Part 13 (1/2)

There was no sign of movement from the building across the way. But Broward was sure that armed men were standing behind the windows there.”I wish I had some gravpaks,” he said.

”We have several in the supply room,” said the Pope.

”Four should be enough. Let's get them.”

A few minutes later, one pak had been tied to the center left side of a jeep. Manipulating the pak's controls, Broward caused the vehicle to be raised several feet in the air. Then he guided the featherweight until it lay on its side at right angles to his jeep across the front. Father Ignacio supplied the strips, torn from sheets, that anch.o.r.ed the near-weightless frame to the front of Broward's vehicle.

”It'll make a s.h.i.+eld,” the Moonman said. ”If their bullets don't wreck the pak or cut the strips, it'll do fine.”

He and the two officers slipped into the harnesses attached to the paks, tightened them, and tried the pak controls. Then, they got into the jeep.

”Father Ignacio will take the other jeep and make a run for the elevators,” said the Pope. ”He will spread the word on the upper levels that Howards is trying to kill me. It will not be a lie, because I am certain that Howards will take such action when he sees what I am about to do.”

”Holy Father, what is that?” cried Saavedra.

”What I should have done long ago but held off doing because of politics, or rather, fear of meddling in politics. Also, I was afraid. I was afraid that the Church might be crushed, and I sinned in thinking that, for the Church will live as long as G.o.d decrees, and we know how long that is. Worse, I feared for my sheep. If I denounced Howards and I were imprisoned, who then would protect them from the wolves? I should have known Whom that Person would be.”

Broward hesitated. What if the Angels seized the Pope as a hostage? Well, what if they seized anybody as such? That which must be done would be done, no matter who got hurt '

Father Ignacio said, ”Holy Father, he will kill you! He is a vile and evil man!”

The Pope held up his hand in remonstration. ”Do not try to stop me. I have delayed too long now. Do as I said.”

Ignacio dropped to his knees and said, ”Father, bless me!”

”And you, young man, bless me. And do not forget to tell the others that, if I do not return, Father Mendoza should succeed me.”

The young priest wept. Siricio said, ”Compose yourself and come with me. You must hear my confession.”

Broward paid them no attention, for he was carefully instructing the other two in the plan of attack. They objected several times, and he answered them. They had some good points which he accepted and thus changed the course of the a.s.sault.

By then, Father Ignacio had come back outdoors. With him was another priest, a man about the pontiffs age.

Broward was surprised, for be had seen n.o.body else while he was in the house.

”Father Gomez was at his prayers,” said Father Ignacio, as if that explained his nonappearance. ”He will go the opposite direction I'll take; he'll try to head off the troops stationed nearby.”

Broward wondered why the troops had not appeared if they were so near. The young priest, answering, said, ”I'm puzzled. I do not know. But His Holiness wishes to see you.”

Broward went into the house just in time to see the pontiff coming out of a room near the front door. He was wearing a small plastic box which hung from a cord around his neck and lay on his chest.

”I want everybody in the plaza to hear my voice,” he said. He smiled at Broward.”Tell me, my son, why have you, a Soviet and an atheist, placed your life in jeopardy to save your enemy?”

”I do not believe in the Soviet ideology,” Broward said. ”As for my so-called atheism, I am not so sure now about it.

I have seen some strange things recently. I mentioned the man Moshe Yamanuchi. But I did not have time to tell you that he felt that Something, a Voice, was urging him.”

”Ah, yes, the Jew. G.o.d would not allow the Chosen Race to die out. It is not time yet.”

”Moshe would not agree with your view of that, I'm sure. But he does agree with you that there is a G.o.d.

However, you do not have to be a Christian or a Moslem or a Hindu to love mankind, to want to see them happy. I did not want to be a ma.s.s murderer. By killing the people of Mars, I drive another nail into Man's coffin. Too many nails have been hammered in lately; a few more, and Man will be buried forever.”

”You could not love Man unless you also loved G.o.d,” replied Siricio. ”You may deny it, but I am sure that you do, somewhere in your being.”

”Perhaps,” Broward replied. ”But let's get on with what we have to do. You wanted to talk to Howards and his men first, right? I can give you a minute or two. That is, if the troops don't show. When they do, I have to move.”

”Good bye, my son,” said the Pope. ”I hope I will see you again in a place we both will like.”

”I doubt it,” said Broward. ”But n.o.body's ever disproved that there is such a place.”

”I would not believe them if they did.”

He blessed Broward and then stepped out. Broward watched him cross the great plaza, stepping around the corpses, stopping once to examine a man, apparently to determine whether or not he was alive. Broward also glanced at the two entrances to the plaza. Both were still deserted.

The erect and lonely figure of the priest became smaller as he neared the neo-Gothic front of the building.

This had its back placed solidly against the rock wall of the huge cavern, and it extended for about 20 meters outwards.

The front reared up straight like a cliff carved with the heads of men, gargoyles, animals and various religious and secular symbols. It was the only one of its kind that Broward had seen here, though such buildings were numerous onEarth. There were no steps to the main entrance, which lay flush with the plaza floor. The entrance itself was wide enough for six men to go in shoulder to shoulder and high enough that a man standing on another's shoulders could not reach the top. It had two plastic gates of open grillework.

Behind the gates stood a man in a white uniform. Behind him was a mob of men. At that distance, the face of the man in front was not recognizable, but Broward thought it must be Howards. He had a reputation for not liking to have more than one person at a time near him.

The Pope halted, only a few meters from the gates. Suddenly, a great voice spoke. It bounced off the front of the house and the plaza walls behind it and came as a thunderous echo to Broward.

”Howards! And those who serve Howards! Mars is doomed!”

And the voice told of the s.h.i.+p that waited somewhere above the red planet and of the weapon of total destruction and death that it carried. It told what would happen if Howards was not unseated at once and a new government formed. It went on to describe graphically what would result.

Broward looked at the tunnels. No one yet. Then, he saw a jeep drive along the front of the buildings and cut across at top speed and enter the tunnel that led to the elevators. Father Ignacio was driving it.

So far, so good. No one behind the windows of the president's house had fixed at the young priest.

”You are an evil man,” the voice boomed. ”You, Howards, are guilty of spilling the blood of countless men, women, and children. I am not talking of the murders you had committed on Earth for your vile political purposes. I accuse you of exploding the cobalt bombs on Earth so that all life would perish there. I accuse you of planning to do so to the end that you might then come to Mars and be sole ruler of all mankind. I accuse you of the murder of eight billion people and of all the life that G.o.d created to flourish on the face of His green Earth, green no longer.

”I could accuse you of many other evil and monstrous deeds, such as the adultery you are now contemplating forcing on a virtuous wife and the fornication you are now forcing on the daughter of General Mier.”

”But these, evil though they may be, are as nothing to the murder of Earth!”

The scream that came from the man by the gates could be heard even across the plaza. The white figure pointed at the Pope, its head turned towards those behind him. Obviously, he was ordering them to fire.

But n.o.body obeyed. Even these men hesitated.

Then, the white figure pulled a weapon from the white holster on its white belt. There was a spurt of flame which Broward could see because his angle of vision was between the two men on the opposite sides of the gate.

Another followed the first, and another.

Siricio II fell backward and lay on the rock floor, his arms spread out.

Broward cast another look at the tunnel but saw no one. Then he turned and sprinted down the hall, burst through the door, and cried, ”Let's go!”