Part 20 (1/2)
She came. I suppose it was no more than an hour: It seemed an eternity of apprehension. There was the slight hissing of the seal of my door.
The panel slid. I had leaped from my bunk where in the darkness I was lying tense.
”Prince?” I did not dare say ”Anita.”
”Gregg.”
Her voice. My gaze swept the deck as the panel opened. Neither Coniston nor anyone else was in sight, save Anita's dark-robed figure which came into my room.
”You got it?” I asked in a low whisper.
I held her for an instant, kissed her. But she pushed me away with quick hands. She was breathless.
”Yes, I have it. Give us a little light--we must hurry!”
In the blue dimness I saw that she was holding one of the Martian cylinders. The smaller size: it would paralyze but not kill.
”Only one, Anita?”
”Yes. And this--”
The invisible cloak. We laid it on my grid, and I adjusted its mechanism. I donned it and drew its hood, and threw on its current.
”All right, Anita?”
”Yes.”
”Can you see me?”
”No.” She had stepped back a foot or two. ”Not from here. But you must let no one approach too close.”
Then she came forward, put out her hand, fumbled until she found me.
It was our plan to have me follow her out. Anyone observing us would see only the robed figure of the supposed George Prince, and I would escape unnoticed.
The situation about the s.h.i.+p was almost unchanged. Anita had secured the weapon and the cloak and slipped away to my cubby without being observed.
”You're sure of that?”
”I think so, Gregg. I was careful.”
Moa was now in the lounge, guarding the pa.s.sengers. Hahn was asleep in the chart room. Coniston was in the turret. Coniston would be off duty presently, Anita said, with Hahn taking his place. There were lookouts in the forward and stern watch towers, and a guard upon Snap in the radio room.
”Is he inside the room, Anita?”
”Snap? Yes.”
”No--the guard.”
”The guard was sitting on the spider bridge at the door.”