Part 2

"Not for ships. We'll have to walk and they'll follow us."

"We've got to slow them down some way, then. I wonder how the devil they traced us? I thought we lost them in that fog."

"It's that Serono Zeburzac, the traitor. He knows these mountains as well as we do."

"How come?"

"The Zeburzacs are one of the old families, but he sold out to McHague."

"Well, what do we do now? Just stand here? It looks like everybody's leaving."

"We might as well just wait," Crystal said hopelessly. "It won't do us any good to run out into the hills. Zeburzac and his men will follow."

"We could slow them down some by swinging a couple of those ships around so their rocket exhausts sweep the entrance to the cavern," Brian suggested doubtfully. She looked at him steadily.

"You sound like the only good rebel left. We can try it, anyway."

* * * * *

They ran two ships out into the middle of the cavern, gunned them around and jockeyed them into position--not a moment too soon.

Half a dozen police showed in brief silhouette as they slipped cautiously into the cavern, guns ready, expecting resistance. They met a dead silence. A score or more followed them without any attempt at concealment. Then Brian and Crystal cut loose with the drives of the two ships.

Startled screams of agony burst from the crowded group of police as they were caught in the annihilating cross fire of roaring flame. They crisped and twisted, cooked to scorched horrors before they fell. A burst of thick, greasy smoke rushed out of the cavern. Two of the police, their clothes and flesh scorched and flaming, plunged as shrieking, living torches down the mountainside.

Crystal was white and shaking, her face set in a mask of horror, as she climbed blindly from her ship.

"Let's get away! I can smell them burning," she shuddered and covered her face with her hands.

Brian grabbed her and shook her.

"Snap out of it," he barked. "That's no worse than shooting helpless men in parachutes. We can't go, yet; we're not finished here."

"Oh, let them shoot us! I can't go through that again!"

"You don't have to. Wait here."

He climbed back into one of the ships and cut the richness of the fuel mixture down till the exhaust was a lambent, shuddering stutter, verging on extinction. He dashed to the other ship and repeated the maneuver, fussing with the throttle till he had the fuel mixture adjusted to critical fineness. The beat of the stuttering exhaust seemed to catch up to the other and built to an aching pulsation. In a moment the whole mass of air in the cavern hit the frequency with a subtle, intangible thunder of vibration.

Crystal screamed. "Brian! There's more police cutting in around the entrance."

Brian clambered out of the ship and glanced at the glowing points in the rock where the police were cutting their way through outside the line of the exhaust flames. The pulsating thunder in the cavern crescendoed to an intolerable pitch. A huge mass of stalactites crashed to the floor.

"It's time to check out," Brian shouted.

Crystal led the way as they fled down the escape tunnel. The roaring crash of falling rock was a continuous, increasing avalanche of sound in the cavern behind them.

They emerged from the tunnel on the face of the mountain, several hundred yards to the east of the cavern entrance. The ground shook and heaved beneath them.

"The whole side of the mountain's sliding," Crystal screamed.

"Run!" Brian shoved her and they plunged madly through the thick tangle of jungle away from the slide.

Huge boulders leaped and smashed through the matted bush around them. Crystal went down as the ground slipped from under her. Brian grabbed her and a tree at the same time. The tree leaned and crashed down the slope, the whole jungle muttered and groaned and came to life as it joined the roaring rush of the slide. They were tumbled irresistibly downward, riding the edge of the slide for terrifying minutes till it stilled and left them bruised and shaken in a tangle of torn vegetation.

The remains of two police ships, caught without warning in the rush as they attempted to land, stuck up grotesquely out of the foot of the slide. The dust was settling away. A flock of brilliant blue, gliding lizards barking in raucous terror, fled down the valley. Then they were gone and the primeval silence settled back into place.

Brian and Crystal struggled painfully to solid ground. Crystal gazed with a feeling of awe at the devastated mountainside.

"How did you do it?"

"It's a matter of harmonics," Brian explained. "If you hit the right vibratory combination, you can shake anything down. But now that we've made a mess of the old homestead, what do we do?"

"Walk," Crystal said laconically. She led the way as they started scrambling through the jungle up the mountainside.

"Where are we heading for?" Brian grunted as he struggled along.

