<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></SPAN>CHAPTER XIII<br/> Escape!</h2>
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">We</span> had little time, however,
to waste in endearments,
and very little to devote to informing
me as to the American
plans. The essential thing was
that I report the Han plans and
resources to the fullest of my
ability. And for an hour or two
I talked steadily, giving an outline
of all I had learned from
San-Lan and his Councillors, and
particularly of the arrangements
for drawing off the population of
the city to new cities concealed
underground, through the system
of tunnels radiating from
the base of the mountain. And
as a result, the Americans determined
to speed up their attack.</p>
<p>There were, as a matter of
fact, only two relatively small
commands facing the city, Wilma
told me, but both of them
were picked troops of the new
Federal Council. Those to the
south were a division of veterans
who a few weeks before had
destroyed the Han city of Sa-Lus
(St. Louis). On the east were a
number of the Colorado Gangs
and an expeditionary force of
our own Wyomings. The attack
on Lo-Tan was intended chiefly
as an attack on the morale of
the Hans of the other twelve
cities. If there seemed to be a
chance of victory, the operations
were to be pushed through. Otherwise
the object would be to do
as much damage as possible, and
fade away into the forests if the
Hans developed any real pressure
with their new infantry
and field batteries of rocket guns
and disintegrator-rays.</p>
<p>The "air balls" were simply
miniature swoopers of spherical
shape, ultronically controlled by
operators at control boards miles
away, and who saw on their
viewplates whatever picture the
ultronic television lens in the
sphere itself picked up at the
predetermined focus. The main
propulsive rocket motor was diametrically
opposite the lens, so
that the sphere could be steered
simply by keeping the picture of
its objective centered on the
crossed hairlines of the viewplates.
The outer shell moved
magnetically as desired with
respect to the core, which was
gyroscopically stabilized. Auxiliary
rocket motors enabled the
operator to make a sphere move
sidewise, backward or vertically.
Some of these spheres were
equipped with devices which enabled
their operators to hear as
well as see through their ultronic
broadcasts, and most of
those which had invaded the interior
of Lo-Tan were equipped
with "speakers," in the hope of
finding me and establishing
communication. Still others were
equipped for two-stage control.
That is, the operator control led
the vision sphere, and through it
watched and steered an air torpedo
that travelled ahead of it.</p>
<p>The Han airship or any other
target selected by the operator
of such a combination was
doomed. There was no escape.
The spheres and torpedoes were
too small to be hit. They could
travel with the speed of bullets.
They could trail a ship indefinitely,
hover a safe distance
from their mark, and strike at
will. Finally, neither darkness
nor smoke screens were any bar
to their ultronic vision. The
spheres, which had penetrated
and explored Lo-Tan in their
search for me, had floated
through breaches in the walls
and roofs made by their advance
torpedoes.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Wilma</span> had just finished explaining
all this to me when
I heard a noise outside my door.
With a whispered warning I
flung myself back on the couch
and simulated unconsciousness.
When I did not answer the
poundings and calls to open, a
police detail broke in and shook
me roughly.</p>
<p>"The air ball," I moaned, pretending
to regain consciousness
slowly. "It came in from the corridor.
Look what it did to the
guard. It must have grazed my
head. Where is it?"</p>
<p>"Gone," muttered the under-officer,
looking fearfully around.
"Yes, undoubtedly gone. These
men have been dead some time.
And this pistol. The ball got him
before he had a chance to use it.
See, it has beamed through the
wall only here, where he dropped
it. Who are you? You look like a
tribesman. Oh, yes, you're the
Heaven-Born's special prisoner.
Maybe I ought to beam you right
now. Good thing. Everyone would
call it an accident. By the Grand
Dragon, I will!"</p>
<p>While he was talking, I had
staggered to the other side of
the room, to draw his attention
away from the couch where the
ball was concealed.</p>
<p>Now suddenly the pillows
burst apart, and a blanket with
which I had covered the thing
streaked from the couch, hitting
the man in the small of the back.
I could hear his spine snap under
the impact. Then it shot through
the air toward the group of soldiers
in the doorway, bowling
them over and sending them
shrieking right and left along
the corridor. Relentlessly and
with amazing speed it launched
itself at each in turn, until the
corpses lay grotesquely strewn
about, and not one had escaped.</p>
<p>It returned to me for all the
world like an old-fashioned
ghost, the blanket still draped
over it (and not interfering with
its ultronic vision in the least)
and "stood" before me.</p>
<p>"The yellow devils were going
to kill you, Tony," I heard Wilma's
voice saying. "You've got
to get out of there, Tony, before
you are killed. Besides, we need
you at the control boards, where
you can make real use of your
knowledge of the city. Have you
your jumping belt, ultrophone
and rocket gun?"</p>
<p>"No," I replied, "they are all
gone."</p>
<p>"It would be no good for you
to try to make your way to one
of the breaches in the wall, nor
to the roof," she mused.</p>
<p>"No, they are too well guarded,"
I replied, "and even if you
made a new one at a predetermined
spot I'm afraid the repair
men and the patrol would go to
it ahead of me."</p>
<p>"Yes, and they would beam
you before you could climb inside
of a swooper," she added.</p>
<p>"I'll tell you what I can do,
Wilma," I suggested. "I know
my way about the city pretty
well. Suppose I go down one of
the shafts to the base of the
mountain. I think I can get out.
