“If this squad has one of those damned dogs, we’ve had it, even if we do make the trees,” Ronny gasped.
Their luck held and they managed to temporarily shake the pursuers. However, neither of them had any illusions. The security men would be equipped with two way radio and in short order every search group in the vicinity, and every helio-jet, would be zeroing in on them.
They got to the valley, dashed across at its narrowest point and ducked into the trees of the forest beyond. They stopped for breath, fifty meters into the woods, both leaning their backs against the trees.
Ronny thought about it a deep breathing minute, then said, “Willy, you’re going to have to finish me. That hit I took removed enough of my side to construct Eve.”
“Finish you!” the younger man blurted.
“Yeah. I’d never make it and we can’t take a chance on their getting me alive.”
“I’ll bandage you up. It’s only a little ways to the clearing now.”
“Bandage me with what?” Ronny panted.
“With our shirts,” the other insisted. “We’re both wearing white-shirts under these coveralls.”
“Wizard, but the moment we get out of these insulated coveralls the helio-jets pick up our body heat. You’re going to have to finish me.”
“I can’t,” Willy said. “I… I don’t even have a gun—or a knife.”
Ronny sighed and took a deep breath. “Use your belt and garrot me. Better still, pick up one of those stones and bash my head in, it’ll be quicker.”
“I won’t do it! We’ve got less than half a kilometer to go and there’ll be a doctor in the landing craft. Here, put your arm over my shoulders. I’ll help you.”
His superior sighed but obeyed orders and they took off again, from time to time stumbling in the underbrush or over roots. Behind them, they could hear the crashing of others in the woods.
Ronny finally groaned, “Can’t make it any further, Willy. Finish me and save yourself. It’s necessary to get the message back that our mission was successful.”
“Come on, Ronny. We can make it. It’s no distance at all now.”
But Ronny Bronston shook his head, in exhaustion. “No. Finish me. I’m on the verge of fainting. That’s an order, Agent de Rudder.”
The younger man ignored him, stooped suddenly and took his superior up and slung him over his shoulder and began staggering through the trees.
Ronny Bronston said nothing and the tyro agent assumed that he had passed out from loss of blood. The crashing sounds from behind were louder, now that his pace had slowed, but at least there was no baying of dogs. He doubted that those behind were much in the way of woodsmen. Few were, these days. He doubted that any of them were much good at tracking, unless they were able to use their heat or metal sensors. And those didn’t apply to Willy and Ronny.
He tried to move as quietly as possible so that the pursuers wouldn’t get his direction from the sounds of his progress, but he was no more the woodsman than they were and he winced at the noise he was making.
Willy de Rudder broke through into the clearing before he had actually expected it.
He stood at its edge and stared unbelievingly. The clearing was empty. “Holy Ultimate,” he groaned, “they’re not here!”
Chapter Three
But with a whoosh a space landing craft descended like a beam of light and set down within feet of him. The hatch banged open immediately and Willy de Rudder staggered toward it, his companion still over his shoulder. He dumped his load into the small spacecraft, and climbed into it behind him.
Lee Chang Chu was at the controls, her almond eyes slightly wide. “What’s happened?” she snapped, even as she flicked buttons and dropped levers. The hatch slipped shut and they were airborne.
Willy panted, “Ronny took a hit. He’s either fainted, or dead.”
Lee Chang called over her shoulder, “Doc, quick!” But the medic was already making his way forward, clumsily, through the seats of the landing craft.
The two men wrestled their fallen colleague back into the interior of the small spaceship and stretched him out on the aisle.
Ronny opened his eyes and said weakly, “Take it easy, you funkers. I’m a sick man.”
Lee Chang Chu slumped in her pilot seat, in relief.
The doctor zippered the wounded man out of his insulation suit, and began to examine the wound. It was a bloody mess.
Willy staggered erect and said, “I’ve… I’ve had it. I’m going to puke.”
“In the back,” the diminutive Chinese woman said. “There’s a small head there.”
He staggered toward the rear.
The doctor looked at Ronny Bronston and scowled. He said, “You’re not hit as bad as all that.”
“I know,” Ronny said. “But don’t let de Rudder find it out. It’d hurt his feelings.”
When Willy came reeling back from the small rest room, he had already removed his hood and insulated suit. He was a good looking type, in an overly earnest sort of way. Only average of weight and build, he didn’t look as though he could have carried a limp man, as heavy as himself, half a kilometer through heavy woods while already in a state of exhaustion. He also didn’t look like a cloak and dagger type.
Lee Chang Chu, though not knowing what game Ronny had in mind, played along. She said, “Come up here, de Rudder, and give me a rundown, while the doctor is patching up our Ronny.”
The tyro agent was glad to. Besides, he knew that the Chinese woman was of supervisor grade, as was Bronston, so he was under her command. He sank into the seat next to her in weary relief.
Section G Supervisor Lee Chang Chu was small, almost tiny. She looked to be at least three quarters Chinese, or possibly Indo-Chinese, the rest European or North American. She favored her Oriental blood; her silk dress was traditional Chinese, slit almost to the thigh on each side. She was delicately pretty, with only a touch of the Mongolian fold at the corner of her eyes. On her it looked unusually good. Her complexion was that which only the blend of Chinese and Caucasian can give. Her figure, thanks to her European blood, was fuller than Eastern Asia boasts; tiny, but full.
She said to the probationary Section G operative. “How did it come out?” Her voice was small but very earnest, a no-nonsense voice. She was the most unlikely looking secret agent possible, but one does not achieve to the rank of supervisor in Section G without the necessary ability.
He said, hesitantly, “Evidently satisfactorily, according to Supervisor Bronston.”
She looked over at him questioningly. “Evidently?”
“Yes. I missed but the bullet exploded only a very short distance behind him. I assume that he was probably splashed with the stench.”
She tinkled a laugh. “I would have loved to have seen that stern face of his when the smell hit him.” But then she looked at the other again. “Missed him? With that gun?”
“Yes.”
She threw a lever and they left the atmosphere of Neu Reich and went into space.
She said, “We’ll rendezvous with the Space Services Scout within ten or fifteen minutes.”
Willy de Rudder said, “I’m not much up on these things. This is my first trip overspace. But won’t Number One’s spaceship get after us?”
Lee Chang Chu smiled. “No. We have gismos that prevent them from getting us in their sensors. Our spy Space Scouts are almost impossible to detect, at any distance at all, especially with the facilities of comparatively backward planets such as Neu Reich.”
It was his turn to look puzzlement at her. “I thought that Neu Reich was up on the list of planets with a high military potential. I thought that was why we were upset about her.”
She shook her head and said, “That is one of the things you must keep in mind about dictatorships, Willy… I assume I may call you Willy. You saved Ronny’s life and I am very close to him.”