Part 53 (1/2)

Suddenly Terl got the combination! Both s.h.i.+ps' motors smoothed into shrieking agreement.

But Jonnie's combination was straight down and six feet under, hypersonic.

At an abrupt two thousand miles an hour, both s.h.i.+ps hurtled toward the earth.

In an instant, Terl apparently realized that this set of console coordinates was sudden death.

Jonnie could see him in the cabin, moving urgently.

With only five hundred feet to go, Terl frantically punched in the reverse combination. His s.h.i.+p motors went into a fighting howl.

The inertia of the ma.s.s carried it down to within twenty feet of the ground before the descent halted.

But the force on the hot motors was too great for them to overcome.

Both s.h.i.+ps burst into an orange ball of fire!

Terl's body hurtled out of the door and struck rolling.

The s.h.i.+ps struck!

With a swing of his legs Jonnie headed downward into a dive. With a thumb on the jet pack throttle, he guided himself to land about a hundred feet from the fiercely flaming wreck.

Terl was still rolling.

Chapter 6.

Jonnie shed his jet backpack. It was almost expended anyway. Not taking his eyes from Terl, he drew the belt gun and slid off its safety.

Terl had been on fire for a moment. He was not now. He had rolled it out in the damp spring gra.s.s. He was fifty feet away. He was lying motionless. He had a breathe-mask on.

Jonnie approached cautiously. This was a very treacherous beast. He walked within forty feet. Thirty feet. Terl was just lying there, inert.

A statement Robert the Fox had made drifted through Jonnie's head: ”Plan well, but when battle is joined, expect the unexpected! And cope with it!” Terl's escape had scrambled their plans. The compound down there was without air cover. The lord alone knew what was going on. The sound of gunfire was rattling and thudding in the distance. The mutter of flames came from the burning planes nearby.

Jonnie didn't look. He had his eyes on Terl, watchful. He stopped. Twenty-five feet was close enough. He could not quite see through the faceplate. Terl was singed. There was some dried green blood on his jacket.

Suddenly Terl's hand blurred and a small gun appeared in it like magic.

Jonnie dropped at the first hint of motion and fired.

There was a flash as Terl's gun exploded in his paw. Then he was up and starting to run.

There were questions Jonnie wanted answered. His first snap shot had been lucky and had hit the gun. He drew a careful bead on Terl's right leg. ”Here's one for the horses,” flashed through his head. He fired.

The leg buckled and Terl went down. The foot stayed twisted in the wrong direction.

Jonnie walked over to where the exploded gun lay. It was a very slim weapon. Was this what was called an ”a.s.sa.s.sin gun”?

Terl was lying there, motionless. ”Quit shamming, Terl,” said Jonnie.

Terl suddenly laughed and sat up. ”Why didn't you die in the morgue?”

”Animal,” said Terl, putting his foot right-way to but carefully sitting quiet under the menace of the gun twenty feet away. ”I can hold my breath for four minutes!”

He was too cheerful. His leg was bleeding through his pants. He was singed. But he was too cheerful. Jonnie knew there was something else. He backed up.

Moving so that he could keep Terl in view out of the corner of his eye, he glanced around the plain. The compound was behind them, possibly twenty miles. Gunfire was coming faintly from that direction. He knew he should make some effort to help them.

Where were the girls? Probably they had gone on. No! There they were! Jonnie hadn't expected that. They were coming back. Riding at a slow trot, cautiously, they were coming back. They were about a mile away.

It hit Jonnie suddenly. The shock of not finding them in the cage, the fear that they were still in that holocaust down there, had stayed suspended. He was swept by a tide of relief. They were all right!

Jonnie waved his arm to signal them to come on in.

Still alert to Terl, Jonnie scanned farther a field. One of the pilots that had bailed out had come in this direction. He peered. Yes! There was somebody moving about four miles to the south- hard to see due to camouflage dress- but a trained eye such as Jonnie's detected by the motion of things, not only by contrasts.

Terl was laughing again. ”You'll never get away with it, animal. Psychlo will be into this place in a swarm!”

Jonnie didn't answer. He waved the girls in. The horses were shying as they came around the burning wreck. Chrissie was mounted on Old Pork, Pattie on Dancer. The horses weren't blowing, so their earlier riding must not have been so fast.

The girls were unable to believe it was Jonnie. Chrissie stayed mounted, some distance away. She was ghastly pale. Her neck was raw red from the collar now gone. ”Jonnie? Is that you, Jonnie?” He looked different in the blue clothing. Pattie had no doubts. She sprang from the back of Dancer and raced to Jonnie and put her arms around his waist, her hair coming up to his pocket. ”See? See?” she was shouting back to Chrissie. ”I told you Jonnie would come! I told you and told you!”

Chrissie was sitting her horse and crying.

”You got the monster!” said Pattie, excited, pointing at Terl.

”Don't get between me and him,” said Jonnie, caressing her hair but holding the gun on Terl. He should be at the compound; he must not dally here.

Jonnie didn't want the girls near him in case Terl moved. He had a sudden idea. ”Chrissie! Look down to the south there about four miles.”

Chrissie took a grip on herself and wiped her eyes. Jonnie wanted her to do something. She looked. She tried to speak, then cleared her throat and tried again. ”Yes, Jonnie.” She looked harder. ”It's something moving.”

”It's a friend,” said Jonnie. ”Ride down there as fast as you can whip up Old Pork and bring him back here!”

Chrissie straightened up. She guided Old Pork well around Terl and then lit out to the south, her hair streaming back as Old Pork raced away.

The gunfire was picking up in volume to the south. Being gentle with Pattie and walking sideways while keeping a gun on Terl, Jonnie got to a position where he could see the compound. They stood on a slightly higher rise than it.

In the clear afternoon air he could see it, in miniature, but vividly.

White water was spraying two or three hundred feet in the air. It looked like a waterfall in reverse. Then he knew what had happened. The automatic fire sprinkler system had let go.