Planet of the Damned Page 6

  VI

  "Identify yourself, please." The quiet words from the speaker in noway appeared to coincide with the picture on the screen. The spacerthat had matched their orbit over Dis had recently been a freighter.A quick conversion had tacked the hulking shape of a primary weaponsturret on top of her hull. The black disc of the immense muzzlepointed squarely at them. Ihjel switched open the ship-to-shipcommunication channel.

  "This is Ihjel. Retinal pattern 490-BJ4-67--which is also the codethat is supposed to get me through your blockade. Do you want tocheck that pattern?"

  "There will be no need, thank you. If you will turn on your recorderI have a message relayed to you from Prime-four."

  "Recording and out," Ihjel said. "Damn! Trouble already, and fourdays to blowup. Prime-four is our headquarters on Dis. This shipcarries a cover cargo so we can land at the spaceport. This isprobably a change of plan and I don't like the smell of it."

  There was something behind Ihjel's grumbling this time, and withoutconscious effort Brion could sense the chilling touch of the otherman's _angst_. Trouble was waiting for them on the planet below.When the message was typed by the decoder Ihjel hovered over it,reading each word as it appeared on the paper. When it was finishedhe only snorted and went below to the galley. Brion pulled themessage out of the machine and read it.

  IHJEL IHJEL IHJEL SPACEPORT LANDING DANGER NIGHT LANDING PREFERABLE COORDINATES MAP 46 J92 MN75 REMOTE YOUR SHIP VION WILL MEET END END END

  Dropping into the darkness was safe enough. It was done oninstruments, and the Disans were thought to have no detectionapparatus. The altimeter dials spun backwards to zero and a softvibration was the only indication they had landed. All of the cabinlights were off except for the fluorescent glow of the instruments.A white-speckled grey filled the infra-red screen, radiation fromthe still warm sand and stone. There were no moving blips on it,not the characteristic shape of a shielded atomic generator.

  "We're here first," Ihjel said, opaqueing the ports and turning onthe cabin lights. They blinked at each other, faces damp withperspiration.

  "Must you have the ship this hot?" Lea asked, patting her foreheadwith an already sodden kerchief. Stripped of her heavier clothing,she looked even tinier to Brion. But the thin cloth tunic--reachingbarely halfway to her knees--concealed very little. Small she mayhave appeared to him: unfeminine she was not. Her breasts were fulland high, her waist tiny enough to offset the outward curve of herhips.

  "Shall I turn around so you can stare at the back too?" she askedBrion. Five days' experience had taught him that this type of remarkwas best ignored. It only became worse if he tried to make anintelligent answer.

  "Dis is hotter than this cabin," he said, changing the subject."By raising the interior temperature we can at least prevent anysudden shock when we go out--"

  "I know the theory--but it doesn't stop me from sweating," she saidcurtly.

  "Best thing you can do is sweat." Ihjel said. He looked like aglistening captive balloon in shorts. Finishing a bottle of beer,he took another from the freezer. "Have a beer."

  "No, thank you. I'm afraid it would dissolve the last shreds oftissue and my kidneys would float completely away. On Earth wenever--"

  "Get Professor Morees' luggage for her," Ihjel interrupted. "Vion'scoming, there's his signal. I'm sending this ship up before any ofthe locals spot it."

  When he cracked the outer port the puff of air struck them like theexhaust from a furnace, dry and hot as a tongue of flame. Brionheard Lea's gasp in the darkness. She stumbled down the ramp and hefollowed her slowly, careful of the weight of packs and equipment hecarried. The sand, still hot from the day, burned through his boots.Ihjel came last, the remote-control unit in his hand. As soon asthey were clear he activated it and the ramp slipped back like agiant tongue. As soon as the lock had swung shut, the ship liftedand drifted upwards silently towards its orbit, a shrinking darknessagainst the stars.

  There was just enough starlight to see the sandy wastes around them,as wave-filled as a petrified sea. The dark shape of a sand car drewup over a dune and hummed to a stop. When the door opened Ihjelstepped towards it and everything happened at once.

  Ihjel broke into a blue nimbus of crackling flame, his skinblackening, charred. He was dead in an instant. A second pillar offlame bloomed next to the car, and a choking scream was cut off atthe moment it began. Ihjel died silently.

  Brion was diving even as the electrical discharges still crackled inthe air. The boxes and packs dropped from him and he slammed againstLea, knocking her to the ground. He hoped she had the sense to staythere and be quiet. This was his only conscious thought, the restwas reflex. He was rolling over and over as fast as he could.

  The spitting electrical flames flared again, playing over thebundles of luggage he had dropped. This time Brion was expecting it,pressed flat on the ground a short distance away. He was facing thedarkness away from the sand car and saw the brief, blue glow of theion-rifle discharge. His own gun was in his hand. When Ihjel hadgiven him the missile weapon he had asked no questions, but had juststrapped it on. There had been no thought that he would need it thisquickly. Holding it firmly before him in both hands, he let hisbody aim at the spot where the glow had been. A whiplash ofexplosive slugs ripped the night air. They found their target andsomething thrashed voicelessly and died.

  In the brief instant after he fired, a jarring weight landed on hisback and a line of fire circled his throat. Normally he fought witha calm mind, with no thoughts other than of the contest. But Ihjel,a friend, a man of Anvhar, had died a few seconds before, and Brionfound himself welcoming this physical violence and pain.

