Part 2

He dashed down the hall. There was no plan in his mind but action. He paused before the door, then pushed in.

It was a wide chamber with no windows. The door was the only exit. Lighted by the same ceiling glow as all these rooms seemed to be, this light was more intense. Everything was spotless. And stark in the glare was a raised platform upon which rested five oblong tables. Upon the tables lay the men and the woman.

Three Capeks stood near, two others--by their numbers those he had followed--stood by in the center of the room.

The humans were strapped to the tables, a Capek stood over each of them. Rod noticed the walls were lined with shelves of glittering instruments. There was a stronger light over the platform.

It was an operating room! His premonitions had been correct--these people were to be de-brained, at once.

One Capek raised a thin lancet and his eye bent over the form of the dark-haired man. The others were arranging implements along the sides of the tables.

Rod had not been noticed. Unresisted admission seemed customary at any place here.

The voice of the blond man spoke softly but it was clearly audible in the quiet room.

"Good-bye, Vee," he said.

"Stop!" cried Rod. He shot to the platform, knocked the lancet from the hand of the nearest machine.

The Capeks turned in obvious astonishment.

"What is the meaning of this!" demanded one. Then his voice changed to incredulity. "You have no number--"

The next step was unconsidered. He had been finally found out. And he could not let these people die. It did not matter what happened to him.

He reached out, snapped the suspension switch upon the shell of the Capek who had spoken. The machine drooped instantly.

Another clutched his arm and Rod whirled upon him. His strength was as yet untested and he wondered how powerful he really was. He snapped his arm from the grasp, flicked down and caught the machine by its carriage. Easily lifting the wriggling Capek over his head, he flung the thing through the air. It crashed into the far wall with an explosion of shattered machinery.

Another rushed at him, arms rearing. Rod caught one of the metal bars and tore it from its socket. With his other hand he grasped the neck cable of a near Capek, pulled out its single eye. He was rapidly learning to fight with his new powers and he tore into the rest with a clash of steel against steel.

The machine with the severed neck was flailing the air blindly. Rod grabbed another and hurled it into the eyeless one. The last machine raised a broken leg-bar and swung it at Rod's eye. He dodged and the metal struck his right arm, splintered it. The tendrils dangled, useless. Rod caught the Capek with his other, whipped it into the wall.

Broken parts littered the floor, reddish fluid seeping from crushed shells. He turned to see the one-armed machine fleeing from the room, out the door before he could pursue. He would warn the others. And he had but one arm now....

* * * * *

Rod turned to the men and the woman upon the slabs. Their eyes were wide. He felt a choking sorrow as he looked at them, helpless there, and he thought of the others outside in the compound, equally as helpless and doomed to a fate such as he had saved these. But had he saved them? The room would be filled with avenging Capeks in a moment.

Hurriedly, he loosened the straps which bound them.

"We must go quickly; he will bring others!" he said.

They sat up, still staring.

"What are you?" asked the blond one.

"I am Rod Carver. I come from that age of freedom which your ancestors cherished." He saw them look to his machine body and back to his eye, unbelieving. He struck his shell with a tendril. "One of them did this to me--put my brain here. I escaped before the _idea_ was given."

They said nothing and the girl moved to the light-haired man, put an arm upon his shoulder. The stocky one stared at Rod with poignant eyes; his arms hung limply with the quiet reserve of strength.

"I understand there are but a hundred of them. I shall release all of you. We can do something!" cried Rod.

"How did you get here?" asked the tall one.

"There is no time--can't you see! I will explain later. We must leave _now_!"

"What have we to lose, Ralph?" said the dark-haired one, turning to his companion. He looked back to Rod, jumped down to the platform. "I don't know why or what you are, but I saw what you just did." He motioned to the woman and the man. "This is Vee, and Ralph. I am Daro. We will go with you to whatever comes."

"Shall I release the others?" asked Rod.

"You can't. They're enclosed by electrically charged wire," put in the one named Ralph.

