Part 2 (2/2)

Loor continued to blink while Sy reduced the amplifier to jumbled sc.r.a.p, and then the old man found his voice again. ”Why,” he asked Sy, ”didn't you use your pistol on them? Wouldn't that be easier?”

Sy dragged the dead officers out of the doorway. ”Can't depend on mechanical things,” he said briefly. He mopped perspiration from his forehead and neck. ”It's a matter of timing; I size up a situation, sort of estimate distances and positions, and kind of _see_ myself carrying out the actions--and then I go into high gear. It's hard to see, hear, or even consciously think while I'm speeded up. At that speed triggers just don't pull fast enough.”

”If those men had been able to move aside fast enough,” said Arna, ”Sy might have missed them entirely and not even known it until he slowed down again.” She looked with distaste at the bodies, but without repugnance or fear.

Sy hurriedly thrust a bulging pouch of gold into Loor's hand. ”Lock this place up,” he directed, ”and start walking immediately for Haldane.

We've got to a.s.sume we're all known to Sur-Malic Intelligence. Arna and I will remove the outside evidence. All we need now is a little chunk of time!”

He walked out warily and soon pulled away in the dead officers' vehicle.

Arna followed close behind.

Having driven slowly back to Dirik, Sy parked beside a row of similar vehicles to the rear of a city food market in the merchandise district.

He walked to where Arna waited and climbed into his own conveyance.

”Head for our little love-nest, slave,” he directed. ”You'll want your toothbrush, and it would be a shame to leave my hard-won gold behind.”

Arna breathed excitedly. ”Are we leaving the planet, Sy? Is our work completed? Was that what your message meant?”

”My, what a curiosity!” he taunted. He placed an arm about her shoulders. ”We're going into seclusion,” he leered. ”I'll have you all to myself for days and days! Won't that be fun?”

Arna squirmed. ”Stop it, Sy--I almost hit that old woman! And stop making those pebbles jump up in the road!” She glanced at him bitingly.

”I suppose you've got things all arranged so we'll have to hide in a single room!”

”The choice is yours, love.” He waved expansively. ”Either we steal a scouts.h.i.+p or--how's the _Needle_ for speed?”

”Oh, Sy! Can we actually get the _Needle_? She'll outstrip any wars.h.i.+p!

_And_ she has a nice private compartment, with a good solid deck outside it for you. I'll loan you a pillow, maybe.”

They took from the apartment only what would fit into small shoulder bags that were matched to their uniforms. Sy briefed Arna while they sped to the vast enclosure which walled off hundreds of impounded alien s.h.i.+ps.

His towering rage was very evident even as he climbed from the ground vehicle. A callow sentry straightened at the approach of his glittering insignia. Sy fixed him with a malific eye. The youth's mouth began to twitch.

”Where,” shouted Sy furiously, ”is the moronic officer-in-charge?”

The sentry tried to speak.

”Never mind, you brainless rodent!” Sy roared. ”Why wasn't that accursed League s.h.i.+p delivered to the testing grounds this morning?”

The boy began to stammer.

”Quiet, you miserable lump of offal!” screamed Sy. He turned and brutally cuffed Arna toward the gate. ”Get in there, filthy drone, and raise that s.h.i.+p before I kick your belly to pulp!”

The sentry unlocked the high gate frantically. He watched with ashen features as Sy followed Arna across the yard, cursing, striking and reviling her.

Out of the guard's sight, Sy quickly located the _Needle_ and broke the port seal. Arna clambered in, adjusted controls to planetary drive, wakened the powerful engines to a sighing song of readiness and then ran to her bunk to strap herself down. Sy sealed the port and dived into the soft, deep clutches of the pilot's gimbaled throne. Within seconds the craft darted for the horizon, veered, and streaked out from the planet on a straight drive for the blinding orb of p.r.o.nuleon.

A hundred miles or more from the blue world behind, the _Needle_ shot through the detector field of a Sur-Malic scouts.h.i.+p. Sy didn't bother to switch on audio for a challenge. Grimly, he located the scouts.h.i.+p's relative position by the pip on his detector screen and stabbed a pattern of b.u.t.tons to spew quickly-congealing clouds of magnetized dust into automatically calculated trajectory paths. He smiled with relief as pips sparked into life, indicating the interception of homing missiles.

<script>