"He wouldn't come in, sir. Just on the door and said, 'I'm here, tell Brandd.'"
"Good enough," Brion said, his gun in the and the into his pocket. "I'm going out now, and I should return dawn. Get one of the here from the hospital. I'll want it waiting when I back."
Outside, the was than he remembered. Brion and his hand moved his gun. Someone had put all the lights out of commission. There was just from the to him to make out the dark of a car.
"Brion Brandd?" a voice spoke from the car. "Get in."
The as soon as he had closed the door. Without lights the car a path through the city and out into the desert. Though the speed up, the driver still in the dark, his way with a light touch on the controls. The ground rose, and when they the top of a he killed the engine. Neither the driver Brion had spoken a word since they left.
A and the lights came on. In their Brion just make out the other man's profile. When he moved, Brion saw that his was shortened. Either accident or a had his spine, him in supplication. Warped were rare—his was the Brion had seen. He what series of events had him from medical attention all his life. This might the and pain in the man's voice.
"Did the on Nyjord to tell you[Pg 112] that they have another day off the deadline?" the man asked. "That this world is about to come to an end?"
"Yes, I know," Brion said. "That's why I'm your group for help. Our time is out too fast."
The man didn't answer; he and gave his full attention to the and screen. The out as he a check on all the search to see if they were being followed.
"Where are we going?" Brion asked.
"Out into the desert." The driver a of his hand. "Headquarters of the army. Since the whole thing will be up in another day, I I can tell you it's the only we have. All the cars, men and are there. And Hys. He's the man in charge. Tomorrow it will be all gone—along with this planet. What's your with us?"
"Shouldn't I be telling Hys that?"
"Suit yourself." Satisfied with the search, the driver the car to life again and on across the desert. "But we're a army and we have no from each other. Just from the at home who are going to kill this world." There was a in his that he no attempt to conceal. "They among themselves and put off a so long that now they are to murder."
"From what I had heard, I that it was the other way around. They call your Nyjord army terrorists."
"We are. Because we are an army and we're at war. The at home only that when it was too late. If they had us in the we would have open every black on Dis, until we those bombs. But that would have meant and death. They wouldn't that. Now they are going to kill everyone, everything." He on the lights just long to take a com[Pg 113]pass bearing, and Brion saw the in his body.
"It's not over yet," Brion said. "There is more than a day left, and I think I'm onto something that might stop the war—without any being dropped."
"You're in of the Cultural Relationships Free Bread and Blankets Foundation, aren't you? What good can your do when the starts?"
"None. But maybe we can put off the shooting. If you are trying to me—don't bother. My is very high."
The driver at this, as they ran through a of rock. "What is it you want?" he asked.
"We want to make a of one of the magter. Alive or dead, it doesn't make any difference. You wouldn't to have one around?"
"No. We've with them often enough, but always on their home grounds. They keep all their casualties, and a good number of ours. What good will it do you anyway? A one won't tell you where the or the jump-space is."
"I don't see why I should that to you—unless you are in charge. You are Hys, aren't you?"
The driver gave an angry sound, and then was while he drove. Finally he asked, "What makes you think that?"
"Call it a hunch. You don't act very much like a sand-car driver, for one thing. Of your army may be all and no privates—but I it. I also know that time has almost out for all of us. This is a long and it would be a complete waste of time if you just sat out in the and waited for me. By me you make your mind up we arrived. Could have a as to you are going to help me or not. Are you?"
"Yes—I'm Hys. But you still haven't answered my question. What do you want the for?"
"We're going to cut it open and take a good long look. I don't think the are human. They are[Pg 114] something among men and as men—but still not human."
"Secret aliens?" Hys the in a mixture of and disgust.
"Perhaps. The will tell us that."
"You're either or incompetent," Hys said bitterly. "The of Dis has your in your head. I'll be no part of this of plan."
"You must," Brion said, at his own calmness. He the other man's his manner. "I don't have to give you my reasons. In another day this world ends and you have no way to stop it. I just might have an idea that work, and you can't to take any chances—not if you are sincere. Either you are a murderer, killing Disans for pleasure, or you want to stop the war. Which is it?"
"You'll have your all right," Hys grated, the car around a of rock. "Not that it will anything—but I can no fault with killing another magter. We can fit your operation into our plans without any trouble. This is the last night and I have sent every one of my out on raids. We're into as many towers as possible dawn. There is a that we might something. It's just in the dark, but it's all we can do now. My own team is waiting and you can along with us. The others left earlier. We're going to a small tower on this of the city. We it once and a of small arms they had there. There is a good that they may have been to store something there again. Sometimes the to from a complete of imagination."
