Still, he held his fire, even as the first in line drew abreast of him, and his thoughts went back to the black and shining Devil Car and to Jenny, the Scarlet Lady, with whom he had hunted it.
The first of the pack reached the place where the ambushers waited.
"Now?" the Angel asked, just as the first rocket flared off to the left.
" "
Yes.
They opened up and the destruction began, cars braking and swerving into one another, the canyon suddenly illuminated by half a dozen blazing wrecks-a dozen-two.
One after another, they were halted, burned. Three of the ambushers were destroyed by direct crashes. Murdock used all of his rockets and played the laser over the heaped remains. As the last wreck burst into flame, he knew that, though they weren't much compared with the great ones he had known, he would never forget how they had made their final run on bald tires, broken springs, leaking transmissions, and hate.
Suddenly he swiveled the laser and fired it back along the canyon.
"What is it?" the Angel asked him.
"There's another one back there. Don't you pick it up?"
"I'm checking now, but I don't detect anything."
"Go that way."
They moved forward and turned to the right. Immediately the radio crackled.
"Murdock, where are you going?" This came from one of the ambushers to the rear.
"I thought I saw something. I'm going ahead to check it out."
"I can't give you an escort till we clear some of these wrecks."
"That's all right."
"How many rockets have you got?"
He glanced again at the dash, where the only light that burned was orange and pulsing steadily.
"Enough."
"Why don't you wait?"
Murdock chuckled. "Do you really think any of those clunkers could touch something like the Angel? I won't be long."
They moved toward the bend and turned. The last of the sunlight was striking the highest points of the eastern rim overhead.
Nothing.
"Picking anything up?" he asked.
"No. Do you want a light?"
.. " No.
Farther to the east the sounds of firing were diminishing. The Angel slowed as they neared a wide slice of darkness to the left.
"This ravine may go through. Do we turn here or continue on?"
"Can you detect anything within it?"
"No."
"Then keep going."
His hand still upon the grip, Murdock moved the big gun slightly with each turn that they took, covering the most likely areas of opposition rather than the point directly ahead.
"This is no good," he finally announced. "I've got to have a light. Give me the overhead spot."
Instantly the prospect before him was brightly illuminated: dark rocks, orange stands of stone, striped walls almost a coral seascape through waves of settling dust.
"I think somebody's been by here more recently than those we burned."
"Don't tired people sometimes see things that are not really there?"
Murdock sighed.
"Yes, and I am tired. That may be it. Take the next bend anyway."
They continued on, making the turn.
Murdock swiveled the weapon and triggered it, blasting rock and clay at the corner of the next turning.
"There!" he cried. "You must have picked that up!"
"No. I detected nothing."
"I can't be cracking up at this point! I saw it! Check your sensors. Something must be off." ,
"Negative. All detection systems report in good order."
Murdock slammed his fist against the dash.
"Keep going. Something's there."
The ground was churned before them. There were too many tracks to tell a simple tale.
"Slowly now," he said as they approached the next bend. "Could one of them have some kind of equipment or something to block you. I wonder. Or am I really seeing ghosts? I don't see how-"
"Gully to the left. Another to the right."
"Slower! Run the spotlight up them as we pass."
They moved by the first one, and Murdock turned the weapon to follow the light. There were two side passages going off the ravine before it turned.
"Could be something up there," he mused. "No way of telling without going in. Let's take a look at the next one."
They rolled on. The light turned again, and so did the gun. The second opening appeared to be too narrow to accommodate a car. It ran straight back without branching, and there was nothing unusual in sight anywhere within it.
Murdock sighed again.
"I don't know," he said, "but the end is just around the next bend -a big box of a canyon. Go straight on in. And be ready for evasive action."
The radio crackled.
"You all right?" came a voice from the ambush squad.
"Still checking," he said. "Nothing so far. Just a little more to see."
He broke it off.
"You didn't mention-"
"I know. Be ready to move very fast."
They entered the canyon, sweeping it with the light. It was an oval-shaped place, its major axis perhaps a hundred meters in length. Several large rocks lay near its center. There were a number of dark openings about its periphery. The talus lay heavy at the foot of the walls.
"Go right. We'll circle it. Those rocks and the openings are the places to watch."
They were about a quarter of the way around when he heard the high, singing sound of another engine revving. Murdock turned his head and looked fifteen years into he past.
A low, red Swinger sedan had entered the canyon and was turning in his direction.
"Run!" he said. "She's armed! Get the rocks between us!"
"Who? Where?"
Murdock snapped the control switch to manual, seized the wheel, and stepped on the gas. The Angel leaped ahead, turning, as fifty-caliber machine guns blazed beneath the darkened headlights of the other vehicle.
"Now do you see it?" he asked as the rear window was starred and he felt the thudding impact of hits somewhere toward the back of the vehicle.
"Not entirely. There is some sort of screen, but I can estimate based on that. Give me back the controls."
"No. Estimates aren't good enough with her," Murdock replied, turning sharply to place the rocks between himself and the other.
The red car came fast, however, though it had stopped firing as he entered the turn.
The radio crackled. Then a voice he had thought he would never hear again came over it: "That's you, isn't it, Sam? I heard you back there. And that's the sort of car the Arch engineer of Geeyem would have built you for something like this-tough and smart and fast." The voice was low, feminine, deadly. "He would not have anticipated this encounter, however. I can jam almost all the sensors without its knowing it."
"Jenny ..." he said as he held the pedal to the floor and continued the turn.
"Never thought you'd see me again, did you?"
"I've always wondered. Ever since the day you disappeared. But it's been so long."
"And you've spent the entire time hunting us. You had your revenge that day, but you kept right on-destroying."
"Considering the alternative, I had no choice."
He passed his starting point and commenced a second lap, realizing as he began to draw away that she must no longer be as finely tuned as when he had known her earlier. Unless- '
An explosion occurred some distance ahead of him. He was pelted with gravel, and he swerved to avoid the fresh crater before him.
"Still have some of those grenades left," he said. "Hard to estimate when to drop them, though, isn't it?"
They were on opposite sides of the rocks now. There was no way she could get a clear shot at him with her guns. Nor he at her, with the cannon.
"I'm in no hurry, Sam."
"What is it?" he heard the Angel ask.
"It speaks!" she cried. "Finally! Do you want to tell him, Sam? Or should I?"