The Secret Martians by Jack Sharkey

Author:Jack Sharkey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pronoun

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13

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AN HOUR LATER, WHEN CLATCLIT had gone off to do whatever it is that sugarfeet do when they’re not playing charades with Earthmen, I joined Snow in a so-so luncheon she’d been able to put together with the help of a few of our dragonish friends. It seemed to be mostly a species of watery tumble-weed, plus a smattering of rubbery white cubes that tried hard to taste like mushrooms, but failed. I was trying to be light and casual.

“We may be poisoned, you know,” I remarked, chewing valiantly on a mouthful of the stuff.

“It’s quicker than starving,” she observed, continuing to eat. “If we don’t eat, we’re sure to die, but—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. If we do, we’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of survival. Too bad you don’t carry sandwiches in that all-purpose handbag of yours.”

“I do,” she said, calmly. “But they’re all enjoyably gone, thank you. I couldn’t wait forever for you to come out of your coma.”

“Thanks loads,” I muttered, chomping doggedly on a stubborn white cube, and wishing I didn’t have to tell her what I knew.

“So tell me more about what Clatclit said,” she urged, washing down her alien meal with a cupped rock filled with clear but alkaline water.

I shrugged, and let the rest of the vegetation sit where it was. Until I grew a lot hungrier, it was safe from my alimentary system for a spell.

“As I see it, Baxter is a menace to the Ancients. They, as a self-protective gesture, decided to get an Earthman up here who could find the fact of their existence, and make it known to Earth. Then a meeting between Earth and Mars can be arranged, and we can come to some sort of peaceful co-existence. Right now, Baxter’s in the dastardly position of being able to destroy the Ancients with no one back home even knowing there was anyone to destroy, see?”

“All but how they got hold of you.”

“They exerted some kind of influence—heaven only knows what kind of technology they possess—and it triggered the Brain, back on Earth, into selecting me. Then the sugarfeet, who are, by the way, not servants of the ancients, but another distinct race, were used as go-betweens. First one to spot me got the hand-painted ashtray, or something. Who knows? But anyhow, they selected me, and—”

“Jery,” said Snow, crinkling up her brow, “how did they know that you even existed?”

“I guess I could have put that more clearly; they didn’t know there was a me, a Jery Delvin. But they knew what qualifications such a man must have, and so they influenced the Brain to choose such a man when Security tried to find a solution to the mystery of the missing Scouts.”

“Who are missing only in order to create a mystery so that the IS people would use the Brain to select the man whom the Martians had gimmicked the Brain to fake.” Snow shook her head, and shut her eyes. “It’s got my head going in circles, Jery!”

I grinned at her.

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