"You have no idea just how right you are," Brion told him.
The car now, as they approached a slab-sided that rose from the desert. They across rocks, no tracks. A light on the dashboard, and[Pg 115] Hys stopped and killed the engine. They out, and in the cold night.
It was dark walking in the of the and they had to their way along a path through the boulders. A of light Brion and his eyes. Near him, on the ground, was the shape of a projector, sending out a fan-shaped of that all the light upon it. This a for the at the of the cliff. In this shelter, under the of rock, were three open cars. They were large and armor-plated, in their paint. Men sprawled, talked, and their weapons. Everything stopped when Hys and Brion appeared.
"Load up," Hys called out. "We're going to attack now, same plan I earlier. Get Telt over here." In talking to his own men some of the was gone from his voice. The tall soldiers of Nyjord moved in of their commander. They over his figure, most of them twice as tall as he, but there was no in jumping when he commanded. They were the of the Nyjord force—he was the brains.
A square-cut, man rolled up to Hys and with a of his hand. He was and about with and instruments. His pockets with small and parts.
"This is Telt," Hys said to Brion. "He'll take of you. Telt's my personal squad. He goes along on all my operations with his to test the of the Disan forts. So he's no of a jump-space generator, or that might a bomb. Since he's and you're useless, you take of each other. Use the car we came in."
Telt's wide in a grin; his voice was and throaty. "Wait. Just wait! Someday[Pg 116] those and all our be over. What you want me to do with the stranger?"
"Supply him with a corpse—one of the magter," Hys said. "Take it he wants and then report here." Hys at Telt. "Someday your will flicker! Poor fool—this is the last day." He away and the men into their cars.
"He me," Telt said, attaching a final piece of equipment. "You can tell he calls me names like that. He's a great man, Hys is, but they out until it was too late. Hand me that meter, will you?"
Brion the out to the car and helped him his aboard. When the larger appeared out of the darkness, Telt around after them. They in a single line through the rocks, until they came to the of dunes. Then they spread out in line and their goal.
Telt to himself as he drove. He off and looked at Brion. "What you want the Dis for?"
"A theory," Brion answered sluggishly. He had been in the chair, taking the opportunity for some the attack. "I'm still looking for a way to the end."
"You and Hys," Telt said with satisfaction. "Couple of idealists. Trying to stop a you didn't start. They would to Hys. He told them in the what would happen, and he was right. They always his ideas were crooked, like him. Growing up alone in the hill camp, with his too and too old to be when he did come out. Ideas the same way. Made himself an authority on war. Hah! War on Nyjord—that's like being an ice-cube in hell. But he all about it, though they would let him use what he knew. Put Krafft in instead."
"But Hys is in of an army now?"
"All volunteers, too of them and too little money. Too little and too late to do any[Pg 117] good. I'll tell you we did our best, but it be good enough. And for this we called butchers." There was a catch in Telt's voice now, an of he couldn't suppress. "At home they think we like to kill. Think we're insane. They can't we're doing the only thing that has to be done—"
He off as he locked on the and killed the engine. The line of had come to a stop. Ahead, just visible over the dunes, was the of a dark tower.
"We walk from here," Telt said, and stretching. "We can take our time, the other boys go in first, up. Then you and I for the sub-cellar for a check and you a corpse."
Walking at first, then when the no longer them, they up on the Disan keep. Dark moved ahead of them, stopping only when they the black walls. They didn't use the ramp, but their way up the of the ramparts.
"Line-throwers," Telt whispered. "Anchor themselves when the hits, have some of quick-setting goo. Then we go up the with a line-climbing motor. Hys them."
"Is that the way you and I are going in?" Brion asked.
"No, we out of the climbing. I told you we this once before. I know the inside." He was moving while he talked, the around the of the tower. "Should be right about here."
High-pitched the air and the top of the into flame. Automatic above them. Something through the night and on the ground near them.
"Attack's started," Telt shouted. "We have to through now, while all the are it out on top." He a plate-shaped object from one of his and it hard against the wall. It hung[Pg 118] there. He the of it, something and Brion to the ground. "Shaped charge. Should in, but you can tell."
The ground jumped under them and the was a through the wall. A cloud of and rolled clear and they see the dark opening in the rock, a into the by the of the explosion. Telt a light through the at the inside.
"Nothing to worry about from who was against this wall. But let's in and out of this black the ones come to investigate."
Shattered was thick on the floor, and they and over it. Telt pointed the way with his light, a ramp. "Underground in the rock. They always store their there—"
A smoking, black out of the tunnel's mouth, at their feet. Telt just gaped, but as it the Brion was jumping forward. He it with the of his foot, kicking it into the dark opening of the tunnel. Telt the ground next to him as the orange of an below. Bits of from the and them.
