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opening.
Silora sighed with relief and sat down cross-legged on the cabin floor.
"That's done, Mazda. Now all we can do is to hope everything works as we
planned it to work and that the mercenaries have followed their usual camp
plan."
Blade nodded slowly. "If they don't-" It was time to face something he had not
felt it necessary to mention until now. "Suppose we can only destroy the
machines if we are willing to destroy your people, the Peace Lords, along with
them? Will you stand by me even then, or would you rather be left here and
picked up on my way back rather than see that?"
Silora was silent for a moment. "I will fly with you all the way, Mazda. That
is as it must be. But if the bomb must fall on the Peace Lords as well as the
mercenaries, then-" Her voice failed her for a moment.
She swallowed and continued. "Then when it comes time to drop the bomb, I want
to go out on the platform and jump with it. It is better that the Peace Lords
die than that Tharn and its people die. But if the Peace Lords die, then I
must die with them. That is also as it must be, for I could not live long in
that case."
Blade was silent for quite a long time. He hoped she wasn't expecting an
answer to that, because he honestly couldn't think of one. Finally he turned
back to the controls and lifted the machine into the sky
again.
The armed bomb now rode securely in a complex and rugged cradle of leather
strips and teksin rods. A
quick tug on the cord running in through the hatch and the whole cradle would
collapse, letting the bomb roll off the platform of its own weight and fall
free. It was fused to explode when it hit the ground. That would not give
absolutely the best results, but with an atomic bomb who needed absolutely the
best? It would flatten everything; for a mile in every direction, which was
more than good enough.
They slid onward through the darkness, listening to the signals of the Looters
grow stronger and stronger. About twenty miles out they saw a dim glow on the
horizon ahead. It grew steadily stronger as they steered straight for it. At
ten miles both of them shouted out loud in delight, as the glow began to
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separate into three distinct parts, the center one fainter than the other two.
At the same time it became possible to distinguish three distinct signals on
the direction-finder, each coming from a slightly different location.
Silora's face was one enormous glowing smile that seemed to light up the whole
cabin. "They are as usual, Mazda. The Principal Technician of War has not
thought anything new was needed against this opponent."
Blade did not smile. He merely nodded and said, "He will be a very surprised
man before too long.
Which one is the machine camp?" Within, he felt a great relief. He had not
been looking forward to returning home without Silora, after watching her leap
to a death he knew she welcomed.
"The farthest one is giving off the usual signal of the machine camp," she
said.
Blade swung the machine to the right and started it on a long curve around the
triangle of Looter camps.
The one with the machine was at the opposite point of the triangle. If they
could skirt the whole patrolled area, they could come up on their target
without any warning.
But whatever else he hadn't done, the Looter commander had extended his
patrols farther than usual.
Five minutes later the radio crackled into life with a loud, harsh voice that
completely drowned out the directional signals.
"Unknown machine approaching Sector Seven of Patrol Zone, identify yourself
immediately."
Silora switched the radio to SEND and replied, "Machine 576 returning to
operations in control of
Peace Lord Second Class Silora Jou after escape from natives. Repeat, this is
Peace Lord Second Class
Silora Jou. I have escaped from the natives of this dimension. I have-"
"Understand, Peace Lord," said the voice sharply. "Identification
insufficient. You are ordered to ground your machine immediately and await
inspection. Failure to do so will lead to your being fired on. Repeat, ground
your-"
Silora switched the radio back to SEND and made a rude noise into the
microphone. As she shut off the radio entirely, Blade was at work on the power
and the controls. The machine shot forward as he fed in the power,
accelerating rapidly. When it was moving as fast as he dared to go this close
to the ground, he shouted at Silora:
"Hang on!"
He put the machine into a steep climb, opening the power even wider. The
machine leaped upward, its
speed mounting rapidly. On the screens the plain began to spread out below
them, an endless velvety black rug with moving sparks of light on it that were
the patrol machines.
Now came the most dangerous part of the whole mission. Instead of using
stealth they would have to use speed, hurtling straight down the center of the
triangle of Looter camps and dropping the bomb by sheer guesswork from a high
altitude.
Blade fed in still more power. The shriek and howl of the air rushing past
outside blasted in through the open hatch. It sounded like a hundred madmen
all screaming in chorus. Silora put her hands over her ears and Blade would
have done the same if he hadn't been too busy with the controls.
They must have been doing close to five hundred miles an hour. The circle of
lights that was the camp of the machines was a good fifteen miles away, but it
swept toward them with frightening speed. Blade kept the machine lined up
precisely on the center of the circle. He wished he didn't have to fly a
straight course, but there was no choice. Otherwise he might miss the target,
even with the atomic bomb.
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At least they would be hard to hit at this speed. Hitting them with a ray or a
rocket now would be like hitting a flying mosquito with a pistol shot. It
could be done, but it would take good luck as well as good shooting.
The target leaped toward them out of the night at the rate of more than a mile
every ten seconds. Blade checked altitude, remembered wind conditions on the
ground, did a quick set of mental calculations, wished for a pocket
calculator, let alone a bombsight. Now the machine camp was about to pass
below.
Blade saw the perimeter lights reflected from scores of humped and curved and
flat metal shapes in a dozen different sizes spread out in a circle a mile [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]