It is dark in the valley, so the
Hans cannot see me, and I will
stand out in the open, where
your ultroscopes can pick me up.
Then a swooper can drop quickly
down and get me."</p>
<p>"Good!" Wilma said. "But
take that Han's disintegrator
pistol with you. And go right
away, Tony. But wrap this ball
in something and carry it with
you. Just toss it from you if
you are attacked. I'll stay at the
control board and operate it in
case of emergency."</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">So</span> I picked up ball and pistol,
and thrust the hand in which
I held it into the loose Han
blouse I wore, wrapped the ball in
a piece of sheeting, and stepped
out in the corridor, hurrying toward
the nearest magnetic car
station, a couple of hundred feet
down the corridor, for I had to
cross nearly the entire width of
the city to reach the shaft that
went to the base of the mountain.</p>
<p>I thanked Providence for the
perfection of the Han mechanical
devices when I reached the
station. The automatic checking
system of these cars made station
attendants unnecessary. I
had only to slip the key I had
taken from the dead Han officer
into the account-charting machine
at the station to release a
car.</p>
<p>Pressing the proper combinations
of main and branch line
buttons, I seated myself, holding
the pistol ready but concealed beneath
my blouse. The car shot
with rapid acceleration down the
narrow tunnel.</p>
<p>The tubes in which these magnetic
cars (which slid along a
few inches above the floor of the
tunnel by localized repeller rays)
ran were very narrow, just the
width of the car, and my only
danger would come if on catching
up to another car its driver
should turn around and look in
my face. If I kept my face to the
front, and hunched over so as to
conceal my size, no driver of a
following car would suspect that
I was not a Han like himself.</p>
<p>The tube dipped under traffic
as it came to a trunk line, and my
car magnetically lagged, until an
opening in the traffic permitted
it to swing swiftly into the main
line tunnel. At the automatic distance
of ten feet it followed a car
in which rode a scantily clad
girl, her flimsy silks fluttering in
the rush of air. I cursed my luck.
She would be far more likely to
turn around than a man, to see if
a man were in the car behind,
and if he were personable—for
not even the impending doom of
the city and the public demoralization
caused by the "air balls"
had dulled the proclivities of the
Han women for brazen flirtation.
And turn around she did.</p>
<p>Before I could lower my head
she had seen my face, and knew
I was no Han. I saw her eyebrows
arch in surprise. But she
seemed puzzled rather than
scared. Before she could make up
her mind about me, however, her
car had swung out of the main
tunnel on its predetermined
course, and my own automatically
was closing up the gap to the
car ahead. The passenger in this
one wore the uniform of a medical
officer, but he did not turn
around before I swung out of
main traffic to the little station
at the head of the shaft.</p>
<p>This particular shaft was intended
to serve the very lowest
levels exclusively, and since its
single car carried nothing but
express traffic, it was used only
by repair men and other specialists
who occasionally had to descend
to those levels.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">There</span> were only three people
on the little platform, which
reminded me very much of the
subway stations of the Twentieth
Century. Two men and a
girl stood facing the gate of the
shaft, waiting for the car to return
from below. One of these
was a soldier, apparently off duty,
for though he wore the scarlet
military coat he carried no weapons
other than his knife. The
other man wore nothing but sandals
and a pair of loose short
pants of some heavy and serviceable
material. I did not need to
look at the compact tool kit and
the ray machines attached to his
heavy belt, nor the gorgeously
jewelled armlet and diadem that
he wore to know him for a repair
man.</p>
<p>The girl was quite scantily
clad, but wore a mask, which was
not unusual among the Han women
when they went forth on their
flirtatious expeditions, and there
was something about the sinuous
grace of her movements that
seemed familiar to me. She was
making desperate love to the repair
man, whose attitude toward
her was that of pleased but lofty
tolerance. The soldier, who was
seeking no trouble, occupied
himself strictly with his own
thoughts and paid little attention
to them.</p>
<p>I stepped from my car, still
carrying my bundle in which the
"air ball" was concealed, and the
car shot away as I threw the release
lever over. Not so successful
as the soldier in simulating
lack of interest in the amorous
girl and her companion, I drew
from the latter a stare of haughty
challenge, and the girl herself
turned to look at me through her
mask.</p>
<p>She gasped as she did so, and
shrank back in alarm. And I
knew her then in spite of her
mask. She was the favorite of the
Heaven-Born himself.</p>
<p>"Ngo-Lan!" I exclaimed before
I could catch myself.</p>
<p>At the mention of her name,
the soldier's head jerked up
quickly, and the girl herself gave
a little cry of terror, shrinking
against her burly companion.
