"Good," he said, and he ended the transmission.
"They've reached the end," the Angel announced a little later, "and are circling. I hear their broadcasts. They are beginning to suspect that there is no way out."
Murdock smiled. He was looking to his left, where the first of the pursuing vehicles had just come into sight. He raised the microphone and began giving directions.
As he waited, he realized that at no time had he relaxed his hold on the pistol grip. He withdrew his hand, wiped his palm on his trousers, and returned it.
"They are coming now," the Angel said. "They have turned and are headed back this way."
Murdock turned his head to the right and waited. The destruction had been going on for nearly a month, and today's should be the last of it. He suddenly realized just how tired he was. A feeling of depression began to come over him. He stared at the small red lights and the larger, pulsing orange one.
"You will be able to see them in a moment."
"Can you tell how many there are?"
"Thirty-two. No, hold it ... thirty-one. They are picking up speed. Their conversations indicate that they anticipate an interception."
"Did any come through from the eastern canyon?"
"Yes. There were several."
The sound of their engines came to him. Hidden there in the neck of the ravine, he saw the first of them -a dark sedan, dented and swaying, half of its roof and the nearest fender torn away-come around the canyon's bend. He held his fire as it approached, and soon the others followed-rattling, steaming, leaking, covered with dents and rust spots, windows broken, hoods missing, doors loose. A strange feeling came into his breast as he thought about the more magnificent specimens of the great herds he had followed over the years.
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."