"The headquarters of the Carlton family. They're the closest people we can depend on. They've kept out of the rebellion, but they're on our side. They've helped us before."

* * * * *

Two days later, Crystal and Brian, weary, bedraggled and bushworn, stumbled on a rocky trail that twisted up through a narrow valley toward the Carlton place. Trails were scarce in the terrific Venusian mountain country where nearly all communication was by air.

Crystal knew this path.

"We're almost there," she said, and they pushed along faster.

"Listen! What's that?" Brian stopped and they both heard the sound of aircraft taking off. The pulsing roar of the rocket drives approached and a V formation of five ships swept by overhead.

Crystal looked at Brian with dawning horror behind her eyes. "Police!"

"Good. They're just leaving; they were probably just checking up on the Carltons."

Crystal shivered. "When Serono Zeburzac checks up on someone, there usually isn't much left. Come on." She started at a run down the trail.

They slowed at the sight of a clearing ahead. A faint sound reached them, a sobbing, inarticulate moan of unexpressible agony that froze them in their tracks.

"What's that?" Brian gasped.

Crystal's face was dead-white as they moved cautiously forward. They stared out into the clearing in dumb horror. The huge, rambling Carlton mansion was a smoking heap of ruins. A giant Venus thorn bush in front of the house was scorched and charred by the flames. One of its murderous, yard-long spikes carried a terribly gruesome burden. Crystal whimpered and stumbled forward before Brian could stop her. She collapsed in a sobbing heap in front of the gray-haired man impaled on the giant thorn. The figure stirred feebly.

"He's alive," Brian muttered. "Crystal! Snap out of it. Get up and give me a hand. We'll cut him down."

With Crystal's help Brian hacked off the thorn and gently eased the frail, old man to the ground. His breath fluttered out between lips flecked with pink-tinged froth. His eyes tried to smile his thanks through their haze of pain.

Crystal held the weakly gripping hands. "Who did this to you?"

The gray lips moved and worked, struggling painfully to form words. The whisper was almost inaudible:

"Serono ... Zeburzac."

Crystal's face hardened to a mask of vicious cruelty as she fought her emotions down.

"We'll get him."

"No." The elder Carlton seemed to gather strength. "Get away--escape."

Crystal gripped his hands and seemed to hold him back from the edge of Eternity by sheer strength of will.

"Where? Where can we go?"

The eyes fluttered open again, the shadow of death lurked in their depths. "Go ... the place where the Five Valleys meet ... beware ... Zeburzac."

His breath drifted out in an effortless sigh. The tortured body was still. Crystal rose unsteadily to her feet. She turned blindly and Brian took her in his arms, trying to comfort her as her wild sobbing got out of control. He patted her shoulder awkwardly.

"Take it easy, kid," he muttered helplessly. His laboratory experience hadn't covered any such contingency as this.

"Brian, take me away. I can't stand this. Hide me somewhere before that fiend comes back."

"I thought we were part of a revolution that was going to clean them off the planet," Brian reminded her grimly.

"We can't fight this. We haven't got a chance. Zeburzac has everything."

"He hasn't got us yet. Where's this Five Valleys place? Can we get there?"

"Yes, but it will be no use. I want to quit now."

Brian's arms tightened around her. His voice was bleak and cold. "I'm not quitting. I'm going to get Serono Zeburzac."

The girl in his arms was still for a moment. Then she let go a long, trembling sigh of weary resignation.

"All right, I'm with you. Let's start traveling."

* * * * *

"The place where Five Valleys meet." Crystal waved her arm out toward the tremendous green bowl of emptiness that curved away all round them.

The sides of the gigantic cup had been cracked and split by some cataclysmic upheaval in the turbulent youth of the young planet. They stood at the mouth of one of the sheer, ragged slashes that had given the place its name. The other four were streaks of darker green against the distant walls. Beneath the eternal-night cloud level the air was clear.

Directly across from them a tremendous, sharp-prowed promontory sheered up from the depths. Capping it, against the somber green of the valley walls, the snow-white structure of a dream palace rose in airy splendor. In the dark setting, the walls were radiant with breath-taking beauty, so perfect in balance and line that it concealed the huge massiveness of the buildings, postponed for a moment the realization that the great structure was a glorious ruin.

