65483-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3326 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Sinister Invasion, by Alexander Blade - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Sinister Invasion - -Author: Alexander Blade - -Release Date: June 1, 2021 [eBook #65483] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SINISTER INVASION *** - - - - - THE SINISTER INVASION - - By Alexander Blade - - Birrel rebelled at the idea of becoming a - cosmic counter-spy. But he was the one Earthman - whom a quirk of nature had fitted for the job.... - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy - June 1957 - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -_It was strange, how easy it was to step right out of your own life, -right out of the familiar Earth into cosmic mystery! As easy, Birrel -was to think later, as opening a door...._ - -As Birrel walked into his 71st Street apartment, snapping on the light -and pocketing his keys, he suddenly stopped, tense with surprise. - -A man he had never seen before stood facing him. A commonplace-looking -man with a gray hat, gray suit, and a grayish, young-middle-aged face. -His voice was mild as he said, - -"Ross Birrel?" - -"That's right," said Birrel. Then anger swept away his astonishment. -"Who are you and how the hell did you get in here?" - -"We'll discuss that later," said the gray man. "Right now, I want you -to come with me. Official business." - -"What kind of official business?" - -"We'll discuss that later too." - -Birrel started forward, his temper dangerously high. Then he stopped. -The gray man's hand was in his coat pocket, and it was gripping -something in that pocket. He said, - -"Please don't be difficult, Mr. Birrel." - -Birrel said, "If you're an official of some sort, let's see your -credentials." - -"I'm afraid," said the other, "I don't have any." - -"I thought so." Birrel began to breathe hard. "Listen, you've made a -mistake. I'm not a rich man, or a rival gangster, or anybody you want. -I'm an electrical engineer, a bachelor, and I'm stone broke." - -"We know that," murmured the gray man. "Now will you come along?" - -Birrel suddenly decided that the man was crazy. New York was full of -nuts these days, people flipping their lids and doing daffy things. -This was one of them--and there was only one thing to do. - -"All right, but you'll regret this," he said. He started to turn his -back on the gray man. "When you find out you're wrong--" - -Birrel, turning, whirled with sudden speed, his arm snaking out to -catch the gray man's neck with the edge of his hand, the old trick -they'd taught him in the OSS in war-time. - -It didn't work. - -The gray man ducked and chopped expertly with his left hand. A numbing -pain hit Birrel's extended arm. - -For the first time, the gray man smiled. "Sorry. But I was in the OSS -too, you see." - -Birrel, holding his aching arm, stared. This wasn't a nut after all. -But what--? - -"Look, Mr. Birrel. I have no sinister designs against you, in any -way. We merely have a proposition to put to you. You can accept or -refuse it. But unfortunately, I have to do this secretly. That's why I -couldn't phone or write or approach you in public." - -Birrel thought rapidly. Not a nut, no. But what kind of official -business would have to be done _this_ secretly? He didn't like it, not -at all. - -"Shall we go?" - -Birrel looked at the hand in the coat pocket. He went. - -He came out into the cool dark wetness of 71st Street, the summer -shower over and the red and white neon signs toward Broadway reflected -cheerily on wet asphalt. A sedan, with a man at its wheel, was waiting. - -He heard the mild voice close behind his ear. "Get right in, Mr. -Birrel." - -The car swept them up the West Side Highway, with the electric glow -of Manhattan behind them. Ahead, the strung-out lights of George -Washington Bridge arched the black gulf of the river. - -Birrel sat in the back seat, with the gray man keeping well away from -him at the other end of the seat. He could see nothing of the driver -but a thick neck under a crusher hat. - -They crossed the Hudson and went on westward, skirting cities and -running quietly and fast through a region of small factories and -junk-heaps and power-plants. - -Birrel felt a mounting panic. What the devil had he got mixed up in? He -tried to think why anyone would want to grab him like this. - -He couldn't think of anything. Since the war he'd completed his -education, taken his engineering degree, landed a job in a Long Island -electric company, and--that was all. He didn't know any technical -secrets, he wasn't doing any top-secret work, he was an utterly -undistinguished thirty-year-old engineer and nothing more. - -Then why? - -"Listen," he said, "I know there's a mistake--" - -"No mistake," said the gray man. He added, "We're nearly there." - -"There" was a high wire fence with a locked gate and a red sign, -INDUSTRIAL CYANOGEN COMPANY--DANGER, KEEP OUT. A man came out of a -little wooden building inside the gate, and unlocked and opened it. The -car went on through. - -It stopped, after a moment, in front of a big, dark old-fashioned brick -factory building with a forlorn, out-of-date look about it. The only -light was a dingy bulb over the door in front. - -"This is it, Birrel. Come along." - -Inside, Birrel got a shock of surprise. It wasn't the cavernous, -dark interior he expected. There was light, the sound of clicking -typewriters and teletypes, the clack of heels on corridor floors. - - * * * * * - -The old factory building, he saw now was a blind. Behind its dingy -walls and masked windows were at least two floors of offices. The doors -of them all were closed, but he heard the hum and buzz of earnest -activity from behind them. - -Gray-face nudged him toward one of the doors. The thick-necked driver -went on somewhere. - -Birrel looked around a featureless little office with a battered table, -some office chairs, and nothing else. - -He turned. "What the devil is this place?" - -"A government agency," said Gray-face. - -Birrel said, "Listen, how long are you going to keep this--" - -He stopped, and was aware that his jaw was hanging in foolish surprise. -A man had come into the office. - -A stocky, iron-haired man of fifty or more, with a heavy, seamed face -and eyes not much softer than flint. Birrel had never seen him face to -face before, but he knew him. - -"Why--" - -"Yes," said Gray-face, obviously enjoying himself. "It's Mr. John -Connor." He turned and said, "Here he is, Mr. Connor. I believe he -thought we were taking him for a ride." - -"All right, Paley," said Connor brusquely. "Sit down. Birrel. Sorry to -haul you out here but this is important. Will you take that moronic -stare off your face and _sit down_?" - -Birrel sat, swallowing hard. This he hadn't expected. - -He had been in the OSS more than a year, and he'd never even got within -shouting distance of John Connor, the most famous of its directing -brains. And now, eleven years later, to meet him this way in a masked -factory that was an office-- - -Birrel said, weakly, "Then this _is_ a government agency?" - -"It is," said Connor. "The most secret one of all. We don't give out -interviews, and have addresses, like the CIA and FBI." He nodded toward -the gray-faced man. "You'll understand why I sent Paley for you this -way, why I couldn't write or phone you." - -"But I thought you'd retired, after the war!" Birrel said. "The -newspapers--" - -John Connor said disgustedly, "The hell and all of an OSS man you must -have been, if you believe everything you read in newspapers." - -Birrel thought he understood now. One of the secret counter-espionage -agencies by which America defended itself--so secret that probably few -government-officials even knew about it. But-- - -Connor's rough voice answered his thought. "We need a man, Birrel. For -a job. And it must be a man we can trust absolutely. That's why we -looked through the OSS files--and found you." - -"Oh, now, listen," protested Birrel, rising. "My service was years ago, -I've got a profession, and this isn't war-time now. You can find better -agents than me--" - -Connor said brutally, "I could find five hundred agents better than -you. I'd rather have anyone of them than you. Unfortunately, you've got -something they haven't." - -"What?" - -"The right face, Birrel." - -Birrel didn't get it, he didn't get it at all. But Connor gave him no -time to think. He demanded, - -"You'd help us if you thought it might mean life or death to your -country, wouldn't you?" - -Birrel knew he was about to be trapped, but there was only one way you -could answer that. "Sure, but--" - -Connor cut him off. "Fine. Now I'm going to show you someone, Birrel. -Come along." - -They went out of the office, and down a long corridor and then down a -flight of concrete steps. Connor said nothing on the way, and neither -did Paley. - -The cement-walled basement corridor below was chilly. Lights glowed in -its ceiling. In front of a closed steel door stood an alert young man -with a submachine-gun cradled in his arm. - -Connor nodded to him and said, "All right." He produced a key from his -pocket and unlocked the door. - -Not until they were inside the room, and the door locked behind them, -did either Connor or Paley say another word. - -Birrel's glance darted around. The room, an ice-cold concrete cubicle, -had nothing in it at all but a hospital table on which lay a long -something covered by a sheet. From it came a strongly chemical smell. - -He felt a wave of relief. So that was why he had been brought here with -all the hush-hush--to identify a dead someone? It was the only possible -explanation-- - -"Six weeks ago," Connor was saying, "near one of our most secret atomic -depots, a prowler was challenged. He tried to escape. He was shot and -instantly killed." - -He said then, "All right, Paley. Uncover him." - -Paley went to the table. He took hold of the white sheet. His hand -trembled a little, and there were sudden beads of sweat on his -forehead despite the freezing cold of the room. He looked as though he -did not want at all to carry out the order. - -Connor's harsh breathing was loud. Birrel wondered why they were so -affected. Surely not by the sight of a dead man--they, even more than -he, had seen plenty of dead men in the war years. - -The sheet was pulled halfway back. A naked man lay on the table, his -dark eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling. - -He was fairly young, black-haired, with faintly swarthy skin and a -blocky, undistinguished face. He looked vaguely familiar.... - -With a shock, Birrel realized that the dead man looked not unlike -himself. Not a twin-like resemblance, but still, a strong resemblance. - -He looked up quickly to Connor. He was amazed by the expression in -Connor's heavy face. The lines in it had deepened. His half-narrowed -eyes stared almost hauntedly at the dead man. - -Paley had moved back from the table, and there was a strain in his gray -face as he looked across the body at them. - -"He was a spy," Connor said. "There's no doubt about that at all. And a -very skillful one, to get into that guarded area." - -Birrel asked, "From what country?" - -Connor looked at him. He said, "From no country. You see, we ran a -post-mortem on him, and--" - -He stopped. He looked as though he didn't want to say what he was going -to say, as though he had to force himself against a whole lifetime's -beliefs and thinking, to say this thing. - -"He wasn't an Earth man at all. He was from somewhere else. Some other -world." - - - - - CHAPTER II - - -Birrel still couldn't take it in. - -Two hours had passed, and he sat in Connor's office, listening, -arguing, still not believing. - -Paley was there, hunched as though half asleep in a chair in the -corner. There was another man there, a young man named Garlock, with -glittering eyeglasses and teeth and a sharp voice. But Connor did most -of the talking. - -"I _know_ it's fantastic," he said, for the tenth time. "But it's so." - -"But he looks human--," Birrel said, again. - -"He _is_ human. But he's different. His blood is a type no one ever -saw before. His cells, his nervous-system, his bone-and-muscle tissue, -they're all different from an Earthman's. Unmistakably. I could give -you Dr. Blount's report, but it wouldn't mean anything to you. If you'd -seen Blount's face, that alone would have convinced you." - -"But this is 1956," Birrel argued. "We're still only talking about -space-flight. And only crackpots believe in ships and people from other -worlds." - -Connor winced. "Don't. It's like hearing a playback of what I said to -Blount. Listen. We had the two most qualified biologists in the country -check that body. They agree utterly. It's non-terrestrial." - -Birrel opened his mouth to say something and then shut it. He had -nothing more to say. - -He faced the enormity of an impossible fact, just as these men had had -to face it. A man, a visitor, a secret visitor, from another world. -In this hard, matter-of-fact office, it seemed impossible, like a -story read and thrown away, like a crazy movie you laughed at as you -went out. The George Washington Bridge was only a few miles away, and -tomorrow the Giants played the Pirates, and Friday was payday, and a -man had come from another world. - -"But from where?" Birrel whispered, finally. "And _why_?" - -Connor sighed heavily. "Now we're getting somewhere. I know how hard -it is to take. Every morning I wake up, I think at first it was just -a wild dream--" He broke off, then said harshly, "From where? We don't -know, haven't an idea. The sky is full of worlds. Take your pick." - -A nightmare kaleidoscope of all the stars and planets of the universe -rushed through Birrel's head. The sky is full of worlds. Yes. He'd -never quite realized it before. - -"As to why, there's no doubt at all," Connor was saying. "The man was -killed near one of the most heavily guarded atomic weapon depots we -have. He was killed trying to escape. He was a spy." - -"A spy, for--" Birrel's voice trailed away. - -"That's right, Birrel. For someplace else, someplace not on Earth." - -Garlock spoke up to Connor, interrupting. "You're giving it to him too -fast, John. It took us weeks, and yet you haul him in and hit him in -the face with the whole picture. More time--" - -"I'm running this, and we haven't _got_ more time," Connor said roughly. - -Birrel hardly heard them. He felt as though an earthquake had rocked -his mind, had shaken up all his preconceived ideas, all the bases of -his thinking for a lifetime. - -"But," he said slowly to Connor, "a spy from someplace outside, from -another world--does that mean danger? A threat, out there?" - -Connor spread his big, spatulate hands on the desk. "We don't know. We -don't know what it means. But this agency has top responsibility for -the country's safety against secret enemies. Whether they're Earthmen -or not! We have to assume it _does_ mean a threat." - -"Yet it could be just accident, his being near the atomic depot?" A -thought sprang into Birrel's mind. "A visitor from outside, coming -secretly, wanting to learn about our science--" - -Connor smiled grimly. "I wish I could think so. But we know it isn't -so. Show him what we found, Jay." - -Garlock went to a safe and unlocked it and took out a small object and -came back. He said to Birrel, - -"We found two things beside the man himself. A quarter-mile from him -we found a queer burned place in the ground, a charred gouge. We don't -understand it at all. The other thing we found was in his pocket. This." - -He put the little object on the desk. To Birrel, it looked rather like -a black plastic film-viewer of the type used for looking at colored -slides. He said so, and Garlock nodded. - -"That's just what it is. Only it's the someplace-else type of viewer. -I'll turn it on. Then you look into it." - -His nerves taut, Birrel put the lenses to his eyes. Would he look at -the incredible vistas of another planet, at-- - -But no. He was looking at a colored picture of a big laboratory's -interior, and it was definitely an Earth lab of the present day. He -could name many of the gadgets in the room. It looked like an atomic -experimenter's workshop, on a big scale. - -Birrel got that one glimpse and then started violently and tore the -viewer away from his eyes. - - * * * * * - -A man's voice had spoken, close to his ear--small in volume but rapid, -authoritative, precise in diction. - -The language it spoke was one he had never heard. - -"What--?" he cried, startled. Connor and Garlock nodded. "The voice," -said the latter, "is on the film." - -"And that," Connor said flatly, "was a picture of the most secret -atomic laboratory at Los Alamos." He reached out and took the viewer -into his own hand. "There are fifty-six pictures in this thing, -each with a detailed vocal commentary like that you heard. They're -pictures--_detailed_ pictures--of top-secret atomic depots, storehouses -and arsenals." - -"But how could they--," Birrel began. Connor cut him off. - -"We haven't the faintest idea how. They've obviously got instruments -that we don't have, for looking into places. 'Why' and 'who' are what -we want to know. Especially, 'Who'." - -He got up and walked back and forth in a little pattern. With a shock -of surprise, Birrel realized that it was not yet midnight. It seemed -that an eternity must have passed, not just a few hours. - -Connor stopped and turned toward him. "That's where you come in, -Birrel." - -It wrenched Birrel suddenly back from his chaotic imaginings of -far-away worlds and stars, of a cosmic plot and an unsuspecting Earth. - -"Me?" - -"You're going to help us find this ring of Someplace-else agents." - -"But you said yourself you had better agents than me!" - -Connor nodded. "But, as I told you, you have the right face. We went -through photos of several thousand former agents to find your face, -Birrel." He paused. Then--"Our only concrete lead to this bunch of -whoever-they-are, is that dead man. He was one of them. If he were -alive, he could be trailed back to the others. But he isn't alive. So, -to find that trail, we have to use a ringer." - -Birrel was numb with amazement, but he was not a fool, and he got -Connor's implication instantly. - -It was one of the oldest tricks in the book of counter-espionage. You -had one of your own men pose as an enemy spy, so that a contact would -be made that could lead you to the others. An old trick, and a risky -one--even in ordinary circumstances. But in this case, it was fantastic. - -"Oh, no," said Birrel. "It wouldn't work, there isn't a chance. I don't -look that much like him--" - -"You have the necessary basic feature," Connor said. "The skull-shape, -the ears, the things that can't be disguised. Our make-up experts can -do the rest." - -"But how can I pose for a minute as that man, when I don't know his -language? The first moment any of the others spoke to me, I'd be -through." - -"We can teach you a fair bit of the language," Connor said. "Enough so -that you won't be instantly recognized as a fake. You'd soon be found -out--but by then we'd be jumping on them." - -Birrel stared, wondering if the strain of this hadn't been too much -for the man. "_You_ can teach me some of that other-world language?" - -Connor said, "Grossman can. He is, in case you don't know, one of the -world's greatest philologists. He was called in on this weeks ago. -Using that spoken commentary on the film-viewer, that voice that each -time described a specific pictured scene, he worked away relating -words and pictures until he built up the whole language. It's rough -yet--but he's got a vocabulary of a couple thousand words, a set of -grammar-rules, and--above all--an accurate reproduction of accent and -pronunciation, in that recorded voice. Enough, with luck, to get you by -for a little time with the others. That should be time enough for us." - -Garlock interrupted, saying heatedly to Connor, "Look at his face! I -tell you, you're giving this to him too fast, you can't throw it at him -like this." - -Connor ignored the protest. He sat down again at the desk, and his -bleak eyes held on Birrel's face. - -"This is how it stands. Where they came from, what that place is like, -we haven't a glimmering. How many of them there are on Earth, we don't -know either. But one man couldn't come alone. So there are others. All -right." - -He bent forward, his harsh voice beating at Birrel. "We make you look -like that dead man. We have Grossman cram you with that language -till you can get by. Then we stick you in jail. We announce that an -unidentified spy was caught near an atomic installation, weeks ago, and -that we're still holding him for questioning. We let that out in the -newspapers." - -"And then?" - -Connor said, "The others--they'll be wondering what happened to their -boy. He was alone on that job, we're sure of that. When they hear he's -in prison, they'll surely try to contact him--you." - -"What makes you so sure they will?" - -"Because," Connor said slowly, "they have to. This is a secret -operation. They must prevent our finding out who our prisoner is, -finding out that he's from outside Earth." - -His voice became raw-edged. "They're a threat, Birrel. Wherever -they came from, they're danger. Perhaps the worst danger that ever -threatened us. We have to find them. You have to help." - -He did not ask for that help, he commanded it. And with a feeling of -unreality, Birrel knew that he could not disobey that command. - -Connor rose. "You'll stay here, while we set this up. It'll take -weeks, working every minute, to get you ready." - -Weeks later, wearing another man's face, Birrel sat solitary in an -isolated cell of a New York prison. He sat there unbelievingly waiting -for the impossible, for the secret ones from the wider cosmos. - -He did not have to wait long. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - -They came at ten minutes before midnight. - -Birrel had been sitting in this cell for some twenty hours. The cell -was deep in a jail in downtown Manhattan. It was a solitary cell, for a -solitary and important prisoner. - -He had a different face now, a dead man's face. The clothing he -wore had belonged to that man. He could speak that man's language, -to a certain extent. He was not Ross Birrel, he was a man from -Someplace-else. - -"_What's my name, on that other world?_" Birrel wondered. "_I'm -impersonating somebody and don't know who, or what, he was--_" - -Except that the man he impersonated had been a spy. Secret agent of an -unguessable, distant world, ferreting out Earth's defense secrets. - -A wave of cold disbelief swept Birrel. It was still too fantastic, too -incredible. The scientists were wrong about that body, they must be -wrong. Connor was wrong. - -But Connor remained grimly convinced. Before his men took Birrel to the -prison, he had said, - -"They've lost an agent, those people from outside. A valuable man with -valuable information. They'll contact you, somehow when our newspaper -story appears." - -"In a locked cell in prison?" Birrel had said, incredulously. "How can -they?" - -"I've an idea," Connor had said, "that they can do quite a lot of -things we can't. But we'll be ready for them. The prison guards aren't -in on our set-up, of course. But we'll be in the building, watching." - -He had added, "You may not fool them long. But try. Remember, the -important thing is to get them to lead you to the others, to the center -of this thing, to their base, wherever it is. We'll follow." - -That had been twenty hours ago. And now Birrel sat in the cold, -stone-walled little cell, and stared at the blank steel door, and told -himself that he was a fool, and that Connor was mad. - -No one could reach him here, even if anybody tried. - -Birrel suddenly looked up. Something had happened to the light, the -single bulb that illuminated his cell. - -A greenish tinge had come into the light. It deepened, and there was a -buzzing in his ears, and-- - -Birrel pitched to the floor, unconscious. - -He came out of blackness, later, with a vague consciousness of someone -touching him and the sound of a voice in his ears. - -It was a woman's voice, low and hurried and husky with strain. He -didn't know what it was saying, the words didn't make sense-- - -Of a sudden, Birrel's heart pounded. Some of those words, those -strange-sounding syllables, _did_ make sense. They were words he -had learned in the weeks of preparation--words that Grossman, the -philologist, had beaten into him by endless repetitions. - -_The words--the language--of the secret ones from Someplace-else._ - -He wrenched his eyes open. He looked into the dark, handsome face of -a young woman. Her eyes were brilliant with excitement, and her hands -were shaking Birrel by the shoulders. She spoke swiftly to him again, -and now his clearing mind could translate the words. - -"Rett, there's little time! Please!" - -"Rett?" That was a word he didn't know. But of course--that would be -his name. Or, rather, the name of the man he impersonated. Rett-- - -Birrel was too foggy yet to try to answer, in that alien language. He -was dazed, off balance, and dared not make a slip. - -She helped him to his feet. His legs were like strings. He felt as -though a pile-driver had hit him. What had happened? - -Hanging to the edge of the bunk for support, Birrel stared groggily. He -saw now that the girl wore an ordinary tan suit, with no covering on -her shoulder-length black hair. Beyond her, the steel door now gaped -wide open. How had it been opened? And what had struck him senseless? -There had been a sudden greenishness in the light-- - -The light was _still_ green, a baleful emerald tinge. He didn't -understand. He looked down at himself, and found that around his neck -now hung a chain from which depended an egg of silvery metal. The egg -hummed. - -Birrel reached numb fingers toward the thing, but the girl caught away -his hand. Again in that alien tongue, she said quickly, - -"No, Rett--don't touch your shield! We have to get out fast--Holmer -can't blank this building forever. Please try to walk!" - -His shield? Shield against what? He saw now that she too wore a humming -metal egg around her neck. - -Birrel's brain was beginning to clear. But he purposely kept his -bewildered expression. Acting dazed would give him a little more time. - -"Holmer?" he said. - -"He's outside," the girl said. "Holding the"--(and here she used a -word Birrel did not know at all)--"on the whole building. But we must -hurry!" - -Birrel began to understand. They had come indeed, the secret ones from -beyond the world. One of them, outside, had hit the whole prison with -some stunning force, some super-encephalographic vibration. That was -what had knocked him out. But the greenish glow was still there, the -force still on. How was it he was conscious now? - -Was the "shield" a shield against the stunning force? The girl had put -it on him, and he had revived. And she was wearing one herself-- - - * * * * * - -It suddenly rushed over Birrel, the full, overwhelming realization that -he was face to face with someone not of Earth. He stared into her dark, -smooth face, into her wide, worried black eyes, and he felt the short -hairs on his neck bristle. - -She seemed utterly human and Earthly, and she was not. The eyes meeting -his had looked on unguessable vistas across the cosmic abyss. The -strong hands that steadied him were alien hands. - -_Woman not of this world...._ - -He shivered involuntarily and the girl misunderstood that. She said -urgently, - -"I know you're shaken up but you must walk! We must get out of -here--come--" - -She tugged him toward the open door of the cell. Birrel stumbled -through it, with her. His feet would not coordinate, they kept -scuffling and tripping as he went down the corridor and up the stair. - -There was a guard office at the top of the stair. Two jail guards in -uniform sprawled, one in a chair, the other on the floor. They were not -dead, for he could see the rise and fall of their chests. But they were -gripped by an insensibility like death. - -Birrel began to get it. "Holmer can only hold the building blanked -for a little longer!" The one outside, the confederate of the girl, -had stricken everyone in the prison into a coma. Protected by a -shield-device, she had walked right in, unchallenged. - -The thought appalled Birrel. Connor and Paley and their men were in -this building, waiting to follow Birrel and whoever contacted him. And -Connor and Paley and the others must right now be as unconscious as -these guards. Their whole plan was shattered. - -"Hurry, Rett!" She was urging him almost fiercely forward, out of the -office and into a main hall. - -They came to a barred door, now swinging open. How had she opened the -doors, Birrel wondered? But a science that could throw this deathlike -trance on a building full of men would make short work of locks. - -The girl quickened her pace, urging him along faster. In a moment they -came out into the darkness of the summer night, in a parking-court -with a half-dozen official cars in it. The high gate to the street was -closed. Just inside it was a long sedan whose motor purred softly. She -ran toward it, her strong fingers clutching Birrel's wrist. - -As she opened the rear door of the sedan, the flashing-on of the -roof-light disclosed a man sitting at the wheel. - -He was older than the girl, dark like her but with a craggy lined face, -and eyes that might have been humorous if they were not so alert and -alarmed. He too wore around his neck a silver egg that hummed. - -"Kara, you took too long!" he said. "Any minute--" - -"It took time to find him," she said. "I'll open the gate. No, -Rett--you get in, quick!" - -As Birrel climbed unsteadily into the rear seat, the girl--so her name -was Kara?