(eng) Lester Del Rey by The Man Without a Planet # (v5.0)

Author:The Man Without a Planet # (v5.0) [#, The Man Without a Planet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

They didn’t make it—the turn in the corridor that would have hidden them from the advancing invader unit. As they loped clumsily along, cursing themselves for the short-sightedness of not providing themselves with hand jets, they heard a strange cry from behind—a single word shouted out in triumph and excitement:

“Geronimo!”

It was so amazing that it brought both of them around to stare. Far down the corridor beyond Control they saw a squad of diving suits with a fishbowl-helmeted officer in command. The cry had come from his helmet microphone, and he dropped instantly to his knee and brought a rifle to his shoulder.

This ended the staring so far as Hunter and Callaghan were concerned. They lunged toward the bend in the corridor as a series of pings, almost a single sound, reached them. Only after they were around the bend and out of range did Hunter realize what the sounds were—a metal slug bouncing off the corridor walls from one side to the other as it came down the corridor.

Aside from the fact that such a weapon was antiquated equipment for a space invasion, it also marked the fact that the man who’d fired the rifle was an incredibly bad shot. He hadn’t been able to fire a rifle down a straight corridor at a target two hundred yards away.

Hunter filed that away among the other ridiculous aspects of the invasion and labored along beside Callaghan.

“We’ve got to get under cover,” he said.

“There’s a manual hatch down the line around the next angle. We could—oh, hell! We can’t go outside!”

Hunter knew that Callaghan had momentarily forgotten they were without helmets. “When word of this gets to Paulson, he’ll flood the place with gas again. We’ve got to find protection.”

“We can either take helmets away from somebody or reach the storage area where they stacked those bodies. There are probably some there.”

“It’s a long way.”

There was only one answer and they both knew it—to keep going until they reached the big storage bin or strip two helmets off a pair of the invading officers on the way. The only rub in the latter situation was that they would have to fight for the helmets with a single weapon—the knife that Callaghan was now carrying.

“How far are we from an air-duct grating?” Callaghan asked.

“We’re cut off completely. We’d have to go back through that squad or go clear around to the other side of the station. Either way, we’re in trouble.”

They were in the outer-section corridor. It circled the rim of the doughnut, and the direction they were going would lead them to the arsenal, which was sure to be heavily guarded. But turning off into any of the spoke corridors or using any of the elevators seemed equally dangerous.

“The safest place is out here on the rim,” Hunter said. “There’s less chance of interception.”

“But we’re almost sure to be seen before we get to the other side.”

“The odds are against making it all the way.”

“Then let’s go inside. Out here, we haven’t got a chance if they spot us.

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