"Do you what you said, about up?" Lea asked. Brion that she had stopped talking to Ulv some time ago, and had been to his with Krafft. He shrugged, trying to put his into words.
"We've tried—and almost succeeded. But if they won't listen, what can we do? What can one man possibly do against a with H-bombs?"
As if in answer to the question, Ulv's voice him out, the Disan the of the room.
"Kill you, the enemy!" he said. "Kill you umedvirk!"
He the last word and his hand to his belt. In a single motion he his and it to his lips. A in the already of the in the magter's skull. The action had all the of a lance, the of war.
"Ulv it a than you might think," Lea said. "He about and that would him a job as a in any on Earth. He just what the brain-symbiote is and what it does. They have a word for it, one that appeared in our Disan language lessons. A life that you can live with or with is called medvirk. One that to you is umedvirk. He also that life can change, and be or at different times. He has just that the brain is and he is out to kill it. So will the of the Disans as soon as he can them the and explain."
"You're sure of this?" Brion asked, in of himself.[Pg 153]
"Positive. The Disans have an survival; you should that. Not the same as the magter, but not much different in the results. They will kill the brain-symbiotes, if it means killing every who one."
"If that is the case we can't now," Brion said. With these it clear what he had to do. "The ship is now from the fleet. Get in it and take the of the magter. I won't go."
"Where will you be?" she asked, shocked.
"Fighting the magter. My presence on the means that Krafft won't keep his threat to the any than the midnight deadline. That would be me. I if my presence past midnight will stop him, but it should keep the away at least until then."
"What will you suicide?" Lea pleaded. "You just told me how a single man can't stop the bombs. What will to you at midnight?"
"I'll be dead—but in of that I can't away. Not now. I must do possible right up until the last instant. Ulv and I will go to the tower, try to out if the are there. He will on our now. He may know more about the bombs, that he didn't want to tell me before. We can help from his people. Some of them must know where the are, being native to this planet."
Lea started to say something, but he on, out her words.
"You have just as big a job. Show the to Krafft, the of the brain-parasite to him. Try to him to talk to Hys about the last raid. Try to him to off the attack. I'll keep the radio with me and as soon as I know anything I'll call in. This is all last resort, in the of stuff, but it is all we can do. Because if we do nothing, it means the end of Dis."
Lea to argue with him, but he wouldn't to her. He only her, and with a he did[Pg 154] not to her that would be all right. In their they it wouldn't be but they left it that way it was the least painful solution.
A the and the as a ship settled in the outside. The Nyjord came in with pointed, for anything.
After a little they took the cadaver, as well as Lea, when they ship. Brion the a in the sky and vanish. He to shake off the that this was the last time he would see any of them.
"Let's out of here fast," he told Ulv, up the radio, "before anyone comes around to see why the ship landed."
"What will you do?" Ulv asked as they the the desert. "What can we do in the hours we have left?" He pointed at the sun, the horizon. Brion the weight of the radio to his other hand replying.
"Get to the tower we last night, that's the best chance. The might be there.... Unless you know where the are?"
Ulv his head. "I do not know, but some of my people may. We will a magter, then kill him, so they can all see the umedvirk. Then they will tell us they know."
"The tower then, for or a sample magter. What's the way we can there?"
Ulv in thought. "If you can drive one of the the use, I know where there are some locked in in this city. None of my people know how they are to move."
"I can work them—let's go."
Chance was with them this time. The car they still had the keys in the lock. It was battery-powered, but a full charge. Much than the cars, it out of the city and across the sand. Ahead of them the sun in a red of color. It was six o'clock. By the time they the tower it was seven, and[Pg 155] Brion's nerves as if they were under his skin.
Even though it looked like suicide, the tower relief. It was movement and action, and for moments at a time he the over his head.
The attack was nerve-rackingly anticlimactic. They used the main entrance, Ulv ahead. There was no one in sight. Once inside, they the rooms where the had been detected. Only did they that the tower was empty.
