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"Sam, I think I have found something."
"What? Where?"
"Ahead, to the left of that big boulder, a declivity with some kind of opening at its end."
"Okay, baby, make for it. Rockets ready."
They pulled abreast of the boulder, circled around its far side, headed downhill.
"A cave, or a tu
"Heat! Heat!" she said. "I'm tracking again!"
"I can even see the tire marks, lots of them!" said Murdock. "This is it!"
They moved toward the opening.
"Go in, but go slowly," he ordered. "Blast the first thing that moves."
They entered the rocky portal, moving on sand now. Je
"There's some light ahead," he whispered.
"I know."
"A piece of the sky, I think."
They crept toward it, Je
They stopped at the threshold to the light. The i-r shield dropped again.
It was a sand-and-shale canyon that he looked upon. Huge slantings and overhangs of rock hid all but the far end from any eye in the sky. The light was pale, at the far end, and there was nothing unusual beneath it.
But nearer...
Murdock blinked.
Nearer, in the dim light of morning and in the shadows, stood the greatest junkheap Murdock had ever seen in his life.
Pieces of cars, of every make and model, were heaped into a small mountain before him. There were batteries and tires and cables and shock absorbers; there were fenders and bumpers and headlamps and headlamp housings; there were doors and windshields and cylinders and pistons, carburetors, generators, voltage regulators, and oil pimps.
Murdock stared.
"Je
A very old car, which Murdock had not even distinguished from the junk during that first glance, jerked several feet in their direction and stopped as suddenly. The sound of rivet heads scoring ancient brake drums screeched in his ears. Its tires were completely bald, and the left front one was badly in need of air. Its right front headlamp was broken and there was a crack in its windshield. It stood there before the heap, its awakened engine making a terrible rattling noise.
"What's happening?" asked Murdock. "What is it?"
"He is talking to me," said Je
"Ask him where the others are."
But as he said it, Murdock heard the sound of many engines turning over, until the valley was filled with the thunder of their horsepower.
"They are parked on the other side of the heap," she said. "They are coming now."
"Hold back until I tell you to fire," said Murdock, ad the first oneчa sleek yellow Chryslerчnosed around the heap.
Murdock lowered his head to the steering wheel, but kept his eyes open behind his goggles.
"Tell him that you came here to join the pack and that you've monoed your driver. Try to get the black Caddy to come into range."
"He will not do it," she said. "I am talking with him now. He can broadcast just as easily from the other side of the pile, and he says he is sending the six biggest members of the pack to guard me while he decides what to do. He has ordered me to leave the tu
"Go ahead, thenчslowly."
They crept forward.
Two Lincolns, a powerful-looking Pontiac, and two Mercs joined the Chryslerчthree cars on each side of them, in position to ram.
"Has he given you and idea how many there are on the other side?"
"No. I asked, but he will not tell me."
"Well, we'll just have to wait then."
He stayed slumped, pretending to be dead. After a time, his already tired shoulders began to ache. Finally, Je
"He wants me to pull around the far end of the pile," she said, "now that they have cleared the way, and to head into a gap in the rock which he will indicate. He wants to have his auto-mech go over me."
"We can't have that," said Murdock, "but head around the pile. I'll tell you what to do when I've gotten a glimpse of the other side."
The two Mercs and the Big Chief drew aside and Je
They rounded the lefthand end of the pile.
Something like forty-five cars were facing them at about a hundred-twenty yard's distance, to the right and ahead. They had fa
On the far side of the farthest rank of the most distant cars an ancient black Caddy was parked.
It had been beaten forth from assembly during a year when the apprentice-engineers were indeed thinking big. Huge it was, and shiny, and a skeleton's face smiled from behind its wheel. Black it was, and gleaming chromium, and its headlamps were like dusky jewels or the eyes of insects. Every plane and curve shimmered with power, and its great fishtailed rear end seemed ready to slap at the sea of shadows behind it on an instant's notice, as it sprang forward for its kill.
"That's it!" whispered Murdock. "The Devil Car!"
"He is big!" said Je
They continued to move forward.
"He wants me to head into that opening and park," she said.
"Head toward it, slowly. But don't go into it," said Murdock.
They turned and inched toward the opening. The other cars stood, the sounds of their engines rising and falling.
"Check all weapons systems."
"Red, all around."
The opening was twenty-five feet away.
"When I saw `now,' go into neutral steer and turn one hundred-eighty degreesчfast. They can't be expecting that. They don't have it themselves. Then open up with the fifty-calibers and fire your rockets at the Caddy, turn at a right angle and start back the way we came, and spray the naphtha as we go, and fire on the six guards...
"Now!" he cried, leaping up in his seat.
He was slammed back as they spun, and he heard the clattering of her guns before his head cleared. By then, flames were leaping up in the distance.
Je
She turned again in neutral steer and sprang back in the direction from which they had come, around the southeast corner of the pile. Her guns were hammering at the now retreating guards, and in the wide read view mirror Murdock could see that a wall of flame was towering high behind them.
"You missed it!" he cried. "You missed the black Caddy! You rockets hit the cars in front of it and it backed off!"
"I know! I'm sorry!"