  There are many foolish and dangerous things that can be done, suchas smoking next to high-octane fuel and putting fingers intoelectrical sockets. Just as dangerous, and equally deadly, isphysically attacking a Winner of the Twenties.

  Two men hit Brion together, though this made very little difference.The first died suddenly as hands like steel claws found his neck andin a single spasmodic contraction did such damage to the large bloodvessels there that they burst and tiny hemorrhages filled his brain.The second man had time for a single scream, though he died just asswiftly when those hands closed on his larynx.

  Running in a crouch, partially on his knuckles, Brion swiftly madea circle of the area, gun ready. There were no others. Only whenhe touched the softness of Lea's body did the blood anger seep fromhim. He was suddenly aware of the pain and fatigue, the sweatsoaking his body and the breath rasping in his throat. Holsteringthe gun, he ran light fingers over her skull, finding a bruised spoton one temple. Her chest was rising and falling regularly. She hadstruck her head when he pushed her. It had undoubtedly saved herlife.

  Sitting down suddenly, he let his body relax, breathing deeply.Everything was a little better now, except for the pain at histhroat. His fingers found a thin strand on the side of his neck witha knobby weight on the end. There was another weight on his othershoulder and a thin line of pain across his neck. When he pulled onthem both, the strangler's cord came away in his hand. It was thinfiber, strong as a wire. When it had been pulled around his neck ithad sliced the surface skin and flesh like a knife, halted only bythe corded bands of muscle below. Brion threw it from him, into thedarkness where it had come from.

  He could think again, and he carefully kept his thoughts from themen he had killed. Knowing it was useless, he went to Ihjel's body.A single touch of the scorched flesh was enough. Behind him Leamoaned with returning consciousness and he hurried on to the sandcar, stepping over the charred body outside the door. The driverslumped, dead, killed perhaps by the same strangling cord that hadsunk into Brion's throat. He laid the man gently on the sand andclosed the lids over the staring horror of the eyes. There was acanteen in the car and he brought it back to Lea.

  "My head--I've hurt my head," she said groggily.

  "Just a bruise," he reassured her. "Drink some of this water andyou'll soon feel better. Lie back. Everything's over for the momen
tand you can rest."

  "Ihjel's dead!" Lea said with sudden shocked memory. "They've killedhim! What's happened?" she tensed, tried to rise, and he pressed herback gently.

  "I'll tell you everything. Just don't try to get up yet. There wasan ambush and they killed Vion and the driver of the sand car, aswell as Ihjel. Three men did it and they're all dead now too. Idon't think there are any more around, but if there are I'll hearthem coming. We're just going to wait a few minutes until you feelbetter, then we're getting out of here in the car."

  "Bring the ship down!" There was a thin note of hysteria in hervoice. "We can't stay here alone. We don't know where to go or whatto do. With Ihjel dead, the whole thing's spoiled. We have to getout...."

  There are some things that can't sound gentle, no matter how gentlythey are said. This was one of them. "I'm sorry, Lea, but the shipis out of our reach right now. Ihjel was killed with an ion gun andit fused the control unit into a solid lump. We must take the carand get to the city. We'll do it now. See if you can stand up--I'llhelp you."

  She rose, not saying anything, and as they walked towards the cara single, reddish moon cleared the hills behind them. In its lightBrion saw a dark line bisecting the rear panel of the sand car. Hestopped abruptly. "What's the matter?" Lea asked.

  The unlocked engine cover could have only one significance and hepushed it open, knowing in advance what he would see. The attackershad been very thorough and fast. In the short time available to themthey had killed the driver and the car as well. Ruddy light shone ontorn wires, ripped out connections. Repair would be impossible.

  "I think we'll have to walk," he told her, trying to keep the gloomout of his voice. "This spot is roughly a hundred and fiftykilometres from the city of Hovedstad, where we have to go.We should be able to--"

  "We're going to die. We can't walk anywhere. This whole planet is adeath trap. Let's get back in the ship!" The shrillness of hysteriawas at the edge of her voice, as well as a subtle slurring ofsounds.

  Brion didn't try to reason with her or bother to explain. She had aconcussion from the blow, that much was obvious. He had her sit andrest while he made what preparations he could for the long walk.

  Clothing first. With each passing minute the desert air was growingcolder as the day's heat ebbed away. Lea was beginning to shiver,and he took some heavier clothing from her charred bag and made herpull it on over her light tunic. There was little else that wasworth carrying--the canteen from the car and a first-aid kit hefound in one of the compartments. There were no maps and no radio.Navigation was obviously done by compass on this almost featurelessdesert. The car was equipped with an electrically operatedgyrocompass, of no use to him now. But he did use it to check thedirection of Hovedstad, as he remembered it from the map, and foundit lined up perfectly with the tracks the car had cut into thesand. It had come directly from the city. They could find their wayby back-tracking.

  Time was slipping away. He would have liked to bury Ihjel and themen from the car, but the night hours were too valuable to bewasted. The best he could do was put the three corpses in the car,for protection from the Disan animals. He locked the door and threwthe key as far as he could into the blackness. Lea had slipped intoa restless sleep and he carefully shook her awake.

  "Come," Brion said. "We have a little walking to do."