Part 120 (1/2)

It's Russia,” said Stormalong. ”The Singapore people got there and they can't get near the place. It 's all on fire.”

Jonnie didn't understand. An underground base on fire?

”You've been there,” said Stormalong. ”I don't know why but they had some material, some black stuff, inflammable, outside the main entrances. Do you know what it was?”

Coal! The Russian base had been piling coal up for the winter. ”It's coal,” said Jonnie. ”A black rock that burns.”

”Well, whoever built that base built it next to or on or under a mine of this stuff and in the fighting it must have ignited. The Singapore team couldn't get near the base. They were very few and they didn't take any mine pumps, and even if they had there was no water near there. They yelled for help. They had to get the fire out to get near the base. Luxembourg was the only defense area that was never hit and they had flying tankers there. About two hours ago they filled those tankers and flew to Russia. We have no further reports on the fate of the Russian base. And there's no defense team left in Luxembourg.”

”Surely the Earth Planetary Bank had a radio!” said Jonnie.

”Yes,” said Stormalong doubtfully, ”but at this hour of the night, I don't think it would be manned. They're not part of the defense network.”

”I've got to go then,” said Jonnie.

”What planes are left-'

”Whoa!” said Stormalong. ”I had direct orders from Sir Robert that you stay here! here!”

”But MacAdam can't fly down here if there are no pilots. Not even one pilot left in Luxembourg?”

”Not one.”

Jonnie felt desperate. ”Then how about detaching a pilot from Edinburgh and getting-”

”Not a chance,” said Stormalong. ”They're arrived there and it's a screaming mess. The whole tunnel network under the rock has collapsed. You can't get into the place to see whether there's anyone still alive in the shelters. They've got atmosphere hoses and equipment to get air in to any survivors and they are bringing mine diggers up from Cornwall. But they need the pilots they have as machine operators. I don't think I could persuade even one of them-'

”Do you have a plane here?”

”Of course I've got a plane here. I've got five planes here! But you are not leaving!”

The woman turned from the mike. ”It is dead. There is no one answering from the Luxembourg mine site or the bank. And after all, it is two in the morning there.”

”I'm going,” said Jonnie.

”You're not!” shouted Stormalong.

”Then you are!” shouted Jonnie.

Stormalong blinked. After all, he had had about two hours worth of catnaps.

”You'll have to handle anything here by yourself,” he said. ”Be in the air and at that mike at the same time if you have to fly defense.”

”I'd take Tinny and handle the network from the plane,” said Jonnie, ”if I had to go up and fight. But that isn't where the fight is! is! It's right down here with these small gray men! Can you stay awake to Luxembourg?” It's right down here with these small gray men! Can you stay awake to Luxembourg?”

Stormalong shrugged and then nodded.

”All right,” said Jonnie. ”You take those copies you made of the dinner party and you fly to Luxembourg and find MacAdam. Blast him out. Tell him I said it was vital he review those recordings right now. And he's got to find some way to handle a debt. You tell him that.”

”A debt?” said Stormalong.

”Yes, a debt. And if we don't pay or handle it, we've lost this whole war!

Even if we win it!”

- Part XXIX -

Chapter 1.

The next two days were the most horrible in Jonnie's life- cage, drone, and all!

Stormalong had simply flown into thin air and vanished.

He didn't answer on radio even when Jonnie said his name in clear.

The bank office in Luxembourg was open and answering but there was just a girl there, and she didn't speak any tongue anyone at Kariba could speak- French?- and even though they said ”MacAdam” and she tried to tell them something back, they couldn't make it out.

Jonnie could not leave here.

The emissaries in the conference room would go in and out. They were working on and on with the trial. They didn't pay much attention to him.

Jonnie slept in the ops room and only got out when Chief Chong-won would spell him for a few minutes by standing in case anything urgent came through.

Truth told, there was not too much coming through that Jonnie had to handle. Even had he gotten urgent requests, he couldn't have done anything about them, for he had no available pilots, troops, or defense forces. He was actually the only one defending the planet. The woman, Tinny, was lots of help, but there was a limit to the number of hours anyone could stay awake, even a Buddhist nun.

Angus was spending some time with the transs.h.i.+pment rig. He had left the gyrocage on a Tolnep mountain to learn the full fate of the moon Asart. ”I wanted to see whether there were earthquakes on Tolnep,” he told Jonnie. ”When you change ma.s.s in a system, you could expect changes in gravitational stresses. I read someplace that if our own moon got knocked out into s.p.a.ce or something, it would cause earthquakes here. But Tolnep didn't shake up our gyrocage.”

A few hours later, Jonnie had heard a motor running in the bowl and, edgy, had gone out to check. Angus was running a blade sc.r.a.per. He was pus.h.i.+ng a huge piece of the capital s.h.i.+p through the under-cable entrance; it was a piece that had hit the sh.o.r.e. Chief Chong-won was very sharp with him for it was sc.r.a.ping up the pavement and Chief Chong-won had no men to repair the scars.

Angus said something about wanting to see whether the ultimate bomb were still active.

”Well, don't bring anything back here that touches that area,” said Jonnie and went back in to answer a radio query.

The next morning Angus had come in to eat a bowl of noodles with him and tell him about it.

”I put that sc.r.a.p metal way out beyond Asart,” said Angus. ”I thought it would fall through the gas-'

”What gas?” said Jonnie.

”Oh, Asart just seems to be gas now,” said Angus. ”Just a huge cloud of gas. It was blackish for a while but then it cleared up. You can see it is a cloud of gas but you can see through it. It 's pretty obvious now why the Psychlos never used that bomb. As mining people they needed metal, not gas!”