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“That’s enough,” Professor Coypu said, throwing some switches and pointing at the screen. Blue skies and floating white clouds. “Heaven. That’s where it is all happening. He could have his mine on any one of a thousand planets, but what he mines ends up n Heaven for processing—”
“Just a moment if you please, Professor,” I said. “What was that remark about any one of a thousand planets?”
• “The substance he is mining. Very common.”
“You know what it is?”
• “Of course. Your clothing and Angelina’s were coated with it. It is called coal. A crystalline form of carbon. It can be found on a great number of planets. He has it mined and ground to a fine powder. It is then bombarded in the cyclotron where a certain small proportion is changed to u
“Find the place—and we find the reason,” I said triumphantly. “It has to be in Heaven, that is one thing we can be sure of.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Inskipp said as he marched in. He had undoubtedly been monitoring everything that was happening in the lab and had picked the right moment to take over. “The Space Marines are on their way here. Gunships, tanks, flame throwers, field guns..
“No way, Jose,” I said with a great deal of feeling. “You can’t hijack my operation at this late date. Nor do we need all the troops and armaments. We keep this small. Remember—we have only one man to fight. Even if he has a number of manifestations. Him—end his rickety robot which Angelina has promised to take care of in a suitably destructive ma
“Already done,” Coypu said with unseemly self—satisfaction. “I have analyzed the atmosphere of Heaven. I know that he uses energy weapons and has an hypnotic gas, in addition to the addictive gases already present in the atmosphere.”
He pressed a button and what appeared to be a transparent space suit popped out on the end of an extending arm. He pointed out its attributes.
“It is made of transparent seringera. A substance that is almost indestructible, unpierceable, a barrier to force fields and impervious to gases. Under the outer surface there is a nanomolecular structure that responds in a microsecond to a sudden impact such as a bullet. These molecqies lock together and become stronger than the strongest steel, stopping the projectile before it has penetrated less than a millimeter. This small power pack on the back, here, recycles and reconstitutes the gases and water in your breath so the suit may be sealed and worn for up to one hundred hours. It also powers a built—in gravchute that can be used for levitating if needs be. I will demonstrate.”
He tore off his shoes, stripped off shirt and sarong, to reveal the fact that he wore purple undershorts with little mauve robots embroidered on them, trimmed with gold. He seized the transparent suit and wriggled into it, pulled the bubble helmet down to seal it. His voice rasped from the external speaker.
“There is no blade sharp enough to cut it.” He opened a box of equipment and seized up a knife, plunged it into his chest. It bounced off. As did the other weapons he attacked himself with. Powering up the gravchute, he bounced off the ceiling, still firing his deadly devices. Soon the air was filled with noxious gases, whizzing missiles that threatened the rest of us, if not him. Coughing and gasping, we fled the chamber and did not return until the demonstration was over and the aircon turned up high.
“Wonderful, Professor,” I said dabbing my eyes with the corner of my handkerchief. “We pull on your fancy suits and go to Heaven. When I say we I of course mean me and my family, along with Berkk and Sybil. The professor monitors our movements and our leader, Inskipp, stands ready to send any reinforcements that we might need. Any questions?”
“Sounds just insane enough to succeed,” Angelina said. “How soon do we get our playsuits, Professor?”
“They’ll be ready by morning.”
“Fine.” She smiled at us all. “We can have a little party tonight to celebrate our coming victory, the rout of Slakey, and the reunification of Berkk with himself. All right?”
A chorus of agreement was her answer. The robar hurried over to open the cocktail hour, and even Inskipp condescended this once to sipping a small dry sherry.
“I am very interested in this uimildecnovum,” he said licking a trace of wine from his lips. “This madman has organized numerous religions to raise money to imprison slaves to mine coal to convert it to u
“Good as done,” I said and raised my glass.
We all drank to that.
Chapter 27
We all wore swimming outfits under the transparent suits. Angelina and Sybil looked quite fetching. I quickly averted my eyes from one, blew a kiss to the other.
“Equipment check,” I said, drawing my gun and holding it up. “One paralysis pistol, fully charged. A container of sleepgas grenades, another of smoke. Combat knife with silver toothpick. Manacles for securing prisoners, truth drug injector for making them talk.”
“Plus a diamond—blade power saw for cutting up a certain robot,” Angelina said, holding up the lethal looking object.
“All in order, all accounted for. Just one thing more.” I picked up a backpack that had a medical red cross on a white background printed on it. “For emergencies. Are you on the circuit, all—powerful Inskipp?”
“I am,” his voice rattled in my ear. “I have countless deadly standbys standing by in case you need help.”
“Wonderful! Professor Coypu, if you please—unlock the door.”
He threw the switch and the red light above the steel door, studded with boltheads and massive rivets, turned to green. I grabbed the handle and turned it, threw the door wide and we strode into Heaven.
“What’s with the clouds?” I asked, pushing my finger into one floating by; it tinkled merrily.
“A life—form indigenous to this planet,” Coypu’s voice said in my ear. “It has crystalline guts, which explains the tinkling sound, and it floats because it generates methane. Be careful with sparks because they could blow up.”
Not only could, but did. In a blast of flame that washed over me. I blinked at the glare but felt nothing. Apparently Slakey had us under observation and had opened fire. Other clouds were now floating our way, but were shot down before they could get close. They blew up nicely. When the last cloud of smoke had drifted away I pointed across the neatly cut greensward.
“There, that’s the way we go. Valhalla is a con and just for show and Paradise is still being rebuilt. Nor do we wish to visit the rubbish dump. The bit of Heaven I found Slakey in is off in that direction. All we have to do is follow the yellow brick road.”
Angelina looked around as we walked. “This would be a very pleasant planet if it weren’t for Slakey.”
“We are here to do something about that.”
“We will. Do I hear music?”
“Are those birds up ahead?” Sybil asked.
“Not quite,” I said, recognizing the fluttering creatures. “I looked them up in a volume called Everything You Wanted to Know About Religion But Were Afraid to Ask. They are legendary creatures called cherubim or cherubs. Asexual apparently, and great harp players, not to mention choristers.”