Brian let his breath go. "I didn't know there was anything like that on Venus," he said in open admiration. "Who built it?"

"The Martins. They used to operate the mines in this district, but they were worked out years ago and the family scattered. They still own this place. Nobody lives in it officially, but there must be some help here or Grenville Carlton wouldn't have told us to come. Maybe the rebels are using the old hangars."

"Well, there's only one way to find out. We gotta climb."

* * * * *

"There's somebody here, all right," Brian said as they entered the great courtyard through a ruined gateway. "Look, there's a couple of ships over there."

"And they're our people, too." There was a lilt in Crystal's voice. "That far ship is Jimmy Thornton's--I'd know it anywhere." They approached the huge main doors of the great, white mansion.

One door swung partly open and a swarthy, powerful man stepped hastily out. He carried an atomic projector.

"Halt!" he commanded. "Who are you?"

"Oh, you don't need to get excited, we're rebels, too," Crystal told him. "Who's here?"

"Who is it, Max?" a pleasant voice inquired from the dim hallway.

"Two more of the rebels, sir," the guard replied woodenly.

"Oh--rebels? Oh, yes, of course. Show them in, Max." The guard stood respectfully aside as Crystal and Brian entered the huge, echoing chamber.

"To your right," the guard directed and they entered a small, exquisite room. The man behind the desk seemed to fit perfectly into this cultured setting, he was small and neat, silver hair frosted his temples, framing gentle, delicate features. He smiled with pleasant, disarming frankness as he rose to greet them.

"You'll have to excuse Max, we didn't know you were coming, of course. Just make yourselves at home. Young Jim Thornton arrived a short while ago. You'll be able to see him presently. You'll be hungry, of course. Max, bring some refreshment."

"Have many of us arrived?" Crystal asked anxiously.

"I'm sorry to say, very few. Just Jim Thornton and his party and you and Mr. Hanson."

Brian started. "How do you now know my name?" he asked in surprise.

"Oh, we've all heard of you, Mr. Hanson, and how you got Miss James out of Venus City. Brilliant work, I must say, and the way you routed the police in the caverns was truly a remarkable accomplishment. But--what made you come to this place? We've not been established here long."

"Grenville Carlton told us about it," Crystal said briefly.

"Carlton? Old Grenville. How is he?"

"He's dead." Crystal's face hardened to a white mask of hatred at the memory. "We found him impaled on a thorn bush in front of the ruins of his own house." Her words were brutally blunt with the tremendous surge of emotion behind them.

"Impaled ... _tut tut tut_ ... my goodness, how terrible! Do you know who could have done it?"

"Yes. We found Carlton before he died. It was that rat Serono Zeburzac who killed him."

"Oh--do you know what this Serono Zeburzac looks like?"

"We've never seen him," Crystal cut in grimly, "but my father did, over the sights of an atomic flame projector. Serono Zeburzac has no left hand."

"Oh--" The gray-haired man behind the desk was interrupted by a terrible scream of human agony.

"No ... NO--" The words rose in a tortured frenzy. "Oh, God!... Not that again.... AAAAaaaaa--"

* * * * *

Crystal leaped to her feet.

"Jim--that was Jim Thornton! What's happened--" Her eyes turned in startled question to the slight, calm figure behind the desk. His benign expression of quiet peace had not been disturbed in the slightest by the soul-rending cry. He placed his fingertips precisely together.

"Are you sure Zeburzac was missing his left hand?"--he flexed the fingers of his own left hand for emphasis--"and not--his right?" There was a sickening click in the sudden, dead stillness of the room as he twisted at his right hand. It came away at the wrist, the thumb dropped lifelessly down. The fingers of his left hand curled around it. The wrist of the severed member was pointed toward them. In fascinated horror they stared down the muzzle of a tiny, short-range, atomic projector concealed in the artificial hand.

Crystal recoiled, one faltering step.

"Serono--Grenville was trying to warn us!"

Brian caught her before she fell.

"There is no cause for excitement. Sit down, please." The quiet courtesy of Serono's voice did not alter, but the steel thread of command was subtly woven into his words. "You have been very clever, Hanson, too clever. I thought, almost, you had escaped me, but no one ever does. My enemies are delivered into my hands; soon there will be none on Venus."