There was a sudden whirr of machinery in the corridor outside, the chatter of many voices.

"They come!" cried Daro.

Rod rushed to the door.

"Keep behind me!" he commanded.

He pulled the door open. One end of the hall was packed with machines coming from the compound. The Capek that had escaped must have gone there for help. The opening to the street was deserted except for those passing.

"This way!" Rod yelled and dashed for the street. The others followed with the mob of Capeks speeding swiftly after them.

For a moment the scene was as he had first observed it, quiet with moving machines in the afternoon sun. Then, as they burst out of the building, there was an abrupt cessation of activity. All stopped, craned their black neck cords and stared.

"Come on!" Rod yelled to his human allies and sped up the street, not knowing where.

* * * * *

But the surprise of the Capeks was brief. As the swarm poured from the building, all in the streets joined them in mad pursuit.

Rod turned down a deserted side street, then up another. For the time being, they were lost from view.

Finally, seeing the humans wearily fall behind, he halted.

"How do we leave the city?" he asked.

"We cannnot leave Detroy. We would surely die outside," panted Ralph. "The Capeks destroyed all life and vegetation when they conquered our ancestors; it is a blistering desert everywhere."

Suddenly a horde of machines rolled out of an alley in front of them, cutting off their retreat. Red looked about frantically. There was an open door in a building across the way. He motioned toward it. They ran over. When they were inside, he slammed the door.

He saw to the locks as the mob halted outside, shouting. It was a small, bare chamber, opening into another room at the rear. He looked in; there was no other exit. Except that there were no cabinets, the room was similar to the quarters of 83, where he had first been.

In this brief respite, he found them staring at him again.

"How did you get here?" asked Daro.

And briefly, his words loud above the noise outside, he told them what he knew of his coming and the subsequent happenings.

They listened with sparkling eyes, unmindful of their present insecurity.

"Why, it's like nothing that ever happened," cried the girl when he had finished. And Rod's mind was kindled with a single purpose. He had no idea what he could do--perhaps it was too late now--but he was willing to give his life in an attempt to set these people free. His life was nothing, meaningless to him as he was....

"But I guess we're trapped," he said. "With one of my arms gone, we could never get through that crowd outside."

Something was ramming against the door. It shook under the blows and Rod rolled over, putting his weight against it. Ralph had found a thick, metal bar in the room. The massive Daro had procured a hatchet of sorts. The girl stood against the wall, keeping out of the way.

The pounding upon the door grew stronger. Finally, with a crash it burst in, flinging Rod across the room. Two Capeks scrambled from the floor where they had fallen.

Daro swung his hatchet into a shell and as it spurted red, Ralph did away with the other one. Rod leaped up.

Machines were streaming into the room. Rod pulled the eye from the nearest, snatched at another and flung him at the mob in the door. He was fast learning how to steer his powerful body. He thought "speed," and darted into the machines with all the force of his weight. A wave fell, piled at the doorway, barrels smashed. But they were immediately pushed aside as others came.

Rod rolled into the helpless fight but, with his single arm, was of little aid. Ralph and Daro swung right and left. But it was a losing battle from the beginning--those fallen were immediately replaced.

Finally Daro dropped his hatchet and, at the risk of his life, knelt over a fallen Capek. He unscrewed the right arm, then fought his way to Rod's side. Rod saw his intention and held off the machines with his left as Daro removed his shattered limb, fitted the new arm in the socket. He had almost finished when a tendril caught him by a leg. He was swung high into the air, snapped like a whip. The Capek bashed his somber head against the shell of another machine. Daro died instantly.

Rod's brain, the only human element he possessed, melted with hot compassion at the courageous sacrifice, then flamed to blind fury. Like a thing possessed, he screwed the arm home and wheeled into the fray, pounding gigantic blows with balled tendrils. In a moment beneath his onslaught there was not a machine standing in the room.

He looked to the door, saw two Capeks jammed there, unable to move. The narrow entrance was blocked. Behind them a horde of machines pressed vainly. Then they drew back, gathered in little groups, shouting and waving their arms. Rod snapped the switches of those stuck in the doorway.