"Everyone gone," Ulv grunted, the air in every room that they passed. "Many were here earlier, but they are gone now."
"Do they often their towers?" Brion asked.
"Never. I have of it before. I can think of no why they should do a thing like this."
"Well, I can," Brion told him. "They would their home if they took something with them of value. The bombs. If the were here, they might move them after the attack." Sudden him. "Or they might move them it is time to take them—to the launcher! Let's out of here, the way we can."
"I air from outside," Ulv said, "coming from there. This cannot be, the have no this low in their towers."
"We one in earlier—that be it. Can you it?"
Moonlight ahead as they an of the corridor, and were visible through the opening in the wall.
"It looks than it was," Brion said, "as if the had it." He looked through and saw the on the outside. "As if they had it to something up from below—and it away in those tracks!"
Using the opening themselves, they ran to the car. Brion ground it around and the on the tracks. There were the marks of[Pg 156] a car's treads, by thin, wheel tracks. He off the lights and himself to move slowly and to do an job. A quick at his watch him there were four hours left to go. The moonlight was to the tracks. Driving with one hand, he on the radio transmitter, already set for Krafft's length.
When the his Brion reported what they had and his conclusions. "Get that message to Commander Krafft now. I can't wait to talk to him—I'm the tracks." He killed the and on the accelerator. The car and the track.
"They are going to the mountains," Ulv said some time later, as the still pointed ahead. "There are there and many have been near them; that is what I have heard."
The was correct. Before nine o'clock the ground into a range of foothills, and the of be them, up to the stars.
"Stop the car here," Ulv said, "The not too ahead. There may be or listening, so we must go quietly."
Brion the deep-cut grooves, the radio. Ulv came and on sides, as a shadow, for watchers. As as he there were none.
By nine-thirty Brion they had the car too soon. The on and on, and to have no end. They passed some which Ulv pointed out to him, but the stopped. Time was out and the through the continued.
"More ahead," Ulv said, "Go quietly."
They came to the of a hill, as they had done so many times already, and looked into the beyond. Sand the floor, and the light of the setting moon over the at a angle, marking them off as[Pg 157] lines of shadow. They ran across the and into the dark mouth of a on the side.
Sinking the hilltop, Brion the pilot light with his hand and on the transmitter. Ulv above him, at the opening of the cave.
"This is an message," Brion into the mike. "Please record." He this for thirty seconds, at his watch to make sure of the time, since the of waiting to minutes in his brain. Then, as as possible without his voice above a whisper, he told of the of the and the cave.
"... The may or may not be in here, but we are going in to out. I'll my personal here with the power on, so you can home on its signal. That will give you a to the cave. I'm taking the other radio in—it has more power. If we can't to the entrance I'll try a from inside. I if you will it of the rock, but I'll try. End of transmission. Don't try to answer me I have the off. There are no on this set and the would be too loud here."
He off, his thumb on the for an instant, then it on.
"Good-by Lea," he said, and killed the power for good.
They and the of the cliff. Creeping in the shadows, they up on the dark entrance of the cave. Nothing moved ahead and there was no from the entrance of the cave. Brion at his watch and was sorry.
Ten-thirty.
The last them was five from the cave. They started to rise, to the final distance, when Ulv Brion down. He pointed to his nose, then to the cave. He the there.[Pg 158]
A dark itself from the of the mouth. Ulv instantly. He up and his hand to his mouth; air through the in his hand. Without a the and to the ground. Before the hit, Ulv low and in. There was the of on the floor, then silence.
Brion walked in, gun and alert, not what he would find. His toe pushed against a on the ground and from the Ulv whispered, "There were only two. We can go on now."
Finding their way through the was a torture. They had no light, would they use one if they had. There were no wheel marks to on the floor. Without Ulv's nose they would have been lost. The and and they soon all of direction.
