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"Can't you rewire it? Or isn't there time?"
"Even if there were, I wouldn't try it," Quiroga said. "I imagine that Howards has this rigged to explode if anybody tampers much with it."
"I don't know. He wouldn't think anybody would have access to it Which reminds me. How do you get out of
here?"
They examined the walls. Undoubtedly, some section of it must open to an air-lock and beyond that to the surface. The rock around them must be part of a hill or cliff, and it must be out of sight of the domes above Osorno. But there was nothing within to indicate the exit. No slightest crack.
"It's probable," said Quiroga, "that Howards must activate the mechanisms that open this with a radio or laser frequency. He might carry the emitter with him, or it might be part of the ship. More likely the latter, since he could open it from the surface easier if the emitter were built into the
"So," said Broward, "we're where we were before. Mean-He, Howards must have found out what happened on the rooftop. We can expect some sort of a move against us at any moment."
He went from the control cabin into the rear. There was a tiny washroom, spaces in the corridor for bunks, and, beyond, a storage room. At the rear wall of this, he opened a door and looked into the compartment containing the motor, generator, fuelpile, and electronic equipment. There was also a box that looked like a tool box.
Gingerly, for he feared booby-traps, he stepped through the door and then snapped up the catch that held the cover. A minute later, he was back in the control cabin with a hammer, several screwdrivers, pliers, tape, and two cold chisels.
Quiroga said, "You know that we'll probably set off an alarm or some kind of booby trap."
Broward shrugged. "Too bad. But there's nothing else to do."
"You get outside the ship," the Argentinean said. "I'm expendable. But if you die, everybody dies."
"One man only'll take too much time. Come on. No argument now."
"No," Quiroga said firmly. "Somebody has to guard the shaft. They'll be coming up with gravpaks and quickly."
"All right," said Broward. He turned and walked out of the ship to the elevator. He got on the cage and started it downwards. Halfway down the shaft, at a point above the rooftop entrance, he halted the cage. Then he soared back up by means of his gravpak.
Quiroga was startled when he returned. Broward explained. "Maybe they can get enough men with paks underneath it to drive it back up. There are a lot of maybe's. There's work to do, and I'm helping with it."
They hammered furiously and then used the screwdrivers and a little crowbar to pry the lock mechanism out. Each expected something drastic to happen; both were sweating far more than the work alone could account for.
Then, the lock was out, and the wires co
He looked down the rock walls. The light glared on the cage; it was moving upwards slowly. Smiling grimly, he rose over the hole and plunged downward. On reaching the cage, he turned the gravpak controls to give him half-weight. The barrel of his burper went over the edge at an angle so that the bullets would strike below the cage. He pressed the trigger, and the shaft became a deafening hell. Not so deafening that he could not hear the screams of the men below. Although they would have received no direct hits from the bullets themselves, they were undoubtedly wounded by fragments of stone chipped off the walls and sent flying.
He quit firing and looked over the edge through the space between the cage and the shaft. Below him, light flooded through the opened rooftop door. Men flew through it, out of the shaft and onto the top of the building. Some were still screaming.
He fired at an Angel halfway through the door, saw the body blow apart, and fired at the man behind it. That man fell fast because the bullets had destroyed his gravpak.
Their next move would be to bring in a mobile laser and burn the elevator down. Before that happened, the ship must be activated. He rose, leaving the elevator where it was, and returned to Quiroga.
The lieutenant said, "I was worried. I heard the shots."
"Just a little holding action. It won't keep long. Any luck?"
"It isn't trapped. Howards must not have thought that anybody would find it. We're ready to go. See that button there? I think it's the emitter control. Anyway, it's the only one whose function I don't know."
"Press it."
Quiroga shut the port of the ship first, then depressed the button. Slowly, a section of wall in front of the ship slid aside. Where it had been was a sheet of plastic. Quiroga kept his finger on the button, and the sheet slid in behind the rock section to reveal a tu
Quiroga lifted the vessel slowly and piloted it into the On its clearing the entrance, the plastic sheet slid out of the wall. They waited until the exterior sensory of the ship indicated that the air had been pumped out of the tu
They were looking out on early morning Mars.
A yellowish-red plain stretched out to the horizon. Nothing moved on it, for Mars had no surface life, animal or vegetable. Far off to the left was a thin cloud of yellowish dust Though it was day, the sky was a blackblue, the brighter stars filtered through the weak light of the small sun. Around the hill, they knew, would be the three big domes on top of Osorno.
'Take her out," Broward said, "Just far enough to turn her around. Then use the emitter to open the outer ports."
"Dios mio! Are you crazy?"
"I know exactly what I'm doing," Broward replied. Quiroga shrugged, rolled his eyes upwards, and obeyed. In a few seconds, the false section of the hill and the plastic gate behind it had moved into the rock.
'Take her into the tu
The Argentinean said something under his breath, but he drove the ship to the spot indicated.
"This ship has a burner laser," Broward said. "Use it" Quiroga placed his hand over his face and groaned, "Stupid! Now I see what you mean to do. But..."
"You have a better idea?" said Broward. "God help me, no."
Quiroga activated the laser, and a pencil-thin white beam shot out of the nose of the craft and bore through the plastic. Then, Quiroga described a large circle with the beam. The plastic resisted only breifly, bubbled, then disappeared. Quiroga shut the beam off, moved the ship forward swiftly and bumped into the center of the described circle. While the ship was backing up to its original position, the large disc of plastic fell out of the sheet and onto the rock floor.
The laser struck again. This time, the thick granite section held out longer. But there was air pushing against it from the other side. Suddenly, the slab of rock, marked by a thin dark line where the laser had cut, began to move outwards. "Back! Back!" said Broward loudly, but Quiroga had already touched the controls. The ship shot out of the tu
They went back a long ways, and they needed the distance, for the granite disc came out of the mouth of the tu
The two men did not watch it run its course. They were too fascinated, and shocked, though they had expected it, at what followed the disc. A man, upside down, flew out of the tu