--ran and swung open the street-gate, then ran back to the car. - -Birrel's mind was clearing but things were happening too fast. He heard -a continuous thin, whining sound that was coming from the front seat. -It came from a square black box that rested on the seat beside the -driver. - -The girl Kara leaped into the back with Birrel and said, "Turn it off -now, Holmer--and _go_!" - -The man at the wheel reached and touched the box, and the whining sound -ceased. Then, instantly, he snicked on the headlights, and sent the car -leaping out through the open gate into the alley. - -Within two minutes, they were out in the glittering stream of Fourth -Avenue's night traffic, heading north. - -Only then did the girl turn to Birrel. She said, almost passionately, - -"Rett, where have you _been_? All these weeks, Holmer and I almost -going crazy--" - -Birrel had an answer for that, all prepared. "They caught me. They -questioned me, time after time. Finally, when they couldn't get -anything out of me, they were going to hold me for trial." - -Kara nodded swiftly. "We guessed that, when we finally saw the -newspaper mention of an unidentified spy being held. They didn't -suspect who you really are?" - -He had his answer ready for that too. "No. They still don't dream of -such a thing. They thought I was from another country here." - -"But the Irrian?" Kara pressed. "What became of _him_?" - -It took Birrel completely by surprise. "Irrian?" It was only a -meaningless name to him. He had no answer for this, at all. - -He said, floundering, "What do you mean--" - -"Vannevan's man," she said, impatiently. "The Irrian you were trailing. -Rett, try to clear your mind. Did the Earthmen catch the Irrian too?" - - * * * * * - -It made no sense at all to Birrel. All he could gather was that the -dead spy, Rett, had, when killed near that atomic depot, been trailing -someone. Someone called "the Irrian" and "Vannevan's man." Who was -Vannevan? - -He had to take a chance. He said, slowly, "I was the only one they -captured." - -She said again, "But what about the Irrian? Did you have to blast him?" - -Birrel, his mind racing like a trapped animal seeking escape, suddenly -remembered something. The word "blast" made him remember. It was the -thing that had puzzled Connor's agents, the charred gouge in the ground -that they had found near the dead spy. - -Again, he had to gamble. Aware that it was a complete leap in the dark -he said, - -"Yes. I had to blast him." - -Her small, strong hands clenched together. "If only you could have -taken him, as you planned. If we could have taken him back, it would be -complete proof of what Vannevan's doing here." - -Birrel couldn't get this at all. He was bewildered, all his previous -assumptions and those of Connor completely upset. - -They had had it figured out, they thought. The dead man was a spy from -another world. He would have colleagues, a group who had come here -to search out Earth's most potent defense secrets, with some deadly -purpose surely. Birrel's job, his imposture, was to lead to the others. - -But--it seemed now that these secret ones, this Kara and Holmer, -themselves had enemies. The dead man, Rett, had been trailing one. An -Irrian. Who were the Irrians? Who was Vannevan, and what was _he_ up to? - -A sense of nightmare unreality suddenly swept Birrel. Their car was -crossing lower Times Square. The blaze of lights, the after-show -crowds, the winking signs--all were so utterly normal. And here, in -the midst of it, he rode with a man and woman of a far world, speaking -their language, talking tensely of things he didn't even understand. - -Birrel felt a frantic desire to rip the door open and plunge out of the -car, to run and lose himself in the cheerful crowds. - -He couldn't. He'd taken the job and he had to go through with it--to -find out where their base was, to find out what threat they represented. - -"But I have to play it alone," he thought, with sinking heart. - -Connor and Paley and the rest, who had planned so carefully to follow -them, had never foreseen that stunning force that had struck. - -Birrel became aware that they had crossed town and were running through -the Lincoln Tunnel. In a few minutes they were on a main highway, -heading north. - -How long could he keep up this imposture? How long till he made some -slip, some blunder-- - -Holmer, his voice quiet but with a sudden edge to it, said, "There's a -car following us. I wasn't sure till we got through the Tunnel." - -With sudden reaction, Birrel's hopes leaped. Then Connor and the others -had come to in time to follow? Yet it hardly seemed possible.... - -"_Vannevan!_" Kara's exclamation was so fierce that it startled him. - -"It can't be anybody else," Holmer grimly agreed. "That newspaper story -about the captured spy--it drew _him_ to the prison too, it seems." - -Whoever Vannevan might be, Birrel thought, it was evident that these -two hated and feared him like the devil. - -Holmer gripped the wheel tighter, and the car suddenly lunged faster. -He said, without turning, "You know what it means. The Irrians know now -that we followed them to Earth. Hold on, we have to lose them!" - -As by a lightning-flash, the shocking truth was abruptly revealed -to Birrel. _Two_ groups of secret agents, bitterly hostile to each -other, playing a vast and deadly game against each other, were on the -unsuspecting Earth! - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - -Birrel felt the imminence of onrushing danger. Danger, not just to -himself, but to all his world. For in him lay the only chance to find -out about the threat to Earth before it materialized. - -Who their pursuers were, who the Irrians and Vannevan might be, and -why they had come to Earth, he could not guess. But about Kara and -Holmer, he was sure. Their colleague, the dead Rett, had had those -pictures of Earth's most secret weapons and defenses on him. They, -therefore, were the danger--and he must not lose them. - -"Turn at the next side road!" he said to Holmer. "We can give them the -slip in the back roads." - -Holmer nodded. Birrel looked back. A pair of headlights swung steadily -along a quarter-mile behind them. - -"They're closer," said Kara. - -Birrel looked ahead, saw the sign that marked a crossroad, and said, -"Turn there!" - -Next moment, he thought they were all three done for. For Holmer turned -into the dark side road without slowing down at all, and the sedan -careened on screaming tires and threatened to go over. - -Birrel, slammed into a corner of the back seat, felt Kara bump against -him. He held her with one arm and groped frantically for something to -hold onto when they rolled over. - -They didn't roll over. By scared reaction, Holmer spun the wheel at -the right second. The sedan tottered, then thumped back onto all four -wheels, its motor stalled. - -Out on the main highway, a car flashed by fast. - -"These cursed Earth vehicles!" said Holmer, in a shaky voice. "No -gyroscopic controls, no built-in stability factor at all!" - -Birrel felt like yelling, "What the devil made you think you could turn -a right angle at full speed?" But he didn't. It would give him away, as -Rett he mustn't know too much more about automobiles than the others -did. - -But for the sake of survival he had to get Holmer away from the wheel. - -He said, "Let me drive it--since I saw you last I've learned to handle -them pretty well." - -Holmer crowded over in the front seat, holding the black box in his -lap. Birrel climbed over fast, and took the wheel. - -"They went past, but now they're coming back!" cried Kara. "I can -hear--" - -Birrel kicked the starter and then the gas-pedal, and the sedan shot up -the dark asphalt country road like a frightened rabbit. - -Kara was looking back, and her voice came clear over the rising whine -of the motor. - -"They're back there. Gaining on us--" - -Birrel glanced up at the mirror and the headlights coming up fast -behind. He jammed the gas-pedal down, sending the sedan hurtling -past the lighted windows of houses, the black masses of trees. The -headlights came no closer. - -Kara cried to Holmer, "Use the--" Again, the word that Birrel did not -know. - -He knew what it meant. The square box in Holmer's lap, the thing that -had stricken all in the prison unconscious by its potent vibrations. - -Holmer fiddled with the box. Over the roar of the motor, Birrel could -not hear it come on. But he looked up hopefully at the mirror. - -The headlights stayed right with them. - -"No use," said Holmer. "They've got their shields on. They must have -known how we did it at the prison." - -He turned the thing off. Birrel realized, with a certain desperation, -that it was up to him. - -He had one advantage, he thought. If those pursuing were from another -world, they would not be able to drive an Earth automobile as expertly -as he could. - -Kara said, "They could cut us down with the"--(another totally -incomprehensible word)--"but they won't dare use _that_ here! It would -let everyone in this part of Earth know they're here!" - -What weapon it was that the pursuers, the Irrians, had but might not -dare to use, Birrel could not guess. But the fear in Kara's voice was -enough to make him conjure up nightmare visions of awful agencies and -powers that might be loosed on them. - -It decided Birrel. Better to take the risk of cracking up than let that -car hang onto them. He would use his one advantage. - -"Hold tight," he said, and turned sharply at the next side road. - - * * * * * - -Birrel began a crazy twisting and turning on the network of back roads. -He had always been a good driver. Tonight, with desperate purpose -urging him, he forgot all about road-risks. - -He forgot about everything except the ribbon of road under his -headlights, the sharp curves that he skidded around in racing turns, -the instinctive feel of what grade, what dip, what crossroads, came -next. It was late and the farmhouses were dark now, sleeping people in -them not dreaming of what screamed past them in the night, what flight -and pursuit of folk from far worlds. - -The rhythm of the racing motor got into Birrel's mind, as his tension -rose higher. There was nothing but the headlights and the road and the -dread of what came behind them. He was sharply startled when Kara's -voice broke the spell, speaking close to his ear. - -"We lost them, long ago!" she was saying. "Rett, slow this thing before -you wreck us." - -Birrel eased the gas-pedal. Beside him, Holmer looked scared. - -"These clumsy Earth cars--I'll never get into one again!" he said, with -feeling. - -They were running up a hillside, with scrub woods on either side of the -road. - -"Stop on the crest, and we'll listen," said Kara. - -He stopped, cutting the motor and lights. They got out and looked back. -In the soft summer night, the little woods-sounds, the monotonous song -of peepers, were somehow shocking in their ordinariness, to Birrel. -Impossible that it was just another July night in New Jersey, when -beside him stood a man and woman not of Earth. - -He looked up at the summer sky, decked with chains and hives of -stars. From which dot in the sky had these two come? From where had -those others come, those who pursued, the Irrians? "_The sky is full -of worlds_," Connor had said. And the sky was full of mystery and -menace.... - -"Yes," said Holmer. "We've lost them. But we'd better not linger here." - -They got back into the car, and Birrel drove on again. Holmer said, -"We'll go back to the house. We've got to decide fast, what to do--now -that Vannevan knows we're on Earth. We can stay here, and keep watching -them. Or we can go home, with what we already know." - -With a queer icy feeling, Birrel realized that "home" meant the world -from which they had come somewhere across the abyss of space. There -must be a ship, hidden somewhere, waiting for these people. If he could -keep up his imposture till he reached that ship, and then get word to -Connor. - -"Rett, you're going wrong, the other road is the way to the house!" -Kara said suddenly. - -They had just passed a crossroads. Birrel braked the car, and with -dismay realized that he had not the faintest notion where "the house" -was. Yet that was something that, as Rett, he obviously should know. - -He said, "I'm sorry, it's been so many weeks. You had better call out -the turns for me." - -Neither Kara nor Holmer seemed to find it surprising that he should -not clearly remember. But as he drove on, with the girl warning him -of each turn on these far-back-in country roads, Birrel wondered how -long he could maintain this impossible imposture. He had never been -supposed to maintain it for long, the plan had been that Connor and -his agents would be following quick and close, but that plan had been -irretrievably ruined and he had to ram ahead alone and do what he -could, find out what he could. - -He was driving down a dark, bumpy road between untilled fields when -he became aware that now Holmer and the girl were both peering more -intently ahead. Birrel made out the dark loom of an unlighted farmhouse. - -Was this "the house"? He dared not ask them that--as Rett, he might -have forgotten the network of roads but he certainly wouldn't have -forgotten this. But if he turned in, and it was the wrong place. - -Birrel thought of a stratagem. As they approached the dark house, he -slowed down as though to turn in. If they protested, he could explain -that he only wanted to stop and listen again. - -But they didn't protest, it must be the place. Birrel turned the car -right into the rutted drive, with the headlights striking past an old -lilac bush to the front of a ramshackle barn. - -"Cut off the lights," said Holmer, worriedly. Birrel did so, his -hand shaking a little. He couldn't gamble like this forever without -slipping. - - * * * * * - -They went into the dark house, Kara first going through the rooms and -pulling down the blinds, and then carefully lighting a kerosene lamp. -They had, Birrel thought, picked a hideout far off the main roads -indeed, to be without power. - -The place was cold, musty, with some battered old furniture that looked -as though it had been here for a long time. There was no evidence at -all of how many people had been living here, and there was no evidence -that its occupants were aliens from a far world. It was just an old -house in the country, silent and lonely. - -Birrel sat down and he was glad to do so, for his feeling of -desperation was increasing. So far, he'd found out little. This house -was obviously only a temporary headquarters. The real base of these -people was somewhere else--but where? That was what he had to find out -for Connor. - -He gambled once more. He said, "Haven't any of the others been here -with you?" - -The others. The ones who had come with them to Earth, who _must_ have -come with Kara and Holmer and Rett to Earth, and who must be found! - -Holmer, setting down his square black box on the floor, said uneasily, -"Thile was down last week. He's afraid of the ship being discovered, -he kept urging us to leave. I told him we couldn't, without you." - -Kara came and sat down in front of Birrel. She said, "I know you've -been through a lot, Rett. But we have to decide fast. Have you enough -proof of what Vannevan's doing on Earth to take home?" - -And this was it, Birrel thought. He had got by in the rush of their -flight, but he could not possibly bull it out in a conference where his -ignorance must betray him. - -Holmer said worriedly, "I say, go! Now that the Irrians know that Ruun -has taken a hand in this, that we've followed them to Earth, they'll -never rest until they hunt down us _and_ the ship. You know what -Vannevan is like! I say, go with what we've found--right now." - -"It all depends," the girl said quickly, "on what Rett has learned. -Rett--" - -She never finished. At that moment, quite without warning, something -like an enormous hand struck Birrel and knocked him in perfect silence -to the floor. - -He did not lose consciousness. He was able to see the others fall -too, stricken by that same silent power. Only he could see from their -horrified eyes that they knew what the power was, while he did not. He -tried with desperate urgency to move but every nerve was paralyzed, and -he could only lie there and watch. - -The door of the room opened. Two men came in, moving fast, dark -ordinary men in ordinary clothes. Each one carried in his hand a thick, -fluted metal cylinder. The cylinders must generate the paralyzing force -which had worked effectively from outside the house, Birrel thought. - -A third man followed them. - -He was no taller than the others, but he was wider in the shoulders, -a powerful easy-moving man. His face was the face of a man born to -command, dedicated to it, living for and by it--a man to whom life -without personal and immediate power over everything in sight would be -intolerable. Just now he had it, and he was happy. - -Holmer spoke, but his stiff lips could make only a terrible whisper. - -"Irrians--_Vannevan!_" - - - - - CHAPTER V - - -There were six people in the living-room of the old New Jersey -farmhouse, and only one of them was an Earthman. - -It seemed a madly impossible thing, to Birrel. The year was -nineteen-fifty-seven and it was twenty-five minutes to midnight on the -eighth of July, and this couldn't be happening but it was. - -"You were easy, easy," Vannevan was saying. "Did you think I _wanted_ -to overtake you out there on the road? All I wanted was to get close -enough to pop a tracer on the back of your vehicle, and then follow -you." - -He was a very happy man, Vannevan. He had outwitted and beaten his -enemies, and he was enjoying that part of it more than the actual -capture. - -He strode up and down on the old, faded carpet, but he was careful not -to get in front of Birrel and Kara and Holmer. - -The three sat in chairs and across the room stood Vannevan's two men. -Each of them held one of the fluted metal cylinders, and each cylinder -was pointing toward the three prisoners, reminding them how quickly -they could be paralyzed again, or killed. - -The incongruity of it gave Birrel a crazy desire to laugh. The musty -old farmhouse, the smoky kerosene lamp, the ticking cuckoo-clock on the -wall--and five strangers from the stars. - -He wondered what a "tracer" was. He supposed it was some sort of tiny -gadget that could be shot to stick onto a moving car, and broadcast a -signal that could be read and followed. He doubted if he'd live long -enough to find out if that was right. - -Vannevan said to Birrel, "You killed Jull, didn't you?" - -There was no amusement in his hard face now. It was cut out of cold -iron, and Birrel had the feeling that Vannevan was every bit as tough -as he thought he was. - -"Who," said Birrel, "is Jull?" - -"A man of Ir," said Vannevan. "My man. The man you trailed and killed. -We found the blaster-scar in the ground." - -Birrel began to understand a little. He shrugged. "If you know, why ask -me?" - -Vannevan came closer and his eyes had a yellow glow in their dark -depths. - -"You wouldn't just blast him outright. You'd shock him and search him -first. Just as we're doing to you. Where are the"--(he used another -unfamiliar word)--"you found on him?" - -Birrel said, "I found nothing. I just blasted." - -Something exploded in his face. He reeled in the chair, putting up -his hands blindly, half-stunned. Then he saw Vannevan's clenched fist -drawing back. Vannevan, keeping carefully to one side, let the fist go -again in Birrel's face. - -"You're lying," he said. "You wouldn't come all the way here from -Ruun, spying on us, and trail Jull all that way, and then just blast -him. Did you pass them on to Holmer before the Earthmen caught you?" - -Birrel felt blood running down his face, and he felt a hate and rage -that he had never suspected he could experience. He started to get -up, and the Irrians with the weapons across the room pointed their -cylinders at him. He didn't want to die, any sooner than he had to. He -sat down again. - -"The men of Ruun are brave," said Vannevan, mockingly. "Now will you -tell me--" - -He stopped suddenly. An expression of interest and amazement crossed -his face. He reached out his hand, toward Birrel's eyes. - -Birrel recoiled--but Vannevan's hand swiped across his forehead, across -his eyebrows. Then Vannevan uttered an incredulous exclamation. - -"This isn't a man of Ruun at all. He's an _Earthman_!" - - * * * * * - -Birrel realized what had happened. The blow, the blood streaming down -his face, had effectively ruined the careful work of Connor's make-up -experts. - -Before he could resist, Vannevan rubbed a handkerchief across his face. -Birrel, a little dazed and half-blinded by the blood in his eyes, -struck out savagely but hit nothing. - -Kara's voice reached him. "Rett, you can't be--" Her voice trailed -away, and then it came on a different note. "But you're not Rett. He's -right, you're an Earthman. Where's Rett?" - -Birrel got his eyes open, and now he could see her face, and Holmer's, -and the pallor of shocked surprise on both. - -He felt a queer guilt. There was no reason for it, they were spies and -he was a counter-spy defending his country, defending Earth, but he -couldn't rid himself of the feeling. - -"Yes," said Vannevan fiercely, "where is Rett? Where's the man you've -been impersonating?" - -Birrel looked at him and said nothing. - -One of the Irrians came to Vannevan's side and spoke so rapidly that -Birrel could not follow it. - -Vannevan said somberly to him, "Your people--the Earth people--have -this Rett, don't they? They captured him, didn't they?" - -That was so obvious that there was no use denying it. "They did," said -Birrel. - -"And they disguised you as Rett, and published that report of a -captured spy, to draw the others," Vannevan said, "Of course. Which -means--they know there are strangers on their world." - -Holmer said, with a taunt in his voice, "You don't like it, do you, -Vannevan? It spoils the plans of Ir, doesn't it?" - -Vannevan looked at him. "No. There will be no check at all in the plans -of Ir. And when we've got what we need from Earth, our plans for _your_ -world will go right ahead. Be sure of that." - -Birrel's mind vainly tried to grapple with the hint in that byplay. -Then this was not merely a personal enmity, or a factional one? Then -the world of Ir and the world of Ruun--wherever those far worlds -might be--were enemies? Then the Irrians, at least, had come to Earth -secretly for something they needed for conquest? - -It didn't make sense! These star-strangers had already used weapons far -subtler and more complex than any weapon of Earth. Why would they need -to filch the arms of a less scientifically advanced planet? - -"_You_ can wait," said Vannevan to Birrel, with a certain contempt. He -turned and looked at Holmer and Kara. "But you two are important. No -word is going back to Ruun of our plans! Where is your ship hidden?" - -"Where is the ship of Ir hidden?" countered Holmer. - -Vannevan smiled grimly. "Where you couldn't find it. And you've tried -long enough, haven't you? This planet has a lot of wild places. Which -one is your ship hidden in?" - -Holmer merely laughed. - -"You'll tell, one of you," promised Vannevan. He spoke to the Irrian -beside him. "The man, first. Take him upstairs. He'll talk more freely -and readily if she can't hear him." - -The other man pointed his weapon at Holmer. Holmer, without a look -at Kara or Birrel, started up the old stairway in the hall, with the -Irrian close behind him. - -Vannevan followed them. - -Birrel looked at Kara. Her face was a stony mask. He looked at the -Irrian across the room. In the yellow light of the lamp, the man's face -was wrong. It was wrong because it was just a dark, average face. It -didn't belong to an enemy from the stars. But the cylinder in his hand -pointed levelly at Birrel and the girl. - -The dusty cuckoo-clock ticked toward midnight. Strange, that it was -running, Birrel thought. One of them--Kara or Holmer--must have started -it out of curiosity. - -He knew he was only thinking these thoughts so that his brain wouldn't -crack from the insane unreality of the situation. - -Birrel suddenly felt sweat on his forehead. Sounds were coming from -upstairs, not loud sounds, but thumping, gasping noises. There was a -voice, and then more of the gasping sounds. - -Kara started to get to her feet and the man with the fluted metal -cylinder said, "Sit down." - -Birrel looked at the clock. Two minutes to midnight. A cuckoo-clock and -a spy from the stars. Unreal. But a wild notion began to grow in his -mind.... - - * * * * * - -A shriek, a fading, choking death-cry, came down the stairs. And then -Vannevan's voice came down, loud with anger. - -"Damn him, he's dead." - -"_Sit down_," said the armed Irrian, again. - -A half-minute to midnight. He'd have to try it, there'd never be -another chance, not after Vannevan came down those stairs for another -of them, for Kara first, and then for Birrel-- - -The cuckoo-clock said, "_Cuckoo_." - -At the sharp sound, at the little flirt of movement by the out-popping -bird, the Irrian with the weapon looked up, startled. - -Birrel had thought he would. He thought it unlikely that they had -cuckoo-clocks out in the stars. He had waited for the moment, and as -the Irrian's head turned, he sprang. - -He didn't try to reach the Irrian himself. He was too far off. He went -for the table with the kerosene lamp on it, which was quite near. He -hooked his fingers under the edge of the table and heaved it over as -hard as he could. The lamp went flying. It hit the floor, splashing hot -oil and flame, and the Irrian screamed. The carpet was suddenly burning -around his feet and little flames blossomed like magic where the oil -spattered his clothes. There was no need for Birrel to tackle him. He -fled screaming into the hall, tearing off his coat and beating in panic -at his legs. - -The room was in darkness now except for the splashes of fire that ran -over the floor and up the window curtains and in erratic streaks on the -wallpaper. Birrel grabbed Kara's hand and lunged for the outer door. - -"Holmer!" she cried frantically, dragging back. - -"He's dead, you heard--come _on_!" He pulled her, with rough -determination. - -They banged out over the sagging porch-floor into darkness, and he ran, -not toward the car but toward the brush beyond the house, the black -thickets that promised protection. - -He looked over his shoulder and saw the leaping red glow spreading fast -inside the grimy windows. The screams of the Irrian had sunk to a kind -of groaning, and Birrel could hear Vannevan's fierce voice over it. - -He kept tight hold of Kara's wrist, and now they were in the thicket, -moving through saplings and brush. Then Birrel stopped. - -Back there, three dark figures had come out of the house. Two of them -were twined together, as though one half carried the other. The third -was alone and in the lead. They stood silhouetted against the glowing -windows, looking this way and that. - -Birrel whispered to Kara, "Quiet. If we try to get any farther, he'll -hear us." - -"They will search until they find us," she whispered. - -He shook his head. "That house is beginning to burn nicely. I don't -think they'll stay here long." - -He felt her gesture of negation. "I don't understand." - -"We have a thing on Earth called a Fire Department. In the country -every man is his brother's fire warden. Pretty soon the place will be -swarming with trucks and volunteer firemen. Stand still and wait." - -They waited. - -Vannevan and the men spoke together. Finally they left the hurt one to -groan and crawl in the grass, and the two of them began to move back -and forth in the brush, circling out. - -A great plume of flame shot up through some air-shaft in the house and -stood out gloriously above the roof. - -Vannevan and his man had vanished now in the brush. Birrel held Kara's -hand and sweated, and prayed for a sound. - -It came. The hoarse, harsh wailing of a country siren, designed to -waken every sleeping volunteer in the township. - -It rose and fell on the night air, ominous and loud. Vannevan and his -man hastily reappeared in the shaking red light. They picked up the -hurt man and took him limping away between them. They went down the -dark road. Presently, in the distance, Birrel heard a car start. - -When he could not hear it any more he said, "All right, let's go." - -And he took Kara away across the dark brushy fields running, stumbling, -toward a future whose incredible outlines he was beginning vaguely and -against his will to see. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - -They sat together in a brushy hollow by a stream. Frogs chorused in the -marshy spots. The stars swung overhead, above the dark trees. Close by -in the warm night an owl sang a weird fluttering song to his love, and -there were crickets. - -Birrel and Kara spoke of things so strange and far away that they were -doubly unbelievable in this setting. - -Birrel was stubborn. "I've got to take you back to Connor." He had -explained to her who Connor was. "He'll study the facts and decide what -to do. After all, you've got to remember that Earth is our world. It's -more important to us than any other." - -Kara was stubborn, too. "The threat is not against your Earth! It's -against Ruun, my world. I told you--" - -"But your man Rett, the real Rett--he had that probe-ray record of our -most secret atomic installations on him." - -"Of course he did," she said angrily. Birrel gathered that she had -liked Rett, not romantically but as a good comrade in arms. She had -taken the news of his death rather hard. "Why do you think he was there -at all? He took that record from the Irrian. It was the proof we needed -of the Irrians' activities here, so that our government back home will -act before it's too late. If your people hadn't shot him, everything -would have been arranged by now. As it is, it's worse than ever." - -"Look," said Birrel. "I want to believe you, Kara. I do believe you. -But it's just too big a responsibility for me to take on my own -shoulders. Connor--" - -"Connor!" she said contemptuously. "You're afraid." - -"Yes," he said. "I'd be a fool if I wasn't." - -She put her head between her hands and said in a very patient voice, -"I am trying to remember your side of it. Now listen to me once again. -There is a star--you call it Wolf 359. It has several planets, of which -five are inhabited. We, the people of Ruun--" - -"Control four of the five planets," Birrel said, not without a faint -edge of skepticism for the story he had already heard from her. - -"Peaceably," she said. "The other three worlds allied themselves with -us voluntarily. They are completely autonomous. But they are less -favorably situated than Ruun and they can't support large populations, -so they're relatively weak. And they wanted a strong friend, rather -than a strong master--like Ir. Would _you_ enjoy living under Vannevan?" - -He had to admit he would not. "But are the Irrians all like him?" - -"Of course not," said Kara. "But Ir, the fifth world, is ruled by -oligarchs, of whom Vannevan is one. The people of Ir may not like -it--indeed, we've heard some of them don't--but they're pretty well -held down." - -But still, Birrel thought, both parties to this interstellar quarrel -were strangers to him. And anyway, the decision was not his to make. - -He said so, and she said, "But it is yours to make. Nobody else can -make it. There isn't time." - -She plunged on desperately, trying to make him understand. "For -centuries we've fought the Irrian oligarchs to keep them from -dominating the whole system. The only time we had any peace was when -the oligarchs took to fighting among themselves for power at home. -Because of that struggle, many years ago they finally exhausted every -bit of fissionable matter on Ir. We were able to prevent them from -getting any more from our federated planets, and so for a long time -there has been peace. You see? We had atomic weapons, they had not. -They were no longer any danger. And of course we didn't need our strong -military forces any more. All we've had for decades is just enough to -act as an interplanetary police force. And now--" - -"And now the Irrians have stolen a march on you," Birrel said. Kara -had explained the significance of that probe-ray record, and he had -to admit that it seemed to make sense. "They've decided to steal -fissionable material from Earth. So they sent Vannevan and his men here -to spy out our installations preparatory to raiding them. And if that -doesn't constitute a threat to Earth I don't know what does." - -"But the weapons they make won't be used against you!" she cried. -"They'll be used against us, and unless we can mobilize in time we -won't have a chance." - -"Look," said Birrel. "Connor will see to it that our installations are -so heavily guarded that no one can raid them. Then there's no threat to -either of our worlds." - - * * * * * - -She groaned, as though in despair at trying to deal with an idiot. -"Your prison was strong and carefully guarded. Did we have trouble -breaking into it? Would we have trouble breaking in anywhere? Guards -consist of men and electronic devices. We can blank them both, in many -different ways. So can the Irrians. Your defenses wouldn't hold." - -And Birrel realized with a sinking heart that that was true. - -"But we've got to fight. We've got to do what we can." - -"Yes. Of course you do. And there is only one way." Her voice was -eager now, forceful, hammering home her points with relentless logic. - -"Come back with us to Ruun. Tell the authorities what you know, what -you have actually seen. That will be enough to make them believe and -mobilize. Vannevan and his men are only the forerunners here. A small -fleet must come from Ir for the actual raid. Ruun