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Broward said, "You Argentineans kept quiet about it, but we heard of it. You pumped more air into it, didn't you?"
"Yes. We found the first indigenous life of Mars. Several species of plants that flourished without sunlight. And some very small creatures unlike anything on Earth. Blind and brainless.
"Anyway, the rats that stowed away on the ships, though how they did it, I don't know, adapted there and bred mightily. We have known for some time about them; occasionally, we found one in Osorno. Not only there but the other bases, too, though how they traveled to there is another mystery."
"There were some rats on the Chinese base," Broward "But these were exterminated. I believe that rats have Journeyed across space with us because they are like us in many ways. Intelligent, highly adaptable, omnivorous, curious, ! vicious."
"Perhaps so," said Saavedra. "In any event, they did not constitute a direct threat. But something happened to them ; in the caverns below Osorno. They must have caught and eaten the little creatures that thrive there. And, in so doing, must have been bitten now and then and become infected with a disease that afflicts the creatures. This was a mild among the animals of Mars, but, in the bloodstream of the rats, the microbes mutated.
"That is the theory of our scientists. The first we of it, we found a few dying rats in our store-rooms and occasionally in the corridors. Then, a man became sick with an undiagnosable malady. He had intense headaches and backaches, his kidneys felt as if they were on fire, he vomited, he alternately suffered from high fevers and raging chills. His tearducts became inflamed, and he wept. "When the second man fell sick, we named the disease el fuego de Iagrimas—the 'fire of tears.' Since the rats were suspected, we made a campaign to exterminate them. We killed thousands, but I doubt we got all of them. They are such cu
"Is it fatal?"
"One person out of twenty has died so far," replied Saavedra. "And the rest are immobilized. Those who have recovered are very weak. It is true that two people out of ten do not seem to be affected. But these are very busy and overworked taking care of the sick."
"Then Mars is prostrate?"
"As if the hand of God had struck," said Quiroga. "Why should He strike us?" said Saavedra angrily. "We are not atheists. If He wished to strike anybody, it would be the godless Soviets." "I would say that He—if He did it—has struck mostly at Earth," replied Broward. "And He hasn't spared the Soviets on the Moon, either, although He did his damage by causing them to slay each other. That is, if He thought it necessary to intervene."
"How many perso
"Ten. The Soviet and South African attacks took many. And after the sickness, all but ten were transferred back to Mars."
"Has Quiroga told you of my offer?"
"Yes. I thought he was mad, but he convinced me. Rather, the fact that you saved his life when you did not have to and that you had no need to ask for help to carry out your mission, convinced me. You must hate your leader and the ideology of the Soviets as much as I hate that madman, Howards, and his anti-Christian policies." Broward's eyebrows rose.
Saavedra said, "Yes, Howards has always posed as a Christian. But he has cooperated with the Church only when it suited him. Where the Church resisted, Howards has always managed to get rid of the opposition. Of course, always in a subtle or underhanded ma
"You are ready to go ahead?" asked Broward. "It seems to be our only salvation. But what guarantee do I have that your commander will not enslave or kill us?"
"No more guarantee than I have that you will not betray me," said Broward. "But I plan to get rid of my chief just as you plan to get rid of yours. To do that, I may need your help. First, will you swear on your honor and to your God?"
"I will swear. I do swear."
"Then here is what we must do."
Several hours later, the scout returned the two Argentineans to the port. Broward then lifted the little ship from the moonlet and hurled it at top speed towards the area to which the navigational computer directed it. This took an hour and a half. Then, automatically, the radio broadcast the pretaped code call.
For the minutes that it took the waves to get to the area where a robot relay vessel should be located, Broward chafed. Then, he became even more impatient while counting the minutes it would take for the waves to travel back to his ship with the message that the code had been detected, amplifed, and was being sent on to the vessel supposedly waiting near the Moon.
Since Broward had arrived in the neighborhood of Mars, Earth had slid around the great curve of the sun and was barred from straight-line communication with the red planet. the relay ship had been following Broward—he hoped— had established a position where it could receive and transmit messages both from the scout ship and the Moon. On schedule, Broward's receiver came to life. His call had been picked up and was sent on its way. Broward, not wanting to wait any longer, then gave his report in the code-form he had prepared on the flight out. This would be passed on, and Scone could digest it, then ask his questions.
The slow torturing moments twisted him. What if there was do one on the Moon to receive? Or what if the Axe had triumphed and were now trying to decipher the code? "Broward!" Scone's voice said, speaking in English. Broward almost whooped with joy. The fact that Scone was not using code indicated that the menace of the Axe fleet no longer existed.
"Broward! We received your report. So Mars is dead! Well done. But are you sure that the bomb did the damage it was supposed to? You said that you had delivered the bomb and that it had created the expected havoc in Mars' crust and that the bases on the surface appear to be destroyed. But what about any ships that the Axe might have had in flight at the time the bomb struck? What about Deimos and Phobos? Are they still occupied by the enemy?
"You will investigate them first. Then, you will land on Mars and examine the base of Osorno. Afterwards, return to a point where you can contact the relay and send us a report. We must make sure.
"Meanwhile, for your information, we have utterly defeated the Axe armada. All ships were put out of commission except for two destroyers. These eluded us and are probably on the way back to Mars. Watch for them. If you sight them, avoid them. Note in what direction they are proceed-As long as they exist, we ca
"I hear you," replied Broward. "But, before I return to Mars, I would like to speak to my wife. She is all right, isn't she?"
The almost intolerable waiting period passed. Scone's voice sounded again, "Broward! I do not like your disobeying my orders. But, in this great moment of triumph, I inclined to overlook it. Especially since you did carry out mission on which so much depended.
"Unfortunately, you ca
"What do I mean by this? Just this. You may or may not know that it is now the law that every man is to have a mate, even if this means that one woman must have two or more to ensure this. So, I told Ingrid Nashdoi that she must share you with me. She refused and is, therefore, now under arrest. I am sure that she will change her mind later on. She is just having difficulty adjusting to the new ways inevitable because of the conditions. Once she gets over her irrationality and sees the logic of the law, she will agree. "Perhaps, you would like to speak to her and try to get her to see reason?"