Tongues Of The Moon Part 15

Beneath the shaft was a larger room and a tunnel that led to a still larger. Both rooms had racks on which weresuits and a.s.sociated equipment, but this had several desks. Presumably, these were to be used by the officials who checked men in and out. Now, they were,deserted.

"That's strange," said Broward, then he stiffened. He had beard gunshots.

Broward said, "That can mean only one thing. But I don't know who'll be coming down that tunnel in a minute."

"We have no guns," said Quiroga. "Let's go back to the ship."

Broward did not answer but whirled and ran through the other room and leaped up the shaft. At the entrance to the lock, he quickly replaced and resecured his helmet Quiroga did the same. They entered the lock and, without waiting for the air to be pumped out, went out onto the lunar plain. Behind them, the escaping atmosphere pushed, but they jumped up and allowed it to sail them towards their ship.

In the scout, Broward seized a burper and handed another to Quiroga.

"Back to the shaft," he said.

They made it just in time. The barks of larger caliber weapons and the pop-pop of smaller guns came up through the shaft. Then, there was a silence. Broward guessed that, whoever they were down there, they were putting on suits. And their antagonists had, for some reason, stopped firing.

He said to Quiroga, "If it's Dahlquist and his men, we'll simply help them make for the Zemlya. If it's Scone, we'll stop them. He'll be trying for the Zemlya, too."

Below him, a man appeared. The fellow looked up before jumping, and Broward recognized him as Radman, the commander of the Zemlya. At the same time, Radman saw him. He cried out and raised his .20 centum. Broward threw himself back and on the floor to escape the stream of explosives. The ceiling above the shaft broke into a thousand chips and went flying around the top of the shaft and back down it.

When the thum-thum of the little exploding bullets had quit, Broward roiled near the shaft. He called out, "Radman! I want to speak to Scone!"

There was a silence. Seconds pa.s.sed, a minute. Then Scone's voice came hollowly up the shaft.

"Broward! You bad penny! I underestimated you by farl But you haven't won yet!"

Broward shouted back, "Why not?"

Scone's voice was triumphant "Because I have Ingrid Nashdoi!"

Broward gritted his teeth and said, "How do I know you have her?"

"I picked her up while we were fighting our way out to here. I knew she'd be handy as a hostage. Besides, I want her!"

"I think you're bluffing."

Scone did not answer. Broward wondered what he would do next. Perhaps, he and Quiroga should go out to the scout They could place it against the lock and beam down anybody who tried to come out.

A scream wailed up through the shaft. Broward stiffened and cursed. He cursed again when he heard Ingrid's voice crying out in agony.

Immediately thereafter, Scone shouted up, "Now do you believe?"

"All right," Broward replied. "Now what?"

"I just want to get to the Zemlya," Scone said. "I know you've got me cornered. So, I'll make a trade with you.

Ingrid for the Zemlya."

Broward did not need to ask what Scone would do if he were turned down. He'd try to fight his way out even if he knew it was hopeless. But he'd kill Ingrid first "There's been too much bloodshed already," said Broward. "Most of it entirely needless. All right You can have the Zemlya. But release Ingrid first"

"What kind of a fool do you think I am?" Scone replied.

"Scone, the Zemlya will be a small price to pay to get rid of you and your kind. Believe me, I want you to leave on it Release her, and on my word, I'll do nothing to prevent you from escaping. More, I'll do my best to see that no one on the Moon goes after you."

Again, there was silence. Though it was cold by the shaft, Broward was sweating.

He turned to Quiroga. 'Take the scout Melt all the destructive projection equipment you can locate on the exterior of the Zemlya. I doubt if those in it will know about it; they're not likely to have the sensories on. Come back as soon as you're through, and park the ship to one side. Have the beams ready to go if I give the word or if I don't come out with the others."

Quiroga nodded and left. Broward said loudly down the shaft, "What about it Scone? You don't have much choice, you know. You have to trust me."

There were several shots, an exchange between Scone's group and the others, he hoped. Then Scone said, "You lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d! To show up just at the right time for you, wrong time for me."

Broward replied, "Sure!" But he was thinking that it might not perhaps, be all luck. Too many things had happened. The finding of the undersea colony off Yakan and then the submarine station off Israel where Moshe and Katashkina had started a new life and a new nation. Then, his finding and rescue of Quiroga and the events it had led to, including the discovery of the escape shaft of Howards and the consequent defeat of Howards. And now, almost as if it had been arranged, his arrival at the lock just before the fleeing Scone.

"Throw your weapons onto the floor of the shaft," he said. "Come up one by one. I'll let you through the lock in groups of three."

There was a clatter as a burper struck the rock floor. Scone followed it He raised his huge stone-statue faceupwards, grinned slightly, and leaped. Broward, who had risen, stepped back, his gun held on the big man.

"So you win," said Scone. "For the time, at least. I wont be back, but my descendants will some day."

"They may not be of the same mind as you," Broward replied. 'Tell them to send Ingrid up. I want to be sure she's all right."

Scone shouted back down the shaft. In a few seconds, Ingrid was beside Broward. She was pale and shaking, but she managed to smile at him. In one hand she held Scone's burper.

A second man followed, then a woman.

Ingrid said, "Olga's a prisoner. They took her along when they came across her in the corridors. She doesn't want to go."

Broward motioned to the woman to step behind them. Scone said, "Wait a minute. We can't go without women."

"The tanks of the Zemlya have women," said Broward. "You can thaw them out."

Scone licked his lips and looked for a second as if he were going to jump Broward. But, seeing the expression on Broward's face, he stepped back.

Another man came up. He joined the first two, and they entered the lock. Broward, looking past them through the transparent ports, saw that the scout was still busy burning off the beam apparatus.

Scone, of course, would know what he was doing. Doubtless he was furious. But he would also know that his last chance for attack was gone. He could do nothing but take off for the stars.

There were three other groups, the last of which contained four because of an extra person, a woman.

Broward watched this head towards the Zemlya. By then, Scone had disappeared inside the great ship.

A few minutes after the final group had entered and the port was closed, the Zemlya lifted. None of the men working on the ship had come out. Either Scone had forced them to go along with him or else they had volunteered.

The latter, probably, since Scone would have trusted none but loyal followers with the Zemlya.

Ingrid broke down and wept for a long time. When she had recovered herself, she said, "I thought it was all up, that I'd never see you again. Dahlquist and some of his friends came to arrest Scone. He was in a conference with his deputies. These surrendered, but not Scone. He shot two of the men with Dahlquist and led his deputies to an a.r.s.enal. He knew he was too outnumbered to fight the whole colony, so he decided to escape on the Zemlya, find a new world in the stars. But he took me out of my cell, said he was going to deepfreeze me, thaw me out when he found a planet. But he wouldn't have gotten me. I would have killed myself first chance..."

Broward patted her back and said, "I know, sweetheart. Try to forget what's happened, think of it as a nightmare. Now, we're awake and in a world that needs to be gardened and needs love as never before."

But he was looking through the port Outside, in the garish sunlight, the Zemlya was only a spark. He thought, a spark burns inside that spark. Scone. A spark to set the stars afire. G.o.d help the people of the world he might some day find.

--END--.