The moment of shock passed. Brian's superlatively keen faculties keyed acutely to the emergency. They needed time first.

"How do we rate as your enemies?" he stalled.

"Mr. Hanson, we are not children. You know why you are my enemy. I recognized you years ago, you are far too brilliant a man to have against me, and you would never be with me. Your loyalty to Venus Consolidated made you dangerous."

"My loyalty? What about yours? I thought you were working with McHague and the company."

"Oh, of course, as long as it suits my purpose."

"Suppose someone got word to the Earth Council. You wouldn't last long, then."

"Perhaps not, but Venus Consolidated controls all communication with Earth and soon I will control Venus Consolidated. But I'm sure you must be tired. Max will show you to your quarters." The guard ushered them out with the muzzle of a projector.

* * * * *

They started across the huge, ruined hall. Crystal stumbled blindly over a fragment of broken masonry. She sagged to her knees. The guard stopped abruptly.

"Don't try nothin', you guys," he snarled warningly.

"Quit being a fool, you idiot," Brian barked to cover Crystal's quick whisper of instructions. "This girl's sick. Give me a hand. You take her feet," he directed, as he lifted her shoulders. The guard hesitated doubtfully; his instructions didn't cover this.

"O. K., but just don't try nothin'." He hung the projector on his belt and bent down. One startled yelp gurgled and died in his throat as Crystal's feet slammed into his jaw and Brian's clenched hands rabbit-punched down on the back of his neck.

"That ought to hold him," Crystal muttered as she struggled to her feet.

Brian picked up the projector. He recognized it; it was a new model, two of this type had been sent to his laboratory for testing before the company invested in them.

"Well, what are we waiting for? C'mon, we'll go shoot Serono's other hand off," Crystal suggested grimly.

"D'you think that'd stop them? Us with one projector against what they've got?"

"Well, it would make it interesting for a while. You don't think we have a chance of getting away from here, do you?"

"I don't know," Brian said thoughtfully. "But when we were testing this model projector one of them kind of blew up in our face. I think it developed a short that converted it into the old-type regenerative circuit. We never were sure about it; there wasn't enough left to find out. Those old regeneratives are always dangerous, they were liable to heat up and explode at any time if you didn't watch them. If we'd been testing the model with a full charge of fuel, I wouldn't be here in this mess now." He slid back the inspection cover of the projector's compactly complicated ignition circuit and started poking experimentally at the system of tiny coils and delicate wires.

"Damn!" He swore briefly as a white-hot spark jabbed at his fingers, but he held on and the wires fused together. "That should do it. Now we're all set. Where's a hole to get out through?"

"How do you like that one?" Crystal suggested, indicating a ragged gap in the broken, ancient wall of the hall. "That's big enough to fly through and there's two guards out there in the courtyard with nice, shiny, new projectors ready to make smoke out of us. Want to go and interview them?"

"No. If we make enough noise here, they'll come and see us," Brian muttered as he closed the firing switch of the projector. There was no stab of flame from the muzzle. He heaved the weapon back into the middle of the hall. "As soon as that warms up there should be considerable distraction taking place in here."

"Why? What's going to happen?" Crystal asked.

"C'mon. Get over by the wall and be ready to run."

They started for the gap in the wall. A dull, heavy rumble got under way behind them. It built to a terrific, thundering crash as the universe split in a sheet of roaring flame. They were lifted and hurled bodily outward. They sprawled in a tangled heap on the pavement. Brian struggled to his feet in a choking swirl of dust and yanked Crystal with him. The progressive explosion of the projector's fuel battered the ancient structure, the wall bulged and cracked. The startled guards gawped stupidly at the two figures that had erupted so violently.

Masonry crashed to the pavement. The guards climbed over each other in a mad scramble to escape. Crystal and Brian staggered groggily after them, heading for Jim Thornton's ship. Brian boosted Crystal in, scrambled after her and slammed the hatch shut. The drive spluttered and roared to life, the ship ripped crazily into the air.

* * * * *

Arnold McHague, Director in Chief of Venus Consolidated, swung his heavy body around in fearful expectancy. Just a faint snick as though a lock had sprung, but there was no door on that wall. A panel slipped noiselessly aside.

