Part 19 (1/2)
She came in and half closed the door upon us, leaving it open enough so that we could make sure that Coniston did not advance.
I stepped back where he could not see us. ”Anita!”
She flung herself into my opened arms.
XV
A moment when, beyond the thought of the nearby brigand--or the possibility of an eavesdropping ray trained now upon my cubby--a moment while Anita and I held each other, and whispered those things which could mean nothing to the world, but which were all the world to us!
Then it was she whose wits brought us back from the s.h.i.+ning fairyland of our love, into the sinister reality of the _Planetara_.
”Gregg, if they are listening--”
I pushed her away. This brave little masquerader! Not for my life, or for all the lives on the s.h.i.+p, would I consciously have endangered her.
”But Grantline's findings!” I said aloud. ”In his message--see here, Prince--”
Coniston was too far away on the deck to hear us. Anita went to my door again and waved at him rea.s.suringly. I put my ear to the door opening and listened at the s.p.a.ce across the grid of the ventilator over my bunk. The hum of a vibration would have been audible at those two points. But there was nothing.
”It's all right,” I whispered, and she clung to me--so small beside me. With the black robe thrown aside, it seemed that I could not miss the curves of her woman's figure. A dangerous game she was playing.
Her hair had been cut short to the base of her neck, in the fas.h.i.+on of her dead brother. Her eyelashes had been clipped: the line of her brows altered. And now, in the light of my tube as it shone upon her earnest face, I could remark other changes. Glutz, the little beauty specialist, was in this secret. With plastic skill he had altered the set of her jaw--put masculinity here.
She was whispering: ”It was--was poor George whom Miko shot.”
I had now the true version of what had occurred. Miko had been forcing his wooing upon Anita. George Prince was a weakling whose only good quality was his love for his sister. Some years ago he had fallen into evil ways. Been arrested, and then been discharged from his position with the Federated Corporation. He had taken up with evil companions in Greater New York. Mostly Martians. And Miko had met him. His technical knowledge, his training with the Federated Corporation, made him valuable to Miko's enterprise. And so Prince had joined the brigands.
Of all this, Anita had been unaware. She had never liked Miko. Feared him. But it seemed that the Martian had some hold upon her brother, which puzzled and frightened Anita.
Then Miko had fallen in love with her. George had not liked it. And that night on the _Planetara_, Miko had come and knocked upon Anita's door, and incautiously she had opened it. He forced himself in. And when she repulsed him, struggled with him, George had been awakened.
She was whispering to me now. ”My room was dark. We were all three struggling. George was holding me--the shot came--and I screamed.”
And Miko had fled, not knowing whom his shot had hit in the darkness.
”And when George died, Captain Carter wanted me to impersonate him. We planned it with Dr. Frank to try and learn what Miko and the others were doing; because I didn't know that poor George had fallen into such evil ways.”
She whispered, ”But I love you, Gregg. I want to be the first to say it: I love you--I love you.”
We had the sanity to try and plan.
”Anita, tell Miko we discussed the multiple powers of the catalyst.
Discussed how carefully it would have to be transported; how to gauge its worth. You'll have to be careful, clever. Don't say too much. Tell him we estimate the value at about a hundred and thirty millions.”
I repeated what Miko had told me of his plans. She knew all that. And Snap knew it. She had a few moments alone with Snap and gave me now a message from him, ”We'll pull out of this, Gregg.”
With Snap she had worked out a plan. There were Snap and I; and Shac and Dud Ardley upon whom we could doubtless depend. And Dr. Frank.