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“Turn on your sca
A thudding sound came from the dump like a box being overturned.
“There is something over there,” said the sentry.
They started to advance, flashlight playing before them. It silhouetted them to Jo
Jo
With better night sight than the light-blinded sentries, he saw a Scot move and then begin to run away.
No. A sentry saw it. The sentry was raising the blast rifle to fire.
What a bad night! The Psychlos would know the animals were raiding them. A wounded or dead Scot in a heat camouflage cape would give it all away. The Psychlos would retaliate. They'd wipe out the base.
Twenty feet away the sentry was shoving off the safety catch, aiming.
The kill-club struck him like a lightning bolt in the center of his back.
Jo
The other sentry turned. The light hit Jo
The Psychlo raised his blast rifle to fire.
Jo
Jo
The Psychlo turned and tried to grab him. The rifle butt crunched into the sentry's stomach and he folded.
Jo
Holding the blast rifle by its muzzle, Jo
There was a crack of splitting helmet glass. Then a hoarse intake of hostile air.
The Psychlo went down. The first one was trying to get up and bring a weapon to bear.
Jo
My god! Jo
Somewhere up in the compound a door slammed. This place would be swarming.
He stamped out the flashlight. Raking through his pockets he searched for a thong. He found one, found two. He pieced them together.
He reached down and got hold of the first sentry's blast rifle. He tied the extended thong to the trigger.
Then with all his might he plunged the muzzle of the blast rifle into the ground, choking its bore with dirt and leaving it erect.
He hunched down behind the protection of the first sentry's body.
There were ru
He made sure he was protected both from sight of the compound and from the blast and pulled the thong.
The choked blast rifle exploded like a bomb.
The corpse before him jolted.
Geysered dirt and rocks began to fall back.
But Jo
Two hours later, with his side aching from ru
Robert the Fox had seen that no unusual lights were on and had the place organized in case of pursuit. As the raiders came in, one by one, he had their boxes of breathe-gas carefully hidden in a basement and collected them in a silent group in the faintly lit auditorium. He had fifteen Scots standing by with submachine guns and passenger ships lined up in case they had to evacuate. The camouflaged capes had been removed and hidden. No evidence left in sight; no precaution untaken; withdrawal, if called for, already organized. Robert the Fox was an efficient veteran of many a raid in his own homeland.
“Did we leave anyone?” panted Jo
“Nineteen came back,” said Robert the Fox. "Du
Jo
A ru
“That was one devil of an explosion,” said Robert the Fox.
“It was a blast rifle that blew up,” said Jo
“Sure made the echoes ring,” said Robert the Fox. “We heard it over here, miles away.”
“They are loud,” said Jo
The Scots tensed. One of them spat the word "Psychlos!"
"I’ll figure a way to get a message,” said Jo
The messenger went off to the lookout.
The group waited. Minutes ticked on. Half an hour went by. They were strained. Finally Robert the Fox stood
up and said, “Well, bad as it is, we better-”
There was the thud of ru
Du
“No sign of pursuit!” the messenger shouted in.
The tension vanished.
Du
“No planes have taken off,” the messenger yelled into the room.
“Well, for now, laddies,” said Robert the Fox, “unless the devils are waiting for daylight-”
“They won't come,” said Du
Others were drifting into the room. Submachine guns were being uncocked. Pilots came in from the passenger standby planes. Even the old women were peering in the door. Nobody knew yet what had gone wrong out there.
Du
“I stayed behind to see what they would do,” said the cheerful Du
There wouldn't be any pursuit. “I hid behind the horse two hundred feet away and moved it closer when the Psychlos all met at the bodies. The horse wasn't hit in the blast but a piece of gun must have slashed into a buffalo that was standing near the dump.”
“Yes, I saw the buffalo.” “I ran into it going in. Is that what that shadow was?” murmured various raiders.
“Some big Psychlo– maybe your demon, Jo
Jo
“What a raid!” exulted Du
Jo
“You're a scamp,” said Robert the Fox to Du