This would mean death for her if
it reached the ears of her lord.</p>
<p>And her companion, arrogant
in his immunity as a repair man,
hesitated not a second. His arm
shot out toward the soldier, who
was nearer to him than I. There
was the flash of a knife blade, and
the soldier sagged on his feet,
then tumbled over like a sack of
potatoes, and before my mind
had grasped the danger, he had
swept the girl aside and was
springing at me.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">That</span> I lived for a moment
even was due to the devotion of
my wife, Wilma, who somewhere
in the mountains to the east was
standing loyally before the control
board of the air ball I carried.</p>
<p>For even as the Han leaped at
me, the bundle containing the air
ball, which I had placed at my
feet, shot diagonally upward,
catching the fellow in the middle
of his leap, hurling him back
against the grilled gate of the elevator
shaft, and pinning his lifeless
body there.</p>
<p>An instant the girl gazed in
speechless horror at what had
been her secret lover, then she
threw herself at my feet, writhing
and shrieking in terror.</p>
<p>At this moment, the elevator
shot to a sudden stop behind the
grill, and prepared for the worst,
I faced it, disintegrator pistol
raised.</p>
<p>But I lowered the pistol at
once, with a sigh of relief. The
elevator was empty. For a moment
I considered. I dared not
leave either of these bodies nor
the girl behind in descending the
shaft. At any moment other passengers
might glide out of the
tunnel to take the elevator, and
give an alarm.</p>
<p>So I played the beam of the pistol
for an instant on the two
dead bodies. They vanished, of
course, into nothingness, as did
part of the station platform. The
damage to the platform, however,
would not necessarily be interpreted
as evidence of a prisoner
escaping.</p>
<p>Then I threw open the elevator
gate, dragging Ngo-Lan into
the car and stifling her hysterical
shrieks, pressed the button
that caused it to shoot downward.
In a few moments I
stepped out several thousand feet
below, into a shaft that ran toward
one of the Valley Gates.</p>
<p>The pistol again became serviceable,
this time for the destruction
of the elevator, thus blocking
any possible pursuit, yet
without revealing my flight.</p>
<p>Ngo-Lan fought like a cat, but
despite her writhing, scratching
and biting, I bound and gagged
her with her own clothing, and
left her lying in the tunnel while
I stepped in a car and shot toward
the gate.</p>
<p>As the car glided swiftly along
the brilliantly lit but deserted
tunnel I conversed again with
Wilma through the metallic
speaker of the air ball.</p>
<p>"The only obstacle now," I told
her, "is the massive gate at the
end of the tunnel. The gate-guard,
I think, is posted both
outside and inside the gate."</p>
<p>"In that case, Tony," she replied,
"I will shoot the ball ahead,
and blow out the gate. When you
hear it bump against the gate,
throw yourself flat in the car, for
an instant later I will explode it.
Then you can rush through the
gate into the night. Scout ships
are now hovering above, and they
will see you with their ultroscopes,
though the darkness will
leave you invisible to the Hans."</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">With</span> this the ball shot out of
the car and flashed away,
down the tunnel ahead of me. I
heard a distant metallic thump,
and crouched low in the speeding
car, clapping my hands to my
ears. The heavy detonation which
followed, struck me like a blow,
and left me gasping for breath.
The car staggered like a living
thing that had been struck, then
gathered speed again and shot
forward toward the gaping black
hole where the gate had been.</p>
<p>I brought it to a stop at the
pile of debris, and climbed
through this to freedom and the
night. Stumblingly I made my
way out into the open, and waited.</p>
<p>Behind, and far above me on
the mountain peak, the lights of
the city gleamed and flashed,
while the iridescent beams of
countless disintegrator ray batteries
on surrounding mountain
peaks, played continuously and
nervously, criss-crossing in the
sky above it.</p>
<p>Then with a swish, a line
dropped out of the sky, and a little
seat rested on the ground beside
me. I climbed into it, and
without further ado was whisked
up into the swooper that floated
a few hundred feet above me.</p>
<p>A half an hour later I was deposited
in a little forest glade
where the headquarters of the
Wyoming Gang were located, and
was greeted with a frantic disregard
for decorum by the Deputy
Boss of the Wyomings, who
rushed upon me like a whirlwind,
laughing, crying and whispering
endearments all in the
same breath, while I squeezed
her, Wilma, my wife, until at last
she gasped for mercy.</p>
<hr class="mj" />
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