can stop them, you -cannot. You understand? Your defense is out there!" - -And she pointed at the glittering sky above the trees. - -Birrel followed her gesture and thought, _Oh Lord, I can't! I'm scared. -How far is Wolf 359? I never even heard of it._ - -And then he thought, _But she's right. Connor, all our armed -forces--we'd be like babies against a fleet from Ir. We have atomic -weapons but we'd never have the chance to use them. It would be just as -it was at the prison--_ - -He listened to the owl and the crickets and the gurgle of running -water, and smelled the cool sweetness of the summer night and dug his -fingers into the grass because he wanted to hold on to Earth and all -that was familiar. - -But overhead the stars glittered and shone, and there was a decision to -be made. - -"If you want to fight for your world and your people," said Kara -softly, "you must have courage to do what you know is right, even if it -is against orders." - -Yes, thought Birrel. Yes, indeed. Have courage. - -Well, the whole thing had gone wrong from the start. He couldn't see -that he would make it any better by delivering Kara to Connor. The -chances were she couldn't be made to tell anyway where the ship from -Ruun was hidden, and it would undoubtedly take off at the first hint of -danger. And in any case, it seemed that the Irrians were the threat to -Earth, and she didn't know where their ship was. If Kara was telling -the truth, the resultant delay might be fatal to both their causes. He -thought she was telling the truth. - -Very quickly, before he could change his mind, he said, "It seems I -have to go with you to Ruun." - -"Good," she said fiercely. "Good! Then we have a chance." She jumped -to her feet and tugged at him impatiently. "We've wasted too much time -already. Let's go." - -"Now hold on," he said. "We'll make better time if we plan ahead. Where -is your ship?" - -"North. In a wild place beyond a big body of water--I think it's called -the Hudson's Bay." - -Well, if you wanted to hide a spaceship, Birrel thought, that would be -as good a place as any. But it was the devil of a long way off. - -"How did you get down here?" - -"By hopper." - -"By _what_?" - -"Hopper. A small flier for planetary hops. It's hidden right here in -the woods. We made a shelter for it as soon as we got the farmhouse -and flew it in by night. Before that it was in some mountains where we -first landed. Come on." - -And there was no problem. No problem at all. You found the camouflaged -shelter in the summer woods and you got into the neat impossible craft -that was in it and watched a girl in a tan suit manipulate a couple of -controls with the casual ease of a teen-ager using a record-player. -Some quiet force--compressed air, Birrel thought, remembering -experimental aerodyne models he had seen--lifted the hopper high and -took it away, and the last red coals of a smouldering farmhouse winked -in the black countryside and were gone. - -By dawn they were far north and rifling with incredible speed through -the sky, at a fantastic altitude. Any radarman who chanced to catch -them on his screen would lose them so fast he would never believe he -had seen anything. And Birrel now knew a lot more about Kara and her -people than he had. - -Kara's father had been a high officer in Ruun's intelligence service -in the days when, according to her, the existence of four peaceful -planets hung on its efficiency. She herself, as a kind of proud -inheritance, also belonged to the intelligence service, which in these -later times had dwindled to a small and neglected group of people -dedicated to not trusting the Irrians. - - * * * * * - -It was these intelligence people who had discovered the departure of -the Irrian ship for Earth and deduced the reason for its going. But -official Ruun had refused to be hustled into a panic. They were not -going to put four planets on a full war footing, with all that implied, -merely because a ship had made the voyage to another solar system. -Rather, they thought, this star voyage might well be the beginning of a -new era in peaceful expansion, with the Irrians finally taking a place -in a civilized community of worlds. They had allowed a shipload of -agents from Ruun to follow and check on the Irrians, but no more. And -any future action would be determined by what documented information -they brought back. - -Kara's people had been forced to lose a little time while they learned -the language and customs of the part of Earth they had business in, -well enough to get by. They had done this--as presumably the Irrians -had too--by adapting their televisors to receive terrestrial broadcasts -which they could pull in from amazing distances, and then staring at -them for hours at a time with the help of a philologist and a social -scientist. Then, when they came south after the Irrians, they had been -able to slip quite easily into the polyglot life of New York, which is -accustomed to accents and odd ways. - -"There's the ship," said Kara suddenly. - -She had brought the hopper down in an express-elevator plunge and was -pointing at a wedge-shaped piece of barren land between two rocky arms -at the base of a mountain. The light of the rising sun made a sort of -dazzle in the air, but apart from that there was nothing. - -"I don't see any ship," he said. "Where?" - -"I forgot, you don't have the refraction-type camouflage. When you're -used to it you can spot it without a scope, if you know where to look. -Here." She made rapid adjustments in a small gadget like a camera -view-finder. "This is tuned to our chosen vibration rate. Makes it -harder for an enemy to find us." - -Birrel looked into the 'scope and saw a slim silver spire standing on -the flat land, its nose pointed toward the sky. - -He looked out the port again and saw nothing. - -"Light rays bent in a magnetic field around the ship," she said. -"They'll drop it now. Watch." - -She depressed a switch, activating some automatic signal system. The -dazzle of sunlight vanished and the silver ship was there. She landed -beside it. - -She stepped out and waited for Birrel to follow. He hesitated, looking -at the ship. A hatch opened and a magnetic grapple dropped down toward -the hopper. Below, a much smaller hatch appeared and extruded a ladder. -Once he climbed that ladder, Birrel knew, he was trapped. The ship -would take off and-- - -"There's nothing to be afraid of," Kara said, smiling. - -He set his jaw and went with her to the ladder and climbed it and -passed into the ship. - -It smelled like a submarine, of oil and metal and canned air. There was -a man in an odd-looking coverall who stared at him and spoke to Kara. -He heard Kara explaining, and in the meanwhile the lock door behind him -was grinding shut and locking itself with relentless precision. - -Kara said, "This is Thile. He commands the ship." - -Birrel shook hands with him. He was a small lean man with very keen -eyes and a hard competent jaw. - -"So Holmer and Rett are both dead," he said, with grim regret. "Well, -we'll make Vannevan pay for them. Help him strap in, Kara. We're taking -off at once." He looked at Birrel. "If we can get back to Ruun without -delay, you may be able to convince our sheeplike leaders in time. I -hope so." - -He hurried away somewhere forward--or up. Kara took Birrel into a small -cabin where there were several padded couches, and helped him secure -himself with broad webbing straps. - -"Scared?" - -"Not a bit." - -"Liar. Don't worry about it. The first take-off is always the worst." -She leaned over impulsively and kissed him, ludicrously like a mother -tucking a fretful child into bed. The ship suddenly gave a great roar -and a quiver, and a raucous horn began to sound. She scrambled into the -couch next to his. - -Birrel's heart pounded wildly and the blood in his veins turned cold -and thin as water. - -There was noise. A stunning, deafening crescendo of it. Then there was -a feeling of motion. He lay on the top of a rising piston that pressed -him slowly and relentlessly against air compressed into a smaller and -smaller space. He opened his mouth and yelled in panic fear, seeing -himself crushed into a flattened pulp. The cry was lost in the bursting -roar that enveloped the ship. Ages passed. And then miraculously the -pressure eased and finally was gone. - -Thile's voice came suddenly from a speaker in the wall. "Trouble, Kara. -Radar says another ship has taken off from Earth, right behind us." - -Birrel heard her quick, fierce exclamation. "So Vannevan was watching -his radar for our take-off. I knew he'd never let us get back to Ruun -if he could help it!" - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - -They were all in the ship's bridge now. Thile and Kara and a young man -named Vray were conferring tensely with the radarman and checking a -bristling array of instruments. - -Birrel was looking at space. - -The ports on one side were shielded against the sun, so he couldn't see -it. Earth was behind, or below them, so he couldn't see that either. -All he could see was nothing, an infinity of it, without top or -bottom, front or back, beginning or end. The stars floated in it, by -the millions and billions, like shoals of fiery fish gleaming red and -gold and blue and green, white and violet, orange and dull crimson. -They were not crowded. There was plenty of room between them. The -eye was drawn farther and farther into those distances and the body -unconsciously tried to follow, until the mind recoiled from the edge of -some psychic calamity and screamed for solidity. Birrel spun away from -the port and grabbed hold of a stanchion and stood with his eyes shut, -sweating and shaking as though he had just run a race. - -Kara said, "It gets you, doesn't it?" - -He indicated that it did, beyond words. She nodded. - -"It's no different with us. We look up at our summer skies just as -you have, and dream about what it's like. We read books and we see -pictures. But you can't know until you actually get out into space and -see it for yourself. And I don't think you ever get over being awed. I -never have." - -Birrel opened his eyes again, but kept them firmly fixed on the -inside of the bridge. Thile and Vray were still hanging over their -instruments, looking grim. - -"That ship," said Birrel. "It'll try and catch us, I suppose. Stop us -from getting word to Ruun." - -"I can't imagine Vannevan letting us go without a fight." Her voice was -not exactly frightened, but it had a sort of clipped tightness about it -that was far from carefree. - -"Can he? Catch us, I mean?" - -"The Irrians are good spacemen, and their ships are about as fast as -ours. But Thile is a wizard. He can outfly anything in space." - -Thile heard her and looked up. He said sourly, "Thanks. But you might -as well tell him the truth. Vannevan is not going to rely on speed -and skill alone, but on weapons. And we're not carrying any atomic -armaments. The government brains didn't think it was wise, considering -that we were trespassing on a strange world and might conceivably have -an accident, such as falling into a city. They're thoughtful that way." - -"As an Earthman, I appreciate it," said Birrel. "You have conventional -weapons, don't you? That's at least an equal footing." - -"We're not used to them," Thile said. "They are. But we'll do our best. -Believe me." - -He glanced at Vray and nodded. - -"Stand by for translation." - -Birrel looked at Kara. - -"That only means," she said, "that we're going faster." - -"How much faster?" - -"Well, just at first," she said, "about double the speed of light." - -Birrel stopped trying to go along intelligently with any of it. He just -let it happen. - -The lights inside the ship dimmed and burned blue. There was a -screeching whine that rose up and out of hearing, clawing at the nerves -as it went, and then there was a moment of awful vertigo when the ship -and everything in it seemed to slip and fall sideways in an insane -fashion. - -The open ports slid shut automatically. Just before they closed Birrel -caught a glimpse through them of the stars he had been looking at only -a few moments before. They shifted, streamed like burning rain, and -vanished, to be replaced by squiggling lines of lights. - -Then the ports were shut and there was nothing except the personal -sense of disorientation to show that anything had happened. - -Complacently, like one who knows he is dreaming and that therefore -these strange things are not really happening and so need not be taken -seriously, Birrel listened to the voices of the men, speaking technical -words of no meaning to him as they went through what was apparently a -routine check. Then the radarman said, - -"They're right with us." - -Thile grunted. "Full acceleration," he said. "Build up as fast as you -can. Maybe their generators aren't as good as ours." - - * * * * * - -The whining began again but on a different note. Birrel pictured -himself inside an iron egg flying through space--what kind of -space?--at double, triple, quadruple the speed of light. He erased the -thought from his mind as quickly as he could. He said to Kara, - -"Why haven't people done more star-travelling? You obviously have a -workable drive." - -"We haven't had the time until recently," Kara said. "The Irrians -kept us too busy. Then the few exploratory trips we did make to -neighboring systems were discouraging. In most cases the planets were -uninhabitable, and the ones that did have life forms were pretty awful. -Our government hasn't encouraged star flight. I think they're afraid of -what might come flying back our way." - -The ship quivered and trembled. Birrel thought he could almost feel the -atoms crawling in the metal under his hand. - -"Do you ever hit things?" he asked. "Like stars, I mean." - -"Not very often. But I believe the results are quite spectacular. You -become a nova almost at once." - -He laughed. He did not ask any more questions. - -The whining levelled off at last, refusing to go any higher. A -collection of needles steadied on the main control-board. - -Vray said, "That's it." - -The radarman shook his head and said, "They're still with us." - -The lines deepened in Thile's face, turning it grim and hard. - -"Action stations. We'll try and get them before they get us." - -Birrel said, "What do you want me to do?" - -"Back in your bunk and strap in. This is liable to be rough." - -He shook his head. "There must be something I can do." - -"You'd only be in the way," Kara said. She was already removing a -protective panel from a control-board ominously marked in red. She -smiled, to take the sting out of the words. "You'll need a vac-suit. -Here, Rett's will fit you." - -She took a baggy-looking suit and a plastic helmet out of a locker and -handed it to him. The others were putting on similar suits, leaving the -helmets open. Birrel said, "Why?" - -"In case we're hulled. If you hear the warning-horn, clap your helmet -shut. _Fast._" - -She showed him how and then practically pushed him out of the bridge. -He shuffled back to the cabin and lay down on the bunk, feeling worse -than he had at any time since the beginning of this hare-brained -venture. He was scared, and he didn't mind admitting it. If he had been -able to do something, anything at all, it wouldn't have been so bad. -But just to lie here alone in this completely incredible ship, thinking -of the completely incredible but perfectly real destruction that faced -him--that was something no man ought to be asked to do. - -He did it. - -He was able to sense the "feel" of the ship, and from that to gauge the -variations--the slight recoil and shudder as missiles presumably were -launched, the greater perturbations of what could only be the near-miss -blasts of the enemy weapons. It occurred to him that what these -star-folk meant by "conventional weapons" were probably not at all the -simple explosive types referred to by that name on Earth. The technical -problems involved in launching any kind of missile at all at light-plus -speeds were so far beyond him that he didn't even try to figure them. -But there was no doubt that it was being done. Every leap and jar of -the ship told him that unmistakably. - -Even so, Birrel was not prepared for the suddenness and violence of -what happened. - -There was a crash. He felt it physically and heard it, too, this time, -transmitted by the ship's air. He fell upward against the straps as the -gravitational axis of the ship was brutally reversed. The lights dimmed -to an eerie blue and there was a horrible tortured howling of overtaxed -generators. The ship rammed through into normal space with much the -same effort as of a speeding car hitting a stone wall, only greatly -magnified. Birrel heard the warning-horn start. He clapped his helmet -shut, and then inertia flung him into the recoil couch as into a slab -of granite and the joints of the ship began to spring around him. Then -everything was dead, generators, horn, everything. The ship was silent -except for one sound, the hiss of escaping air. - - * * * * * - -Stunned but still, incredibly, alive, Birrel unfastened the straps and -floated out of the couch. - -The ship was still moving, but there was no longer any gravity field -to speak of. Birrel was in free fall. He floated like a great clumsy -balloon out of the cabin and toward the bridge, clawing his way while -the ship bent and wavered and wobbled around him, its rigid frame gone -limp. As limp as his own body felt. Currents of escaping air whirled -papers, garments, pieces of equipment, bits of wreckage wildly around -in the interior. He was in a panic lest his helmet be cracked or his -suit torn. - -The bridge was a shambles of buckled steel and shattered glass. The -radarman was crumpled among the remains of his equipment, which had -toppled and crushed him. Thile, strapped into the pilot's chair, was -stirring feebly. Birrel looked frantically around for Kara. - -She was strapped into a recoil chair in front of the fire-control -panel. He thought at first she was dead, but when he looked closer he -could see that she was breathing. There was nothing he could do for her -at the moment and she was safer where she was, so he left her and went -to help Thile. There was no sign of Vray at all, except for a few small -red icicles formed on the edge of a jagged rift in the hull through -which everything movable in the bridge had already been sucked. - -Thile's voice came faintly through the helmet audio. "I told you they -were better shots." - -"Are you hurt?" - -"Are you?" - -"I don't know yet. Haven't had time." - -"Nor me," said Thile. "I can stand up, so I guess I'll live." Blood was -trickling from his helmet. He snuffled at it and made futile pawing -motions at his helmet. "Well, that does it. Vannevan's won hands down." -He swore, a dejected and bitter man. "Four good men dead, and all for -nothing. It wasn't even a good try." - -He pointed through the riven wall, to the black peaceful gulf beyond -with the far stars shining in it. - -"See there?" - -There was a ship, matching its pace to the slow drift of the derelict. -From its slim belly a much smaller craft dropped and jetted fire. - -"They'll be aboard us in a few minutes." - -Remembering how Vannevan had conducted his questioning at the -farmhouse, Birrel could see little hope. If he and Thile and Kara were -going to be at Vannevan's mercy, they might better have gone the way of -Vray and the radarman. - -Unless-- - -"Listen," said Birrel suddenly, "Listen, there's one thing we might -do." He went over to Kara and shook her until she opened her eyes. -"There isn't much time, you've both got to play along with me or it -won't work. It might give us an edge, to use against Vannevan. Listen--" - -He spoke rapidly, forcefully, and they listened, while the life-boat -of the Irrian ship came closer, riding its fiery jet across the black -gulf outside. - -Thile said, "It might work--" - -"It'll be dangerous," whispered Kara. "If he finds out--" - -"I don't figure I have much to lose anyway," said Birrel dryly. "Hurry -up!" - -When Vannevan and his men came into the broken ship they found Thile -and Kara clinging quietly together, apart from the Earthman Birrel, who -was strapped into a recoil chair with his hands bound tightly behind -him. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - -There were six of the Irrians, counting Vannevan. They wore vac-suits -and they were all armed. Two of them went immediately to Thile and -Kara and searched them for weapons, but they had none. The time for -resistance was past. - -Another man, on Vannevan's instructions, began to tear open the lockers -that were still intact, looking for papers. The others stood guard. -They handled themselves easily, experts at null gravity. - -Birrel looked at Vannevan and said sourly, "Out of the frying pan into -the fire. I don't know which of you is worse." - -Vannevan's eyes were bright, cruel, competent and happy. Very happy. -He had wiped out, and with interest, the defeat he had suffered at the -farmhouse. He had crushed the Ruunites completely. For him, it was a -good day. - -He smiled at Birrel. "You see what happens to meddlers." - -"I wouldn't call it meddling," Birrel said. "We caught a spy. It was -natural to want to know who he was working for, and why." - -"When you found out," Vannevan said, "why didn't you report back to -your superiors? You were free. I remember distinctly that you were -free." - -Birrel indicated Kara with a savage movement of his chin. "She talked -me out of it, damn her. With a gun." - -"So," said Vannevan, and smiled, and shook his head. "But she had no -weapon. I myself had seen to that." - -"She had one," Birrel said bitterly. "In the hopper. She told me -there was another car hidden there for emergencies, and like a fool, -I believed her. Instead there was that flying-thing, and she pulled a -weapon from inside it. The next thing I knew I was aboard this ship, a -prisoner. They were going to take me back to Ruun whether I wanted to -go or not." - -Kara spoke sullenly. "His people killed Rett. It was the least we -could do." - -"Listen," said Birrel, struggling angrily against the straps that held -him. "I don't give a curse what quarrel you have between you. I don't -care if you blow each other's worlds out of the sky. I'm an Earthman. I -don't belong here. I--" - -He looked around at the broken ship, at space gaping monstrously beyond -the riven hull. It was not difficult for Birrel to let an expression of -fear come into his face. - -"I want to go back," he said. - -Vannevan looked at him. "How badly?" - -Birrel would not meet his eyes. He muttered, "Bad enough." - -"Well," said Vannevan. "We'll see." He motioned to one of his men. "Cut -him loose. Did you find anything?" - -The Irrian who had been searching shook his head, and Thile said, "I -could have told you. We don't keep written records." - -Vannevan shrugged and said, "Let's go." - -They floated gracefully through the ship, with Birrel lumbering and -floundering in their midst. They passed through the airless lock and -into the life-craft. In a short time they were being taken up into the -belly-pod of the Irrian ship, and a little while after that Birrel -found himself a prisoner with Thile and Kara in a locked cabin. - -The ship paused only long enough to finish the destruction of the -derelict. Then it went into overdrive, on its way to Ir. - -During the rest of the voyage, knowing full well that they were being -watched, the three kept up their pretense of hostility. But Birrel came -more and more to admire Thile and Kara. They were personally defeated -and in a desperate situation. Their mission was a failure. Their world -and way of life, which had hung on that mission, were threatened with -destruction. But they clung quietly to their hope and courage and never -whined--in striking contrast to Birrel himself, whose part called for -constant complaint. - -Birrel thought he was establishing himself sufficiently well as a -frightened man who might be talked into doing almost anything for the -right reward. He hoped so. Because not only his own life but the lives -of Thile and Kara depended upon that, not to speak of the safety of -several worlds, including his own. He was a little upset to discover -that Kara's safety loomed larger in importance than anything else. He -decided then that he was in love with her. - -There came finally a time when the warning rang, and the lights burned -blue and the ship shuddered, and then the port unmasked. - -"We're out of overdrive," said Thile. "We're there." - - * * * * * - -An awe fell on Birrel as he looked out the port with them. The ship, in -normal space again, was sweeping in a curved pattern toward a sun whose -diamond incandescence eclipsed the stars. - -Almost lost in that overpowering glare, three points of light swung -far on the other side of this system. It was toward the biggest of the -three that Thile and Kara were gazing. - -"Ruun," whispered Kara. "If they only knew, if we could only get a -message to them--" - -Thile said bitterly, "What good would it do even if we _could_ send a -warning? Our cautious government would merely say, as they did before, -'You have no proof that the Irrians mean war, and without proof we -cannot act'." - -The ship swung on in its landing-pattern and now, below, Birrel saw a -planet coming up toward them. - -It was a scarred world of black-and-green. He thought at first that -these were land-and-water divisions, but as they went lower he saw that -they were not--that the green were fertile plains but that the ominous -black areas were utterly lifeless lands, black and blasted and barren. - -"That's what the oligarchs of Ir have made of their world," said -Kara. "Those burned-out regions are the scars of their wars between -themselves. And now, with no fissionable matter left, they must go to -space for the means of destruction!" - -The ship went down toward one of the wide green areas. There was a -city here--a far-stretching grimness of gray, massive buildings, with -a movement of hoppers and ground-cars over and through it. A spaceport -lay outside the city, with the silver towers of many ships there -flashing back the diamond sun. - -They felt the landing. Then there was silence. They waited for Vannevan -to come, but he did not. Instead, armed Irrian guards came and marched -them out of the ship onto a blackened concrete apron. They stood there -for a few minutes, in a chill wind. - -Birrel thought, shivering, "_Not Earth, this world I stand on. Not my -own world--_" - -The diamond blaze of sunlight was wrong, the color of the sky was -wrong, the too-light feeling of his body was strange. The silver ship -behind them, the great gray city ahead, all wrong, queer-- - -"Remember your plan," whispered Kara. - -Birrel steadied. He had a part to play, and upon how he carried it -through might depend their last slender chance. He played that part now. - -He gave a vivid imitation of a man who was in a panic. He looked up at -the sun and cried out and shut his eyes, and then opened them again -and looked wildly around him. Then, crying out in a voice edged with -hysteria, he broke back toward the spaceship. - -The guards grabbed him and hauled him back. He told them shrilly, "I -can't stay here, I won't stay--I want to go back--" - -The Irrian guards laughed at him. When a covered vehicle not unlike a -light truck came speeding up, they shoved him and Kara and Thile into -it and got in after them, still laughing. - -As the truck sped into the city, Birrel shivered, and looked at -everything in a numb, scared way. - - * * * * * - -The city was as grim as it had looked from afar. The gray, utilitarian -cement building-material used universally did not make for beauty. The -men and women in the streets were mostly in a drab sort of coverall -garment that was not beautiful either. Birrel saw them looking at the -truck and guards as they passed, and he thought there was a sullenness -in some of the watching faces. He remembered what Kara had said, that -many of the Irrian people were discontented with their oligarchs' rule -but were held down tightly. He thought they looked it. - -The truck turned finally into a courtyard and stopped. Heavy gates were -locked behind it. Birrel and the others were ordered out. He managed to -get close to Kara and give her hand a reassuring touch. Then they were -taken inside a building made of greenish stone, instead of cement, with -ominous-looking horizontal slits in the walls in place of windows. - -Inside, without a word of explanation, they were separated. Thile and -Kara were marched away up a stairway while Birrel's guards took him on -down a main hallway. The hall was painted a utilitarian gray and it had -guards stationed at regular intervals. About halfway down there was a -door with a double guard in front of it. Birrel's armed escort stopped -him here, spoke to the guard, who spoke to someone inside by means of -an intercom with a small video screen. Presently the door opened and -Birrel was ushered inside. - -Vannevan sat at one side of a big square table. A second man, older -than Vannevan and that much more experienced in the ways of those who -wage war out of choice and not necessity, sat behind it. His face was a -mask, his curiously opaque eyes watching Birrel narrowly as the guards -were sent away. - -Vannevan said, "This is our Earthman." And to Birrel he said, "This is -Wolt, our Minister of Defense." - -Birrel refrained from making the obvious comment. From here on he was -on his own and had to be careful. Any hope of advantage he might gain -by making the Irrians think he was their not unwilling tool could be -lost by a single incautious word. - -"I understand," said Wolt, "that the Ruunites kidnapped you and brought -you into space by force." - -"They did." - -"A serious act. And I understand that you are quite anxious to return -to your world." - -Birrel said eagerly, "Can I, is there any way? I can't take this, space -and stars and a world I never saw, I've got to get back--" - -He saw Wolt and Vannevan watching him keenly as he babbled in pretended -hysteria, and he thought they looked satisfied by what they saw. - -Wolt said, "Some of our ships will be going back to Earth on a -mission. You could go back with them, if--" - -"If?" prompted Birrel eagerly. - -Vannevan answered. "You're a secret agent of a great Earth power. You -could assist our mission." - -Now Birrel's face became apprehensive, cautious. "Just how do you mean -that, Vannevan? Listen, I want to go back, sure. But I'm not going to -betray any secrets or help you steal plutonium or--" - -Wolfs hard voice cut in. "Let's consider the situation realistically. -The loss of some fissionable material will make very little difference -to Earth, with its enormous resources. Isn't that so?" - -Cautiously, grudgingly, Birrel said that he couldn't see that it would -make much difference, no. - -"Now you must accept one fact. No matter what you as an individual may -or may not do, we are going to take those materials. The very life of -our planet depends on it. You understand that?" - -"Yes." - -"Very well. Now the decision that faces you is this. Will you be doing -your world a greater service by denying us the information we want and -thereby forcing us to take possible violent measures in carrying out -our mission--or by helping us do it quietly and thus saving a great -number of lives?" - -"Think of the weapons we have," Vannevan said. "Think how your Earthmen -are armed. You know how much chance they have of fighting us off." - -Birrel thought they would have a very good chance, but he didn't say -so. He frowned, and looked uneasily at the floor. - -"What would you want me to do?" - -"Vannevan tells me that your people are in possession of a certain -probe-ray record that was taken from our man. We'd want that