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Jo
“Raise the blade!” roared Terl, through the horn.
Jo
“Put it in a circle.” Jo
“Now build a mound of snow from all angles!”
Jo
He had just one more run to make inward, a run that would carry him toward the cliff a few hundred feet away.
Suddenly the controls did not respond. There had been a prolonged whirring whine in the guts of the control box. And every knob and lever on the control panel went slack!
The blade machine yawed to the right, yawed to the left.
Jo
The machine rumbled relentlessly forward and rose up to the top of the pile, almost somersaulted over backward. At the top, it slammed down flat. Then it almost did a forward flip as it went down the other side.
It was rolling straight toward the cliff edge!
Jo
He fought the controls. They stayed slack.
Wildly he looked back at the crowd. He got a fleeting impression of Zzt off to the side. The brute had something in its paw.
Jo
He tugged at the flexirope. It was as unyielding as ever.
The cliff edge was coming nearer.
There was a manual blade control to his left, held by a hook. Jo
Jo
There was a small explosion under the hood. An instant later smoke shot up in the air. And a split second after that a roaring tongue of flame rose.
The cliff edge was only a few feet away. Jo
Jo
His back was getting scorched. He turned to face front. The instrument panel was begi
The machine inched closer to the edge.
Small explosions sounded as instruments burst. The searing metal of the panel's upper edge was glowing with heat.
Jo
It took all his will power to hold his hands there. The flexirope dripped molten drops.
The machine teetered. At any moment the blade was going to go into vacant space to shoot the machine into thin air.
The flexirope parted!
Jo
With a shuddering groan, the last support of the blade snapped. Flames geysered. As though shot from a catapult, the machine leaped into empty space.
It struck far below on the slope, bounced, plunged to a stop, and was consumed in fire.
Jo
Chapter 7
Terl was looking for Zzt.
When the machine finally went over, Terl had looked around in sudden suspicion. But Zzt wasn't there.
The crowd had laughed. Especially at the last part of it when the machine went. And their laughter was like daggers in Terl's ears.
Numph just stood there, shaking his head. He seemed almost cheerful when he commented to Terl, “Well, just shows you what animals can do.” Only then had he laughed. “They pee on the floor!”
They had drifted back to their offices and Terl was now searching the transport compound. In the underground floors, he walked past rows and rows of out-of-use vehicles, battle planes, trucks, blade scrapers...yes, and ground cars, some of them quite posh. It had not struck him before how villainous was Zzt's pawing off on him of that old wreck of a Mark ll.
He searched fruitlessly for half an hour and then decided to try the repair room again.
Seething, he stomped into it and stared around.
His earbones picked up a tiny whisper of metal on metal.
He knew that sound. It was the safety slide being pulled back on a blaster.
“Stand right there,” said Zzt. “Keep your paws well away from your belt gun.”
Terl turned. Zzt had been standing just inside a dark tool locker.
Terl was boiling. “You installed a remote control when you 'fixed' that motor!”
“Why not?” said Zzt. “And a remote destruct charge as well.”
Terl was incredulous. “You admit it!”
“No witnesses here. Your word, my word. Means nothing.”
“But it was your own machine!”
“Written off. Plenty of machines.” “But why did you do it?”
“I thought it was pretty clever, actually.” He stepped forward, holding the long-barreled blast gun in one hand.
“But why?”
“You let our pay and bonuses be cut. If you didn't do it, you let it be done.”
“But look, if I could make animal operators, profits would come back.”
“That's your idea.” It 's a good idea!” snapped Terl.
“All right. I’ll be frank. You ever try to keep machines going without mechanics? Your animal operators would have just messed up equipment. One just did, didn't it?”
“You messed that up,” said Terl. “You realize that if this occurred on your report, you'd be out of work.”
“It won't occur on my report. There are no witnesses. Numph even saw me walk off before the thing went wild. He would never forward the report. Besides, they all thought it was fu
“Lots of things can be fu
Zzt motioned with the blaster barrel. “Why don't you just walk out of here and have a nice crap.”
Leverage. Leverage, thought Terl. He was fresh out of it.
He left the garage.
Chapter 8
Jo
The monster had pitched him in there before going off.
It was cold but Jo
His face was scorched, eyebrows and beard singed away. Some of his hair was gone. The old Chinko uniform cloth must have been fireproof– it had not ignited or melted, thus saving body burns.
Bless the Chinkos. Poor devils. With their polite phrases and brightness they had yet been exterminated.
That was one lesson to be learned. Anyone who befriended or sought to cooperate with the Psychlos was doomed from the begi
Terl had not made one motion in the direction of that burning vehicle to salvage him, knowing he was tied to it. Compassion and decency were no part of the Psychlo character. Terl had even had a gun and could have shot the flexirope in half.
Jo