Страница 25 из 56
They were halfway to the cars when someone on the Hospital wall swung a spotlight-sized sonic toward them. The rebels dropped immediately, like hay before a scythe. So did the mechanics around the cars. Unconscious men lay scattered across the carport field with the mist curling around them.
Matt pulled his head back as the big sonic-swung toward the corner. Even so, he felt the numbness, faint and far-off, matching the deadwood feeling in his right arm. "Shall we wait till they turn it off, then run for it?"
"I think they've got us," said Laney.
"Stop that!" Mrs. Hancock rapped savagely. Matt had first met her fifteen minutes ago and had never seen her without her present enraged expression. She was a fierce one, bulky and homely, a natural for any cause. "They haven't got us until they take us!"
"Something keeps people from seeing me sometimes," said Matt. "If you want to risk it, and if you all stay close to me, it may protect us all."
"Crack' i
"It's true, Hood. I don't know why, but it's true. I think it must be a psi power."
"Wreebody who believes in psi things he's psygic."
"The sonic's off us," said Laney.
"My arm's dead. Laney, you and Mrs.--"
"Call me Lydia."
"You and Lydia put Hood over my left shoulder, the pick up Harry. Stay right by me. We'll be walking, remember. Don't try to hide. If we get shot, I'll apologize when I get the chance."
" 'Pologise now."
"Okay, Hood. I'm sorry I got us all killed."
" 'Sawrigh'."
"Let's go."
CHAPTER 7
THE BLEEDING HEART
WHEN THEY see this ... Jesus Pietro shuddered. He watched his own guards shrink back, unwilling to enter, unable to look away. They'll think a little less of their guns when they see this!
The vivarium guard had certainly had a gun. Probably he hadn't thought to draw it in time.
He'd get no second chance.
He was like something spilled from an organ-bank conveyor tank.
Hobart, dead near the back of the vivarium, was no prettier. Jesus Pietro felt a stab of guilt. He hadn't meant Hobart for such a fate.
Aside from the bodies, the vivarium was empty. Naturally.
Jesus Pietro looked once more around him and his eyes found the door and the dark scrawl on its bright steel surface.
It was a symbol of some kind; he was sure of that. But of what? The symbol of the Sons of Earth was a circle containing a streamlined outline of the American supercontinent. This was nothing like it, nor was it like anything he knew of. But it had unmistakably been drawn in human blood.
Two wide arcs, bilaterally symmetrical. Three small closed curves underneath, like circles with tails. Tadpoles? Some microorganism?
Jesus Pietro rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. Later he'd ask the prisoners. Best forget it for now.
"Assume they took the fastest route to the main entrance," he said aloud. If the guards were surprised to hear him thus lecture himself, they reacted as Major Jansen had long since learned to react. They said nothing "Come," said Jesus Pietro.
Left, right, down the stairs ... a dead policeman sprawled in the hall, his Implementation uniform as torn and ruined as himself. Jesus Pietro passed him without breaking his juggernaut stride. He reached steel emergency doors and used his ultrasonic whistle. As the doors went up, his guards tensed.
Two pitiful rows of maimed and dead, and another steel door at the other end. The dead were like an explosion in the organ banks. That was definitely the way to think of them. It would not do to consider that these having been human beings under Jesus Pietro's protection. Most had not even been police, but civilians: doctors and electricians.
What a valuable lesson the Hospital guards would learn from this! Jesus Pietro felt sick. It showed only in his unusual pallor; but that he could not control. He marched down the corridor with his expression held remotely aloof. The steel doors went up as he approached.
Colonists were piled against the steel doors at both ends, as if trying to escape the trap even while unconscious. One of the policemen spoke into a handphone, asking for stretchers.
Jesus Pietro stood over the piled rebels. "I never really hated them before," he said.
"K'llr, use gyrsco'."
"What?" Matt couldn't spare the attention. He was trying to fly with one hand, the wrong hand; his car bucked and weaved like a frightened stallion.
"Gy-rro-skko'!" Hood enunciated painfully.
"I see it. What do I do with it?"
"Turr' on. " Matt flipped the Gyroscope switch to On. Something hummed below him. The car trembled, then righted itself, going straight up.
"Shlatsh."
Matt used the knob. The car began to accelerate.
"Hel' me see ow', Laney." Hood was propped upright beside the left front window, with Harry Kane in the middle and Matt on the right. Laney reached from the back seat to hold Hood's head out the window.
"Turr' ril."
"How?"
"Shtee-ring nog."
"Knob? Like this thing?"
"Ye-ss Fiot."
"For the record," Matt said icily, "I flew a car all the way from Harry's basement to Alpha Plateau. It was the first time I'd ever been in a car. Naturally I don't know what all these gadgets do."
"Thass ri'. Now go strray' till I tell you."
Matt released the knob. The car flew on by itself. "We aren't going toward the coral houses," he said.
"No." Harry Kane spoke slowly but understandably. "The coral houses are the first place Implementation will look. I couldn't drag a hundred men where we're going."
"Where's that?"
"A large unoccupied mansion owned by Geoffrey Eustace Parlette and his family."
"And where will Geoffrey Eustace Parlette be all this time?"
"He and his family are swimming and gambling in a small public resort on Iota. I've got contacts on Alpha Plateau, Keller."
"Parlette. Any--"
"His grandson. Millard Parlette was staying with them,, but he's making a speech. He should be starting about now. The sending station on Nob Hill is far enough away, and his hosts here are gone, so he'll probably be staying with a relative."
"It still sounds dangerous."
"You should talk."
The left-handed compliment hit Matt like six dry martinis. He'd done it! He'd walked into the Hospital, freed prisoners, raised merry hell, left his mark, and walked out free and untouched! "We can hide the car till the furor dies down," he said. "Then, back to Gamma--"
"And leave my men in the vivarium? I can't do that. And there's Polly Tournquist."
Polly. The girl who'd--Yes. "I'm not a rebel, Harry. The grand rescue's over. Frankly, I only came here to get Laney if I could. I can drop this crusade any time."
"You think Castro will just let you go, Keller? He must know you were one of the prisoners. He'll hunt you down wherever you hide. Besides, I can't let you have the car. I'll need it for my grand rescue."
Matt grimaced. It was his car, wasn't it? He'd stolen it himself. But they could fight that out later. "Why did you mention Polly?"
"She saw the ramrobot come down. Castro probably found the films on her. He may be questioning her to find out who else knows."