back." - -"That's impossible," Birrel said. "The President himself couldn't get -at it." - -Wolt shrugged. "In that case, you would have to supply us with similar -information." - -There was a long silence. Then Birrel said, with just the right lack of -conviction, - -"No, I can't do it." - -Vannevan stood up. "I think we'd better show him the cavern, Wolt. I -don't believe he understands yet just how much the safety of Earth -depends on him." - -Wolt nodded. He rose, too, and walked to the wall. It appeared -perfectly blank and solid, but under the pressure of his hand a segment -of it swung in, revealing a tiny lift. The three men got in, the door -closed, and the lift plunged down. - -Birrel tried to keep his excitement well hidden. His act was already -paying off--apparently they were about to show him something that even -the Ruunites didn't know about. - -Just how he might use that knowledge to help himself and his two -friends he could not figure yet. But his stretch in the OSS had taught -him well. Keep your mind alert and flexible, play it by ear, and wait -for the break which may come in a hundred ways and from the most -unexpected sources. - -The lift let them out onto a narrow platform beside a car that ran from -a track through a tunnel hollowed roughly out of bedrock underneath the -city. They got into it and the car shot through stale darkness relieved -by a few dim lights. It went fast. - - * * * * * - -Birrel stole a glance at the other two men, and decided against any -precipitate action. Vannevan had something hidden in his hand, and it -would be something small and nastily potent as a weapon, he was sure. -He'd wait, play it along-- - -There was light again, sudden and bright. The car burst into it, into -vast and unexpected space. For a second Birrel thought they had come -back to the surface again. Then he saw the rocky vault high overhead -and the walls going away on either side and he knew it was a mammoth -cavern. - -The car stopped. They stepped out onto a platform. - -"This way," said Wolt. "I want you to see it all." - -They moved off the platform and onto a railed shelf cut out of the -rocky wall. And Birrel stared in amazement. - -The end of the tunnel and the shelf on which they stood were about -halfway up the cavern wall. Below, and stretching away as far as he -could see, rank upon rank of great metal shapes stood, some painted in -dour red or gray, others naked, gleaming steel or copper. There was -no one in the cavern, no sound, no movement--nothing but the brooding -silence and the loom of the endless rows of enigmatic mechanisms. - -Wolt and Vannevan looked down on them, with the faces of men who see a -beautiful and splendid vision. And Wolt said, - -"Do you know what those are?" - -Birrel said, "No." - -"And how should you? Your world is still in the nursery. Those are -weapons--or they will be, when they are mounted in ships. Mighty -weapons, that lack just one thing--the fissionable matter that must -power them. The matter that our world doesn't have. Perhaps you -understand now why we must raid your atomic stockpiles?" - -"But," said Birrel, staring wide-eyed at the terrifying array of giants -below him, "where are your ships? You'd need hundreds--" - -"We have them," Vannevan said. "All we need to put at end to the -domination of Ruun forever." - -He turned to Birrel with an expression of serious and friendly candor -that might have fooled him if he not known Vannevan so well. - -"We have no interest whatsoever in Earth as a conquest. But don't -overlook the fact that now the Ruunites know how rich your planet is. -They might decide to take it over, just as they've taken over every -world in this system but Ir. So in helping us break Ruun's power, -you're actually protecting your own world. Now what do you say?" - -Birrel looked out over the silent cavern with the endless ranks of -deadly machines. He pretended to be miserable, torn between doubt and -longing. Finally he said, - -"I've got to think it over. Give me time--" - -Wolt started to speak, but Vannevan shot him a look and said easily, -"Of course, take all the time you want. There will be several days -before the ships are ready." - -"Ships?" - -"Going to Earth. I'll be going with them, of course, to lead the raid. -Or I should say, ahead of them. They'll wait in space until they get my -signal. You could come back with me, if you decide to help." - -Again, on a note of desperation, Birrel said, "I've got to think." - -They took him back to the car and through the tunnel and into the -building again. There guards took him upstairs and placed him in a -small square room without even slits in the wall, furnished with a bed, -a table, and a chair. They locked the door and left him alone there, -with nothing to do and nothing to see, and nothing even to hear but the -soft blowing of air through an iron-barred duct in the ceiling. - -Maximum security, and no distractions. In this place a man couldn't do -anything but think. - -Food was brought. The guard who brought it admitted it was now night -outside, but he refused to say anything about Kara and Thile, where -they were or if they were still alive. - -Birrel ate. A little after that the lights went off. He groped his way -to the bed and lay down, trying to see a way out, a way to help Thile -and Kara and stop the evil that was about to be done, and seeing only -darkness. - -Eventually, without meaning to, he fell asleep. - -He was wakened by a sound. It was a very slight sound, and it took him -a minute to identify it as the clink and creak of an iron grating being -moved. By that time it was too late. - -Somebody was already in the dark room, and before Birrel could call out -a man's body was on top of him and strong hands were fastening on his -throat. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - -Birrel had been close to death before, but never closer. Those hands -clamped down, shutting off voice and breath, and the weight of a -powerful body bore on him, holding him. He heard quick harsh breathing, -and then the booming of his own blood in his ears drowned it out. He -clawed at the wrists that would not be moved, and felt the first cold -edge of darkness sliding over him. - -Then memory circuits clicked over--circuits long unused, but needing -only the right stimulus to activate them. - -Birrel put his two clenched fists together and rammed them upward with -the desperate strength of an animal that knows it has to shake itself -loose or die. The fists hit something and there was a noise in the dark -above him. The hands on his throat loosened a little and he thrashed -his arms up and back at the same time he got what purchase he could -with his feet and heaved. - -The hands let go. The body floundered on him, not wanting to be thrown -off. He pounded at it, wildly, viciously, gasping air into his lungs. -He felt hair under his fingers. He grabbed a fistful of it and hauled -it sideways. Someone whimpered and cursed, not making much noise about -it. He hauled and heaved and the body rolled off him and thumped onto -the floor. Instantly, Birrel threw himself on top of it. - -And now it was his turn. - -He dug his knee into a yielding belly and heard the breath go out. -Fists flailed at his face but he kept his head pulled in between his -hunched-up shoulders. He pawed in the dark and found an ear, and then -another one, and he held onto them like handles and beat the skull -between them up and down on the floor. - -"Who is it?" he snarled. "Vannevan? No, he doesn't like his odds this -even. But he sent you, didn't he?" - -A hoarse, half-articulate "_No!_" came from the man pinned beneath him. - -Birrel paused. "The devil he didn't." - -"The devil he did. I'd kill that murdering bastard too, if I could get -my hands on him." The man squirmed and sobbed for breath. "Anyway, why -would Vannevan want to kill you? You're going to help him." - -"How do you know?" asked Birrel, his eyes narrowing in the dark. - -"The whole underground knows it. You're helping him get fissionables -from your world. Why do you think I'm here? To keep you from doing it!" - -He erupted into sudden action, catching Birrel off guard as he grappled -with this new concept of an Irrian underground opposed to Vannevan. It -wasn't too surprising, remembering those sullen faces in the streets. -But then they were rolling over, clawing and pounding at each other. -Now, though, Birrel's movements were chiefly defensive. - -"Hold it," he panted. "Hold it! I've got an idea that we're on the same -side." - -The man laughed hoarsely and went on hunting for his throat. - -"All right," said Birrel. "We'll play it your way." - -He gave the man a slashing blow with the edge of his hand, guessing at -the distance. It hit a little low on the shoulder, but it jarred him -enough to slow him down. Birrel moved quickly. In a second he had his -forearm under the man's chin, in a strangle-hold. He applied pressure, -and the man became quiet. - -He let up. "Now will you listen?" - -The man whispered, "Yes." - -"There's an underground movement here, against Vannevan and Wolt and -the other oligarchs?" - -"Against war. We're sick of it. You must have seen what it's done -to our world. So we organized ourselves when this plan to steal -fissionables from another solar system came up." He struggled against -Birrel's grip. "Today we heard Vannevan had brought back an Earthman -who was going to help--" - -"Relax," said Birrel. "I'm not going to help Vannevan do anything." He -explained rapidly. "I was stalling for time, waiting for a chance to -make a break. Get me out of here, and I'll prove it." - -The man remained unconvinced. - - * * * * * - -Impatiently, Birrel hauled him to his feet. "Two friends of mine, -Ruunites, are somewhere in this building. If you could get to me, you -can get to them. I want them freed. And I want to talk to the leaders -of your underground. Between us I think we might have a chance to stop -Vannevan and his party for good. Anyway, what have you got to lose? If -your people have me, I can't help Vannevan." - -The man said, grudgingly, "Well, all right. I can get to your friends -if you really want them freed. I helped build this place." He stepped -away from Birrel, rubbing his throat. "Take off your shoes and any -metal you have on you." - -Birrel did as he was told. - -"Now reach up toward the grating. You'll find a knotted rope. Be as -quiet as you can." - -Birrel climbed the rope, to a place where the duct became level enough -to crawl in. He heard the man replace the grating behind them. Then he -joined him, and they began a slow mole-like journey through the maze -of air-ducts that supplied these inner cells of the Ministry's private -prison. - -The man found his way quite easily. At every intersection of the ducts -luminous code-numbers glowed--"To help us when we make repairs," the -man whispered, and laughed. "We use the ducts all the time for spying. -I suppose tonight will finish their usefulness, but we'll find some -other way." - -The underground had known where Thile and Kara were prisoned almost as -soon as they had been put there. Twice the knotted rope was let down -and twice gratings were removed and then replaced. Birrel went down -after Kara himself and took a second or two to hold her in his arms -before he lifted her into the duct. - -Some time later, he had no idea how long, they had worked their way -down below the level of the building and into a dry conduit that -their guide said was left over from an earlier day, before the city -was rebuilt. The conduit took them for some distance, and then they -climbed a flight of wooden stairs into a cellar, and from there went -up into the main room of a modest house, where half a dozen active and -hard-faced men sat waiting. - -They sprang up when Birrel and the others came in, two or three of them -pulling weapons. There was a period of heated conversation, and then -one of the men shouted for order and got it. - -"Now then," he said, "let's hear about it. You first." - -He listened, and the others listened, and all the time they watched -Birrel with hatred and distrust. - -Impatiently, before the man was through telling why he had not killed -the Earthman, Birrel broke in on him to speak to Thile and Kara. - -"They showed me something today," he said. "Vannevan and Wolt. A cavern -full of armaments--enough to blow Ruun out of the sky as soon as they -get the fissionable material they need." - -Thile said, "We had an idea there was such a place, but we could never -pin it down." - -"Neither could we," said the man who seemed to be the leader of the -group. He looked hard at Birrel. "It's a mighty well-kept secret." - -"There's a direct way into it from Wolt's office," Birrel said, and -described it. "Now listen. If we can get away, get word to Ruun--" - -"If you're thinking of ships, it's impossible. They're too well guarded -on the ground, and the batteries would blow you apart before you could -clear the atmosphere." - -"Well, then," said Birrel, "is there any way to send a message? Can you -communicate from world to world?" - -"Quite easily," said Thile. "But there it comes down to the same old -thing. Proof." - -"For God's sake," said Birrel, "how much proof do they need?" - -"Quite a bit, to get them to act in time. I assume that's what you have -in mind, isn't it? Blast the cavern and destroy the armaments?" - -"I want to stop that fleet from taking off for Earth. If he hasn't any -way to use fissionable matter, Vannevan may not be in such a rush to -get it." - -The other men were listening now with intense interest. They seemed to -have forgotten a lot of their distrust in the excitement of learning -about the cavern. The leader, who said his name was Shannock, said -fiercely, - -"Those armaments have taken years of work and a fortune in money, taxed -out of our pockets. They've kept us poor, when we might have been -building up trade and business on a peaceful world. If they were wiped -out, the war party would go with them." - -Thile said wistfully, "It's a beautiful thought. But by the time our -cautious leaders on Ruun have assured themselves that they're not -making a mistake, it'll be far too late." - -"There must be some way," Birrel said, striding around in an agony of -frustration. "_Some_ way. Some--listen, can you transmit visually, from -world to world? Could you send a picture to Ruun?" - -"Of course," said Shannock, rather shocked at his ignorance. "The -interplanetary automatic relay system has been working ever since we -learned how to build spaceships." - -Then a queer look came over his face. - -"You mean to transmit right from the cavern?" - -"That would be proof enough, wouldn't it?" Birrel demanded. "If we -showed them the actual cavern, down to the actual armaments?" - - * * * * * - -Looking a little stunned, Thile said it ought to be proof enough for -anyone. "There's just one question. How are you going to do it?" - -"Technically, can it really be done?" - -"With a special type of transmitter, yes." - -Birrel looked at the men of the underground. "If you'll help, we ought -to be able to make a pretty good try. How many men can you muster in a -hurry--armed?" - -"About twenty," Shannock said. "Besides us." - -"And can you get portable equipments?" - -"Easy. We can get into the Ministry building, too, by a way we know. -But from then on we'll have to fight. Likely some of us won't make it." - -"Likely," Birrel admitted, thinking privately that probably none of -them would make it all the way. "But since we're all due for the -gallows one way or another, this looks like our only chance to make -Wolt and Vannevan sweat. Want to try it?" - -"Give me half an hour," said Shannock. His eyes blazed with a feral -light. - -Birrel waited. It was a little less than a half hour and it seemed like -no time at all because he spent it talking to Kara, and the things -he wanted to say to her would have taken hours. Perhaps years. When -finally, armed now and accompanied by twenty-seven determined men of -the underground, he and Thile started back through the conduit, Kara -went with them. There was no safe place to leave her, and in any case -Kara was a soldier, share and share alike. She carried a weapon and -walked beside Birrel, and after a while it didn't seem strange to him -that she should do so, but rather as it should be. - -This time they did not enter the duct system. They came through a -drainage pit into an unused cellar, and from there directly into the -main hall of the Ministry. - -It was past midnight and the building was quiet. The guards stood -at their posts, but the eruption of armed men into the hall came so -suddenly that they had only time for a few scattered shots before they -were dropped. Shouts and sounds of alarm and running feet came from -other parts of the building. Leaving one man on the floor of the hall, -the attacking party rushed into Wolt's office and barred the door. - -"Hold it," Birrel panted, "while I find the right stone." - -He pawed frantically at the wall, trying to remember exactly where Wolt -had placed his hand. Outside there was a tramping of feet and a growing -clamor of voices. "Can't you find it?" Thile said. - -Shannock ordered his men back from the door. They grouped themselves -behind Birrel with the men who carried the portable transmitter in -their center. "You better find it," Shannock said, "or--" - -His words were drowned in a roaring crash as the door was blown in. -Weapons began to hiss and whine. "Hold them, hold them," Birrel begged. -"Here it is--" - -The stone shifted under his fingers. The concealed door swung open. -Birrel pushed Kara through it and then the men with the transmitter. -They packed into the small lift and shot down, still firing as the -automatic door slammed shut. They had lost four more in the office. - -"There's no guard in the cavern itself, they didn't want too many -knowing about it," Birrel said. "But they'll soon be after us from this -end." - -They wrecked the lift door as well as they could, hoping to cripple it, -and then loaded themselves into the car and raced away down the dark -tunnel. - -"They'll come after us, yes, but it'll take them a little time to -walk," said Shannock. - - * * * * * - -The car rushed out of the dark and into the cavern, stopping by the -lighted platform. And in this great space of looming, silent, ugly -metal shapes, their voices and the noises they made seemed loud. - -Shannock rattled out orders. "Set up your transmitter on the shelf -here. Wreck that car. Then we'd better split our forces. Half here to -hold the tunnel, half down below in case they come in by some other -way." - -Thile and Kara stayed with the technicians. They were going to have -to do the talking. Birrel stayed at the tunnel mouth, with Shannock's -lieutenant and half the men. Shannock and the rest of the men climbed -down a spiral steel stair that dropped dizzily from the shelf to the -cavern floor. - -They had collected extra weapons from their own fallen and from guards -they had killed in the building, and with these they crouched down -behind the barrier of the wrecked car. - -Birrel watched the technicians out on the shelf. He had gathered that -they had ways of surmounting what would have been insurmountable -difficulties on Earth, using types of impulses and rectifiers and -carrier-beams unknown there. The equipment did not particularly -resemble television equipment as he knew it. Anyway, the technicians -seemed to know what they were doing. He hoped they did. It would be a -pity to go to all this trouble for nothing. - -He saw Thile, and then Kara, making animated gestures as they -talked into the transmitter. They were, apparently, going to have -time at least to get the message on its way. Then, with terrifying -unexpectedness, the voice of God seemed to speak from the air, -deafening them. - -"Lay down your arms!" it said. "Surrender--you are surrounded on all -sides--" - -"Amplifiers," said Birrel. "They must have needed them to order things -done, in a place this size. Look out, now. They'll rush us any minute--" - -And they did, coming out of the dark tunnel in a fury of flashing beams -from their weapons. - -From behind the wrecked car someone threw an energy-grenade and then -another. The results were a little too good. The whole roof of the -tunnel fell in, effectively blocking it to the enemy, but also sealing -off any possibility of fighting their way back out through it. - -Birrel looked around. Thile and Kara and the technicians were still -sticking to their task. Down below, on the cavern floor, Shannock had -driven back an attack, but from up here Birrel could see the men hiding -among the looming machines and knew how badly Shannock was outnumbered. - -He flung himself down the spiral stair, and the others followed. -The loudspeakers roared monotonously overhead, ordering them to -surrender. Birrel took up a position behind a huge looming metal bulk -and then looked up at the shelf. Thile, Kara and the technicians had -disappeared. A second later he saw them coming at breakneck speed down -the stair, and in almost the same second something exploded with a -blinding flash on the shelf and the transmitter vanished. - -"Surrender," said the amplifiers. "We will grant you a fair trial -if you do, but if you do not you will be killed to the last one. -Surrender--" - -Thile and Kara joined Birrel behind his metal bulwark, panting. - -"Did you get through?" he cried. - -"We don't know. There wasn't time to receive acknowledgement." - -"Here they come!" yelled Shannock. - - * * * * * - -And they came, slipping among the looming shapes of potential -destruction, firing, killing, being killed, being for the second time -driven back. - -And now for a moment the amplifiers fell silent and another voice spoke -close at hand. Vannevan's voice. - -"Count your dead. You can't replace them, but we can. How long can you -hold out?" - -"As long as there's one of us left!" Shannock shouted back. - -"That won't be long, will it? Don't be a fool, man. Surrender." - -Birrel answered him. "You'll be the one to surrender, when the ships -come from Ruun." - -Vannevan laughed. "The Earthman. You still think the Ruunites will -fight, eh? They won't." - -They attacked again, and were again fought off--or rather, Birrel -thought, they withdrew, content to hack away at their opponents' -numbers without exposing themselves any more than they had to. - -The amplifiers spoke again. But suddenly the voice had a different -tone, and it did not talk about surrender. - -"A message has just been received from Ruun. Ruunite ships will -position over this target in one hour and destroy it. All persons are -warned to get clear of the area at once. I repeat that message. Ruunite -ships will position--" - -Pandemonium broke out in the rebel ranks. - -"You hear that, Vannevan?" Birrel shouted. "You're through." - -Vannevan did not answer. - -The amplifiers fell silent. Birrel looked at Thile, and then at -Shannock, who said, - -"They're not going away." - -"Vannevan," said the amplifiers, "this is Wolt. I am leaving as of now -and I advise you to do so. There's no virtue like knowing when it's -time to run." - -Still there was no sound or sign from Vannevan. - -The amplifiers were silent. In the distance were noises made by people -going away. - -One of the men, impatient, sprang up and into the open aisle between -the machines. "Hell," he said, "they must have gone. We'd better--" - -He died between words, and suddenly from where they had crept close -seven or eight men sprang out and rushed, firing. Vannevan led them. -There would be no peace, no surrender, no flight for Vannevan. - -He saw Birrel with Thile and Kara and he smiled and flung his weapon -up, and Birrel shot him just before his finger touched the firing-stud. - -Those of the seven or eight who were still alive threw their weapons -down. - -Shannock said, "I guess we can go now." - -They followed the captive soldiers to the far entrance of the cavern, -leaving Vannevan where he had fallen among the machines. - -An hour later, Birrel stood with the others in the forefront of a -close-packed crowd outside the city, and watched the great Ruunite -ships position over a particular spot. Mighty lightnings crashed -downward from their bellies. Smoke and dust and shattered rock rose -in a vast cloud, and settled again, and there was a huge gaping hole -in the ground, and still the lightnings pounded at it until there was -nothing left of the cavern or anything it had contained. - -Shannock and his men cheered mightily. The bulk of the Irrian crowd -watched silently, not used yet to the idea of peace. - -Birrel, oddly enough, was not thinking of Ruun or Ir, but of Earth. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - -The ship swept in toward the night side of Earth in a great curve, -and first of all Earthmen that had ever lived, Birrel felt the sharp, -nostalgic emotion of coming back to the world that would always be -"the" world. - -He was in the bridge with Thile and Kara. Kara was very silent, looking -at the shadowed planet-face ahead, not looking at Birrel at all. But -Thile was busy, and vocal about it. - -"It's hard enough to make a landing on a strange planet," he said. "But -to have to do it secretly, without being seen--well, I'm glad this will -be the last time." - -The last time, Birrel thought. The last ship that would come from the -stars to Earth--at least, for a long, long time. He didn't like that -thought. He had argued against it, back there at the other system, at -Ruun. - -The men who governed Ruun were wise and well-meaning men--but -obstinate. They had welcomed Birrel. They had been grateful to him. -They had agreed to return him to his own world. But on one thing, they -were adamant. There would be no sudden opening up of the starways, no -open contact between Ruun and Earth. - -Birrel, his head full of visions of a sudden leap into the stars by the -men of Earth, had pleaded. But in vain. - -"Your world Earth is not ready," had said the leader of the Council of -Ruun. "It is not even one world, yet. When it has become one--when it -has forgotten the folly of wars and weapons--then we will not need to -come to you. You will come to us." - -He had softened that final refusal by an offer. "But you, who have -done much for us, can stay here at Ruun if you wish." - -"I can't," Birrel had said heavily. "I'm an agent, with a mission. -If I didn't go back, those who sent me would never know what -happened--they'd live in perpetual apprehension of attack from outside. -I have to return with my report." - -"Then you will be taken. And after that, no more of our ships will go -there." - -And now this last ship from outside was quietly coming down toward -the nighted face of Earth, and Kara still was silent, and there was a -sickness in Birrel's heart. - -Thile, by the control-panel, told the helmsman, "Now softly, softly, -are you trying to wake the whole damned continent?--softly--_ah!_" - -They had landed. - -Thile and Kara went down the ladder in the darkness, with Birrel. They -stood with him by the loom of the ship. - -The tall trees around them were black and vague, but the smell of pine -was on the keen air, and the smells, the sounds, the feel of everything -was subtly right again. - -"We landed a lot farther south than last time, so you can soon find a -road and people," said Thile. "Well, lad--" - -He shook hands with Birrel, and then he turned and shook hands with -Kara, and kissed her, and said, "You're a bloody fool but I'd do the -same thing," and turned and started back up the ladder. - -Birrel said, finally, "Kara--" - -"Yes," she said. "I'm staying." - -He took her in his arms and could only speak her name again, and then -she said, "We have to stand clear, before the ship takes off." - -"I can't let you do this!" he cried. "It's why I wouldn't ask you to do -it. No ship will come again, and you'll weary of it here, and--" - -"Yes, yes," she said, as one might quiet a troubled child, "I know all -that. But right now, we must get clear of the ship." - -Minutes later, from a ridge a thousand yards away, they heard a boom of -thunder and saw a quickly-muffled blast of flame, and then glimpsed the -great silver bulk riding skyward, vanishing almost at once. - -Birrel, holding Kara, looked up with her into the starry sky and saw -the flying shadow against the stars, that was there for an instant and -then was not there at all. - -He wondered if, in the years ahead, she would look more and more with -memory and longing at that starry sky. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Sinister Invasion</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Alexander Blade</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 1, 2021 [eBook #65483]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SINISTER INVASION ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> - <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>THE SINISTER INVASION</h1> - -<h2>By Alexander Blade</h2> - -<p>Birrel rebelled at the idea of becoming a<br /> -cosmic counter-spy. But he was the one Earthman<br /> -whom a quirk of nature had fitted for the job....</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br /> -June 1957<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><i>It was strange, how easy it was to step right out of your own life, -right out of the familiar Earth into cosmic mystery! As easy, Birrel -was to think later, as opening a door....</i></p> - -<p>As Birrel walked into his 71st Street apartment, snapping on the light -and pocketing his keys, he suddenly stopped, tense with surprise.</p> - -<p>A man he had never seen before stood facing him. A commonplace-looking -man with a gray hat, gray suit, and a grayish, young-middle-aged face. -His voice was mild as he said,</p> - -<p>"Ross Birrel?"</p> - -<p>"That's right," said Birrel. Then anger swept away his astonishment. -"Who are you and how the hell did you get in here?"</p> - -<p>"We'll discuss that later," said the gray man. "Right now, I want you -to come with me. Official business."</p> - -<p>"What kind of official business?"</p> - -<p>"We'll discuss that later too."</p> - -<p>Birrel started forward, his temper dangerously high. Then he stopped. -The gray man's hand was in his coat pocket, and it was gripping -something in that pocket. He said,</p> - -<p>"Please don't be difficult, Mr. Birrel."</p> - -<p>Birrel said, "If you're an official of some sort, let's see your -credentials."</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid," said the other, "I don't have any."</p> - -<p>"I thought so." Birrel began to breathe hard. "Listen, you've made a -mistake. I'm not a rich man, or a rival gangster, or anybody you want. -I'm an electrical engineer, a bachelor, and I'm stone broke."</p> - -<p>"We know that," murmured the gray man. "Now will you come along?"</p> - -<p>Birrel suddenly decided that the man was crazy. New York was full of -nuts these days, people flipping their lids and doing daffy things. -This was one of them—and there was only one thing to do.</p> - -<p>"All right, but you'll regret this," he said. He started to turn his -back on the gray man. "When you find out you're wrong—"</p> - -<p>Birrel, turning, whirled with sudden speed, his arm snaking out to -catch the gray man's neck with the edge of his hand, the old trick -they'd taught him in the OSS in war-time.</p> - -<p>It didn't work.</p> - -<p>The gray man ducked and chopped expertly with his left hand. A numbing -pain hit Birrel's extended arm.</p> - -<p>For the first time, the gray man smiled. "Sorry. But I was in the OSS -too, you see."</p> - -<p>Birrel, holding his aching arm, stared. This wasn't a nut after all. -But what—?</p> - -<p>"Look, Mr. Birrel. I have no sinister designs against you, in any -way. We merely have a proposition to put to you. You can accept or -refuse it. But unfortunately, I have to do this secretly. That's why I -couldn't phone or write or approach you in public."