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Cousins dropped into step beside him. "I've got that red-pencil work done."
"Thanks, Lee. I'll have to do it all over now."
"Don't do it over. Write an addendum. Show how and why three men died. Then you can say, `I told you so.'"
"You think so?"
"My professional judgment. When's the funeral?"
"Day after tomorrow. That's Sunday. I thought it would be appropriate."
"You can say all three services at once. Good timing."
To all bubbletown, Jack Carter and Alf Harness were dead. But they still breathed-
The mountains came toward them: the only fixed points in an ocean of sand. Alf was closer now, something less than four hundred yards behind. At five o'clock Carter reached the base of the mountains.
They were too high to go over on the air jet. He could see spots where he might have landed the buggy while the pump filled the jet tank for another hop. But for what?
Better to wait for Alf
Suddenly Carter knew that that was the one thing in the world Alf wanted. To roll up alongside in his buggy. To watch Carter's face until he was sure Carter knew exactly what was to come. And then to blast Carter down in flames from ten feet away, and watch while a bright magnesium-oxidizer flare burned through his suit and skin and vitals.
The hills were low and shallow. Even from yards away he migh have been looking at the smooth flank of a sleeping beast-excepq that this beast was not breathing. Carter took a deep breath, noticing.;
how stale the air had become despite the purifier unit, and turned on the compressed-air jet.
The air of Mars is terribly thin, but it can be compressed; and a rocket will work anywhere, even a compressed-air rocket. Carter went up, leaning as far back in the cabin as he could to compensate for the loss of weight in the O-tanks behind him, to put as little work as possible on gyroscopes meant to spin only in emergencies. He rose fast, and he tilted the buggy to send it skating along the thirty-degree slope of the hill. There were flat places along the slope, but not many. He should reach the first one easily...
A flare exploded in his eyes. Carter clenched his teeth and fought the urge to look behind. He tilted the buggy backward to slow him down. The jet pressure was dropping.
He came down like a feather two hundred feet above the desert. When he turned off the jet he could hear the gyros whining. He turned the stabilizer off and let them run down. Now there was only the chugging of the compressor, vibrating through his suit.
Alf was out of his buggy, standing at the base of the mountains, looking up.
"Come on," said Carter. "What are you waiting for?"
"Go on over if you want to."
"What's the matter? Are your gyros fouled?"
"Your brain is fouled, Carter. Go on over." Alf raised one arm stiffly out. The hand showed flame, and Carter ducked instinctively.
The compressor had almost stopped, which meant the tank was nearly full. But Carter would be a fool to take off before it was completely full. You got the greatest acceleration from an air jet during the first seconds of flight. The rest of the flight you got just enough pressure to keep you going.
But-Alf was getting into his buggy. Now the buggy was rising.
Carter turned on his jet and went up.
He came down hard, three hundred feet high, and only then dared to look down. He heard Alf s nasty laugh, and he saw that Alf was still at the foot of the mountains. It had been a bluff!
But why wasn't Alf coming after him?
The third hop took him to the top. The first downhill hop was the first he'd ever made, and it almost killed him. He had to do his de-
celerating on the last remnants of pressure in the jet tank! He waited until his hands stopped shaking, then continued the rest of the way on the wheels. There was no sign of Alf as he reached the foot of the range and started out into the desert.
Already the sun was about to go. Faint bluish stars in a red-black sky outlined the yellow hills behind him.
Still no sign of Alf.
Alf spoke in his ear, gently, almost kindly. "You'll just have to come back, Jack."
"Don't hold your breath."
"I'd rather not have to. That's why I'm telling you this. Look at your watch."
It was about six-thirty.
"Did you look? Now count it up. I started with forty-four hours of air. You started with fifty-two. That gave us ninety-six breathing hours between us. Together we've used up sixty-one hours. That leaves thirty-five between us.
"Now, I stopped moving an hour ago. From where I am it's almost thirty hours back to base. Sometime in the next two and a half hours, you've got to get my air and stop me from breathing. Or I've got to do the same for you."
It made sense. Finally, everything made sense. "Alf, are you listening? Listen," said Carter, and he opened his radio panel and, moving by touch, found a wire he'd located long ago. He jerked it loose. His radio crackled deafeningly, then stopped.
"Did you hear that, Alf? I just jerked my come-hither loose. Now you couldn't find me even if you wanted to."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Then Carter realized what he'd done. There was now no possibility of Alf finding him. After all the miles and hours of the chase, now it was Carter chasing Alf. All Alf had to do was wait.
The dark fell on the west like a heavy curtain.
Carter went south, and he went immediately. It would take him an hour or more to cross the range. He would have to leapfrog to the top with only his headlights to guide him. His motor would not take him uphill over such a slope. He could use the wheels going down. with luck, but he would have to do so in total darkness. Deimos would not have risen; Phobos was not bright enough to help.
It had gone exactly as Alf had pla
Carter could give him only one surprise. He would cross six miles south of where he was expected, and approach Alf s buggy from the southeast.
Or was Alf expecting that too?
It didn't matter. Carter was beyond free will.
The first jump was like jumping blindfolded from a ship's airlock. He pointed the headlights straight down, and as he went up he watched the circle of light expand and dim. He angled east. First he wasn't moving at all. Then the slope slid toward him, far too fast. He back-angled. Nothing seemed to happen. The pressure under him died slowly, but it was dying, and the slope was a wavering blur surrounded by dark.
It came up, clarifying fast.
The landing jarred him from coccyx to cranium. He held himself rigid, waiting for the buggy to tumble end-for-end down the hill. But though the buggy was tilted at a horrifying angle, it stayed.
Carter sagged and buried his helmet in his arms. Two enormous hanging tears, swollen to pinballs in the low gravity, dropped onto his faceplate and spread. For the first time he regretted all of it. Killing Lew, when a kick to the kneecap would have put him out of action and taught him a permanent, memorable lesson. Snatching the buggy instead of surrendering himself for trial. Driving through the bubble-and making every man on Mars his mortal enemy. Hanging around to watch what would happen-when, perhaps, he could have run beyond the horizon before Alf came out the vehicular airlock. He clenched his fists and pressed them against his faceplate, remembering his attitude of mild interest as he sat watching Alf s buggy roll into the lock.