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.But one man could do it.Brightan was out of his senses with pain.He tried to pin me down as I pushed myself erect, loaded weapon in my hands.I shook him free, moved forward two slow paces, and eased myself round the corner of the building.My back was pressed hard against the steel wall.With the sweat rolling down my body I edged along the side of that building, burnt ponics under my feet.My eyes were on a point that seemed beyond reach—the entrance to a passage-tube I knew well.All the way along that steel wall I was expecting the heat weapon to fire again.But it never did.I got to the passage-tube, swung round the corner, and was safe.Now, rifle levelled, I pushed my way through unarmed upperdeck people.I turned to my left, running now with my rubber-soled boots silent on the steel deck.The passagetube ahead was deserted.The lighting was poor here, but now the doors on either side were familiar.I slowed to a walk, passed one door, then another.Then I stopped.For one moment I stood outside the place that had once been my home.Then, twisting the lock back, kicking once at the door and swinging it open, I went forward into the cabin.My rifle was up high, trained on Jack before he could turn.To one side, my mother was wide-eyed and fearful, hands lifting in reflex action.My father wasn’t here.I didn’t say anything.I took two quick paces toward Jack—a pale and frightened Jack—chopped him across the throat with the edge of my hand, and caught him as he fell.I handled him roughly.Mother rushed at me, but I set her gently aside.I forced Jack’s arm up his back and drove him forward.He shrieked like a girl as the pain leapt into his shoulder, and suddenly I was remembering my own pain, years ago, when he had done this to me.Savagely, toughened in soul by Brightan’s training, I forced him out into the tube, swinging him to the right, going back the way we had come.We met upperdeck men, and I shoved them aside.Jack fought me briefly then, but I held him, and no one moved in to take him away from me.Now, as I took him closer to the avenue Jack began to whimper and plead for himself.I heard the roar of the heat weapon as it fired again, and I knew a tentative advance had been stopped.Jack squirmed desperately in my arms as we felt the backlash of the ray.But we didn’t move out into the line of fire.We came to a halt a yard from the end of the tube, and now, close beside us, was the natural ladder Jack and I knew so well.The corner of a window, the top of a door frame, another window, a crevice—and then the roof of the deck house.“Up there! ” I told him now.He didn’t hesitate.The muzzle of the rifle was hard in his back as he began to climb.He gripped the ledge of the window, pulled himself upward until his scrabbling feet found a hold and he was able to balance, reaching high for the door frame.I swung up after him, hanging by one hand as I gestured savagely at the upperdeck men below us, waving them back.Then, following Jack, I climbed to the roof; and here, as I eased myself over the edge, Jack made his last attempt to fight me.He swung with his foot and caught me in the shoulder, but he was too late and I was balanced now.I came up fast, rising with the rifle in my hands.Jack backed away, the fear written into his face.But I didn’t fire.I needed him.I pushed him forward again, silently; and together we crossed those rooftops, leaping over narrow passagetubes, moving toward the head of the avenue.Up here we were hidden from the men who were operating the heat gun, and now, as we drew closer, I pressed a hand to Jack’s shoulder, forcing him to his knees.We crawled along the final roof—and now each sound from a boot or a knee scuffing over steel set the hair prickling at the back of my neck.For a moment, when we reached the edge of the roof, we lay motionless; and my eyes were close to Jack’s as he twisted toward me.He knew we were going down, and he was sweating faintly now, as the fear took hold of him.Below us was another passagetube—and this one would take us to the gun itself.But we didn’t know the climb.There were thirty dangerous feet below us now, and Jack would be leading the way.I grinned at him then—actually enjoying this.He could betray us now.A single shout.A wave.But he would die as agonizingly as I would, swept to oblivion in the heat ray.So he didn’t shout or wave.He moved forward, let himself slide over the edge of the building, white fingers gripping the roof for a frantic moment until his feet found a hold.Then he started down, and I followed.I climbed smoothly, feeling the quiet strength in my arms and legs.Brightan had trained us well.Inactivity had weakened men like Jack, but I was tough and confident, and the pumping fear in me was almost exhilarating.As Jack reached the deck, I let myself drop.I landed noiselessly on rubber soles, crouched now, rifle levelled.I stabbed a hand out and held Jack in against the steel wall.Then I went forward—two slow paces—and looked around the edge of the building.There were four men—four Presidium members—operating the heat gun.It was shielded around its barrel—a deadly, armoured weapon that even Brightan hadn’t known existed—but its sides were open [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]