</p> - -<p>Birrel thought rapidly. Not a nut, no. But what kind of official -business would have to be done <i>this</i> secretly? He didn't like it, not -at all.</p> - -<p>"Shall we go?"</p> - -<p>Birrel looked at the hand in the coat pocket. He went.</p> - -<p>He came out into the cool dark wetness of 71st Street, the summer -shower over and the red and white neon signs toward Broadway reflected -cheerily on wet asphalt. A sedan, with a man at its wheel, was waiting.</p> - -<p>He heard the mild voice close behind his ear. "Get right in, Mr. -Birrel."</p> - -<p>The car swept them up the West Side Highway, with the electric glow -of Manhattan behind them. Ahead, the strung-out lights of George -Washington Bridge arched the black gulf of the river.</p> - -<p>Birrel sat in the back seat, with the gray man keeping well away from -him at the other end of the seat. He could see nothing of the driver -but a thick neck under a crusher hat.</p> - -<p>They crossed the Hudson and went on westward, skirting cities and -running quietly and fast through a region of small factories and -junk-heaps and power-plants.</p> - -<p>Birrel felt a mounting panic. What the devil had he got mixed up in? He -tried to think why anyone would want to grab him like this.</p> - -<p>He couldn't think of anything. Since the war he'd completed his -education, taken his engineering degree, landed a job in a Long Island -electric company, and—that was all. He didn't know any technical -secrets, he wasn't doing any top-secret work, he was an utterly -undistinguished thirty-year-old engineer and nothing more.</p> - -<p>Then why?</p> - -<p>"Listen," he said, "I know there's a mistake—"</p> - -<p>"No mistake," said the gray man. He added, "We're nearly there."</p> - -<p>"There" was a high wire fence with a locked gate and a red sign, -INDUSTRIAL CYANOGEN COMPANY—DANGER, KEEP OUT. A man came out of a -little wooden building inside the gate, and unlocked and opened it. The -car went on through.</p> - -<p>It stopped, after a moment, in front of a big, dark old-fashioned brick -factory building with a forlorn, out-of-date look about it. The only -light was a dingy bulb over the door in front.</p> - -<p>"This is it, Birrel. Come along."</p> - -<p>Inside, Birrel got a shock of surprise. It wasn't the cavernous, -dark interior he expected. There was light, the sound of clicking -typewriters and teletypes, the clack of heels on corridor floors.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The old factory building, he saw now was a blind. Behind its dingy -walls and masked windows were at least two floors of offices. The doors -of them all were closed, but he heard the hum and buzz of earnest -activity from behind them.</p> - -<p>Gray-face nudged him toward one of the doors. The thick-necked driver -went on somewhere.</p> - -<p>Birrel looked around a featureless little office with a battered table, -some office chairs, and nothing else.</p> - -<p>He turned. "What the devil is this place?"</p> - -<p>"A government agency," said Gray-face.</p> - -<p>Birrel said, "Listen, how long are you going to keep this—"</p> - -<p>He stopped, and was aware that his jaw was hanging in foolish surprise. -A man had come into the office.</p> - -<p>A stocky, iron-haired man of fifty or more, with a heavy, seamed face -and eyes not much softer than flint. Birrel had never seen him face to -face before, but he knew him.</p> - -<p>"Why—"</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Gray-face, obviously enjoying himself. "It's Mr. John -Connor." He turned and said, "Here he is, Mr. Connor. I believe he -thought we were taking him for a ride."</p> - -<p>"All right, Paley," said Connor brusquely. "Sit down. Birrel. Sorry to -haul you out here but this is important. Will you take that moronic -stare off your face and <i>sit down</i>?"</p> - -<p>Birrel sat, swallowing hard. This he hadn't expected.</p> - -<p>He had been in the OSS more than a year, and he'd never even got within -shouting distance of John Connor, the most famous of its directing -brains. And now, eleven years later, to meet him this way in a masked -factory that was an office—</p> - -<p>Birrel said, weakly, "Then this <i>is</i> a government agency?"</p> - -<p>"It is," said Connor. "The most secret one of all. We don't give out -interviews, and have addresses, like the CIA and FBI." He nodded toward -the gray-faced man. "You'll understand why I sent Paley for you this -way, why I couldn't write or phone you."</p> - -<p>"But I thought you'd retired, after the war!" Birrel said. "The -newspapers—"</p> - -<p>John Connor said disgustedly, "The hell and all of an OSS man you must -have been, if you believe everything you read in newspapers."</p> - -<p>Birrel thought he understood now. One of the secret counter-espionage -agencies by which America defended itself—so secret that probably few -government-officials even knew about it. But—</p> - -<p>Connor's rough voice answered his thought. "We need a man, Birrel. For -a job. And it must be a man we can trust absolutely. That's why we -looked through the OSS files—and found you."</p> - -<p>"Oh, now, listen," protested Birrel, rising. "My service was years ago, -I've got a profession, and this isn't war-time now. You can find better -agents than me—"</p> - -<p>Connor said brutally, "I could find five hundred agents better than -you. I'd rather have anyone of them than you. Unfortunately, you've got -something they haven't."</p> - -<p>"What?"</p> - -<p>"The right face, Birrel."</p> - -<p>Birrel didn't get it, he didn't get it at all. But Connor gave him no -time to think. He demanded,</p> - -<p>"You'd help us if you thought it might mean life or death to your -country, wouldn't you?"</p> - -<p>Birrel knew he was about to be trapped, but there was only one way you -could answer that. "Sure, but—"</p> - -<p>Connor cut him off. "Fine. Now I'm going to show you someone, Birrel. -Come along."</p> - -<p>They went out of the office, and down a long corridor and then down a -flight of concrete steps. Connor said nothing on the way, and neither -did Paley.</p> - -<p>The cement-walled basement corridor below was chilly. Lights glowed in -its ceiling. In front of a closed steel door stood an alert young man -with a submachine-gun cradled in his arm.</p> - -<p>Connor nodded to him and said, "All right." He produced a key from his -pocket and unlocked the door.</p> - -<p>Not until they were inside the room, and the door locked behind them, -did either Connor or Paley say another word.</p> - -<p>Birrel's glance darted around. The room, an ice-cold concrete cubicle, -had nothing in it at all but a hospital table on which lay a long -something covered by a sheet. From it came a strongly chemical smell.</p> - -<p>He felt a wave of relief. So that was why he had been brought here with -all the hush-hush—to identify a dead someone? It was the only possible -explanation—</p> - -<p>"Six weeks ago," Connor was saying, "near one of our most secret atomic -depots, a prowler was challenged. He tried to escape. He was shot and -instantly killed."</p> - -<p>He said then, "All right, Paley. Uncover him."</p> - -<p>Paley went to the table. He took hold of the white sheet. His hand -trembled a little, and there were sudden beads of sweat on his -forehead despite the freezing cold of the room. He looked as though he -did not want at all to carry out the order.</p> - -<p>Connor's harsh breathing was loud. Birrel wondered why they were so -affected. Surely not by the sight of a dead man—they, even more than -he, had seen plenty of dead men in the war years.</p> - -<p>The sheet was pulled halfway back. A naked man lay on the table, his -dark eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.</p> - -<p>He was fairly young, black-haired, with faintly swarthy skin and a -blocky, undistinguished face. He looked vaguely familiar....</p> - -<p>With a shock, Birrel realized that the dead man looked not unlike -himself. Not a twin-like resemblance, but still, a strong resemblance.</p> - -<p>He looked up quickly to Connor. He was amazed by the expression in -Connor's heavy face. The lines in it had deepened. His half-narrowed -eyes stared almost hauntedly at the dead man.</p> - -<p>Paley had moved back from the table, and there was a strain in his gray -face as he looked across the body at them.</p> - -<p>"He was a spy," Connor said. "There's no doubt about that at all. And a -very skillful one, to get into that guarded area."</p> - -<p>Birrel asked, "From what country?"</p> - -<p>Connor looked at him. He said, "From no country. You see, we ran a -post-mortem on him, and—"</p> - -<p>He stopped. He looked as though he didn't want to say what he was going -to say, as though he had to force himself against a whole lifetime's -beliefs and thinking, to say this thing.</p> - -<p>"He wasn't an Earth man at all. He was from somewhere else. Some other -world."</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER II</p> - - -<p>Birrel still couldn't take it in.</p> - -<p>Two hours had passed, and he sat in Connor's office, listening, -arguing, still not believing.</p> - -<p>Paley was there, hunched as though half asleep in a chair in the -corner. There was another man there, a young man named Garlock, with -glittering eyeglasses and teeth and a sharp voice. But Connor did most -of the talking.</p> - -<p>"I <i>know</i> it's fantastic," he said, for the tenth time. "But it's so."</p> - -<p>"But he looks human—," Birrel said, again.</p> - -<p>"He <i>is</i> human. But he's different. His blood is a type no one ever -saw before. His cells, his nervous-system, his bone-and-muscle tissue, -they're all different from an Earthman's. Unmistakably. I could give -you Dr. Blount's report, but it wouldn't mean anything to you. If you'd -seen Blount's face, that alone would have convinced you."</p> - -<p>"But this is 1956," Birrel argued. "We're still only talking about -space-flight. And only crackpots believe in ships and people from other -worlds."</p> - -<p>Connor winced. "Don't. It's like hearing a playback of what I said to -Blount. Listen. We had the two most qualified biologists in the country -check that body. They agree utterly. It's non-terrestrial."</p> - -<p>Birrel opened his mouth to say something and then shut it. He had -nothing more to say.</p> - -<p>He faced the enormity of an impossible fact, just as these men had had -to face it. A man, a visitor, a secret visitor, from another world. -In this hard, matter-of-fact office, it seemed impossible, like a -story read and thrown away, like a crazy movie you laughed at as you -went out. The George Washington Bridge was only a few miles away, and -tomorrow the Giants played the Pirates, and Friday was payday, and a -man had come from another world.</p> - -<p>"But from where?" Birrel whispered, finally. "And <i>why</i>?"</p> - -<p>Connor sighed heavily. "Now we're getting somewhere. I know how hard -it is to take. Every morning I wake up, I think at first it was just -a wild dream—" He broke off, then said harshly, "From where? We don't -know, haven't an idea. The sky is full of worlds. Take your pick."</p> - -<p>A nightmare kaleidoscope of all the stars and planets of the universe -rushed through Birrel's head. The sky is full of worlds. Yes. He'd -never quite realized it before.</p> - -<p>"As to why, there's no doubt at all," Connor was saying. "The man was -killed near one of the most heavily guarded atomic weapon depots we -have. He was killed trying to escape. He was a spy."</p> - -<p>"A spy, for—" Birrel's voice trailed away.</p> - -<p>"That's right, Birrel. For someplace else, someplace not on Earth."</p> - -<p>Garlock spoke up to Connor, interrupting. "You're giving it to him too -fast, John. It took us weeks, and yet you haul him in and hit him in -the face with the whole picture. More time—"</p> - -<p>"I'm running this, and we haven't <i>got</i> more time," Connor said roughly.</p> - -<p>Birrel hardly heard them. He felt as though an earthquake had rocked -his mind, had shaken up all his preconceived ideas, all the bases of -his thinking for a lifetime.</p> - -<p>"But," he said slowly to Connor, "a spy from someplace outside, from -another world—does that mean danger? A threat, out there?"</p> - -<p>Connor spread his big, spatulate hands on the desk. "We don't know. We -don't know what it means. But this agency has top responsibility for -the country's safety against secret enemies. Whether they're Earthmen -or not! We have to assume it <i>does</i> mean a threat."</p> - -<p>"Yet it could be just accident, his being near the atomic depot?" A -thought sprang into Birrel's mind. "A visitor from outside, coming -secretly, wanting to learn about our science—"</p> - -<p>Connor smiled grimly. "I wish I could think so. But we know it isn't -so. Show him what we found, Jay."</p> - -<p>Garlock went to a safe and unlocked it and took out a small object and -came back. He said to Birrel,</p> - -<p>"We found two things beside the man himself. A quarter-mile from him -we found a queer burned place in the ground, a charred gouge. We don't -understand it at all. The other thing we found was in his pocket. This."</p> - -<p>He put the little object on the desk. To Birrel, it looked rather like -a black plastic film-viewer of the type used for looking at colored -slides. He said so, and Garlock nodded.</p> - -<p>"That's just what it is. Only it's the someplace-else type of viewer. -I'll turn it on. Then you look into it."</p> - -<p>His nerves taut, Birrel put the lenses to his eyes. Would he look at -the incredible vistas of another planet, at—</p> - -<p>But no. He was looking at a colored picture of a big laboratory's -interior, and it was definitely an Earth lab of the present day. He -could name many of the gadgets in the room. It looked like an atomic -experimenter's workshop, on a big scale.</p> - -<p>Birrel got that one glimpse and then started violently and tore the -viewer away from his eyes.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A man's voice had spoken, close to his ear—small in volume but rapid, -authoritative, precise in diction.</p> - -<p>The language it spoke was one he had never heard.</p> - -<p>"What—?" he cried, startled. Connor and Garlock nodded. "The voice," -said the latter, "is on the film."</p> - -<p>"And that," Connor said flatly, "was a picture of the most secret -atomic laboratory at Los Alamos." He reached out and took the viewer -into his own hand. "There are fifty-six pictures in this thing, -each with a detailed vocal commentary like that you heard. They're -pictures—<i>detailed</i> pictures—of top-secret atomic depots, storehouses -and arsenals."</p> - -<p>"But how could they—," Birrel began. Connor cut him off.</p> - -<p>"We haven't the faintest idea how. They've obviously got instruments -that we don't have, for looking into places. 'Why' and 'who' are what -we want to know. Especially, 'Who'."</p> - -<p>He got up and walked back and forth in a little pattern. With a shock -of surprise, Birrel realized that it was not yet midnight. It seemed -that an eternity must have passed, not just a few hours.</p> - -<p>Connor stopped and turned toward him. "That's where you come in, -Birrel."</p> - -<p>It wrenched Birrel suddenly back from his chaotic imaginings of -far-away worlds and stars, of a cosmic plot and an unsuspecting Earth.</p> - -<p>"Me?"</p> - -<p>"You're going to help us find this ring of Someplace-else agents."</p> - -<p>"But you said yourself you had better agents than me!"</p> - -<p>Connor nodded. "But, as I told you, you have the right face. We went -through photos of several thousand former agents to find your face, -Birrel." He paused. Then—"Our only concrete lead to this bunch of -whoever-they-are, is that dead man. He was one of them. If he were -alive, he could be trailed back to the others. But he isn't alive. So, -to find that trail, we have to use a ringer."</p> - -<p>Birrel was numb with amazement, but he was not a fool, and he got -Connor's implication instantly.</p> - -<p>It was one of the oldest tricks in the book of counter-espionage. You -had one of your own men pose as an enemy spy, so that a contact would -be made that could lead you to the others. An old trick, and a risky -one—even in ordinary circumstances. But in this case, it was fantastic.</p> - -<p>"Oh, no," said Birrel. "It wouldn't work, there isn't a chance. I don't -look that much like him—"</p> - -<p>"You have the necessary basic feature," Connor said. "The skull-shape, -the ears, the things that can't be disguised. Our make-up experts can -do the rest."</p> - -<p>"But how can I pose for a minute as that man, when I don't know his -language? The first moment any of the others spoke to me, I'd be -through."</p> - -<p>"We can teach you a fair bit of the language," Connor said. "Enough so -that you won't be instantly recognized as a fake. You'd soon be found -out—but by then we'd be jumping on them."</p> - -<p>Birrel stared, wondering if the strain of this hadn't been too much -for the man. "<i>You</i> can teach me some of that other-world language?"</p> - -<p>Connor said, "Grossman can. He is, in case you don't know, one of the -world's greatest philologists. He was called in on this weeks ago. -Using that spoken commentary on the film-viewer, that voice that each -time described a specific pictured scene, he worked away relating -words and pictures until he built up the whole language. It's rough -yet—but he's got a vocabulary of a couple thousand words, a set of -grammar-rules, and—above all—an accurate reproduction of accent and -pronunciation, in that recorded voice. Enough, with luck, to get you by -for a little time with the others. That should be time enough for us."</p> - -<p>Garlock interrupted, saying heatedly to Connor, "Look at his face! I -tell you, you're giving this to him too fast, you can't throw it at him -like this."</p> - -<p>Connor ignored the protest. He sat down again at the desk, and his -bleak eyes held on Birrel's face.</p> - -<p>"This is how it stands. Where they came from, what that place is like, -we haven't a glimmering. How many of them there are on Earth, we don't -know either. But one man couldn't come alone. So there are others. All -right."</p> - -<p>He bent forward, his harsh voice beating at Birrel. "We make you look -like that dead man. We have Grossman cram you with that language -till you can get by. Then we stick you in jail. We announce that an -unidentified spy was caught near an atomic installation, weeks ago, and -that we're still holding him for questioning. We let that out in the -newspapers."</p> - -<p>"And then?"</p> - -<p>Connor said, "The others—they'll be wondering what happened to their -boy. He was alone on that job, we're sure of that. When they hear he's -in prison, they'll surely try to contact him—you."</p> - -<p>"What makes you so sure they will?"</p> - -<p>"Because," Connor said slowly, "they have to. This is a secret -operation. They must prevent our finding out who our prisoner is, -finding out that he's from outside Earth."</p> - -<p>His voice became raw-edged. "They're a threat, Birrel. Wherever -they came from, they're danger. Perhaps the worst danger that ever -threatened us. We have to find them. You have to help."</p> - -<p>He did not ask for that help, he commanded it. And with a feeling of -unreality, Birrel knew that he could not disobey that command.</p> - -<p>Connor rose. "You'll stay here, while we set this up. It'll take -weeks, working every minute, to get you ready."</p> - -<p>Weeks later, wearing another man's face, Birrel sat solitary in an -isolated cell of a New York prison. He sat there unbelievingly waiting -for the impossible, for the secret ones from the wider cosmos.</p> - -<p>He did not have to wait long.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER III</p> - - -<p>They came at ten minutes before midnight.</p> - -<p>Birrel had been sitting in this cell for some twenty hours. The cell -was deep in a jail in downtown Manhattan. It was a solitary cell, for a -solitary and important prisoner.</p> - -<p>He had a different face now, a dead man's face. The clothing he -wore had belonged to that man. He could speak that man's language, -to a certain extent. He was not Ross Birrel, he was a man from -Someplace-else.</p> - -<p>"<i>What's my name, on that other world?</i>" Birrel wondered. "<i>I'm -impersonating somebody and don't know who, or what, he was—</i>"</p> - -<p>Except that the man he impersonated had been a spy. Secret agent of an -unguessable, distant world, ferreting out Earth's defense secrets.</p> - -<p>A wave of cold disbelief swept Birrel. It was still too fantastic, too -incredible. The scientists were wrong about that body, they must be -wrong. Connor was wrong.</p> - -<p>But Connor remained grimly convinced. Before his men took Birrel to the -prison, he had said,</p> - -<p>"They've lost an agent, those people from outside. A valuable man with -valuable information. They'll contact you, somehow when our newspaper -story appears."</p> - -<p>"In a locked cell in prison?" Birrel had said, incredulously. "How can -they?"</p> - -<p>"I've an idea," Connor had said, "that they can do quite a lot of -things we can't. But we'll be ready for them. The prison guards aren't -in on our set-up, of course. But we'll be in the building, watching."</p> - -<p>He had added, "You may not fool them long. But try. Remember, the -important thing is to get them to lead you to the others, to the center -of this thing, to their base, wherever it is. We'll follow."</p> - -<p>That had been twenty hours ago. And now Birrel sat in the cold, -stone-walled little cell, and stared at the blank steel door, and told -himself that he was a fool, and that Connor was mad.</p> - -<p>No one could reach him here, even if anybody tried.</p> - -<p>Birrel suddenly looked up. Something had happened to the light, the -single bulb that illuminated his cell.</p> - -<p>A greenish tinge had come into the light. It deepened, and there was a -buzzing in his ears, and—</p> - -<p>Birrel pitched to the floor, unconscious.</p> - -<p>He came out of blackness, later, with a vague consciousness of someone -touching him and the sound of a voice in his ears.</p> - -<p>It was a woman's voice, low and hurried and husky with strain. He -didn't know what it was saying, the words didn't make sense—</p> - -<p>Of a sudden, Birrel's heart pounded. Some of those words, those -strange-sounding syllables, <i>did</i> make sense. They were words he -had learned in the weeks of preparation—words that Grossman, the -philologist, had beaten into him by endless repetitions.</p> - -<p><i>The words—the language—of the secret ones from Someplace-else.</i></p> - -<p>He wrenched his eyes open. He looked into the dark, handsome face of -a young woman. Her eyes were brilliant with excitement, and her hands -were shaking Birrel by the shoulders. She spoke swiftly to him again, -and now his clearing mind could translate the words.</p> - -<p>"Rett, there's little time! Please!"</p> - -<p>"Rett?" That was a word he didn't know. But of course—that would be -his name. Or, rather, the name of the man he impersonated. Rett—</p> - -<p>Birrel was too foggy yet to try to answer, in that alien language. He -was dazed, off balance, and dared not make a slip.</p> - -<p>She helped him to his feet. His legs were like strings. He felt as -though a pile-driver had hit him. What had happened?</p> - -<p>Hanging to the edge of the bunk for support, Birrel stared groggily. He -saw now that the girl wore an ordinary tan suit, with no covering on -her shoulder-length black hair. Beyond her, the steel door now gaped -wide open. How had it been opened? And what had struck him senseless? -There had been a sudden greenishness in the light—</p> - -<p>The light was <i>still</i> green, a baleful emerald tinge. He didn't -understand. He looked down at himself, and found that around his neck -now hung a chain from which depended an egg of silvery metal. The egg -hummed.</p> - -<p>Birrel reached numb fingers toward the thing, but the girl caught away -his hand. Again in that alien tongue, she said quickly,</p> - -<p>"No, Rett—don't touch your shield! We have to get out fast—Holmer -can't blank this building forever. Please try to walk!"</p> - -<p>His shield? Shield against what? He saw now that she too wore a humming -metal egg around her neck.</p> - -<p>Birrel's brain was beginning to clear. But he purposely kept his -bewildered expression. Acting dazed would give him a little more time.</p> - -<p>"Holmer?" he said.</p> - -<p>"He's outside," the girl said. "Holding the"—(and here she used a -word Birrel did not know at all)—"on the whole building. But we must -hurry!"</p> - -<p>Birrel began to understand. They had come indeed, the secret ones from -beyond the world. One of them, outside, had hit the whole prison with -some stunning force, some super-encephalographic vibration. That was -what had knocked him out. But the greenish glow was still there, the -force still on. How was it he was conscious now?</p> - -<p>Was the "shield" a shield against the stunning force? The girl had put -it on him, and he had revived. And she was wearing one herself—</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It suddenly rushed over Birrel, the full, overwhelming realization that -he was face to face with someone not of Earth. He stared into her dark, -smooth face, into her wide, worried black eyes, and he felt the short -hairs on his neck bristle.</p> - -<p>She seemed utterly human and Earthly, and she was not. The eyes meeting -his had looked on unguessable vistas across the cosmic abyss. The -strong hands that steadied him were alien hands.</p> - -<p><i>Woman not of this world....</i></p> - -<p>He shivered involuntarily and the girl misunderstood that. She said -urgently,</p> - -<p>"I know you're shaken up but you must walk! We must get out of -here—come—"</p> - -<p>She tugged him toward the open door of the cell. Birrel stumbled -through it, with her. His feet would not coordinate, they kept -scuffling and tripping as he went down the corridor and up the stair.</p> - -<p>There was a guard office at the top of the stair. Two jail guards in -uniform sprawled, one in a chair, the other on the floor. They were not -dead, for he could see the rise and fall of their chests. But they were -gripped by an insensibility like death.</p> - -<p>Birrel began to get it. "Holmer can only hold the building blanked -for a little longer!" The one outside, the confederate of the girl, -had stricken everyone in the prison into a coma. Protected by a -shield-device, she had walked right in, unchallenged.</p> - -<p>The thought appalled Birrel. Connor and Paley and their men were in -this building, waiting to follow Birrel and whoever contacted him. And -Connor and Paley and the others must right now be as unconscious as -these guards. Their whole plan was shattered.</p> - -<p>"Hurry, Rett!" She was urging him almost fiercely forward, out of the -office and into a main hall.</p> - -<p>They came to a barred door, now swinging open. How had she opened the -doors, Birrel wondered? But a science that could throw this deathlike -trance on a building full of men would make short work of locks.</p> - -<p>The girl quickened her pace, urging him along faster. In a moment they -came out into the darkness of the summer night, in a parking-court -with a half-dozen official cars in it. The high gate to the street was -closed. Just inside it was a long sedan whose motor purred softly. She -ran toward it, her strong fingers clutching Birrel's wrist.</p> - -<p>As she opened the rear door of the sedan, the flashing-on of the -roof-light disclosed a man sitting at the wheel.</p> - -<p>He was older than the girl, dark like her but with a craggy lined face, -and eyes that might have been humorous if they were not so alert and -alarmed. He too wore around his neck a silver egg that hummed.</p> - -<p>"Kara, you took too long!" he said. "Any minute—"</p> - -<p>"It took time to find him," she said. "I'll open the gate. No, -Rett—you get in, quick!"</p> - -<p>As Birrel climbed unsteadily into the rear seat, the girl—so her name -was Kara?—ran and swung open the street-gate, then ran back to the car.</p> - -<p>Birrel's mind was clearing but things were happening too fast. He heard -a continuous thin, whining sound that was coming from the front seat. -It came from a square black box that rested on the seat beside the -driver.</p> - -<p>The girl Kara leaped into the back with Birrel and said, "Turn it off -now, Holmer—and <i>go</i>!"</p> - -<p>The man at the wheel reached and touched the box, and the whining sound -ceased. Then, instantly, he snicked on the headlights, and sent the car -leaping out through the open gate into the alley.</p> - -<p>Within two minutes, they were out in the glittering stream of Fourth -Avenue's night traffic, heading north.</p> - -<p>Only then did the girl turn to Birrel. She said, almost passionately,</p> - -<p>"Rett, where have you <i>been</i>? All these weeks, Holmer and I almost -going crazy—"</p> - -<p>Birrel had an answer for that, all prepared. "They caught me. They -questioned me, time after time. Finally, when they couldn't get -anything out of me, they were going to hold me for trial."</p> - -<p>Kara nodded swiftly. "We guessed that, when we finally saw the -newspaper mention of an unidentified spy being held. They didn't -suspect who you really are?"</p> - -<p>He had his answer ready for that too. "No. They still don't dream of -such a thing. They thought I was from another country here."</p> - -<p>"But the Irrian?" Kara pressed. "What became of <i>him</i>?"</p> - -<p>It took Birrel completely by surprise. "Irrian?" It was only a -meaningless name to him. He had no answer for this, at all.</p> - -<p>He said, floundering, "What do you mean—"</p> - -<p>"Vannevan's man," she said, impatiently. "The Irrian you were trailing. -Rett, try to clear your mind. Did the Earthmen catch the Irrian too?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It made no sense at all to Birrel. All he could gather was that the -dead spy, Rett, had, when killed near that atomic depot, been trailing -someone. Someone called "the Irrian" and "Vannevan's man." Who was -Vannevan?</p> - -<p>He had to take a chance. He said, slowly, "I was the only one they -captured."</p> - -<p>She said again, "But what about the Irrian? Did you have to blast him?"</p> - -<p>Birrel, his mind racing like a trapped animal seeking escape, suddenly -remembered something. The word "blast" made him remember. It was the -thing that had puzzled Connor's agents, the charred gouge in the ground -that they had found near the dead spy.</p> - -<p>Again, he had to gamble. Aware that it was a complete leap in the dark -he said,</p> - -<p>"Yes. I had to blast him."</p> - -<p>Her small, strong hands clenched together. "If only you could have -taken him, as you planned. If we could have taken him back, it would be -complete proof of what Vannevan's doing here."</p> - -<p>Birrel couldn't get this at all. He was bewildered, all his previous -assumptions and those of Connor completely upset.</p> - -<p>They had had it figured out, they thought. The dead man was a spy from -another world. He would have colleagues, a group who had come here -to search out Earth's most potent defense secrets, with some deadly -purpose surely. Birrel's job, his imposture, was to lead to the others.</p> - -<p>But—it seemed now that these secret ones, this Kara and Holmer, -themselves had enemies. The dead man, Rett, had been trailing one. An -Irrian. Who were the Irrians? Who was Vannevan, and what was <i>he</i> up to?</p> - -<p>A sense of nightmare unreality suddenly swept Birrel. Their car was -crossing lower Times Square. The blaze of lights, the after-show -crowds, the winking signs—all were so utterly normal. And here, in -the midst of it, he rode with a man and woman of a far world, speaking -their language, talking tensely of things he didn't even understand.