"Grenades!" Telt gasped. "They've only used them once before—can't have many. Gotta Hys." He a into the on his and spoke into it. There was a and Brion a rain of fire into the tunnel.
"They're it on top, too! We out. Go and I'll you."
"I came for my Disan—I'm not until I one."
"You're crazy! You're if you stay!"
Telt was the entrance as he talked. His was when Brion fired. The had appeared as the of death. They without a sound, with into the bullets.[Pg 119] Two died at once, and folding; the third one at Brion's feet. Shot, pierced, dying, but not yet dead. Leaving a track, it closer, its knife to Brion. He didn't move. How many times must you a man? Or was it a man? His mind and against the killing, and he was almost to accept death himself, than kill again.
Telt's through the and it with finality.
"There's your corpse—now it out of here!" Telt screeched.
Between them they the weight of the through the hole, their with the of death. No attack came as they ran from the tower, other than a that too them to do any harm.
One of the the keep, blazing, up a fire from its weapons. The into it as they a retreat. Telt and Brion the Disan them, through the the car. Telt over his and into a run.
"They're us!" he gasped. "The time they us after a raid!"
"They must know we have the body," Brion said.
"Leave it ..." Telt choked. "Too to ... anyway!"
"I'd you," Brion said sharply. "Let me have it." He the away from the Telt and it across his own shoulders. "Now use your gun to us!"
Telt a rain of the dark them. The driver of the car must have the of their fire, the and started them. It in a cloud of and hands to them up. Brion pushed the in ahead of himself and after it. The engine[Pg 120] and they away into the blackness, away from the tower.
"You know, that was more like of a joke, when I said I'd the behind," Telt told Brion. "You didn't me, did you?"
"Yes," Brion said, the weight of the against the truck's side. "I you meant it."
"Ahhh," Telt protested, "you're as as Hys. You take too seriously."
Brion that he was wet with blood, his sodden. His rose at the and he the of the car. Killing like this was too personal. Talking about a was one thing, but a man, then his and his blood warm upon you is an different matter. But the weren't human, he that. The was only comforting.
After they had the other waiting cars, the party up. "Each one goes in a different direction," Telt said, "so they can't us to the base." He a piece of paper next to the and the into life. "We'll make a big U in the and end up in Hovedstad. I got the here. Then I'll you and your friends and it to our camp. You're not still at me for what I said, are you? Are you?"
Brion didn't answer. He was out of the window.
"What's doing?" Telt asked. Brion pointed out at the darkness.
"Over there," he said, pointing to the light on the horizon.
"Dawn," Telt said. "Lotta rain on your planet? Didn't you see the sun come up before?"
"Not on the last day of a world."
"Lock it up," Telt grumbled. "You give me the crawls. I know they're going to be blasted. But at least I know I did I to stop it. How do you think they are going to be at home—on Nyjord—from tomorrow on?"[Pg 121]
"Maybe we can still stop it," Brion said, off the of gloom. Telt's only answer was a of disgust.
By the time they had cut a large in the the sun was well up in the sky, the daily begun. Their took them through a of low, that cut their speed almost to zero. They ground ahead in low while Telt and cursed, with the controls. Then they were on and up speed the city.
As soon as Brion saw Hovedstad he a of fear. From in the city a black of was rising. It have been one of the aflame, a minor blaze. Yet the closer they came, the his grew. Brion didn't put it into himself; it was Telt who the thought.
"A fire or something. Coming from your area, close to your building."
Within the city they saw the of destruction. Broken on the streets. The of in their nostrils. More and more people appeared, going in the same direction they were. The of Hovedstad were now almost crowded. Disans, by their shoulders, mixed with the who still remained.
Brion sure the was well around the they pushed the car slowly through the crowd.
"I don't like all this publicity," Telt complained, looking at the people. "It's the last day, or I'd be back. They know our cars; we've them often enough." Turning a corner, he suddenly, mouth agape.
Ahead was destruction. Black, had been into desolation. It was still smoking, pink of over the ruins. A of with a crash.
"It's your building—the Foundation building!" Telt shouted. "They've been here ahead of us—must have[Pg 122] used the radio to call a raid. They did a job, of some kind."
Hope was dead. Dis was dead. In the ahead, mixed and with other rubble, were the of all the people who had him. Lea ... and Lea. Doctor Stine, his patients, Faussel, all of them. He had them on this planet, and now they were dead. Every one of them. Dead.
Murderer![Pg 123]
