The World Wrecker by Sydney J. Bounds

Author:Sydney J. Bounds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, disaster, apocalypse, adventure, pulp fiction
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2012-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

TERROR

As it happened, Mary had gone to stay with her aunt for a few days to escape the attentions of news reporters who still haunted Long Prior. So that when Savage arrived there, shaken by his failure at Crispian’s flat, he was out of luck again.

He did not know quite what had happened in Knightsbridge and, suspecting a trap, did not come out of the inter-atomic state. He moved quickly through the house till he found Mary’s bedroom—it was empty. He searched the rest of the house without finding her. Mr. Marshall slept quietly, unaware of his danger, and Savage left him alone—even he realized he dare not murder Mary’s father.

Then, deciding to waste no more time, he returned immediately to the valley in South America. Mary Marshall could wait—she could not elude him forever....

But soon he had something else to think about.

Latin blood runs hot so, as soon as they recovered from the shock caused by the destruction of Lima, the Peruvians declared war on Ralph Savage. They did so with public meetings and radio broadcasts but nothing else happened for a while. Lima had been the capital, the seat of government, and now the country found itself without direction. A state of chaos ensued.

A few ministers had been away from the capital at the time of the disaster and these set about forming a new government, with Puira as their headquarters. Buildings were requisitioned and a President elected. He duly nominated his cabinet, after a series of internal crises, and plans were made to carry the war to the enemy.

Puira had been chosen partly because it had an airfield; and here gathered the strangest motley of aircraft ever seen. Fighters and bombers scrapped by a dozen nations, transport planes of obsolete vintage, one seaplane, helicopters loaned privately—anything that would fly and carry high explosives was pressed into service alongside the regular Peruvian air force. They were fuelled and loaded with bombs—all kinds of bombs, from streamlined torpedoes to homemade packages of blasting explosive.

Then, one morning at dawn, while the crowds cheered and the President made a speech that was broadcast round the world, the Peruvian air-fleet took off on its mission of retribution. It was to be an all-out attack with the intention of reducing Savage’s stronghold to dust.

The massed flight of more than one hundred aircraft flew inland, across the glittering snow-clad peaks of the Andes and the verdant jungle. One or two dropped by the way, but the rest finally reached their objective. In a series of vee-formations, they swooped down on the hidden valley and unloaded their bombs. Ton after ton of high explosive was dropped...and not one single bomb reached its target.

* * * *

Ralph Savage smiled scornfully as he watched the planes come. The Peruvians had not kept their intention secret; all the world knew, and waited. Savage waited, too.

As the first planes began to dive, he operated one of the alien machines. An inter-atomic beam shot upwards, an invisible cone of force that spread out to cover the whole sky above the valley.

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.