</p> - -<p>Birrel felt a frantic desire to rip the door open and plunge out of the -car, to run and lose himself in the cheerful crowds.</p> - -<p>He couldn't. He'd taken the job and he had to go through with it—to -find out where their base was, to find out what threat they represented.</p> - -<p>"But I have to play it alone," he thought, with sinking heart.</p> - -<p>Connor and Paley and the rest, who had planned so carefully to follow -them, had never foreseen that stunning force that had struck.</p> - -<p>Birrel became aware that they had crossed town and were running through -the Lincoln Tunnel. In a few minutes they were on a main highway, -heading north.</p> - -<p>How long could he keep up this imposture? How long till he made some -slip, some blunder—</p> - -<p>Holmer, his voice quiet but with a sudden edge to it, said, "There's a -car following us. I wasn't sure till we got through the Tunnel."</p> - -<p>With sudden reaction, Birrel's hopes leaped. Then Connor and the others -had come to in time to follow? Yet it hardly seemed possible....</p> - -<p>"<i>Vannevan!</i>" Kara's exclamation was so fierce that it startled him.</p> - -<p>"It can't be anybody else," Holmer grimly agreed. "That newspaper story -about the captured spy—it drew <i>him</i> to the prison too, it seems."</p> - -<p>Whoever Vannevan might be, Birrel thought, it was evident that these -two hated and feared him like the devil.</p> - -<p>Holmer gripped the wheel tighter, and the car suddenly lunged faster. -He said, without turning, "You know what it means. The Irrians know now -that we followed them to Earth. Hold on, we have to lose them!"</p> - -<p>As by a lightning-flash, the shocking truth was abruptly revealed -to Birrel. <i>Two</i> groups of secret agents, bitterly hostile to each -other, playing a vast and deadly game against each other, were on the -unsuspecting Earth!</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IV</p> - - -<p>Birrel felt the imminence of onrushing danger. Danger, not just to -himself, but to all his world. For in him lay the only chance to find -out about the threat to Earth before it materialized.</p> - -<p>Who their pursuers were, who the Irrians and Vannevan might be, and -why they had come to Earth, he could not guess. But about Kara and -Holmer, he was sure. Their colleague, the dead Rett, had had those -pictures of Earth's most secret weapons and defenses on him. They, -therefore, were the danger—and he must not lose them.</p> - -<p>"Turn at the next side road!" he said to Holmer. "We can give them the -slip in the back roads."</p> - -<p>Holmer nodded. Birrel looked back. A pair of headlights swung steadily -along a quarter-mile behind them.</p> - -<p>"They're closer," said Kara.</p> - -<p>Birrel looked ahead, saw the sign that marked a crossroad, and said, -"Turn there!"</p> - -<p>Next moment, he thought they were all three done for. For Holmer turned -into the dark side road without slowing down at all, and the sedan -careened on screaming tires and threatened to go over.</p> - -<p>Birrel, slammed into a corner of the back seat, felt Kara bump against -him. He held her with one arm and groped frantically for something to -hold onto when they rolled over.</p> - -<p>They didn't roll over. By scared reaction, Holmer spun the wheel at -the right second. The sedan tottered, then thumped back onto all four -wheels, its motor stalled.</p> - -<p>Out on the main highway, a car flashed by fast.</p> - -<p>"These cursed Earth vehicles!" said Holmer, in a shaky voice. "No -gyroscopic controls, no built-in stability factor at all!"</p> - -<p>Birrel felt like yelling, "What the devil made you think you could turn -a right angle at full speed?" But he didn't. It would give him away, as -Rett he mustn't know too much more about automobiles than the others -did.</p> - -<p>But for the sake of survival he had to get Holmer away from the wheel.</p> - -<p>He said, "Let me drive it—since I saw you last I've learned to handle -them pretty well."</p> - -<p>Holmer crowded over in the front seat, holding the black box in his -lap. Birrel climbed over fast, and took the wheel.</p> - -<p>"They went past, but now they're coming back!" cried Kara. "I can -hear—"</p> - -<p>Birrel kicked the starter and then the gas-pedal, and the sedan shot up -the dark asphalt country road like a frightened rabbit.</p> - -<p>Kara was looking back, and her voice came clear over the rising whine -of the motor.</p> - -<p>"They're back there. Gaining on us—"</p> - -<p>Birrel glanced up at the mirror and the headlights coming up fast -behind. He jammed the gas-pedal down, sending the sedan hurtling -past the lighted windows of houses, the black masses of trees. The -headlights came no closer.</p> - -<p>Kara cried to Holmer, "Use the—" Again, the word that Birrel did not -know.</p> - -<p>He knew what it meant. The square box in Holmer's lap, the thing that -had stricken all in the prison unconscious by its potent vibrations.</p> - -<p>Holmer fiddled with the box. Over the roar of the motor, Birrel could -not hear it come on. But he looked up hopefully at the mirror.</p> - -<p>The headlights stayed right with them.</p> - -<p>"No use," said Holmer. "They've got their shields on. They must have -known how we did it at the prison."</p> - -<p>He turned the thing off. Birrel realized, with a certain desperation, -that it was up to him.</p> - -<p>He had one advantage, he thought. If those pursuing were from another -world, they would not be able to drive an Earth automobile as expertly -as he could.</p> - -<p>Kara said, "They could cut us down with the"—(another totally -incomprehensible word)—"but they won't dare use <i>that</i> here! It would -let everyone in this part of Earth know they're here!"</p> - -<p>What weapon it was that the pursuers, the Irrians, had but might not -dare to use, Birrel could not guess. But the fear in Kara's voice was -enough to make him conjure up nightmare visions of awful agencies and -powers that might be loosed on them.</p> - -<p>It decided Birrel. Better to take the risk of cracking up than let that -car hang onto them. He would use his one advantage.</p> - -<p>"Hold tight," he said, and turned sharply at the next side road.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Birrel began a crazy twisting and turning on the network of back roads. -He had always been a good driver. Tonight, with desperate purpose -urging him, he forgot all about road-risks.</p> - -<p>He forgot about everything except the ribbon of road under his -headlights, the sharp curves that he skidded around in racing turns, -the instinctive feel of what grade, what dip, what crossroads, came -next. It was late and the farmhouses were dark now, sleeping people in -them not dreaming of what screamed past them in the night, what flight -and pursuit of folk from far worlds.</p> - -<p>The rhythm of the racing motor got into Birrel's mind, as his tension -rose higher. There was nothing but the headlights and the road and the -dread of what came behind them. He was sharply startled when Kara's -voice broke the spell, speaking close to his ear.</p> - -<p>"We lost them, long ago!" she was saying. "Rett, slow this thing before -you wreck us."</p> - -<p>Birrel eased the gas-pedal. Beside him, Holmer looked scared.</p> - -<p>"These clumsy Earth cars—I'll never get into one again!" he said, with -feeling.</p> - -<p>They were running up a hillside, with scrub woods on either side of the -road.</p> - -<p>"Stop on the crest, and we'll listen," said Kara.</p> - -<p>He stopped, cutting the motor and lights. They got out and looked back. -In the soft summer night, the little woods-sounds, the monotonous song -of peepers, were somehow shocking in their ordinariness, to Birrel. -Impossible that it was just another July night in New Jersey, when -beside him stood a man and woman not of Earth.</p> - -<p>He looked up at the summer sky, decked with chains and hives of -stars. From which dot in the sky had these two come? From where had -those others come, those who pursued, the Irrians? "<i>The sky is full -of worlds</i>," Connor had said. And the sky was full of mystery and -menace....</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Holmer. "We've lost them. But we'd better not linger here."</p> - -<p>They got back into the car, and Birrel drove on again. Holmer said, -"We'll go back to the house. We've got to decide fast, what to do—now -that Vannevan knows we're on Earth. We can stay here, and keep watching -them. Or we can go home, with what we already know."</p> - -<p>With a queer icy feeling, Birrel realized that "home" meant the world -from which they had come somewhere across the abyss of space. There -must be a ship, hidden somewhere, waiting for these people. If he could -keep up his imposture till he reached that ship, and then get word to -Connor.</p> - -<p>"Rett, you're going wrong, the other road is the way to the house!" -Kara said suddenly.</p> - -<p>They had just passed a crossroads. Birrel braked the car, and with -dismay realized that he had not the faintest notion where "the house" -was. Yet that was something that, as Rett, he obviously should know.</p> - -<p>He said, "I'm sorry, it's been so many weeks. You had better call out -the turns for me."</p> - -<p>Neither Kara nor Holmer seemed to find it surprising that he should -not clearly remember. But as he drove on, with the girl warning him -of each turn on these far-back-in country roads, Birrel wondered how -long he could maintain this impossible imposture. He had never been -supposed to maintain it for long, the plan had been that Connor and -his agents would be following quick and close, but that plan had been -irretrievably ruined and he had to ram ahead alone and do what he -could, find out what he could.</p> - -<p>He was driving down a dark, bumpy road between untilled fields when -he became aware that now Holmer and the girl were both peering more -intently ahead. Birrel made out the dark loom of an unlighted farmhouse.</p> - -<p>Was this "the house"? He dared not ask them that—as Rett, he might -have forgotten the network of roads but he certainly wouldn't have -forgotten this. But if he turned in, and it was the wrong place.</p> - -<p>Birrel thought of a stratagem. As they approached the dark house, he -slowed down as though to turn in. If they protested, he could explain -that he only wanted to stop and listen again.</p> - -<p>But they didn't protest, it must be the place. Birrel turned the car -right into the rutted drive, with the headlights striking past an old -lilac bush to the front of a ramshackle barn.</p> - -<p>"Cut off the lights," said Holmer, worriedly. Birrel did so, his -hand shaking a little. He couldn't gamble like this forever without -slipping.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They went into the dark house, Kara first going through the rooms and -pulling down the blinds, and then carefully lighting a kerosene lamp. -They had, Birrel thought, picked a hideout far off the main roads -indeed, to be without power.</p> - -<p>The place was cold, musty, with some battered old furniture that looked -as though it had been here for a long time. There was no evidence at -all of how many people had been living here, and there was no evidence -that its occupants were aliens from a far world. It was just an old -house in the country, silent and lonely.</p> - -<p>Birrel sat down and he was glad to do so, for his feeling of -desperation was increasing. So far, he'd found out little. This house -was obviously only a temporary headquarters. The real base of these -people was somewhere else—but where? That was what he had to find out -for Connor.</p> - -<p>He gambled once more. He said, "Haven't any of the others been here -with you?"</p> - -<p>The others. The ones who had come with them to Earth, who <i>must</i> have -come with Kara and Holmer and Rett to Earth, and who must be found!</p> - -<p>Holmer, setting down his square black box on the floor, said uneasily, -"Thile was down last week. He's afraid of the ship being discovered, -he kept urging us to leave. I told him we couldn't, without you."</p> - -<p>Kara came and sat down in front of Birrel. She said, "I know you've -been through a lot, Rett. But we have to decide fast. Have you enough -proof of what Vannevan's doing on Earth to take home?"</p> - -<p>And this was it, Birrel thought. He had got by in the rush of their -flight, but he could not possibly bull it out in a conference where his -ignorance must betray him.</p> - -<p>Holmer said worriedly, "I say, go! Now that the Irrians know that Ruun -has taken a hand in this, that we've followed them to Earth, they'll -never rest until they hunt down us <i>and</i> the ship. You know what -Vannevan is like! I say, go with what we've found—right now."</p> - -<p>"It all depends," the girl said quickly, "on what Rett has learned. -Rett—"</p> - -<p>She never finished. At that moment, quite without warning, something -like an enormous hand struck Birrel and knocked him in perfect silence -to the floor.</p> - -<p>He did not lose consciousness. He was able to see the others fall -too, stricken by that same silent power. Only he could see from their -horrified eyes that they knew what the power was, while he did not. He -tried with desperate urgency to move but every nerve was paralyzed, and -he could only lie there and watch.</p> - -<p>The door of the room opened. Two men came in, moving fast, dark -ordinary men in ordinary clothes. Each one carried in his hand a thick, -fluted metal cylinder. The cylinders must generate the paralyzing force -which had worked effectively from outside the house, Birrel thought.</p> - -<p>A third man followed them.</p> - -<p>He was no taller than the others, but he was wider in the shoulders, -a powerful easy-moving man. His face was the face of a man born to -command, dedicated to it, living for and by it—a man to whom life -without personal and immediate power over everything in sight would be -intolerable. Just now he had it, and he was happy.</p> - -<p>Holmer spoke, but his stiff lips could make only a terrible whisper.</p> - -<p>"Irrians—<i>Vannevan!</i>"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER V</p> - - -<p>There were six people in the living-room of the old New Jersey -farmhouse, and only one of them was an Earthman.</p> - -<p>It seemed a madly impossible thing, to Birrel. The year was -nineteen-fifty-seven and it was twenty-five minutes to midnight on the -eighth of July, and this couldn't be happening but it was.</p> - -<p>"You were easy, easy," Vannevan was saying. "Did you think I <i>wanted</i> -to overtake you out there on the road? All I wanted was to get close -enough to pop a tracer on the back of your vehicle, and then follow -you."</p> - -<p>He was a very happy man, Vannevan. He had outwitted and beaten his -enemies, and he was enjoying that part of it more than the actual -capture.</p> - -<p>He strode up and down on the old, faded carpet, but he was careful not -to get in front of Birrel and Kara and Holmer.</p> - -<p>The three sat in chairs and across the room stood Vannevan's two men. -Each of them held one of the fluted metal cylinders, and each cylinder -was pointing toward the three prisoners, reminding them how quickly -they could be paralyzed again, or killed.</p> - -<p>The incongruity of it gave Birrel a crazy desire to laugh. The musty -old farmhouse, the smoky kerosene lamp, the ticking cuckoo-clock on the -wall—and five strangers from the stars.</p> - -<p>He wondered what a "tracer" was. He supposed it was some sort of tiny -gadget that could be shot to stick onto a moving car, and broadcast a -signal that could be read and followed. He doubted if he'd live long -enough to find out if that was right.</p> - -<p>Vannevan said to Birrel, "You killed Jull, didn't you?"</p> - -<p>There was no amusement in his hard face now. It was cut out of cold -iron, and Birrel had the feeling that Vannevan was every bit as tough -as he thought he was.</p> - -<p>"Who," said Birrel, "is Jull?"</p> - -<p>"A man of Ir," said Vannevan. "My man. The man you trailed and killed. -We found the blaster-scar in the ground."</p> - -<p>Birrel began to understand a little. He shrugged. "If you know, why ask -me?"</p> - -<p>Vannevan came closer and his eyes had a yellow glow in their dark -depths.</p> - -<p>"You wouldn't just blast him outright. You'd shock him and search him -first. Just as we're doing to you. Where are the"—(he used another -unfamiliar word)—"you found on him?"</p> - -<p>Birrel said, "I found nothing. I just blasted."</p> - -<p>Something exploded in his face. He reeled in the chair, putting up -his hands blindly, half-stunned. Then he saw Vannevan's clenched fist -drawing back. Vannevan, keeping carefully to one side, let the fist go -again in Birrel's face.</p> - -<p>"You're lying," he said. "You wouldn't come all the way here from -Ruun, spying on us, and trail Jull all that way, and then just blast -him. Did you pass them on to Holmer before the Earthmen caught you?"</p> - -<p>Birrel felt blood running down his face, and he felt a hate and rage -that he had never suspected he could experience. He started to get -up, and the Irrians with the weapons across the room pointed their -cylinders at him. He didn't want to die, any sooner than he had to. He -sat down again.</p> - -<p>"The men of Ruun are brave," said Vannevan, mockingly. "Now will you -tell me—"</p> - -<p>He stopped suddenly. An expression of interest and amazement crossed -his face. He reached out his hand, toward Birrel's eyes.</p> - -<p>Birrel recoiled—but Vannevan's hand swiped across his forehead, across -his eyebrows. Then Vannevan uttered an incredulous exclamation.</p> - -<p>"This isn't a man of Ruun at all. He's an <i>Earthman</i>!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Birrel realized what had happened. The blow, the blood streaming down -his face, had effectively ruined the careful work of Connor's make-up -experts.</p> - -<p>Before he could resist, Vannevan rubbed a handkerchief across his face. -Birrel, a little dazed and half-blinded by the blood in his eyes, -struck out savagely but hit nothing.</p> - -<p>Kara's voice reached him. "Rett, you can't be—" Her voice trailed -away, and then it came on a different note. "But you're not Rett. He's -right, you're an Earthman. Where's Rett?"</p> - -<p>Birrel got his eyes open, and now he could see her face, and Holmer's, -and the pallor of shocked surprise on both.</p> - -<p>He felt a queer guilt. There was no reason for it, they were spies and -he was a counter-spy defending his country, defending Earth, but he -couldn't rid himself of the feeling.</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Vannevan fiercely, "where is Rett? Where's the man you've -been impersonating?"</p> - -<p>Birrel looked at him and said nothing.</p> - -<p>One of the Irrians came to Vannevan's side and spoke so rapidly that -Birrel could not follow it.</p> - -<p>Vannevan said somberly to him, "Your people—the Earth people—have -this Rett, don't they? They captured him, didn't they?"</p> - -<p>That was so obvious that there was no use denying it. "They did," said -Birrel.</p> - -<p>"And they disguised you as Rett, and published that report of a -captured spy, to draw the others," Vannevan said, "Of course. Which -means—they know there are strangers on their world."</p> - -<p>Holmer said, with a taunt in his voice, "You don't like it, do you, -Vannevan? It spoils the plans of Ir, doesn't it?"</p> - -<p>Vannevan looked at him. "No. There will be no check at all in the plans -of Ir. And when we've got what we need from Earth, our plans for <i>your</i> -world will go right ahead. Be sure of that."</p> - -<p>Birrel's mind vainly tried to grapple with the hint in that byplay. -Then this was not merely a personal enmity, or a factional one? Then -the world of Ir and the world of Ruun—wherever those far worlds -might be—were enemies? Then the Irrians, at least, had come to Earth -secretly for something they needed for conquest?</p> - -<p>It didn't make sense! These star-strangers had already used weapons far -subtler and more complex than any weapon of Earth. Why would they need -to filch the arms of a less scientifically advanced planet?</p> - -<p>"<i>You</i> can wait," said Vannevan to Birrel, with a certain contempt. He -turned and looked at Holmer and Kara. "But you two are important. No -word is going back to Ruun of our plans! Where is your ship hidden?"</p> - -<p>"Where is the ship of Ir hidden?" countered Holmer.</p> - -<p>Vannevan smiled grimly. "Where you couldn't find it. And you've tried -long enough, haven't you? This planet has a lot of wild places. Which -one is your ship hidden in?"</p> - -<p>Holmer merely laughed.</p> - -<p>"You'll tell, one of you," promised Vannevan. He spoke to the Irrian -beside him. "The man, first. Take him upstairs. He'll talk more freely -and readily if she can't hear him."</p> - -<p>The other man pointed his weapon at Holmer. Holmer, without a look -at Kara or Birrel, started up the old stairway in the hall, with the -Irrian close behind him.</p> - -<p>Vannevan followed them.</p> - -<p>Birrel looked at Kara. Her face was a stony mask. He looked at the -Irrian across the room. In the yellow light of the lamp, the man's face -was wrong. It was wrong because it was just a dark, average face. It -didn't belong to an enemy from the stars. But the cylinder in his hand -pointed levelly at Birrel and the girl.</p> - -<p>The dusty cuckoo-clock ticked toward midnight. Strange, that it was -running, Birrel thought. One of them—Kara or Holmer—must have started -it out of curiosity.</p> - -<p>He knew he was only thinking these thoughts so that his brain wouldn't -crack from the insane unreality of the situation.</p> - -<p>Birrel suddenly felt sweat on his forehead. Sounds were coming from -upstairs, not loud sounds, but thumping, gasping noises. There was a -voice, and then more of the gasping sounds.</p> - -<p>Kara started to get to her feet and the man with the fluted metal -cylinder said, "Sit down."</p> - -<p>Birrel looked at the clock. Two minutes to midnight. A cuckoo-clock and -a spy from the stars. Unreal. But a wild notion began to grow in his -mind....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A shriek, a fading, choking death-cry, came down the stairs. And then -Vannevan's voice came down, loud with anger.</p> - -<p>"Damn him, he's dead."</p> - -<p>"<i>Sit down</i>," said the armed Irrian, again.</p> - -<p>A half-minute to midnight. He'd have to try it, there'd never be -another chance, not after Vannevan came down those stairs for another -of them, for Kara first, and then for Birrel—</p> - -<p>The cuckoo-clock said, "<i>Cuckoo</i>."</p> - -<p>At the sharp sound, at the little flirt of movement by the out-popping -bird, the Irrian with the weapon looked up, startled.</p> - -<p>Birrel had thought he would. He thought it unlikely that they had -cuckoo-clocks out in the stars. He had waited for the moment, and as -the Irrian's head turned, he sprang.</p> - -<p>He didn't try to reach the Irrian himself. He was too far off. He went -for the table with the kerosene lamp on it, which was quite near. He -hooked his fingers under the edge of the table and heaved it over as -hard as he could. The lamp went flying. It hit the floor, splashing hot -oil and flame, and the Irrian screamed. The carpet was suddenly burning -around his feet and little flames blossomed like magic where the oil -spattered his clothes. There was no need for Birrel to tackle him. He -fled screaming into the hall, tearing off his coat and beating in panic -at his legs.</p> - -<p>The room was in darkness now except for the splashes of fire that ran -over the floor and up the window curtains and in erratic streaks on the -wallpaper. Birrel grabbed Kara's hand and lunged for the outer door.</p> - -<p>"Holmer!" she cried frantically, dragging back.</p> - -<p>"He's dead, you heard—come <i>on</i>!" He pulled her, with rough -determination.</p> - -<p>They banged out over the sagging porch-floor into darkness, and he ran, -not toward the car but toward the brush beyond the house, the black -thickets that promised protection.</p> - -<p>He looked over his shoulder and saw the leaping red glow spreading fast -inside the grimy windows. The screams of the Irrian had sunk to a kind -of groaning, and Birrel could hear Vannevan's fierce voice over it.</p> - -<p>He kept tight hold of Kara's wrist, and now they were in the thicket, -moving through saplings and brush. Then Birrel stopped.</p> - -<p>Back there, three dark figures had come out of the house. Two of them -were twined together, as though one half carried the other. The third -was alone and in the lead. They stood silhouetted against the glowing -windows, looking this way and that.</p> - -<p>Birrel whispered to Kara, "Quiet. If we try to get any farther, he'll -hear us."</p> - -<p>"They will search until they find us," she whispered.</p> - -<p>He shook his head. "That house is beginning to burn nicely. I don't -think they'll stay here long."</p> - -<p>He felt her gesture of negation. "I don't understand."</p> - -<p>"We have a thing on Earth called a Fire Department. In the country -every man is his brother's fire warden. Pretty soon the place will be -swarming with trucks and volunteer firemen. Stand still and wait."</p> - -<p>They waited.</p> - -<p>Vannevan and the men spoke together. Finally they left the hurt one to -groan and crawl in the grass, and the two of them began to move back -and forth in the brush, circling out.</p> - -<p>A great plume of flame shot up through some air-shaft in the house and -stood out gloriously above the roof.</p> - -<p>Vannevan and his man had vanished now in the brush. Birrel held Kara's -hand and sweated, and prayed for a sound.</p> - -<p>It came. The hoarse, harsh wailing of a country siren, designed to -waken every sleeping volunteer in the township.</p> - -<p>It rose and fell on the night air, ominous and loud. Vannevan and his -man hastily reappeared in the shaking red light. They picked up the -hurt man and took him limping away between them. They went down the -dark road. Presently, in the distance, Birrel heard a car start.</p> - -<p>When he could not hear it any more he said, "All right, let's go."</p> - -<p>And he took Kara away across the dark brushy fields running, stumbling, -toward a future whose incredible outlines he was beginning vaguely and -against his will to see.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VI</p> - - -<p>They sat together in a brushy hollow by a stream. Frogs chorused in the -marshy spots. The stars swung overhead, above the dark trees. Close by -in the warm night an owl sang a weird fluttering song to his love, and -there were crickets.</p> - -<p>Birrel and Kara spoke of things so strange and far away that they were -doubly unbelievable in this setting.</p> - -<p>Birrel was stubborn. "I've got to take you back to Connor." He had -explained to her who Connor was. "He'll study the facts and decide what -to do. After all, you've got to remember that Earth is our world. It's -more important to us than any other."</p> - -<p>Kara was stubborn, too. "The threat is not against your Earth! It's -against Ruun, my world. I told you—"</p> - -<p>"But your man Rett, the real Rett—he had that probe-ray record of our -most secret atomic installations on him."</p> - -<p>"Of course he did," she said angrily. Birrel gathered that she had -liked Rett, not romantically but as a good comrade in arms. She had -taken the news of his death rather hard. "Why do you think he was there -at all? He took that record from the Irrian. It was the proof we needed -of the Irrians' activities here, so that our government back home will -act before it's too late. If your people hadn't shot him, everything -would have been arranged by now. As it is, it's worse than ever."</p> - -<p>"Look," said Birrel. "I want to believe you, Kara. I do believe you. -But it's just too big a responsibility for me to take on my own -shoulders. Connor—"</p> - -<p>"Connor!" she said contemptuously. "You're afraid."</p> - -<p>"Yes," he said. "I'd be a fool if I wasn't."</p> - -<p>She put her head between her hands and said in a very patient voice, -"I am trying to remember your side of it. Now listen to me once again. -There is a star—you call it Wolf 359. It has several planets, of which -five are inhabited. We, the people of Ruun—"</p> - -<p>"Control four of the five planets," Birrel said, not without a faint -edge of skepticism for the story he had already heard from her.</p> - -<p>"Peaceably," she said. "The other three worlds allied themselves with -us voluntarily. They are completely autonomous. But they are less -favorably situated than Ruun and they can't support large populations, -so they're relatively weak. And they wanted a strong friend, rather -than a strong master—like Ir. Would <i>you</i> enjoy living under Vannevan?"</p> - -<p>He had to admit he would not. "But are the Irrians all like him?"</p> - -<p>"Of course not," said Kara. "But Ir, the fifth world, is ruled by -oligarchs, of whom Vannevan is one. The people of Ir may not like -it—indeed, we've heard some of them don't—but they're pretty well -held down."</p> - -<p>But still, Birrel thought, both parties to this interstellar quarrel -were strangers to him. And anyway, the decision was not his to make.</p> - -<p>He said so, and she said, "But it is yours to make. Nobody else can -make it. There isn't time."</p> - -<p>She plunged on desperately, trying to make him understand. "For -centuries we've fought the Irrian oligarchs to keep them from -dominating the whole system. The only time we had any peace was when -the oligarchs took to fighting among themselves for power at home. -Because of that struggle, many years ago they finally exhausted every -bit of fissionable matter on Ir. We were able to prevent them from -getting any more from our federated planets, and so for a long time -there has been peace. You see? We had atomic weapons, they had not. -They were no longer any danger. And of course we didn't need our strong -military forces any more. All we've had for decades is just enough to -act as an interplanetary police force. And now—"</p> - -<p>"And now the Irrians have stolen a march on you," Birrel said. Kara -had explained the significance of that probe-ray record, and he had -to admit that it seemed to make sense. "They've decided to steal -fissionable material from Earth. So they sent Vannevan and his men here -to spy out our installations preparatory to raiding them. And if that -doesn't constitute a threat to Earth I don't know what does."</p> - -<p>"But the weapons they make won't be used against you!" she cried. -"They'll be used against us, and unless we can mobilize in time we -won't have a chance."</p> - -<p>"Look," said Birrel. "Connor will see to it that our installations are -so heavily guarded that no one can raid them. Then there's no threat to -either of our worlds."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She groaned, as though in despair at trying to deal with an idiot. -"Your prison was strong and carefully guarded. Did we have trouble -breaking into it? Would we have trouble breaking in anywhere? Guards -consist of men and electronic devices. We can blank them both, in many -different ways. So can the Irrians. Your defenses wouldn't hold."</p> - -<p>And Birrel realized with a sinking heart that that was true.</p> - -<p>"But we've got to fight. We've got to do what we can."</p> - -<p>"Yes. Of course you do. And there is only one way." Her voice was -eager now, forceful, hammering home her points with relentless logic.