Forgotten Stories by Charles Cloukey

Author:Charles Cloukey [Cloukey, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2020-02-29T21:00:00+00:00

Nearing Mars

BRAD handed the set of keys to Captain South.

“I can’t oppose your story,” admitted the Captain. “The little man seemed genuine. When did you get Joe’s message?”

“About eight twenty-five,” said Dick.

“H’m. I sent Joe to you, the first time, just after nine thirty. You’re right, Culbertson. He had almost an hour in which to make the forgery. Nervy, all right. I suppose he is a member of the ring?”

“I’m quite sure. Look in his inner pockets.”

Vic Vincennes did so, and returned with a handful of small, thin, folded papers. Each, they found, contained ten grains of pure venn. “He planted those others on her body,” drawled Vic.

“How,” asked Dick, “can we explain the fact that the agents of the Planetchief describe the woman as a member of the narcotic ring?”

“Quite probable. The code-message from Earth, in response to my inquiries, told me that for several years she had been playing a desperate lone game, pretending to be one of the ring. She gained the confidence of the inner group, and probably had accumulated very valuable evidence. Recently somehow they discovered that she was a spy, and, you see, managed to get rid of her. The man with the little chin carried out his orders quite efficiently.”

“I see. The Planetchief’s operatives thought—”

Vic Vincennes, exploring further the pockets of the pseudo-96M, discovered a square of paper from which one end had been torn off. He read it and handed it to Brad. It was brief and to the point.

“Kill Dubrocq, Culbertson, and Vincennes within six hours. Destroy this note immediately. N.A.”

“Well,” said Vie, “we’re slated for death.”

“N. A.,” said the herculean Dick. “H’m. Say, Nathan Axelmann is on board. The New York financier. I wonder if he’s mixed up in this—”

“Few people know it,” said Captain South slowly, “but we also have aboard with us the venerable old Martian, Norr Avornu. He is the recognized head of the political party opposing the rule of the present Planetchief. Avornu stays closely in his rooms. An old man, I am told.”

“But this is Earth-script—” began Dick.

“Of course. It was written to an Earth-man who wouldn’t understand Martian.”

“Well,” said Dick. “If we three want to live, we’ll have to force a showdown soon.”

“Yes,” said Vincennes. “Damn soon.”

They left Doctor Kunzie to his gruesome task and walked back toward the navigation room. “We’ve made exceptionally good time,” said the Captain. “I’ve crowded the speed up to three thousand miles a second plus. The modern generators we possess can give very rapid acceleration that is also very smooth. By the way, in an hour from now our artificial gravity will be reduced to the Mars-normal, instead of the Earth-normal we are using now. Terrestrials and Venusians will have to wear positive gravity harnesses, set at approximately 3.09 to increase the pull on their bodies. Martians will be able to discard their negative harnesses, as our present electrogravitation will be gradually reduced.”

They reached the navigation room. The little blood-red disk that was Mars gleamed through the thick windows of quartzinite.

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.