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"You had a clear shot!"
"I know! I missed!"
They rounded the pile just as two of the guard cars vanished into the tu
"Here it comes now!" cried Murdock. "Around the other end of the pile! Kill it! Kill it!"
The ancient guardian of the graveyardчit looked like a Ford, but he couldn't be sureчmoved forward with a dreadful chattering sound and interposed itself in the line of fire.
"My range is blocked."
"Smash that junkheap and cover the tu
"I can't!" she said.
"Who not?"
"I just _can't_!"
"That's an order! Smash it and cover the tu
Her guns swivelled and she shot out the tires beneath the ancient car.
The Caddy shot past and into the passageway.
"You let it get by!" he screamed. "Get after it!"
"All right, Sam! I'm doing it! Don't yell. _Please don't tell!_"
She headed for the tu
"Don't fire here in the tu
"I know. I won't."
"Drop a couple ten-second grenades and step on the gas. Maybe we can seal in whatever's left moving back there."
Suddenly they shot ahead and emerged into daylight. There was no sign of any other vehicle about.
"Find its track," he said, "and start chasing it."
There was an explosion up the hill behind him, within the mountain. The ground trembled, then it was still once more.
"There are so many tracks..." she said.
"You know the one I want. The biggest, the widest, the hottest! Find it! Run it down!"
"I think I have it, Sam."
"Okay. Proceed as rapidly as possible for this terrain."
Murdock found a squeeze bottle of bourbon and took three gulps. Then he lit a cigarette and glared into the distance.
"Why did you miss it?" he asked softly. "Why did you miss it, Je
She did not answer immediately. He waited.
Finally, "because he is not an `it' to me," she said. "He has done much damage to cars and people, and that is terrible. But there is something about him, somethingчnoble. The way he has fought the whole world for his freedom. Sam, keeping that pack of vicious machines in line, stopping at nothing to maintain himself that wayчwithout a masterчfor as long as he can remain unsmashed, unbeatenчSam, for a moment back there I wanted to join his pack, to run with him across the Gas Road Plains, to use my rockets against the gates of the Gas Forts for him...But I could not mono you, Sam. I was built for you. I am too domesticated. I am too weak. I could not shoot him though, and I misfired the rockets on purpose. But I could never mono you, Sam, really."
"Thanks," he said, "you over-programmed ashcan. Thanks a lot!"
"I am sorry, Sam."
"Shut upчNo, don't, not yet. First tell me what you're going to do if we find `him'."
"I don't know."
"Well think it over fast. You see that dust cloud ahead of us as well as I do, and you'd better speed up."
They shot forward.
"Wait till I call Detroit. They'll laugh themselves silly, till I claim the refund."
"I am _not_ of inferior construction or design. You know that. I am just more..."
"'Emotional'," supplied Murdock.
"...Than I thought I would be," she finished. "I had not really met many cars, except for young ones, before I was shipped to you. I did not know what a wild car was like, and I had never smashed _any_ cars beforeчjust targets and things like that. I was young and..."
"`I
"I will try, Sam."
The car ahead had stopped. It was the yellow Chrysler. Two of its tires had gone flat and it was parked, lopsided, waiting.
"Leave it!" snarled Murdock, as the hood clicked open. "Save the ammo for something that might fight back."
They sped past it.
"Did it say anything?"
"Machine profanity," she said. "I've only heard it once or twice, and it would be meaningless to you."
He chuckled. "Cars actually sweat at each other?"
"Occasionally," she said. "I imaging the lower sort indulge in it more frequently, especially on freeways and turnpikes when they become congested."
"Let me hear a swear-word."
"I will not. What kind of car do you think I am, anyway?"
"I'm sorry," said Murdock. "You're a lady. I forgot."
There was an audible click within the radio.
They raced forward on the level ground that lay before the foot of the mountains. Murdock took another drink, then switched to coffee.
"Ten years," he muttered, "ten years..."
The trail swung in a wide curve as the mountains jogged back and the foothills sprang up high beside them.
It was over almost before he knew it.
As they passed a huge, orange-colored stone massif, sculpted like an upside-down toadstool by the wind, there was a clearing to the right.
It shot forward at themчthe Devil Car. It had lain in ambush, seeing that it could not outrun the Scarlet Lady, and it rushed toward a final collision with its hunter.
Je
Murdock sat there shaking, watching the gutted, twisted wreck blaze against the sky.
"You did it, Je
But she did not answer him. Her engine started once more and she turned toward the southeast and headed for the Fuel Stop/Rest Stop Fortress that lay in that civilized direction
For two hours they drove in silence, and Murdock drank all his bourbon and all his coffee and smoked all his cigarettes.
"Je
There was a click, and her voice was very soft:
"Samчhe talked to me as he came down the hill..." she said.
Murdock waited, but she did not say anything else.
"Well, what did he say?" he asked.
"He said, `Say you will mono your passenger and I will swerve by you'," she told him. "He said, `I want you, Scarlet Ladyчto run with me, to raid with me. Together they will never catch us,' and I killed him."
Murdock was silent.
"He only said that to delay my firing though, did he not? He said that to stop me, so that he could smash us both when he went smash himself, did he not? He could not have meant it, could he, Sam?"
"Of course not," said Murdock, "of course not. It was too late for him to swerve."
"Yes, I suppose it wasчdo you think though, that he really wanted me to run with him, to raid with himчbefore everything, I meanчback there?"
"Probably, baby. You're pretty well-equipped."
"Thanks," she said, and turned off again.
Before she did though, he heard a strange sound mechanical sound, falling into the rhythms of profanity or prayer.
Then he shook his head and lowered it, softly patting the seat beside him with his still unsteady hand.