</p> - -<p>"Come back with us to Ruun. Tell the authorities what you know, what -you have actually seen. That will be enough to make them believe and -mobilize. Vannevan and his men are only the forerunners here. A small -fleet must come from Ir for the actual raid. Ruun can stop them, you -cannot. You understand? Your defense is out there!"</p> - -<p>And she pointed at the glittering sky above the trees.</p> - -<p>Birrel followed her gesture and thought, <i>Oh Lord, I can't! I'm scared. -How far is Wolf 359? I never even heard of it.</i></p> - -<p>And then he thought, <i>But she's right. Connor, all our armed -forces—we'd be like babies against a fleet from Ir. We have atomic -weapons but we'd never have the chance to use them. It would be just as -it was at the prison—</i></p> - -<p>He listened to the owl and the crickets and the gurgle of running -water, and smelled the cool sweetness of the summer night and dug his -fingers into the grass because he wanted to hold on to Earth and all -that was familiar.</p> - -<p>But overhead the stars glittered and shone, and there was a decision to -be made.</p> - -<p>"If you want to fight for your world and your people," said Kara -softly, "you must have courage to do what you know is right, even if it -is against orders."</p> - -<p>Yes, thought Birrel. Yes, indeed. Have courage.</p> - -<p>Well, the whole thing had gone wrong from the start. He couldn't see -that he would make it any better by delivering Kara to Connor. The -chances were she couldn't be made to tell anyway where the ship from -Ruun was hidden, and it would undoubtedly take off at the first hint of -danger. And in any case, it seemed that the Irrians were the threat to -Earth, and she didn't know where their ship was. If Kara was telling -the truth, the resultant delay might be fatal to both their causes. He -thought she was telling the truth.</p> - -<p>Very quickly, before he could change his mind, he said, "It seems I -have to go with you to Ruun."</p> - -<p>"Good," she said fiercely. "Good! Then we have a chance." She jumped -to her feet and tugged at him impatiently. "We've wasted too much time -already. Let's go."</p> - -<p>"Now hold on," he said. "We'll make better time if we plan ahead. Where -is your ship?"</p> - -<p>"North. In a wild place beyond a big body of water—I think it's called -the Hudson's Bay."</p> - -<p>Well, if you wanted to hide a spaceship, Birrel thought, that would be -as good a place as any. But it was the devil of a long way off.</p> - -<p>"How did you get down here?"</p> - -<p>"By hopper."</p> - -<p>"By <i>what</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Hopper. A small flier for planetary hops. It's hidden right here in -the woods. We made a shelter for it as soon as we got the farmhouse -and flew it in by night. Before that it was in some mountains where we -first landed. Come on."</p> - -<p>And there was no problem. No problem at all. You found the camouflaged -shelter in the summer woods and you got into the neat impossible craft -that was in it and watched a girl in a tan suit manipulate a couple of -controls with the casual ease of a teen-ager using a record-player. -Some quiet force—compressed air, Birrel thought, remembering -experimental aerodyne models he had seen—lifted the hopper high and -took it away, and the last red coals of a smouldering farmhouse winked -in the black countryside and were gone.</p> - -<p>By dawn they were far north and rifling with incredible speed through -the sky, at a fantastic altitude. Any radarman who chanced to catch -them on his screen would lose them so fast he would never believe he -had seen anything. And Birrel now knew a lot more about Kara and her -people than he had.</p> - -<p>Kara's father had been a high officer in Ruun's intelligence service -in the days when, according to her, the existence of four peaceful -planets hung on its efficiency. She herself, as a kind of proud -inheritance, also belonged to the intelligence service, which in these -later times had dwindled to a small and neglected group of people -dedicated to not trusting the Irrians.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was these intelligence people who had discovered the departure of -the Irrian ship for Earth and deduced the reason for its going. But -official Ruun had refused to be hustled into a panic. They were not -going to put four planets on a full war footing, with all that implied, -merely because a ship had made the voyage to another solar system. -Rather, they thought, this star voyage might well be the beginning of a -new era in peaceful expansion, with the Irrians finally taking a place -in a civilized community of worlds. They had allowed a shipload of -agents from Ruun to follow and check on the Irrians, but no more. And -any future action would be determined by what documented information -they brought back.</p> - -<p>Kara's people had been forced to lose a little time while they learned -the language and customs of the part of Earth they had business in, -well enough to get by. They had done this—as presumably the Irrians -had too—by adapting their televisors to receive terrestrial broadcasts -which they could pull in from amazing distances, and then staring at -them for hours at a time with the help of a philologist and a social -scientist. Then, when they came south after the Irrians, they had been -able to slip quite easily into the polyglot life of New York, which is -accustomed to accents and odd ways.</p> - -<p>"There's the ship," said Kara suddenly.</p> - -<p>She had brought the hopper down in an express-elevator plunge and was -pointing at a wedge-shaped piece of barren land between two rocky arms -at the base of a mountain. The light of the rising sun made a sort of -dazzle in the air, but apart from that there was nothing.</p> - -<p>"I don't see any ship," he said. "Where?"</p> - -<p>"I forgot, you don't have the refraction-type camouflage. When you're -used to it you can spot it without a scope, if you know where to look. -Here." She made rapid adjustments in a small gadget like a camera -view-finder. "This is tuned to our chosen vibration rate. Makes it -harder for an enemy to find us."</p> - -<p>Birrel looked into the 'scope and saw a slim silver spire standing on -the flat land, its nose pointed toward the sky.</p> - -<p>He looked out the port again and saw nothing.</p> - -<p>"Light rays bent in a magnetic field around the ship," she said. -"They'll drop it now. Watch."</p> - -<p>She depressed a switch, activating some automatic signal system. The -dazzle of sunlight vanished and the silver ship was there. She landed -beside it.</p> - -<p>She stepped out and waited for Birrel to follow. He hesitated, looking -at the ship. A hatch opened and a magnetic grapple dropped down toward -the hopper. Below, a much smaller hatch appeared and extruded a ladder. -Once he climbed that ladder, Birrel knew, he was trapped. The ship -would take off and—</p> - -<p>"There's nothing to be afraid of," Kara said, smiling.</p> - -<p>He set his jaw and went with her to the ladder and climbed it and -passed into the ship.</p> - -<p>It smelled like a submarine, of oil and metal and canned air. There was -a man in an odd-looking coverall who stared at him and spoke to Kara. -He heard Kara explaining, and in the meanwhile the lock door behind him -was grinding shut and locking itself with relentless precision.</p> - -<p>Kara said, "This is Thile. He commands the ship."</p> - -<p>Birrel shook hands with him. He was a small lean man with very keen -eyes and a hard competent jaw.</p> - -<p>"So Holmer and Rett are both dead," he said, with grim regret. "Well, -we'll make Vannevan pay for them. Help him strap in, Kara. We're taking -off at once." He looked at Birrel. "If we can get back to Ruun without -delay, you may be able to convince our sheeplike leaders in time. I -hope so."</p> - -<p>He hurried away somewhere forward—or up. Kara took Birrel into a small -cabin where there were several padded couches, and helped him secure -himself with broad webbing straps.</p> - -<p>"Scared?"</p> - -<p>"Not a bit."</p> - -<p>"Liar. Don't worry about it. The first take-off is always the worst." -She leaned over impulsively and kissed him, ludicrously like a mother -tucking a fretful child into bed. The ship suddenly gave a great roar -and a quiver, and a raucous horn began to sound. She scrambled into the -couch next to his.</p> - -<p>Birrel's heart pounded wildly and the blood in his veins turned cold -and thin as water.</p> - -<p>There was noise. A stunning, deafening crescendo of it. Then there was -a feeling of motion. He lay on the top of a rising piston that pressed -him slowly and relentlessly against air compressed into a smaller and -smaller space. He opened his mouth and yelled in panic fear, seeing -himself crushed into a flattened pulp. The cry was lost in the bursting -roar that enveloped the ship. Ages passed. And then miraculously the -pressure eased and finally was gone.</p> - -<p>Thile's voice came suddenly from a speaker in the wall. "Trouble, Kara. -Radar says another ship has taken off from Earth, right behind us."</p> - -<p>Birrel heard her quick, fierce exclamation. "So Vannevan was watching -his radar for our take-off. I knew he'd never let us get back to Ruun -if he could help it!"</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VII</p> - - -<p>They were all in the ship's bridge now. Thile and Kara and a young man -named Vray were conferring tensely with the radarman and checking a -bristling array of instruments.</p> - -<p>Birrel was looking at space.</p> - -<p>The ports on one side were shielded against the sun, so he couldn't see -it. Earth was behind, or below them, so he couldn't see that either. -All he could see was nothing, an infinity of it, without top or -bottom, front or back, beginning or end. The stars floated in it, by -the millions and billions, like shoals of fiery fish gleaming red and -gold and blue and green, white and violet, orange and dull crimson. -They were not crowded. There was plenty of room between them. The -eye was drawn farther and farther into those distances and the body -unconsciously tried to follow, until the mind recoiled from the edge of -some psychic calamity and screamed for solidity. Birrel spun away from -the port and grabbed hold of a stanchion and stood with his eyes shut, -sweating and shaking as though he had just run a race.</p> - -<p>Kara said, "It gets you, doesn't it?"</p> - -<p>He indicated that it did, beyond words. She nodded.</p> - -<p>"It's no different with us. We look up at our summer skies just as -you have, and dream about what it's like. We read books and we see -pictures. But you can't know until you actually get out into space and -see it for yourself. And I don't think you ever get over being awed. I -never have."</p> - -<p>Birrel opened his eyes again, but kept them firmly fixed on the -inside of the bridge. Thile and Vray were still hanging over their -instruments, looking grim.</p> - -<p>"That ship," said Birrel. "It'll try and catch us, I suppose. Stop us -from getting word to Ruun."</p> - -<p>"I can't imagine Vannevan letting us go without a fight." Her voice was -not exactly frightened, but it had a sort of clipped tightness about it -that was far from carefree.</p> - -<p>"Can he? Catch us, I mean?"</p> - -<p>"The Irrians are good spacemen, and their ships are about as fast as -ours. But Thile is a wizard. He can outfly anything in space."</p> - -<p>Thile heard her and looked up. He said sourly, "Thanks. But you might -as well tell him the truth. Vannevan is not going to rely on speed -and skill alone, but on weapons. And we're not carrying any atomic -armaments. The government brains didn't think it was wise, considering -that we were trespassing on a strange world and might conceivably have -an accident, such as falling into a city. They're thoughtful that way."</p> - -<p>"As an Earthman, I appreciate it," said Birrel. "You have conventional -weapons, don't you? That's at least an equal footing."</p> - -<p>"We're not used to them," Thile said. "They are. But we'll do our best. -Believe me."</p> - -<p>He glanced at Vray and nodded.</p> - -<p>"Stand by for translation."</p> - -<p>Birrel looked at Kara.</p> - -<p>"That only means," she said, "that we're going faster."</p> - -<p>"How much faster?"</p> - -<p>"Well, just at first," she said, "about double the speed of light."</p> - -<p>Birrel stopped trying to go along intelligently with any of it. He just -let it happen.</p> - -<p>The lights inside the ship dimmed and burned blue. There was a -screeching whine that rose up and out of hearing, clawing at the nerves -as it went, and then there was a moment of awful vertigo when the ship -and everything in it seemed to slip and fall sideways in an insane -fashion.</p> - -<p>The open ports slid shut automatically. Just before they closed Birrel -caught a glimpse through them of the stars he had been looking at only -a few moments before. They shifted, streamed like burning rain, and -vanished, to be replaced by squiggling lines of lights.</p> - -<p>Then the ports were shut and there was nothing except the personal -sense of disorientation to show that anything had happened.</p> - -<p>Complacently, like one who knows he is dreaming and that therefore -these strange things are not really happening and so need not be taken -seriously, Birrel listened to the voices of the men, speaking technical -words of no meaning to him as they went through what was apparently a -routine check. Then the radarman said,</p> - -<p>"They're right with us."</p> - -<p>Thile grunted. "Full acceleration," he said. "Build up as fast as you -can. Maybe their generators aren't as good as ours."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The whining began again but on a different note. Birrel pictured -himself inside an iron egg flying through space—what kind of -space?—at double, triple, quadruple the speed of light. He erased the -thought from his mind as quickly as he could. He said to Kara,</p> - -<p>"Why haven't people done more star-travelling? You obviously have a -workable drive."</p> - -<p>"We haven't had the time until recently," Kara said. "The Irrians -kept us too busy. Then the few exploratory trips we did make to -neighboring systems were discouraging. In most cases the planets were -uninhabitable, and the ones that did have life forms were pretty awful. -Our government hasn't encouraged star flight. I think they're afraid of -what might come flying back our way."</p> - -<p>The ship quivered and trembled. Birrel thought he could almost feel the -atoms crawling in the metal under his hand.</p> - -<p>"Do you ever hit things?" he asked. "Like stars, I mean."</p> - -<p>"Not very often. But I believe the results are quite spectacular. You -become a nova almost at once."</p> - -<p>He laughed. He did not ask any more questions.</p> - -<p>The whining levelled off at last, refusing to go any higher. A -collection of needles steadied on the main control-board.</p> - -<p>Vray said, "That's it."</p> - -<p>The radarman shook his head and said, "They're still with us."</p> - -<p>The lines deepened in Thile's face, turning it grim and hard.</p> - -<p>"Action stations. We'll try and get them before they get us."</p> - -<p>Birrel said, "What do you want me to do?"</p> - -<p>"Back in your bunk and strap in. This is liable to be rough."</p> - -<p>He shook his head. "There must be something I can do."</p> - -<p>"You'd only be in the way," Kara said. She was already removing a -protective panel from a control-board ominously marked in red. She -smiled, to take the sting out of the words. "You'll need a vac-suit. -Here, Rett's will fit you."</p> - -<p>She took a baggy-looking suit and a plastic helmet out of a locker and -handed it to him. The others were putting on similar suits, leaving the -helmets open. Birrel said, "Why?"</p> - -<p>"In case we're hulled. If you hear the warning-horn, clap your helmet -shut. <i>Fast.</i>"</p> - -<p>She showed him how and then practically pushed him out of the bridge. -He shuffled back to the cabin and lay down on the bunk, feeling worse -than he had at any time since the beginning of this hare-brained -venture. He was scared, and he didn't mind admitting it. If he had been -able to do something, anything at all, it wouldn't have been so bad. -But just to lie here alone in this completely incredible ship, thinking -of the completely incredible but perfectly real destruction that faced -him—that was something no man ought to be asked to do.</p> - -<p>He did it.</p> - -<p>He was able to sense the "feel" of the ship, and from that to gauge the -variations—the slight recoil and shudder as missiles presumably were -launched, the greater perturbations of what could only be the near-miss -blasts of the enemy weapons. It occurred to him that what these -star-folk meant by "conventional weapons" were probably not at all the -simple explosive types referred to by that name on Earth. The technical -problems involved in launching any kind of missile at all at light-plus -speeds were so far beyond him that he didn't even try to figure them. -But there was no doubt that it was being done. Every leap and jar of -the ship told him that unmistakably.</p> - -<p>Even so, Birrel was not prepared for the suddenness and violence of -what happened.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>There was a crash. He felt it physically and heard it, too, this time, -transmitted by the ship's air. He fell upward against the straps as the -gravitational axis of the ship was brutally reversed. The lights dimmed -to an eerie blue and there was a horrible tortured howling of overtaxed -generators. The ship rammed through into normal space with much the -same effort as of a speeding car hitting a stone wall, only greatly -magnified. Birrel heard the warning-horn start. He clapped his helmet -shut, and then inertia flung him into the recoil couch as into a slab -of granite and the joints of the ship began to spring around him. Then -everything was dead, generators, horn, everything. The ship was silent -except for one sound, the hiss of escaping air.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Stunned but still, incredibly, alive, Birrel unfastened the straps and -floated out of the couch.</p> - -<p>The ship was still moving, but there was no longer any gravity field -to speak of. Birrel was in free fall. He floated like a great clumsy -balloon out of the cabin and toward the bridge, clawing his way while -the ship bent and wavered and wobbled around him, its rigid frame gone -limp. As limp as his own body felt. Currents of escaping air whirled -papers, garments, pieces of equipment, bits of wreckage wildly around -in the interior. He was in a panic lest his helmet be cracked or his -suit torn.</p> - -<p>The bridge was a shambles of buckled steel and shattered glass. The -radarman was crumpled among the remains of his equipment, which had -toppled and crushed him. Thile, strapped into the pilot's chair, was -stirring feebly. Birrel looked frantically around for Kara.</p> - -<p>She was strapped into a recoil chair in front of the fire-control -panel. He thought at first she was dead, but when he looked closer he -could see that she was breathing. There was nothing he could do for her -at the moment and she was safer where she was, so he left her and went -to help Thile. There was no sign of Vray at all, except for a few small -red icicles formed on the edge of a jagged rift in the hull through -which everything movable in the bridge had already been sucked.</p> - -<p>Thile's voice came faintly through the helmet audio. "I told you they -were better shots."</p> - -<p>"Are you hurt?"</p> - -<p>"Are you?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know yet. Haven't had time."</p> - -<p>"Nor me," said Thile. "I can stand up, so I guess I'll live." Blood was -trickling from his helmet. He snuffled at it and made futile pawing -motions at his helmet. "Well, that does it. Vannevan's won hands down." -He swore, a dejected and bitter man. "Four good men dead, and all for -nothing. It wasn't even a good try."</p> - -<p>He pointed through the riven wall, to the black peaceful gulf beyond -with the far stars shining in it.</p> - -<p>"See there?"</p> - -<p>There was a ship, matching its pace to the slow drift of the derelict. -From its slim belly a much smaller craft dropped and jetted fire.</p> - -<p>"They'll be aboard us in a few minutes."</p> - -<p>Remembering how Vannevan had conducted his questioning at the -farmhouse, Birrel could see little hope. If he and Thile and Kara were -going to be at Vannevan's mercy, they might better have gone the way of -Vray and the radarman.</p> - -<p>Unless—</p> - -<p>"Listen," said Birrel suddenly, "Listen, there's one thing we might -do." He went over to Kara and shook her until she opened her eyes. -"There isn't much time, you've both got to play along with me or it -won't work. It might give us an edge, to use against Vannevan. Listen—"</p> - -<p>He spoke rapidly, forcefully, and they listened, while the life-boat -of the Irrian ship came closer, riding its fiery jet across the black -gulf outside.</p> - -<p>Thile said, "It might work—"</p> - -<p>"It'll be dangerous," whispered Kara. "If he finds out—"</p> - -<p>"I don't figure I have much to lose anyway," said Birrel dryly. "Hurry -up!"</p> - -<p>When Vannevan and his men came into the broken ship they found Thile -and Kara clinging quietly together, apart from the Earthman Birrel, who -was strapped into a recoil chair with his hands bound tightly behind -him.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER VIII</p> - - -<p>There were six of the Irrians, counting Vannevan. They wore vac-suits -and they were all armed. Two of them went immediately to Thile and -Kara and searched them for weapons, but they had none. The time for -resistance was past.</p> - -<p>Another man, on Vannevan's instructions, began to tear open the lockers -that were still intact, looking for papers. The others stood guard. -They handled themselves easily, experts at null gravity.</p> - -<p>Birrel looked at Vannevan and said sourly, "Out of the frying pan into -the fire. I don't know which of you is worse."</p> - -<p>Vannevan's eyes were bright, cruel, competent and happy. Very happy. -He had wiped out, and with interest, the defeat he had suffered at the -farmhouse. He had crushed the Ruunites completely. For him, it was a -good day.</p> - -<p>He smiled at Birrel. "You see what happens to meddlers."</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't call it meddling," Birrel said. "We caught a spy. It was -natural to want to know who he was working for, and why."</p> - -<p>"When you found out," Vannevan said, "why didn't you report back to -your superiors? You were free. I remember distinctly that you were -free."</p> - -<p>Birrel indicated Kara with a savage movement of his chin. "She talked -me out of it, damn her. With a gun."</p> - -<p>"So," said Vannevan, and smiled, and shook his head. "But she had no -weapon. I myself had seen to that."</p> - -<p>"She had one," Birrel said bitterly. "In the hopper. She told me -there was another car hidden there for emergencies, and like a fool, -I believed her. Instead there was that flying-thing, and she pulled a -weapon from inside it. The next thing I knew I was aboard this ship, a -prisoner. They were going to take me back to Ruun whether I wanted to -go or not."</p> - -<p>Kara spoke sullenly. "His people killed Rett. It was the least we -could do."</p> - -<p>"Listen," said Birrel, struggling angrily against the straps that held -him. "I don't give a curse what quarrel you have between you. I don't -care if you blow each other's worlds out of the sky. I'm an Earthman. I -don't belong here. I—"</p> - -<p>He looked around at the broken ship, at space gaping monstrously beyond -the riven hull. It was not difficult for Birrel to let an expression of -fear come into his face.</p> - -<p>"I want to go back," he said.</p> - -<p>Vannevan looked at him. "How badly?"</p> - -<p>Birrel would not meet his eyes. He muttered, "Bad enough."</p> - -<p>"Well," said Vannevan. "We'll see." He motioned to one of his men. "Cut -him loose. Did you find anything?"</p> - -<p>The Irrian who had been searching shook his head, and Thile said, "I -could have told you. We don't keep written records."</p> - -<p>Vannevan shrugged and said, "Let's go."</p> - -<p>They floated gracefully through the ship, with Birrel lumbering and -floundering in their midst. They passed through the airless lock and -into the life-craft. In a short time they were being taken up into the -belly-pod of the Irrian ship, and a little while after that Birrel -found himself a prisoner with Thile and Kara in a locked cabin.</p> - -<p>The ship paused only long enough to finish the destruction of the -derelict. Then it went into overdrive, on its way to Ir.</p> - -<p>During the rest of the voyage, knowing full well that they were being -watched, the three kept up their pretense of hostility. But Birrel came -more and more to admire Thile and Kara. They were personally defeated -and in a desperate situation. Their mission was a failure. Their world -and way of life, which had hung on that mission, were threatened with -destruction. But they clung quietly to their hope and courage and never -whined—in striking contrast to Birrel himself, whose part called for -constant complaint.</p> - -<p>Birrel thought he was establishing himself sufficiently well as a -frightened man who might be talked into doing almost anything for the -right reward. He hoped so. Because not only his own life but the lives -of Thile and Kara depended upon that, not to speak of the safety of -several worlds, including his own. He was a little upset to discover -that Kara's safety loomed larger in importance than anything else. He -decided then that he was in love with her.</p> - -<p>There came finally a time when the warning rang, and the lights burned -blue and the ship shuddered, and then the port unmasked.</p> - -<p>"We're out of overdrive," said Thile. "We're there."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>An awe fell on Birrel as he looked out the port with them. The ship, in -normal space again, was sweeping in a curved pattern toward a sun whose -diamond incandescence eclipsed the stars.</p> - -<p>Almost lost in that overpowering glare, three points of light swung -far on the other side of this system. It was toward the biggest of the -three that Thile and Kara were gazing.</p> - -<p>"Ruun," whispered Kara. "If they only knew, if we could only get a -message to them—"</p> - -<p>Thile said bitterly, "What good would it do even if we <i>could</i> send a -warning? Our cautious government would merely say, as they did before, -'You have no proof that the Irrians mean war, and without proof we -cannot act'."</p> - -<p>The ship swung on in its landing-pattern and now, below, Birrel saw a -planet coming up toward them.</p> - -<p>It was a scarred world of black-and-green. He thought at first that -these were land-and-water divisions, but as they went lower he saw that -they were not—that the green were fertile plains but that the ominous -black areas were utterly lifeless lands, black and blasted and barren.</p> - -<p>"That's what the oligarchs of Ir have made of their world," said -Kara. "Those burned-out regions are the scars of their wars between -themselves. And now, with no fissionable matter left, they must go to -space for the means of destruction!"</p> - -<p>The ship went down toward one of the wide green areas. There was a -city here—a far-stretching grimness of gray, massive buildings, with -a movement of hoppers and ground-cars over and through it. A spaceport -lay outside the city, with the silver towers of many ships there -flashing back the diamond sun.</p> - -<p>They felt the landing. Then there was silence. They waited for Vannevan -to come, but he did not. Instead, armed Irrian guards came and marched -them out of the ship onto a blackened concrete apron. They stood there -for a few minutes, in a chill wind.</p> - -<p>Birrel thought, shivering, "<i>Not Earth, this world I stand on. Not my -own world—</i>"</p> - -<p>The diamond blaze of sunlight was wrong, the color of the sky was -wrong, the too-light feeling of his body was strange. The silver ship -behind them, the great gray city ahead, all wrong, queer—</p> - -<p>"Remember your plan," whispered Kara.</p> - -<p>Birrel steadied. He had a part to play, and upon how he carried it -through might depend their last slender chance. He played that part now.</p> - -<p>He gave a vivid imitation of a man who was in a panic. He looked up at -the sun and cried out and shut his eyes, and then opened them again -and looked wildly around him. Then, crying out in a voice edged with -hysteria, he broke back toward the spaceship.</p> - -<p>The guards grabbed him and hauled him back. He told them shrilly, "I -can't stay here, I won't stay—I want to go back—"</p> - -<p>The Irrian guards laughed at him. When a covered vehicle not unlike a -light truck came speeding up, they shoved him and Kara and Thile into -it and got in after them, still laughing.</p> - -<p>As the truck sped into the city, Birrel shivered, and looked at -everything in a numb, scared way.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The city was as grim as it had looked from afar. The gray, utilitarian -cement building-material used universally did not make for beauty. The -men and women in the streets were mostly in a drab sort of coverall -garment that was not beautiful either. Birrel saw them looking at the -truck and guards as they passed, and he thought there was a sullenness -in some of the watching faces. He remembered what Kara had said, that -many of the Irrian people were discontented with their oligarchs' rule -but were held down tightly. He thought they looked it.</p> - -<p>The truck turned finally into a courtyard and stopped. Heavy gates were -locked behind it. Birrel and the others were ordered out. He managed to -get close to Kara and give her hand a reassuring touch. Then they were -taken inside a building made of greenish stone, instead of cement, with -ominous-looking horizontal slits in the walls in place of windows.</p> - -<p>Inside, without a word of explanation, they were separated. Thile and -Kara were marched away up a stairway while Birrel's guards took him on -down a main hallway. The hall was painted a utilitarian gray and it had -guards stationed at regular intervals. About halfway down there was a -door with a double guard in front of it. Birrel's armed escort stopped -him here, spoke to the guard, who spoke to someone inside by means of -an intercom with a small video screen. Presently the door opened and -Birrel was ushered inside.</p> - -<p>Vannevan sat at one side of a big square table. A second man, older -than Vannevan and that much more experienced in the ways of those who -wage war out of choice and not necessity, sat behind it. His face was a -mask, his curiously opaque eyes watching Birrel narrowly as the guards -were sent away.</p> - -<p>Vannevan said, "This is our Earthman." And to Birrel he said, "This is -Wolt, our Minister of Defense."</p> - -<p>Birrel refrained from making the obvious comment. From here on he was -on his own and had to be careful. Any hope of advantage he might gain -by making the Irrians think he was their not unwilling tool could be -lost by a single incautious word.</p> - -<p>"I understand," said Wolt, "that the Ruunites kidnapped you and brought -you into space by force."</p> - -<p>"They did."</p> - -<p>"A serious act. And I understand that you are quite anxious to return -to your world."</p> - -<p>Birrel said eagerly, "Can I, is there any way? I can't take this, space -and stars and a world I never saw, I've got to get back—"</p> - -<p>He saw Wolt and Vannevan watching him keenly as he babbled in pretended -hysteria, and he thought they looked satisfied by what they saw.