"R4, the ruler, has not arrived yet," said Ralph. "Without him, their brains can conceive of no concerted action."

"And when he comes?" asked Rod.

The tall man mutely pointed to the broken body of Daro upon the floor.

* * * * *

"When he comes, R4 will doubtless call for his flame guns and dispense with the matter at once," Ralph said with resignation. "It was by those weapons that civilization was overthrown--rays of invisible heat that withered all it touched. However, since the beginning of their indubitable security here, they retain only a few of these guns which they must connect to the main power transmitter. I saw it happen once when I was a boy, during a brief rebellion."

Suddenly Rod remembered the power building which he had seen on the way to the compound. The rays were operated by the same power that ran the city. He remembered 83 saying he was impervious to heat. If he could reach the power plant, destroy it, then the Capeks would be weaponless. And with the greater strength that 83 had bestowed--he had two arms now and he had learned much--they might have a chance against the machines. There were but a hundred of them. How many had been accounted for already? But how could he leave with them swarming at the only exit? And they would get the humans if he left. He whispered to Ralph of his scheme. It might be that he could do something in time....

"If you got through," Ralph said, "I think I could hold the door. It will take time for them to unjam the machines there. It's our only chance. Go!"

Then Rod thought of the rear chamber. It might be suicide, but he must try.

"Do what you can until I return," he said. "You can always surrender; they would probably not harm you if you gave up."

"We prefer to die here," said Ralph. Vee came to his side. She held the hatchet Daro had dropped.

Rod rolled into the other room. He went to the wall, tapped it, inspected it closely. It was of metal but did not sound very thick. He backed up, arms and neck cord behind him out of the way. He hurled himself against the wall.

It smashed before him and he careened into the street behind the building. There was no machine in sight.

Rod darted down the pavement, turned into the next street. Far in the distance, he could see the crowd before the building he had left.

He shot across the thoroughfare and into the next, glided swiftly to the power plant.

He paused at the door, heard again the drone of massive dynamos.

There came a cry from within and several Capeks rushed out, the afternoon sunlight glittering upon their number plates. Rod hurled one heavily to the pavement, eluded the others and darted into the building.

It was a monstrous room, walls studded with glowing tubes, machinery covering the floor. The Capeks--there were six of them--came at him again but he dodged. He began smashing every tube in sight. He sped along the wall, one arm rigidly outstretched, breaking tubes as he passed. Holding the Capeks off with his other hand, he encircled the room, shattered every tube. But the light of the ceiling continued to glow. The power was unimpaired.

Finally he was forced to turn upon his tormentors. Two fell at the first blow of his metal fist. One fled across the room and pushed a large lever on the wall, as Rod killed the others. A narrow door opened at the end of the room and Capeks, a steady stream of them, began rolling out. The one who had opened the door shouted a command as Rod smashed him.

The machines drew near, then rushed in a body. Rod retreated, wheeled about the room, a mad thing of metal, breaking everything in his path. Where was the main mechanism? His efforts had been useless, the light upon the ceiling still glowed, the whine of power continued. The controlling unit must be elsewhere.

Suddenly he found himself in a corner, surrounded, others still entering the door. They were a wall of steel before him.

* * * * *

The first wave approached and he fought them off. But slowly, by their strength of numbers, he was forced to the floor, his wheels knocked from under him, tendrils covering his arms.

They lifted him, marched to the center of the room. He was caught, He had failed! Mankind would continue in their power, they would be bred like sheep forever; mere brains to these mind-vampires. He had been their only hope....

The Capeks were apparently waiting for orders, holding him there in the middle of the room. He was held tightly by a dozen of them; the others returned to the compartment and the door closed. Rod tried commanding them to release him, to no avail. They remained silent and seemingly with little interest but to hold him there. They were probably mere workers, he thought, with practically no independent impulses.

