The next, there was only jumble!
The scythe swept on!
Waves of cloud were racing ahead, southward. They were growing less and less as they progressed toward the Black Sea.
Dust and debris were settling below.
And then I saw what it had done.
The recoil had flattened Leningrad.
Everything that was European Russia had been levelled!
That whole nation was no more!
I moaned.
Even worse, there went all of Rockecenter's uranium profits, with the removal of the threat of atomic war! Oh, Gods, was I in trouble now!
If I went home now, the second Lombar heard about this he would have me exterminated.
There was no doubt of that in my mind now. If ever I needed to be brilliant and think fast, it was NOW, NOW, NOW!
Heller was sitting there in the pilot seat. He seemed to be praying.
We were holding at about three hundred miles above Russia. From this point I could see Turkey on the horizon to the south.
Suddenly, at long last, I had an idea!
"Oh, God of peoples," said Heller, "forgive me."
I took immediate advantage of his mood, although I certainly couldn't understand why anybody would be sorry about wiping out a hundred million riffraff. "The tug is disabled," I said. "You cannot go directly home."
"It's just the towing equipment," he said. "I could probably make it."
"No, no," I said. "You shouldn't put yourself at risk."
"Are you recommending all of a sudden that I go to the Earth base?"
I tried to keep the gleam out of my eyes. I had the whole plan now. It was audacious beyond belief.
"I have certain information," I said. "It is very vital to you. If I divulge it, will you give me your word as a Royal officer to take me home and turn me over there for trial?"
"If it's worth anything," he said.
"Oh, it is!" I said. "You saw that that assassin pilot wanted to kill you, even though he knew who you were."
"That's true," he said.
"You'll be interested to know that at the Earth base they think you are a spy who was sent down to kill them. They will try to execute you on sight."
"I could figure that out for myself," he said.
"But you don't know this," I replied. "There is a secret way to get in."
He looked at me, puzzled. But I knew I had him. If I could just get him to the outer gate of the villa and ring that bell, he would be shot down. And even if that missed, I could get him to my secret room and sound the alarm there, and when we went down that tunnel the assembled base personnel would riddle him!
"And why should I want to sneak in?" said Heller.
And here came the very cream of my idea! "Give me a piece of paper and a pen."
He did. I wrote on it and folded it.
"The information on this is so vital to you it will change your whole life. Promise me that if I give you this sheet and you act on it, you will return me to Voltar."
He thought a moment. "For trial," he said. "I will promise that."
"Good enough," I said. And I handed him the paper.
He opened it. He went white as a sheet!
I had had the idea that would end all ideas. I had written
THE COUNTESS KRAK IS ALIVE IN A CELL AT THE EARTH BASE
What an inspiration—especially since she was dead! What genius to use a corpse to lure someone in!
And if we got that far, I had that planned, too. Somewhere between here and there, I would secrete a weapon. He would see her body and in that moment when his attention was off me, I would kill him, for he would be in shock. I was so bemused by my cleverness I did not hear what he said. He had to repeat it. "You are lying!"
"No," I said. "I am telling you the truth. Some information came to us that her plane would be sabotaged by some terrorists, and we picked her up at Rome airport and flew her to the base. She is alive and well, though of course in detention."
He did not say anything for a while. He was obviously in shock. Oh, how well this was working out!
"You'd better have some proof of this," he said.
I had that all worked out, too. I had my wallet. I opened it. I handed him a piece of paper. It was the Squeeza credit card—her card with the Empire State address written on the back of it.
He looked at it. He recognized it. His hands were shaking.
He could hardly talk. Then he said, "All right. We will go."
I was nearly delirious with joy—hard put to keep it from showing on my face. I could get him now. Of that I was sure. And then I could somehow wipe out his power company, Chryster, Okeechokee and blow up the Empire State and Izzy before those options could function. There would be repercussions with Rockecenter, but I could say proudly, "All is well, for I killed the man and your empire is intact." I would be restored to favor. I could release Black Jowl. And I still would become the next Chief of the Apparatus.
And all in all, I was absolutely amazed at my own genius. Whoever before had used a dead woman as a lure? Only a brilliant Apparatus officer would ever think of that!
I think that Heller was dazed a bit, not only by my pretended news concerning the Countess Krak but also because of the destruction the assassin pilot had angled the tug into.
We had to wait for sunset. He would not let me turn the TV on. I was very sure it was full of juicy bulletins concerning the demise of Russia. Rockecenter's PRs would be rushing the media to blare how he insisted upon vast relief expeditions. But nobody need bother. There was little if anything left alive in European Russia. Probably Sweden would just move in to pick up any loot left lying around and annex the place. The so-called satellite countries would throw off the yoke and probably right this minute were murdering the Russian troops who had kept them in line and fattened off them. World power had certainly shifted. Rockecenter must be going crazy trying to figure out how to keep international tensions up now. I said as much.
"They can't blame any other nation," Heller said. "Every astronomer in the northern hemisphere plainly saw what they thought was a natural cataclysm. The planet won't destroy itself with atomic war now and that's the only benefit from this. So shut up. I don't want to hear about it."
He was doing some calculations but his mind was not on it and his eyes kept straying to the sun indicator as we hovered there, five hundred miles above Turkey.
The tug spoke up about midafternoon. "My thirty-third sub-brain has calculated that the inner core of the planet will now spin slightly more true to the axis. It will take many years longer to achieve because the blow was so glancing. I have the figures. Do you want them?"
"No," said Heller, his eyes upon the clock.
About six, with shadows growing long below, Heller went aft. He returned later to the flight deck. He was dressed in black. He had a kit bag over his shoulder.
He unchained me and took me to an engineer's quarters. He let me pick out some of the Antimanco engineer's clothes which were still hanging there.
While I was still changing, he went to the crew's galley to get me something to eat.
It was then I found something.
I could not believe my luck!
The jacket I was putting on had a hidden knife! It was about five inches long and very sharp. It lay flat against the left rib cage!
When Heller brought me back a plate and canister, I carefully schooled myself to continue to look bland.
"There's a field nobody uses," I said, "about three miles from the base. It is in a fold of the mountain and innocent of rocks. It belongs to the base but the soil is worn out and it is not leased to tenants. They are giving it a rest. If we land there after dark, we only need to walk over the shoulder of a hill and we will be on a road that goes right past the villa. And it, too, is not much used. I can get you in there but you have to take my advice and do what I say."