The Edmond Hamilton MEGAPACK ®. Edmond Hamilton

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СКАЧАТЬ straightened up, breathing hard. His lip was bleeding and he wiped it with the back of his hand. “That was a little too big a job for you, Mr. Vernon,” he said viciously. “Trying to keep my mind blanked and under control for hours.” He stuffed a handkerchief into Vernon’s mouth, and tied him up with his own cummerbund, and shoved him out of sight behind an enormous bed. Then he opened the door carefully, and went out.

      * * * *

      There was nobody in the corridor. This was wide and ornate, with doors opening off it, and nothing to show what was behind them or which way to go. Hyrst stood still a minute, getting control of himself. The barrier no longer obscured his mind. He let it rove, finding that every time he did that it was easier, and the images clearer. He heard Shearing again, as he had heard him in that one second when Vernon’s guard had faltered. His face became set and ugly. He began to move toward the stern of the Happy Dream.

      Heavy metal-cloth curtains closed this end of the corridor. Beyond them was a ballroom in which only one dim light now burned, a vastness of black polished floors and crystal windows looking upon space. Hyrst’s footsteps were hushed and swallowed up in whispering echoes. He made his way across to another set of curtains, edged between them with infinite caution, and found himself in the upper aisle of an amphitheater.

      It was pitch dark where he was, and he stood perfectly still, exploring with his mind. He could not see any guards. The rows of empty seats were arranged in circles around a central pit, large enough for any entertainment Mr. Bellaver might decide to give. The pit was brilliantly lighted, and from somewhere lower down came the intermittent sound of voices.

      Also from the pit came Shearing’s cries. Hyrst began to tremble with outrage and anger, and his still-uncertain mental control faltered dangerously. Then from out of nowhere, a voice spoke in his mind, and he saw the face of the woman he had seen twice before, the woman Shearing served.

      “Careful,” she said. “There is a Lazarite with Bellaver. His attention is all on Shearing, but you must keep your mind shielded. I’ll help you.”

      Hyrst whispered. “Thanks.” He felt calm now, alert and capable. He crept along the dark aisle, toward the pit.

      Mr. Bellaver’s theater lacked nothing. The large circular stage area was fitted with upper and lower electro-magnets for the use of acrobats and dancers with null-grav specialties. They could perform without disturbing the regular grav-field of the Happy Dream, thus keeping the guests comfortable, and by skillful manipulation of the magnetic fields more spectacular stunts were possible than in ordinary no-gravity.

      Shearing was in the pit, between the upper and lower magnets. He wore an acrobat’s metal attraction-harness, strapped on over his clothes. When Hyrst looked over the rail he was hanging at the central point of weightlessness, where everything in a man floats free and his senses are lost in a dreadful vertigo unless he has been conditioned over a long period of time to get used to it. Shearing had not been conditioned.

      “Careful,” said the woman’s warning voice in his mind. “His life depends on you. No, don’t try to make contact with him! The Lazarite would sense you—”

      Shearing began a slow ascension toward the upper magnet as the current was increased, from some unseen control board. He moved convulsively turning horizontally around the axis of his own middle like a toy spun on a string. His back was uppermost, and Hyrst could not see his face.

      “Bellaver and the Lazarite,” said the woman quietly, “are trying to learn from Shearing where our ship is. He has been able so far to keep his mind shielded. He is—a very brave man. But you’ll have to hurry. He’s near the breaking point.”

      Shearing was now almost level with Hyrst, suspended over that open pit, looking down, a long way.

      “You’ll have to be quick, Hyrst. Please. Please get him out of there before we have to kill him.”

      The current in the magnet was cut and Shearing fell, with a long neighing scream.

      * * * *

      Hyrst looked down. The repelling force of the lower magnet cushioned the fall, and the upper magnet took hold, hard. Shearing stopped about three feet above the stage floor and started slowly to rise again. He seemed to be crying. Hyrst turned and ran back to the top of the aisle. Halfway around the circle he found steps and went tearing down them. On the next level—there were three—he saw two men leaning over the broad rail, watching Shearing.

      “Yes, there they are. You must find a weapon—”

      Hyrst looked around, blinking like a mole in the dark. Seats, nothing but seats. Ornamentation, but all solid. Small metal cylinder, set in a wall niche. Chemical extinguisher. Yes. Compact and heavy. He took it.

      “Hurry. He’s almost through—”

      The two men were tense and hungry, eager as wolves. One was the Lazarite, a grey man, old and seamed with living and none of it good. The other was Bellaver, and he was young. He was tall and fresh-faced, impeccably shaven, impeccably dressed, the keen, clean, public-spirited executive.

      “I can give you more if you want it, Shearing,” Bellaver said, his fingers ready on a control-plate set into the broad rail. “How about it?”

      “Shut up, Bellaver,” whispered the Lazarite aloud. “I’ve almost got it. Almost—” His face was agonized with concentration.

      “Now!”

      The woman’s voiceless cry in his mind sent Hyrst forward. His hand swung up and then down in a crashing arc, elongated by the heavy cylinder. The Lazarite fell without a sound. He fell across Bellaver, pushing him back from the control-plate, and lay over his feet, bleeding gently into the thick pile of the carpet. Bellaver’s mouth and eyes opened wide. He looked at the Lazarite and then at Hyrst. He leaped backward, away from the encumbrance at his ankles, making the first hoarse effort at a shout for help. Hyrst did not give him time to finish it. The first row of seats caught Bellaver and threw him, and Hyrst swung the cylinder again. Bellaver collapsed.

      “Was I in time?” Hyrst asked of the woman, in his mind. He thought she was crying when she answered, “Yes.” He smiled. He stepped over the Lazarite and went to the control-plate and began to work with it until he had Shearing safely on the floor of the stage. Then he cut the power and ran down another flight of steps to the bottom level. His mind was able to range free now. He could not sense anyone close at hand. Bellaver seemed to have sent underlings elsewhere in the Happy Dream while he worked on Shearing. It was nothing for which a man would seek witnesses. Hyrst vaulted the rail onto the stage and dragged Shearing away from the magnet. He felt uncomfortable in all that glare of light. He hauled and grunted until he got Shearing over the rail into the dark. Then he wrestled the harness off him. Shearing sobbed feebly, and retched.

      “Can you stand up?” said Hyrst. “Hey. Shearing.” He shook him, hard. “Stand up.”

      He got Shearing up, a one-hundred-and-ninety pound rag doll draped over his shoulders. He began to walk him out of the theater. “Are you still there?” he asked of the woman.

      The answer came into his mind swiftly. “Yes. I’ll help you watch. Do you see where the skiff is?”

      It was in a pod under the belly of the Happy Dream. “I see it,” said Hyrst.

      “Take that. Bellaver’s yacht is faster, but you’d need the crew. The skiff you can handle yourself.”

      * СКАЧАТЬ