She in her seat without a sound. Price for the she had at her waist. But the of her voice had the pilot. He around and then something in Vurna, his hand going to his own belt.
Price him by a second. His hand pressed the and the in his hand, and the pilot over, his own go to the deck. The had not from its flight. He had been sure, from what he'd of its stability, that it wouldn't.
Price up, with excitement. So far, so good.
He Linna's hands and with her own and his handkerchief, and then to the pilot. Linna was already to stir, and he her up as as possible, her from her forehead. He and said, "I'm sorry. I am. If there had been any other way, I wouldn't have done it."
He her on the mouth, he did not have much time, but with a full measure of so. She sighed, and he her answered his, but he if that would be so when she came to.
He into the pilot's chair and the controls, every other from his mind as he what he had learned from watching. The was and on. He had of altitude.
He to experiment, gingerly, and by the time he was across the river he was satisfied that he the well to by. It was than learning to drive a car in the old days, and he had a lifetime of him to give him air-sense. The itself was a thing of beauty, anything he had flown. He and westward, away from the river, traveling like a bullet.
Linna spoke from him. Her voice was very cold and very hard, the voice of a stranger.
"Arrin told me I should have you bound. I left you free on my own responsibility."
Price about that, and he said so. "Try to look at it from my side, Linna. I have to do what I can for my own people. If you were in my shoes—"
"Go ahead," said Linna. "Talk is useless. I shan't waste any more of it, to tell you—"
She told him, vividly, what of a he was, and what she would to him he all of his fellow-fools to destruction. Then she up and would not speak again, no how he to her rage.
The dark green forest, rough-textured like a rug, rolled and away around him, and the sun was up in clouds. He his for the that would mark the Capitol of the Missouris. He was by reckoning. He had no to with, and the Vurna were to him. The pilot was to come round, but Price than to ask him for instructions.
It was a red light of on the of night that him at last toward the timber-built Capitol. And now at last Linna spoke, the pilot, looking out, to in Vurna. She translated.
"He says do not cut the down-blast so sharply, or you will crash. That lever—there, under your left hand—ease it back."
Price it. He settled to a and landing, just about where the Vurna had settled before, when he had been Sawyer's prisoner. Men came out of the houses and along the streets, to as they had then, to their over-lords with and contempt.
Price jumped out of the and approached the fires.
There was a cry, and then his name and forth, and the men closed around him. They were to be hostile, to know where Sawyer was, and what had happened, and how he came to be a Vurna flier. Price for quiet.
"Sawyer's alive. He's a in the Citadel. So are Burr and Twist. You want to them?"
That them. "Listen," Price started, and then he saw Oakes pushing toward him with a small determined-looking group of men.
"Stand back," Oakes demanded. "Stand back, there. This man is a traitor. He the council, he Sawyer. If you to him, he'll you." He to Price. "You to your Vurna masters. Tell them we're not going to—"
"Oh, up," said Price impatiently. "You're not here, and you will be, no if you do Sawyer to in the Citadel." He took the from his where he had it. "I that from the Vurna, and I this, too. I'll use it on you if I have to."
Oakes looked ugly, but he hesitated, and Price said, "Some of you, if you want proof of what I say, go look in the flier. Go on."
Several men themselves from the and off at a toward the flier. Presently they to and halloo. They came the pilot and Linna, who looked at Price with the hatred.
"It looks like a to me," said Oakes. "They have been on purpose."
Price said, "Does it look like a that every of the Citadel took off last night? You must have or them, at this distance."
"Yes," said a farmer, "streaks of fire in the sky dawn. I was milking."
Others had them, too. And now a note of into their voices.
"What's it mean? What's there? What are you after?"
"The Citadel is stripped," he said. "And I know where the fire-control is that the Belt. With this I can land right on the Citadel without being challenged. I can take some of you with me, and we can out those weapons. You can walk right in, with no more opposition than men ought to be able to handle. You—"
"Price," said Linna, in a voice of horror, "you don't know what you're doing. The has gone out to the Ei. Arrin some out of the captives—the Ei is this system, and our fleet's out to it."
The terror in her voice increased. "But if the Ei our and directly at our here—don't you see, only our great missile-batteries around the Citadel can Earth! If you the Citadel, there'll be no at all."
He said, "Linna, I know you in the Ei. Probably most of your people do. But you've one, in a century no one on Earth has one. They're a myth, a political stratagem, that's all."
She her head, for words. "Don't him!" she out to the men. "Don't to him. We're for your and safety too. Don't be so as to us in the now!"
They looked at her in the firelight, the flint-faced men who were of Star Lords. Then, without paying Oakes any attention at all, they looked at Price.
"He's right," one of them. "The star-spawn have us the about the Ei too long. Ain't a kid on Earth it."
Linna's forward, and she away. She still it, every word, Price. Poor Linna. He would have anything to her.
But there was no time for comfort, no time for anything but planning. He said,
"You've heard, you know this may come again—are you with me?" And they answered, Yes!
"All right," said Price. "All right, we've got to have a council, to make plans, and then we'll have to move fast to the comes back. Who are your after Sawyer?"
Five or six men came forward, sub-chiefs. One of them his toward the two Vurna.
"What'll we do with them?"
"Treat them well," said Price sternly. "They're your of Sawyer's life." He didn't know they were or not, but he didn't want Linna to of him. He added, "Make sure they don't talk to anyone, though. And remember, there was a at the big council. You'd all keep a look-out, for and communication-devices. And now let's talk."
The into the night. Price's biggest problem was to the not to their guns.
"The metal-detector on the flying-eyes would spot you you'd gone ten miles into the Belt, and I can't take the control-room that ahead. It couldn't possibly be that long, and no how we might the weapon-controls they'd have time to them up and use them on you. You'll have to the Belt on all sides, under cover, and I land on the Citadel. Besides, against the Vurna shockers, your aren't much more use than your bolos. We'll try and give you weapons, once we're inside."
"Of course," said one leathery-faced sub-chief, "when you've got us and the Ohios and Kentucky's and the all in the Belt, it would be a easy thing for you to give them word at the Citadel, and have us all out at once, like that."
Price said harshly, "It's up to you, you want to take the or not. If I'm on the level, you can take the Citadel and the Star Lords off your back. If I'm not, you're dead. But you won't a like this again. Make up your minds."
They them up.
"How shall word be sent in time to the other tribes? It'd take days for a man on to around to the east and north."
"I'll take the word," said Price. "In the flier. By tomorrow, there'll be men from every to move into the Belt. And me a dozen men to go along, under a sub-chief. Half a dozen men you can trust for the of the whole attack."
The old chief, name was Sweetbriar, said quietly, "I'll you six, and I'll go along."
His locked with Price's, and Price smiled.
"I'll give you the shocker," he said. "You can use it any time you see fit. And that should the other they can count on me."
"Should," said Sweetbriar, nodding. "Now we'd up our distance. As I see it, this'll work out something like a big beat, and if we don't all there together, we might have home."
They settled all the details, the by night, the weight of food each man was to carry. Price managed to an hour's sleep he took off in the pre-dawn to the other tribes. When he slept he of an iron mountain, impregnable, with destruction, with a thousand eyes. In the dream, he that no men take it.