Glancing helplessly about the room, Rod noticed a glowing metal disk near his ring of captors. It was but a few feet from him, gleaming with a dull, reddish light; a glass tube encased in wire mesh. He had overlooked it before. Looking about, he saw it to be the only unshattered instrument in the room. It might be the main tube!

Rod grew limp in their tendrils for a moment. Then suddenly he lunged backward, away from the tube with all his strength. It had the desired effect. The Capeks tugged at him. He went limp again. At the sudden cessation of his pull, the machines fell backward and he was forced forward upon their sprawled bodies.

Swiftly he enlongated his neck. He raised it high, lashed down at the tube with his eye. Rod saw the mesh cave in and the glass shatter. Then his eye burst and all was black. He was jerked to his feet again, and despite the rattle of his captors' machinery, he felt a strange silence. The dynamos had halted. The power was off!

Then the tendrils of the Capeks fell away from his arms. He heard the clatter of cylinders falling to the floor. He could see nothing. But something in his inner consciousness told him to flee; some deep intuition older than thought, born of a time when the desert beyond the city was lush vegetation and furry animals roamed its dawn trails, an ancient wisdom cried of danger in the darkness.

He remembered he had been facing the door. Arms outstretched, he moved forward, hit the wall, groped about and finally found the opening.

He moved outside into the street. He remembered which way to go, but blind he could never find the building in which he had left the humans. He could be of little assistance now if he did. And he had lost so much time.

Rod rolled slowly, his mind devoid of a solution. He would be an easy prey to the first Capek that chanced upon him. The wheels of his carriage hit something. Before he could stop, he fell over the obstacle, crashed to the pavement.

He lay there prepared for anything and expecting immediate death. But there was no sound. Carefully, he felt about him, discovered the thing over which he had fallen. By its shape, he made out the form of a dead Capek--the one he had killed on the way in.

Whispering a prayer to whatever god still lingered in this unsanctioned age, he felt for the neck cable, would have made burnt offerings when he found the dead eye unbroken. He detached it and, removing his own, set it there--could see again.

He glanced to the power plant. It was now a mass of twisted, steaming metal. The whole building had melted silently to the ground and in the rising waves of heat, he could see the glowing shells of cremated Capeks, those that had captured him. Looking to his own cylinder, Rod saw it was blistered with heat, one arm was badly bent. The destruction of the dynamos had released tremendous stored energy, had consumed the whole building as it dissipated into the air.

As Rod hurried up the street, his mind was filled with a three-fold thankfulness; to a sixth sense that even his soulless reincarnation could not disavow, to the Capek 83 who, with whatever motive, had given him a body with such resistance, and to a merciful guiding spirit that sent in his path the accident of regained sight.

Swiftly he shot up the street. The sun was low in the west and the alleys were darkening. But he made no attempt at concealment now. The Capeks were nothing to the fate he had survived. Thanks again to 83, he would have a fair chance against them unless greatly outnumbered.

As Rod neared the squat building where he had left Ralph and the woman, he saw no movement. Before the door was a great heap of machinery, the street was filled with scattered parts. The street was deserted. The Capeks were gone. All was silent.

* * * * *

On each side of the door, which was still jammed with suspended machines, were smooth holes. Rod peered in. The unmoving body of Ralph, his clothing in tatters, lay upon the floor amid a mass of broken metal. His face was bloody. The girl was not there.

Rod entered, placed his tendrils beneath the body, raised it. As he did so, the man moaned, slowly opened his eyes. He stared at Rod blankly. Then he recoiled and his eyes filled with fright.

Rod held him gently but firmly.

"It is I, Rod Carver! What happened? Where is Vee?"

Ralph sighed with relief, tried to sit up.

"R4 came soon after you left," he whispered hoarsely. "They entered with the flame gun. I fought but they beat me down, without using the weapon. R4 came in. I struggled up, hit him with the hatchet. I killed him." He laughed hysterically. "A Capek hit me and they thought I was dead." Suddenly he started and writhed, attempting to rise. A leg was broken. "Vee!" he cried. "They took Vee! They went to the tower to create another ruler immediately--_to use her brain_!"

