“Why,” said Lambert, “the ones with wheels.”
He stopped and looked around him at their stricken faces.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.
“Oh, not at all,” Carol said sweetly. “Go right ahead, Mr. Lambert, and tell us all about the ones with wheels.”
“You probably won’t believe me,” Lambert said, “and I can’t tell you what they were. The slaves, perhaps. The work horses. The bearers of the burdens. The serfs. They were life forms, apparently-they were alive, but they went on wheels instead of feet and they were not one thing alone. Each one of them was a hive of insects, like bees or ants. Social insects, apparently. You understand, I don’t expect that you’ll believe a word I say, but I swear…”
From somewhere far away came a rumble, the low, thudding rumble of rapidly advancing wheels. And as they stood, transfixed and listening, they knew that the wheels were coming down the corridor. Nearer came the rumble, growing louder as it advanced. Suddenly it was just outside the door and slowing down to turn and all at once a Wheeler stood inside the door.
“That’s one of them!” screamed Lambert. “What is it doing here?”
“Mr. Marmaduke,” said Maxwell, “it is good to see you once again.”
“No,” the Wheeler told him. “Not Mr. Marmaduke. The so-called Mr. Marmaduke will not be seen by you again. He is in very bad disgrace. He made a vast mistake.”
Sylvester had started forward, but Oop had reached down and grabbed him by the loose skin of the neck and was holding him tightly while he struggled to break free.
“There was a contract made,” the Wheeler said, “by a humanoid that went by the name of Harlow Sharp. Which one of you would be Harlow Sharp?”
“I’m your man,” said Sharp.
“Then, sir, I must ask you what you intend to do about the fulfillment of the contract.”
“There is nothing I can do,” said Sharp. “The Artifact is gone and cannot be delivered. Your payment, of course, will be refunded promptly.”
“That, Mr. Sharp,” the Wheeler said, “will not be sufficient. It will fall far short of satisfaction. We shall bring the trial of law against you. We shall bust you, mister, with everything we can. We shall do our best to poverty you and-”
“Why, you miserable go-cart,” Sharp yelled, “there is no law for you. Galactic law does not apply with a creature such as you. If you think you can come here and threaten me…”
Ghost appeared, out of thin air, just inside the doorway.
“It’s about time,” Oop yelled angrily. “Where’ve you been all night? What did you do with Shakespeare?”
“The Bard is safe,” said Ghost, “but there is other news.” The arm of the robe raised and gestured at the Wheeler. “Others of his kind swarm in Goblin Reservation to try to trap the dragon.”
So, thought Maxwell, somewhat illogically, it had been the dragon they had wanted, after all. Could the Wheelers have known all along, he wondered, that there had been a dragon? And the answer was that, of course, they would have known, for it had been they or their far ancestors who had done the work back in Jurassic days.
In Jurassic days on Earth, and how many others times on how many other planets? The serfs, Lambert had said, the horses, the bearers of the burdens. Were they now, or had they been, inferior members of that ancient tribe of beings, or had they been, perhaps, simply domesticated animals, harnessed biologically by genetic engineering, for the jobs they were assigned?
And now these former slaves, having established an empire of their own, reached out their hands for something that they may have reason to believe should be their heritage. Theirs, since nowhere else in the universe, except, perhaps, in scattered, dying pockets, was there left any trace of the great colonization project dreamed by the crystal planet.
And perhaps, thought Maxwell-perhaps it should be theirs. For theirs had been the labor that had engineered the project. And had the dying Banshee, laden with an ancient guilt, sought to right a wrong when he had doublecrossed the crystal planet, when he had sought to help these former slaves? Or had he, perhaps, believed that it was better that the heritage should go, not to some outsider, but to a race of beings who had played a part, however menial, however small, in the great project that had crumbled into failure?
“You mean,” Sharp said to the Wheeler, “that the very moment you were standing here and threatening me, you had your bandits out…”
“He works all the angles that there are,” said Oop.
“The dragon went home,” said Ghost, “to the only home that he could recognize upon this planet. To where the Little Folk reside, so that he could see his fellows once again, flying in the clear moonlight above the river valley. And then the Wheelers attacked him in the air, trying to force him to the ground, so that he could be captured, and the dragon is fighting back most magnificently, but-”
“Wheelers can’t fly,” protested Sharp. “And you say there were a lot of them. Or you implied there were a lot of them. There can’t be. Mr. Marmaduke was the only…”
“Perhaps,” said Ghost, “they are not believed to fly, but they are truly flying. And as for the number of them, I am mystified. Perhaps here all the time, hiding from the view. Perhaps many coming in through the transport stations.”
“We can put a stop to that,” said Maxwell. “We can send word to Transportation Central. We can…”
Sharp shook his head. “No, we can’t do that. Transportation is intergalactic, not of Earth alone. We cannot interfere.”
“Mr. Marmaduke,” said Inspector Drayton, speaking in his best official voice, “or whoever you may be, I think I’d better run you in.”
“Leave off this blathering,” said Ghost. “The Little Folk need help.”
Maxwell reached out and picked up the chair. “It’s time we put an end to fooling,” he declared. He raised the chair and said to the Wheeler. “It’s time for you to start talking, friend. And if you don’t, I’ll cave you in.”
A circle of jets suddenly protruded from Wheeler’s chest and there was a hissing sound. A stench hit them in the face, a terrible fetor that struck like a clenched and savage fist, that made the stomach somersault and set the throat to gagging.
Maxwell felt himself falling to the floor, unable to control his body, which seemed tied up in knots from the fearful stink that exuded from the Wheeler. He hit the floor and rolled and his hands went to his throat and tore at it, as if to rip it open to allow himself more air-although there seemed to be no air, there was nothing but the foulness of the Wheeler.
Above him he heard a fearful screaming and when he rolled around so he could look up, he saw Sylvester suspended above him, his front claws hooked around the upper portions of the Wheeler’s body, his rear legs clawing and striking at the bulging and transparent belly in which writhed the disgusting mass of roiling insects. The Wheeler’s wheels were spinning frantically, but something had gone wrong with them. One wheel spun in one direction and the second in another, so that the Wheeler whirled about in a giddy dance, with Sylvester clinging desperately and his back legs working like driving pistons at the Wheeler’s belly. It looked for all the world, thought Maxwell, as if the two of them were engaged in a rapid and unwieldy waltz.
An unseen hand reached out and grasped Maxwell by the arm and hauled him unceremoniously across the floor. His body thumped across the threshold and some of the foulness diminished and there now was a breath of air.
Maxwell rolled over and got on his hands and knees and fought his way erect. He reached up with his fists and rubbed at his streaming eyes. The air still was heavy with the stench, but one no longer gagged.
Sharp sat propped against the wall, gasping and rubbing at his eyes. Carol was slumped upon the floor. Oop, crouched in the doorway, was tugging Nancy out of the fetid room, from which still came the screaming of the saber-tooth at work.