Arthur K. Barnes - Gerry Carlyle 02 by Interplanetary Huntress Returns

Author:Interplanetary Huntress Returns
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-01-12T13:20:33+00:00

CHAPTER V

Mad World

Gerry wasn’t missed from the ship immediately. There was too much to be done. Not even Tommy Strike noticed that she was gone until considerable time had elapsed. By that time, of course, it was too late.

“I’ve learned the value of a getaway,” Quade told Tommy, in the midst of a hubbub of repair. “If we run into real trouble, we want to be able to scram. There’s no use filming and capturing life-forms if we get stuck on the comet when it gets close to the Sun.”

Strike nodded. “Right you are. But things ought to be well under control by now, eh?”

“They are. Where’s your side-kick?” Quade demanded.

“I’ll find out.” Tommy went away. When he returned he looked puzzled, worried. “She’s gone. And a suit’s gone, too.”

Quade swore helplessly. He turned to an audiophone and sent out a QRZ call. “Calling Gerry Carlyle. QRZ-QRZ-Calling Gerry Carlyle.”

There was no response.

“Well,” Quade said at last, “we’ll make sure she’s not in the ship. But I feel pretty sure she isn’t.”

“She doesn’t answer the call,” Strike observed. “That means she can’t.”

There was orderly confusion. Presently a half-dozen men issued from the ship, clad in grotesque lightweight armor, flexible but airtight. Quade and Tommy Strike led the

group.

“We can’t take the ship,” the movie man pondered. “The repairs aren’t finished, and it’s too bulky to maneuver easily. I want no chances of a crack-up till the final takeoff. We’ll have to depend on our legs. The portocars are no good on this gravel.”

“Which way?” Strike asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine. Can’t see much from here.” Quade took a periscope from his kit, stretched it out, and peered through the eyepiece. “No soap. There’s a high dune. Let’s go up there.”

They did. But nothing was visible.

“Let me-” Strike began. He paused. His jaw dropped. He glared down into the valley they had just left. “Gerry.”

The others followed the direction of his shaky, pointing finger. Gerry Carlyle was down there, her red hair disheveled within the transparent helmet. Clad in bulky space armor, she came running in panic up the slope.

But she wasn’t getting anywhere!

Her legs pumped up and down. Her body was bent forward at a sharp angle.

Racing as hard as she could, it was all she could do to stay in one place.

Then she vanished.

Strike and Quade looked at each other, gasped, stared back to the valley. Bleak, desolate, and empty, it lay washed in the white glare of the surging skies.

“It was Gerry, wasn’t it?” Tommy gulped.

“Like Alice,” Quade replied, completely flabbergasted. “She had to run faster and faster to keep in one spot… What sort of place is this, anyway?”

“Think it could have been a mirage?” Strike asked hopefully.

Quade led the way down the slope. He pointed to unmistakable footprints, dents in the gravelly ground.

“Mirages don’t do that. It was solid. Gerry Carlyle was there, and she vanished.”

Without warning, the tower materialized. Fifty feet away it sprang into sudden existence. A high, huge monolith of black, stone or metal, it was featureless, save for a gaping door and a gleaming bright sphere at the summit.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.