Rod swung the man to the flat top of his shell, leapt out into the street. The tower, rising miles above the city, was close by. He rolled there with all the speed of his wheels, was at the door almost instantly.

The edifice was octagonal of shape and windowless except high in its corniced loft; a single door at it's base. Rod entered the great door. The chamber within, vaulted with distorted curves and planes, decorated with unknown instruments, was vacant. The room was lighted. The tower must have a small separate power unit....

Faintly, he heard sounds from above, noticed a winding slide that spiraled to the upper floors. He rolled upon the little incline and shot upward, dizzily around and around, following the increasing sounds coming down the shaft. He reached the top floor, halted at the landing.

The sounds were voices, chanting, an insane metallic chatter. Rod rolled silently down a wide, smooth corridor. The voices came from behind a massive door at the end of the hall.

Ralph still upon his shell, Rod flung the door open. The chant died away. It was an immense chamber, dark windows upon the far wall, lights hanging from the high ceiling. Around the walls stood the Capeks, all eyes upon him. In the center of the room, Rod saw a long dais, shimmering of a yellow metal, and upon it, swathed in white cloth, was the bound body of Vee. Beside here were two Capeks, the numbers 2 and 3 upon their shells. Holding a platter of glistening instruments, one stood at the side. With a lancet poised in his hand, the other stood over the girl.

"Stop!" cried Rod.

He dropped Ralph to the floor, advanced. The Capeks remained motionless, staring. Number 2 watched his approach, hand in the air over Vee's head.

Rod thought, "speed. Great speed!" In a flash, he was there, caught the arm with the knife, jerked it from its socket.

The machines made quick recovery from their surprise. There remained perhaps sixty of them after the day of destruction; they swept toward him in a murderous wave. Madly, they rushed upon him from all sides and he was knocked from his carriage, covered by falling cylinders. He fought with a deadly power but was at last lifted bodily from the floor. His arms were strapped to his sides. He was rolled into a corner. The ceremony continued without another glance at him.

Across the room, Ralph was bound in a like manner, head sagging upon his chest. They had lost! It was all over now....

A Capek again stood over the body of Vee, the lancet in his hand. The machines were lined against the walls as before.

* * * * *

"A ruler is born!" shouted the Capek flourishing the knife. "From this despised clay arises a super-being--R-_five_!" He leveled the lancet at the side of Vee's head, to plunge it into the scalp; to uncover the brain.

Rod struggled at his bonds with all his mechanical strength. He could not move. His wheels were also locked, strapped to the wall. He must stand here and watch her die--a deathless death--to be reincarnated as the foul brain of a cruel thing of metal. There was nothing he could do!

Rod watched the unwavering knife move close. Horror fused his mind.

Suddenly the knife paused. There was a clamoring of many voices in the hall outside--human voices! The machines' eyes all turned to the door. Rod looked, saw men and women pouring into the room.

They came in droves, waving metal spikes and bars, slashing into the dumbstruck Capeks. The tide swelled, engulfed the room. Rod saw the Capeks with the lancet raised into the air, flung screaming through the window.

Finally--it was but a moment--the shouts were silenced and not a Capek stood in the room. They were hulks of reddening machinery scattered about the floor.

Two men released Vee and, swirling the cloth about her trim figure, she rushed to Ralph who revived in her arms. Then everyone talked at once and Rod, thrilling with exultance, heard in snatches that they had climbed the fences when they discovered the electrical charge was cut off--when the power plant was destroyed. They had left the stock yards and come here.

Vee supporting him, Ralph came and cut Rod's bonds. His besmeared face was a radiation of complete happiness and he gave not a glance to his injured leg.

"We owe it all to you," he said softly, then turned to the staring crowd. "Here is our true saviour! He shall be our ruler forever!"

"Yes?" disputed a vibrant voice at the door. All heads turned.

A Capek stood there, eye blazing. Upon his chest was the number _eighty-three_.

* * * * *