</p> - -<p>Wolt said, "Some of our ships will be going back to Earth on a -mission. You could go back with them, if—"</p> - -<p>"If?" prompted Birrel eagerly.</p> - -<p>Vannevan answered. "You're a secret agent of a great Earth power. You -could assist our mission."</p> - -<p>Now Birrel's face became apprehensive, cautious. "Just how do you mean -that, Vannevan? Listen, I want to go back, sure. But I'm not going to -betray any secrets or help you steal plutonium or—"</p> - -<p>Wolfs hard voice cut in. "Let's consider the situation realistically. -The loss of some fissionable material will make very little difference -to Earth, with its enormous resources. Isn't that so?"</p> - -<p>Cautiously, grudgingly, Birrel said that he couldn't see that it would -make much difference, no.</p> - -<p>"Now you must accept one fact. No matter what you as an individual may -or may not do, we are going to take those materials. The very life of -our planet depends on it. You understand that?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"Very well. Now the decision that faces you is this. Will you be doing -your world a greater service by denying us the information we want and -thereby forcing us to take possible violent measures in carrying out -our mission—or by helping us do it quietly and thus saving a great -number of lives?"</p> - -<p>"Think of the weapons we have," Vannevan said. "Think how your Earthmen -are armed. You know how much chance they have of fighting us off."</p> - -<p>Birrel thought they would have a very good chance, but he didn't say -so. He frowned, and looked uneasily at the floor.</p> - -<p>"What would you want me to do?"</p> - -<p>"Vannevan tells me that your people are in possession of a certain -probe-ray record that was taken from our man. We'd want that back."</p> - -<p>"That's impossible," Birrel said. "The President himself couldn't get -at it."</p> - -<p>Wolt shrugged. "In that case, you would have to supply us with similar -information."</p> - -<p>There was a long silence. Then Birrel said, with just the right lack of -conviction,</p> - -<p>"No, I can't do it."</p> - -<p>Vannevan stood up. "I think we'd better show him the cavern, Wolt. I -don't believe he understands yet just how much the safety of Earth -depends on him."</p> - -<p>Wolt nodded. He rose, too, and walked to the wall. It appeared -perfectly blank and solid, but under the pressure of his hand a segment -of it swung in, revealing a tiny lift. The three men got in, the door -closed, and the lift plunged down.</p> - -<p>Birrel tried to keep his excitement well hidden. His act was already -paying off—apparently they were about to show him something that even -the Ruunites didn't know about.</p> - -<p>Just how he might use that knowledge to help himself and his two -friends he could not figure yet. But his stretch in the OSS had taught -him well. Keep your mind alert and flexible, play it by ear, and wait -for the break which may come in a hundred ways and from the most -unexpected sources.</p> - -<p>The lift let them out onto a narrow platform beside a car that ran from -a track through a tunnel hollowed roughly out of bedrock underneath the -city. They got into it and the car shot through stale darkness relieved -by a few dim lights. It went fast.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Birrel stole a glance at the other two men, and decided against any -precipitate action. Vannevan had something hidden in his hand, and it -would be something small and nastily potent as a weapon, he was sure. -He'd wait, play it along—</p> - -<p>There was light again, sudden and bright. The car burst into it, into -vast and unexpected space. For a second Birrel thought they had come -back to the surface again. Then he saw the rocky vault high overhead -and the walls going away on either side and he knew it was a mammoth -cavern.</p> - -<p>The car stopped. They stepped out onto a platform.</p> - -<p>"This way," said Wolt. "I want you to see it all."</p> - -<p>They moved off the platform and onto a railed shelf cut out of the -rocky wall. And Birrel stared in amazement.</p> - -<p>The end of the tunnel and the shelf on which they stood were about -halfway up the cavern wall. Below, and stretching away as far as he -could see, rank upon rank of great metal shapes stood, some painted in -dour red or gray, others naked, gleaming steel or copper. There was -no one in the cavern, no sound, no movement—nothing but the brooding -silence and the loom of the endless rows of enigmatic mechanisms.</p> - -<p>Wolt and Vannevan looked down on them, with the faces of men who see a -beautiful and splendid vision. And Wolt said,</p> - -<p>"Do you know what those are?"</p> - -<p>Birrel said, "No."</p> - -<p>"And how should you? Your world is still in the nursery. Those are -weapons—or they will be, when they are mounted in ships. Mighty -weapons, that lack just one thing—the fissionable matter that must -power them. The matter that our world doesn't have. Perhaps you -understand now why we must raid your atomic stockpiles?"</p> - -<p>"But," said Birrel, staring wide-eyed at the terrifying array of giants -below him, "where are your ships? You'd need hundreds—"</p> - -<p>"We have them," Vannevan said. "All we need to put at end to the -domination of Ruun forever."</p> - -<p>He turned to Birrel with an expression of serious and friendly candor -that might have fooled him if he not known Vannevan so well.</p> - -<p>"We have no interest whatsoever in Earth as a conquest. But don't -overlook the fact that now the Ruunites know how rich your planet is. -They might decide to take it over, just as they've taken over every -world in this system but Ir. So in helping us break Ruun's power, -you're actually protecting your own world. Now what do you say?"</p> - -<p>Birrel looked out over the silent cavern with the endless ranks of -deadly machines. He pretended to be miserable, torn between doubt and -longing. Finally he said,</p> - -<p>"I've got to think it over. Give me time—"</p> - -<p>Wolt started to speak, but Vannevan shot him a look and said easily, -"Of course, take all the time you want. There will be several days -before the ships are ready."</p> - -<p>"Ships?"</p> - -<p>"Going to Earth. I'll be going with them, of course, to lead the raid. -Or I should say, ahead of them. They'll wait in space until they get my -signal. You could come back with me, if you decide to help."</p> - -<p>Again, on a note of desperation, Birrel said, "I've got to think."</p> - -<p>They took him back to the car and through the tunnel and into the -building again. There guards took him upstairs and placed him in a -small square room without even slits in the wall, furnished with a bed, -a table, and a chair. They locked the door and left him alone there, -with nothing to do and nothing to see, and nothing even to hear but the -soft blowing of air through an iron-barred duct in the ceiling.</p> - -<p>Maximum security, and no distractions. In this place a man couldn't do -anything but think.</p> - -<p>Food was brought. The guard who brought it admitted it was now night -outside, but he refused to say anything about Kara and Thile, where -they were or if they were still alive.</p> - -<p>Birrel ate. A little after that the lights went off. He groped his way -to the bed and lay down, trying to see a way out, a way to help Thile -and Kara and stop the evil that was about to be done, and seeing only -darkness.</p> - -<p>Eventually, without meaning to, he fell asleep.</p> - -<p>He was wakened by a sound. It was a very slight sound, and it took him -a minute to identify it as the clink and creak of an iron grating being -moved. By that time it was too late.</p> - -<p>Somebody was already in the dark room, and before Birrel could call out -a man's body was on top of him and strong hands were fastening on his -throat.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER IX</p> - - -<p>Birrel had been close to death before, but never closer. Those hands -clamped down, shutting off voice and breath, and the weight of a -powerful body bore on him, holding him. He heard quick harsh breathing, -and then the booming of his own blood in his ears drowned it out. He -clawed at the wrists that would not be moved, and felt the first cold -edge of darkness sliding over him.</p> - -<p>Then memory circuits clicked over—circuits long unused, but needing -only the right stimulus to activate them.</p> - -<p>Birrel put his two clenched fists together and rammed them upward with -the desperate strength of an animal that knows it has to shake itself -loose or die. The fists hit something and there was a noise in the dark -above him. The hands on his throat loosened a little and he thrashed -his arms up and back at the same time he got what purchase he could -with his feet and heaved.</p> - -<p>The hands let go. The body floundered on him, not wanting to be thrown -off. He pounded at it, wildly, viciously, gasping air into his lungs. -He felt hair under his fingers. He grabbed a fistful of it and hauled -it sideways. Someone whimpered and cursed, not making much noise about -it. He hauled and heaved and the body rolled off him and thumped onto -the floor. Instantly, Birrel threw himself on top of it.</p> - -<p>And now it was his turn.</p> - -<p>He dug his knee into a yielding belly and heard the breath go out. -Fists flailed at his face but he kept his head pulled in between his -hunched-up shoulders. He pawed in the dark and found an ear, and then -another one, and he held onto them like handles and beat the skull -between them up and down on the floor.</p> - -<p>"Who is it?" he snarled. "Vannevan? No, he doesn't like his odds this -even. But he sent you, didn't he?"</p> - -<p>A hoarse, half-articulate "<i>No!</i>" came from the man pinned beneath him.</p> - -<p>Birrel paused. "The devil he didn't."</p> - -<p>"The devil he did. I'd kill that murdering bastard too, if I could get -my hands on him." The man squirmed and sobbed for breath. "Anyway, why -would Vannevan want to kill you? You're going to help him."</p> - -<p>"How do you know?" asked Birrel, his eyes narrowing in the dark.</p> - -<p>"The whole underground knows it. You're helping him get fissionables -from your world. Why do you think I'm here? To keep you from doing it!"</p> - -<p>He erupted into sudden action, catching Birrel off guard as he grappled -with this new concept of an Irrian underground opposed to Vannevan. It -wasn't too surprising, remembering those sullen faces in the streets. -But then they were rolling over, clawing and pounding at each other. -Now, though, Birrel's movements were chiefly defensive.</p> - -<p>"Hold it," he panted. "Hold it! I've got an idea that we're on the same -side."</p> - -<p>The man laughed hoarsely and went on hunting for his throat.</p> - -<p>"All right," said Birrel. "We'll play it your way."</p> - -<p>He gave the man a slashing blow with the edge of his hand, guessing at -the distance. It hit a little low on the shoulder, but it jarred him -enough to slow him down. Birrel moved quickly. In a second he had his -forearm under the man's chin, in a strangle-hold. He applied pressure, -and the man became quiet.</p> - -<p>He let up. "Now will you listen?"</p> - -<p>The man whispered, "Yes."</p> - -<p>"There's an underground movement here, against Vannevan and Wolt and -the other oligarchs?"</p> - -<p>"Against war. We're sick of it. You must have seen what it's done -to our world. So we organized ourselves when this plan to steal -fissionables from another solar system came up." He struggled against -Birrel's grip. "Today we heard Vannevan had brought back an Earthman -who was going to help—"</p> - -<p>"Relax," said Birrel. "I'm not going to help Vannevan do anything." He -explained rapidly. "I was stalling for time, waiting for a chance to -make a break. Get me out of here, and I'll prove it."</p> - -<p>The man remained unconvinced.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Impatiently, Birrel hauled him to his feet. "Two friends of mine, -Ruunites, are somewhere in this building. If you could get to me, you -can get to them. I want them freed. And I want to talk to the leaders -of your underground. Between us I think we might have a chance to stop -Vannevan and his party for good. Anyway, what have you got to lose? If -your people have me, I can't help Vannevan."</p> - -<p>The man said, grudgingly, "Well, all right. I can get to your friends -if you really want them freed. I helped build this place." He stepped -away from Birrel, rubbing his throat. "Take off your shoes and any -metal you have on you."</p> - -<p>Birrel did as he was told.</p> - -<p>"Now reach up toward the grating. You'll find a knotted rope. Be as -quiet as you can."</p> - -<p>Birrel climbed the rope, to a place where the duct became level enough -to crawl in. He heard the man replace the grating behind them. Then he -joined him, and they began a slow mole-like journey through the maze -of air-ducts that supplied these inner cells of the Ministry's private -prison.</p> - -<p>The man found his way quite easily. At every intersection of the ducts -luminous code-numbers glowed—"To help us when we make repairs," the -man whispered, and laughed. "We use the ducts all the time for spying. -I suppose tonight will finish their usefulness, but we'll find some -other way."</p> - -<p>The underground had known where Thile and Kara were prisoned almost as -soon as they had been put there. Twice the knotted rope was let down -and twice gratings were removed and then replaced. Birrel went down -after Kara himself and took a second or two to hold her in his arms -before he lifted her into the duct.</p> - -<p>Some time later, he had no idea how long, they had worked their way -down below the level of the building and into a dry conduit that -their guide said was left over from an earlier day, before the city -was rebuilt. The conduit took them for some distance, and then they -climbed a flight of wooden stairs into a cellar, and from there went -up into the main room of a modest house, where half a dozen active and -hard-faced men sat waiting.</p> - -<p>They sprang up when Birrel and the others came in, two or three of them -pulling weapons. There was a period of heated conversation, and then -one of the men shouted for order and got it.</p> - -<p>"Now then," he said, "let's hear about it. You first."</p> - -<p>He listened, and the others listened, and all the time they watched -Birrel with hatred and distrust.</p> - -<p>Impatiently, before the man was through telling why he had not killed -the Earthman, Birrel broke in on him to speak to Thile and Kara.</p> - -<p>"They showed me something today," he said. "Vannevan and Wolt. A cavern -full of armaments—enough to blow Ruun out of the sky as soon as they -get the fissionable material they need."</p> - -<p>Thile said, "We had an idea there was such a place, but we could never -pin it down."</p> - -<p>"Neither could we," said the man who seemed to be the leader of the -group. He looked hard at Birrel. "It's a mighty well-kept secret."</p> - -<p>"There's a direct way into it from Wolt's office," Birrel said, and -described it. "Now listen. If we can get away, get word to Ruun—"</p> - -<p>"If you're thinking of ships, it's impossible. They're too well guarded -on the ground, and the batteries would blow you apart before you could -clear the atmosphere."</p> - -<p>"Well, then," said Birrel, "is there any way to send a message? Can you -communicate from world to world?"</p> - -<p>"Quite easily," said Thile. "But there it comes down to the same old -thing. Proof."</p> - -<p>"For God's sake," said Birrel, "how much proof do they need?"</p> - -<p>"Quite a bit, to get them to act in time. I assume that's what you have -in mind, isn't it? Blast the cavern and destroy the armaments?"</p> - -<p>"I want to stop that fleet from taking off for Earth. If he hasn't any -way to use fissionable matter, Vannevan may not be in such a rush to -get it."</p> - -<p>The other men were listening now with intense interest. They seemed to -have forgotten a lot of their distrust in the excitement of learning -about the cavern. The leader, who said his name was Shannock, said -fiercely,</p> - -<p>"Those armaments have taken years of work and a fortune in money, taxed -out of our pockets. They've kept us poor, when we might have been -building up trade and business on a peaceful world. If they were wiped -out, the war party would go with them."</p> - -<p>Thile said wistfully, "It's a beautiful thought. But by the time our -cautious leaders on Ruun have assured themselves that they're not -making a mistake, it'll be far too late."</p> - -<p>"There must be some way," Birrel said, striding around in an agony of -frustration. "<i>Some</i> way. Some—listen, can you transmit visually, from -world to world? Could you send a picture to Ruun?"</p> - -<p>"Of course," said Shannock, rather shocked at his ignorance. "The -interplanetary automatic relay system has been working ever since we -learned how to build spaceships."</p> - -<p>Then a queer look came over his face.</p> - -<p>"You mean to transmit right from the cavern?"</p> - -<p>"That would be proof enough, wouldn't it?" Birrel demanded. "If we -showed them the actual cavern, down to the actual armaments?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Looking a little stunned, Thile said it ought to be proof enough for -anyone. "There's just one question. How are you going to do it?"</p> - -<p>"Technically, can it really be done?"</p> - -<p>"With a special type of transmitter, yes."</p> - -<p>Birrel looked at the men of the underground. "If you'll help, we ought -to be able to make a pretty good try. How many men can you muster in a -hurry—armed?"</p> - -<p>"About twenty," Shannock said. "Besides us."</p> - -<p>"And can you get portable equipments?"</p> - -<p>"Easy. We can get into the Ministry building, too, by a way we know. -But from then on we'll have to fight. Likely some of us won't make it."</p> - -<p>"Likely," Birrel admitted, thinking privately that probably none of -them would make it all the way. "But since we're all due for the -gallows one way or another, this looks like our only chance to make -Wolt and Vannevan sweat. Want to try it?"</p> - -<p>"Give me half an hour," said Shannock. His eyes blazed with a feral -light.</p> - -<p>Birrel waited. It was a little less than a half hour and it seemed like -no time at all because he spent it talking to Kara, and the things -he wanted to say to her would have taken hours. Perhaps years. When -finally, armed now and accompanied by twenty-seven determined men of -the underground, he and Thile started back through the conduit, Kara -went with them. There was no safe place to leave her, and in any case -Kara was a soldier, share and share alike. She carried a weapon and -walked beside Birrel, and after a while it didn't seem strange to him -that she should do so, but rather as it should be.</p> - -<p>This time they did not enter the duct system. They came through a -drainage pit into an unused cellar, and from there directly into the -main hall of the Ministry.</p> - -<p>It was past midnight and the building was quiet. The guards stood -at their posts, but the eruption of armed men into the hall came so -suddenly that they had only time for a few scattered shots before they -were dropped. Shouts and sounds of alarm and running feet came from -other parts of the building. Leaving one man on the floor of the hall, -the attacking party rushed into Wolt's office and barred the door.</p> - -<p>"Hold it," Birrel panted, "while I find the right stone."</p> - -<p>He pawed frantically at the wall, trying to remember exactly where Wolt -had placed his hand. Outside there was a tramping of feet and a growing -clamor of voices. "Can't you find it?" Thile said.</p> - -<p>Shannock ordered his men back from the door. They grouped themselves -behind Birrel with the men who carried the portable transmitter in -their center. "You better find it," Shannock said, "or—"</p> - -<p>His words were drowned in a roaring crash as the door was blown in. -Weapons began to hiss and whine. "Hold them, hold them," Birrel begged. -"Here it is—"</p> - -<p>The stone shifted under his fingers. The concealed door swung open. -Birrel pushed Kara through it and then the men with the transmitter. -They packed into the small lift and shot down, still firing as the -automatic door slammed shut. They had lost four more in the office.</p> - -<p>"There's no guard in the cavern itself, they didn't want too many -knowing about it," Birrel said. "But they'll soon be after us from this -end."</p> - -<p>They wrecked the lift door as well as they could, hoping to cripple it, -and then loaded themselves into the car and raced away down the dark -tunnel.</p> - -<p>"They'll come after us, yes, but it'll take them a little time to -walk," said Shannock.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The car rushed out of the dark and into the cavern, stopping by the -lighted platform. And in this great space of looming, silent, ugly -metal shapes, their voices and the noises they made seemed loud.</p> - -<p>Shannock rattled out orders. "Set up your transmitter on the shelf -here. Wreck that car. Then we'd better split our forces. Half here to -hold the tunnel, half down below in case they come in by some other -way."</p> - -<p>Thile and Kara stayed with the technicians. They were going to have -to do the talking. Birrel stayed at the tunnel mouth, with Shannock's -lieutenant and half the men. Shannock and the rest of the men climbed -down a spiral steel stair that dropped dizzily from the shelf to the -cavern floor.</p> - -<p>They had collected extra weapons from their own fallen and from guards -they had killed in the building, and with these they crouched down -behind the barrier of the wrecked car.</p> - -<p>Birrel watched the technicians out on the shelf. He had gathered that -they had ways of surmounting what would have been insurmountable -difficulties on Earth, using types of impulses and rectifiers and -carrier-beams unknown there. The equipment did not particularly -resemble television equipment as he knew it. Anyway, the technicians -seemed to know what they were doing. He hoped they did. It would be a -pity to go to all this trouble for nothing.</p> - -<p>He saw Thile, and then Kara, making animated gestures as they -talked into the transmitter. They were, apparently, going to have -time at least to get the message on its way. Then, with terrifying -unexpectedness, the voice of God seemed to speak from the air, -deafening them.</p> - -<p>"Lay down your arms!" it said. "Surrender—you are surrounded on all -sides—"</p> - -<p>"Amplifiers," said Birrel. "They must have needed them to order things -done, in a place this size. Look out, now. They'll rush us any minute—"</p> - -<p>And they did, coming out of the dark tunnel in a fury of flashing beams -from their weapons.</p> - -<p>From behind the wrecked car someone threw an energy-grenade and then -another. The results were a little too good. The whole roof of the -tunnel fell in, effectively blocking it to the enemy, but also sealing -off any possibility of fighting their way back out through it.</p> - -<p>Birrel looked around. Thile and Kara and the technicians were still -sticking to their task. Down below, on the cavern floor, Shannock had -driven back an attack, but from up here Birrel could see the men hiding -among the looming machines and knew how badly Shannock was outnumbered.</p> - -<p>He flung himself down the spiral stair, and the others followed. -The loudspeakers roared monotonously overhead, ordering them to -surrender. Birrel took up a position behind a huge looming metal bulk -and then looked up at the shelf. Thile, Kara and the technicians had -disappeared. A second later he saw them coming at breakneck speed down -the stair, and in almost the same second something exploded with a -blinding flash on the shelf and the transmitter vanished.</p> - -<p>"Surrender," said the amplifiers. "We will grant you a fair trial -if you do, but if you do not you will be killed to the last one. -Surrender—"</p> - -<p>Thile and Kara joined Birrel behind his metal bulwark, panting.</p> - -<p>"Did you get through?" he cried.</p> - -<p>"We don't know. There wasn't time to receive acknowledgement."</p> - -<p>"Here they come!" yelled Shannock.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>And they came, slipping among the looming shapes of potential -destruction, firing, killing, being killed, being for the second time -driven back.</p> - -<p>And now for a moment the amplifiers fell silent and another voice spoke -close at hand. Vannevan's voice.</p> - -<p>"Count your dead. You can't replace them, but we can. How long can you -hold out?"</p> - -<p>"As long as there's one of us left!" Shannock shouted back.</p> - -<p>"That won't be long, will it? Don't be a fool, man. Surrender."</p> - -<p>Birrel answered him. "You'll be the one to surrender, when the ships -come from Ruun."</p> - -<p>Vannevan laughed. "The Earthman. You still think the Ruunites will -fight, eh? They won't."</p> - -<p>They attacked again, and were again fought off—or rather, Birrel -thought, they withdrew, content to hack away at their opponents' -numbers without exposing themselves any more than they had to.</p> - -<p>The amplifiers spoke again. But suddenly the voice had a different -tone, and it did not talk about surrender.</p> - -<p>"A message has just been received from Ruun. Ruunite ships will -position over this target in one hour and destroy it. All persons are -warned to get clear of the area at once. I repeat that message. Ruunite -ships will position—"</p> - -<p>Pandemonium broke out in the rebel ranks.</p> - -<p>"You hear that, Vannevan?" Birrel shouted. "You're through."</p> - -<p>Vannevan did not answer.</p> - -<p>The amplifiers fell silent. Birrel looked at Thile, and then at -Shannock, who said,</p> - -<p>"They're not going away."</p> - -<p>"Vannevan," said the amplifiers, "this is Wolt. I am leaving as of now -and I advise you to do so. There's no virtue like knowing when it's -time to run."</p> - -<p>Still there was no sound or sign from Vannevan.</p> - -<p>The amplifiers were silent. In the distance were noises made by people -going away.</p> - -<p>One of the men, impatient, sprang up and into the open aisle between -the machines. "Hell," he said, "they must have gone. We'd better—"</p> - -<p>He died between words, and suddenly from where they had crept close -seven or eight men sprang out and rushed, firing. Vannevan led them. -There would be no peace, no surrender, no flight for Vannevan.</p> - -<p>He saw Birrel with Thile and Kara and he smiled and flung his weapon -up, and Birrel shot him just before his finger touched the firing-stud.</p> - -<p>Those of the seven or eight who were still alive threw their weapons -down.</p> - -<p>Shannock said, "I guess we can go now."</p> - -<p>They followed the captive soldiers to the far entrance of the cavern, -leaving Vannevan where he had fallen among the machines.</p> - -<p>An hour later, Birrel stood with the others in the forefront of a -close-packed crowd outside the city, and watched the great Ruunite -ships position over a particular spot. Mighty lightnings crashed -downward from their bellies. Smoke and dust and shattered rock rose -in a vast cloud, and settled again, and there was a huge gaping hole -in the ground, and still the lightnings pounded at it until there was -nothing left of the cavern or anything it had contained.</p> - -<p>Shannock and his men cheered mightily. The bulk of the Irrian crowd -watched silently, not used yet to the idea of peace.</p> - -<p>Birrel, oddly enough, was not thinking of Ruun or Ir, but of Earth.</p> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER X</p> - - -<p>The ship swept in toward the night side of Earth in a great curve, -and first of all Earthmen that had ever lived, Birrel felt the sharp, -nostalgic emotion of coming back to the world that would always be -"the" world.</p> - -<p>He was in the bridge with Thile and Kara. Kara was very silent, looking -at the shadowed planet-face ahead, not looking at Birrel at all. But -Thile was busy, and vocal about it.</p> - -<p>"It's hard enough to make a landing on a strange planet," he said. "But -to have to do it secretly, without being seen—well, I'm glad this will -be the last time."</p> - -<p>The last time, Birrel thought. The last ship that would come from the -stars to Earth—at least, for a long, long time. He didn't like that -thought. He had argued against it, back there at the other system, at -Ruun.</p> - -<p>The men who governed Ruun were wise and well-meaning men—but -obstinate. They had welcomed Birrel. They had been grateful to him. -They had agreed to return him to his own world. But on one thing, they -were adamant. There would be no sudden opening up of the starways, no -open contact between Ruun and Earth.</p> - -<p>Birrel, his head full of visions of a sudden leap into the stars by the -men of Earth, had pleaded. But in vain.</p> - -<p>"Your world Earth is not ready," had said the leader of the Council of -Ruun. "It is not even one world, yet. When it has become one—when it -has forgotten the folly of wars and weapons—then we will not need to -come to you. You will come to us."</p> - -<p>He had softened that final refusal by an offer. "But you, who have -done much for us, can stay here at Ruun if you wish."</p> - -<p>"I can't," Birrel had said heavily. "I'm an agent, with a mission. -If I didn't go back, those who sent me would never know what -happened—they'd live in perpetual apprehension of attack from outside. -I have to return with my report."</p> - -<p>"Then you will be taken. And after that, no more of our ships will go -there."</p> - -<p>And now this last ship from outside was quietly coming down toward -the nighted face of Earth, and Kara still was silent, and there was a -sickness in Birrel's heart.</p> - -<p>Thile, by the control-panel, told the helmsman, "Now softly, softly, -are you trying to wake the whole damned continent?—softly—<i>ah!</i>"</p> - -<p>They had landed.</p> - -<p>Thile and Kara went down the ladder in the darkness, with Birrel. They -stood with him by the loom of the ship.</p> - -<p>The tall trees around them were black and vague, but the smell of pine -was on the keen air, and the smells, the sounds, the feel of everything -was subtly right again.</p> - -<p>"We landed a lot farther south than last time, so you can soon find a -road and people," said Thile. "Well, lad—"</p> - -<p>He shook hands with Birrel, and then he turned and shook hands with -Kara, and kissed her, and said, "You're a bloody fool but I'd do the -same thing," and turned and started back up the ladder.</p> - -<p>Birrel said, finally, "Kara—"</p> - -<p>"Yes," she said. "I'm staying."</p> - -<p>He took her in his arms and could only speak her name again, and then -she said, "We have to stand clear, before the ship takes off."</p> - -<p>"I can't let you do this!" he cried. "It's why I wouldn't ask you to do -it. No ship will come again, and you'll weary of it here, and—"</p> - -<p>"Yes, yes," she said, as one might quiet a troubled child, "I know all -that. But right now, we must get clear of the ship."</p> - -<p>Minutes later, from a ridge a thousand yards away, they heard a boom of -thunder and saw a quickly-muffled blast of flame, and then glimpsed the -great silver bulk riding skyward, vanishing almost at once.</p> - -<p>Birrel, holding Kara, looked up with her into the starry sky and saw -the flying shadow against the stars, that was there for an instant and -then was not there at all.</p> - -<p>He wondered if, in the years ahead, she would look more and more with -memory and longing at that starry sky. He hoped, he prayed, that she -would not.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SINISTER INVASION ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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