“You aren’t afraid of me. What is it? There’s something strange—”
“Shut up!” he gasped.
Fire blossomed in the air. A moment later Langley felt a fist of concussion. He lurched back, and saw a spaceship streak by, blazing at the patrol craft. Wind roared behind it.
“Get out of the way, Edwy- Marin darted for the shelter of the living room. He grabbed her by the hair, snatched her back, and stood in the open. The attacking ship fled, gone in a blur.
And something took hold of Langley and whirled him upward.
Tractor beam, he thought crazily, a controlled gravity beam- Then something black yawned before him, a portal gaped, he went through and it clanged shut behind him.
There was a pulsing of great engines as he picked himself up. Marin huddled at his feet, he raised her and she shuddered in his arms. “It’s all right,” he mumbled shakily. “It’s all right. We got away. Maybe.”
A man in gray coveralls entered the little steel lock chamber. “Well done, sir!” he said. “I think we’re pulling clear. Will you follow me?”
“What is it?” asked Marin wildly. “Where are we going?”
“I made a deal with the Society,” said Langley. “They’ll get us out of the Solar System—we’re going to be free, both of us.”
Inwardly, he wondered.
They went down a narrow hall. The ship thrummed around them. It must be accelerating furiously, but there was no sense of pressure: a countering gravity field generated within the hull, or perhaps the drive acting equally on all masses aboard. At the end of the passage, they came into a small room studded and glittering with instruments. One screen held a complete view of the hard stars of space.
Goltam Valti surged from his chair to pound Langley’s back and pump his hand and roar a greeting. “Marvelous, captain! Excellent! A lovely job, if you pardon my immodesty.”
Langley felt weak. He sat down, pulling Marin to his lap without thinking about it. “Just exactly what did happen?” he asked.
“I and a few others slipped out of the Society tower,” said Valti. “We took an air speedster to the estate of a... sympathetic... Minister, where we maintain a little bastion. Two spaceships were required: one to create a brief diversion, and this one to pull you up and escape in the confusion.”
“How about the other boat? Won’t they catch that?”
“It has been arranged for. There will be a lucky shot which brings it down—bomb planted aboard, you know. It’s robot manned, carefully cleaned of all traces of ownership except one or two small indications which may suggest Centaurian origin to Chanthavar.” Valti winced. “A pity to lose so fine a vessel. It cost a good half-million solars. Profits are hard to come by these days, believe me, sir.”
“As soon as Chanthavar checks on you, finds you missing—”
“My good captain!” Valti looked hurt. “I am not quite an amateur. You see, my double is already peacefully and lawfully asleep in my own quarters.
“Of course,” he added thoughtfully, “if we can find Saris, it may well be necessary for me to leave Sol altogether. If so, I do hope my successor can handle the Venusian trade. It’s a difficult one, it can so easily go into the red.”
“All right,” said Langley. “It’s done. I’m committed. What’s your plan of action?”
“That depends on where he is and what methods will be required to establish contact. But this flitter is fast, silent, screened against radiation; it has weapons, and there are thirty armed men aboard. Do you think it will suffice?”
“I... believe so. Bring me some maps of the Mesko area.”
Valti nodded at the little green-furred creature Thakt, which had been sitting in a corner. It tittered and scuttled out.
“Charming young lady,” bowed Valti. “May I ask her name?”
“Marin,” she said in a thin voice. She got off Langley’s lap and stood backed against the wall.
“It’s all right,” said the spaceman. “Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” she said, trying to smile. “But bewildered.”
Thakt returned with a sheaf of papers. Langley frowned over them, attempting to find his way through an altered geography. “It was one time on Holat,” he said. “Saris and I had taken the day off to go fishing, and he showed me some caves. I told him about Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and he was very interested. Later, shortly before we left for Earth, he mentioned them again, and I promised to take him there; and as we were going over some maps of Earth, for the benefit of several Holatan philosophers, I showed him their location. So if he could get maps of the modern world—Carlsbad wouldn’t be far away, and he’d know it was an unexplored warren. Of course, it may be colonized or something by now, or have gone out of existence, for all I know, but—”
Valti followed his pointing finger. “Yes... I believe I’ve heard of the spot,” he said with a touch of excitement. “Corrad Caverns... yes, here. Is that the location?”
Langley used a large-scale map to orient himself. “I think so.”
“Ah, then I do know. It’s part of the estate of Minister Ranull, who keeps a good deal of his property in a wild desert condition as a park. Sometimes his guests are shown Corrad Caverns, but I’m sure that nobody ever goes very far into them, and they must be quite deserted the rest of the time. A brilliant suggestion, captain! My compliments.”
“If it doesn’t pan out,” said Langley, “then I’m just as much in the dark as you.”
“We’ll try. You shall have your reward regardless.” Valti spoke into a communicator. “We’ll go there at once. No time to lose. Would you like a stimulant drug?... Here. It will give you alertness and energy for the next several hours, and you may need them. Excuse me, I have some details to arrange.” He left, and Langley was alone with Marin. She watched him for a while without speaking.
“All right,” he said. “All right, I made my choice. I figured the Society would make better use of this power than anybody else. But of course, you’re a citizen of Sol. If you don’t approve, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know. It is a very great burden to take on yourself.” She shook her head. “I can see what led you to it -maybe you are right, maybe not, I can’t say. But I’m with you, Edwy.”
“Thank you,” he said, shakily, and wondered if, in spite of himself, he might not be falling in love with her. He had a sudden image of the two of them, starting again somewhere beyond the sky.
If they got away from Sol, of course!
13
It had felt good to shed his over-colorful pajamas for a spaceman’s coverall, boots, helmet, a gun—Langley had never quite realized how much clothes make the man. But walking through a hollow immensity of darkness, feeling the underground chill and hearing a mockery of echoes, he knew again the helplessness and self-doubt which had been strangling him.
There were light-tubes strung throughout miles of the caverns, but a sneak expedition could not turn them on; they served only to indicate regions where Saris would surely not be. Half a dozen men walked beside Langley, the reflected glow of flashbeams limning their faces ghostly against shadow. They were all crewmen, strangers to him; Valti had declared himself too old and cowardly to enter the tunnels, Marin had wanted to come but been refused permission.
A tumbled fantasy of limestone, great rough pillars and snags, leaped from the gloom as beams flashed around. This place couldn’t have changed much, thought Langley. In five thousand years, the slow drip and evaporation of cold water would have added a bit here and there, but Earth was old and patient. He felt that time itself lay buried somewhere in these reaching leagues.
The man who carried the neural tracker looked up. “Not a flicker yet,” he said. Unconsciously, his voice was hushed, as if the stillness lay heavy on it. “How far down have we come? A long ways—and there are so many branches -Even if he is here, we may never find him.”