Walking was almost impossible. They had to with their hands them like men. Stumbling and against the rock, their were soon and from against the walls. Ulv the of the that in the air where they had passed. When it thin he they had left the used and entered ones. They only their steps and start again in a different direction.
More than the walking was the way time was out. Inexorably the hands around the of Brion's watch until they at fifteen minutes twelve.
"There is a light ahead," Ulv whispered, and Brion almost with relief. They moved slowly and until they stood, by the darkness, looking out into a by tubes.
"What is it?" Ulv asked, in the painful wash of after the long darkness.
Brion had to to his voice, to stop from shouting.
"The with the metal is a jump-space[Pg 159] generator. The pointed, next to it are of some kind, the bombs. We've it!"
His was to send the radio call that would stop the waiting of H-bombers. But an message would be than no message at all. He had to what he saw here so the Nyjorders would know he wasn't lying. What he told them had to fit with the they already had about the and the bombs.
The had been jury-rigged from a ship's jump-space generator; that was obvious. The and its were and mounted. Cables ran from them to a of metal straps, and into shape by hand. Three were on the equipment. Brion what of blood-thirsty war-lovers the had to the for them. Then he saw the around their necks and the on their backs.
He still it difficult to have any for them. They had been to accept money to another planet—or they wouldn't have been here. They had only when they had how the attack would be.
Thirteen minutes to midnight.
Cradling the radio against his chest, Brion rose to his feet. He had a view of the now. There were twelve of them, as eggs from the same clutch. Pointed like the of a spacer, each one for its two of length, to a chopped-off end. They were incomplete, the of rockets. One had its him, and he saw six that be used to it to the missing rocket. A port was open in the of the bomb.
This was enough. With this description, the Nyjorders would know he couldn't be about finding[Pg 160] the bombs. Once they this, they couldn't Dis without trying to them.
Brion fifty he stopped. He was from the so he couldn't be heard, and an of the cut off all light from him. With movements he on the power, the set to transmit, and the frequency. All correct. Then slowly and clearly, he what he had in the him. He his voice emotionless, facts, out anything that might be an opinion.
It was six minutes midnight when he finished. He the to and waited.
There was only silence.
Slowly, the empty quality of the his mind. There were no of static, when he the power full on. The of and earth of the above was acting as a perfect screen, his at maximum output.
They hadn't him. The Nyjord didn't know that the had been their launching. The attack would go ahead as planned. Even now, the bomb-bay doors were opening; H-bombs above the planet, in place only by their shackles. In a minutes the would be and the would open, the clear....
"Killers!" Brion into the microphone. "You wouldn't to reason, you wouldn't to Hys, or me, or to any voice that an to complete destruction. You are going to Dis, and it's not necessary! There were a of you have stopped it. You didn't do any of them, and now it's too late. You'll Dis, and in turn this will Nyjord. Ihjel said that, and now I him. You're just another failure in a full of failures!"
He the radio above his and sent it[Pg 161] into the floor. Then he was to Ulv, trying to away from the that he too had and failed. The people on the surface of Dis had less than two minutes left to live.
"They didn't my message," Brion said to Ulv. "The radio won't work this underground."
"Then the will fall?" Ulv asked, looking at Brion's in the light from the cavern.
"Unless something that we know nothing about, the will fall."
They said nothing after that—they waited. The three in the were also aware of the time. They were calling to each other and trying to talk to the magter. The emotionless, parasite-ridden of the saw no to stop work, and they to the men to their tasks. In of the blows, they didn't go; they only in as the clock hands moved twelve. Even the some of the of the occasion. They stopped too and waited.
The hour hand touched twelve on Brion's watch, then the minute hand. The second hand closed the and for a tenth of a second the three hands were one. Then the second hand moved on.
Brion's of was away by the that he was underground. Sound and were slow, and the of couldn't be here. If the had been at twelve they wouldn't know it at once.
A the air. A moment later the ground under them and the lights in the flickered. Fine from the above.
Ulv to him, but Brion looked away. He not the in the Disan's eyes.[Pg 162]