"Serono--" The half-voiced question hung on a note of fear.

"No, it's not Serono, McHague." A tall, ragged figure, followed by a smaller one, stepped from the opening.

"Hanson!" A surge of relief sounded in McHague's voice, then died out. Brian Hanson was a rebel. He fumbled vaguely for the panel of call buttons on his desk, but his hand froze as he saw the projector trained on his expansive middle.

"I couldn't miss your stomach from here," Brian told him softly.

"What do you want?"

"I want to get to Earth and I want your private getaway ship."

"I don't know anything about any ship."

"It's no good, McHague. The drive tests for that ship were run in my laboratory."

"There's no fuel on board. It's in no condition to fly," McHague said hopelessly.

"It had better be ready to take off. Serono doesn't trust you any more than you trust him. About your only chance of living is for me to get to Earth and bring enough of the Planetary Patrol to head Serono off."

"I can't help you. I'm in this with Zeburzac. If the police get him, they've got me."

"You can be on our side. The way I'll tell it on Earth you were just stringing Serono along till I could get clear."

McHague shook his head. "I wouldn't live for a day if I helped you. You don't know Zeburzac. His family ran Venus in the old days. He means to restore that rule with himself as absolute dictator. I wouldn't be safe even on Earth."

"You'll just have to take that chance."

"We're wasting time," Crystal cut in sharply anxious. "Come on."

Her words brought McHague reluctantly to his feet. "I'll do it," he muttered thickly. "Come with me."

* * * * *

The misty gloom of a Venusian night shrouded the jungle as three figures forced their way along an almost completely overgrown trail. The lights of Venus City gleamed dimly through the night murk behind them. McHague stumbled and swore in the lead as the trail twisted down the steepness of the ridge. He came to a halt on a long, level bench.

"This is the place."

"I don't see anything," Crystal said doubtfully.

"You didn't think I was going to leave the ship where Zeburzac could find it, did you?"

McHague scrabbled around in the roots of a bush, found what he wanted, a metal lever hardly distinguishable in the tangle, and yanked it up. His action was followed by a slight vibration underfoot, a heavy, dull ripping of roots sounded in front of them as the ground parted before their eyes. Two balanced sections tilted upward, away from each other, revealing the Stygian blackness of a pit.

"It's a ventilating shaft of one of the old mines. The ship's down there about two hundred feet. It's got a Nordenfeldt control panel. Can you handle it?"

"Sure, but how can I get down?"

"There's a ladder--but wait a minute, Hanson." McHague's heavy-jowled face was ghastly in the dim light. "You've got to play this straight, see. I'm giving you a chance and you've got to stand by me. If Serono knew I was doing this--You've got to get those police here--"

"Don't worry," Brian told him grimly. "Serono is no friend of mine, either. Where's this ladder?"

"Just over the edge on this side."

Crystal laid her hand on Brian's arm.

"Good luck." She started to smile encouragingly, but she couldn't quite make it. "Brian--" Her voice choked up. "Oh, Brian, be careful--" It was almost a sob. Then she was in his arms. He held her for a moment and buried his face in the soft, silver glory of her hair.

"I'll be all right. You take care of yourself till I get back. I won't be long, then we'll get this mess cleaned up."

He disengaged himself gently. Crystal watched in silence as Brian clambered over the edge and disappeared into the blackness of the shaft. Minutes dragged slowly by.

"Oh, I hope he makes it," Crystal murmured.

"He probably will. Mr. Hanson is a very resourceful man."

The soft, quiet voice was just behind her. Crystal turned in slow, hopeless terror.

"Serono--"

McHague's breath sucked in in a startled gasp of horror.

"Zeburzac!"

"But, of course. I wanted to be here to wish Mr. Hanson _bon voyage_. I hope he has a pleasant flight--although it will be a short one."

"What do you mean?" McHague whispered.

"Why, McHague, my dear friend, you didn't think I would overlook a simple thing like this?"

"You knew?"

"Oh, yes. I visited this place several times. I supposed you might be leaving me some time, so, of course, I made arrangements." The silky softness of Serono's voice, changed to a sinister rasp, "That ship will be blown apart fifty seconds after it takes off!"