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we'll get on with the job. Did you say what was the name of the secret agent
we had to contact?"
"I didn't say," Slug-Togath burbled with hydratory relief. "It is a secret."
"Well not from me, for chrissake," Jerry said petulantly. "Give."
"Operator X-9," Slug-Togath whispered. "Better to commit suicide than to give
that name away."
"I'll remember, I'll remember. What next?"
"We go to Haggis City. As we were landing, I noticed a monorail line not too
far from here. Perhaps we can obtain transportation that way and not drain the
batteries on this machine."
"Sounds good - lead the way."
Bluey-fingered dawn had brightened the landscape as they climbed out of the
rift and looked down at the plain. Sure enough the towers of a monorail line
cut close by, and they could see a station not too far distant. They hurried
the machine in that direction and only slowed when they saw other Hagg-Loos
ahead. More and more appeared, crawling out from under rocks where they lived,
waving good-bye to their mates, giving their young cheerful nips on the chitin
with their claws as they departed.
"It looks like we hit the rush hour," Jerry mused. "All the commuters going to
work in the morning. Do you have a broadcast mental program for this?"
"I should think so . . . here, how about this one. 'Memories of an Orgy', a
program designed to be eavesdropped on but not interrupted."
"Say, I'd like to hear that one myself! Though on second thought maybe I
wouldn't. All those claws, crackling chitin, waving antennae. No, let them
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enjoy it."
Strolling casually, they joined the Hagg-Loos, who were moving along the rock
pathways and converging on the station. More than one antenna dipped and
trembled in their direction - that recording must have been a doozy! but they
were not bothered. Clambering up the stairs, they had only a short wait before
the shining cars of the monorail train whooshed into the station. There was a
rush for seats, and of course the experienced commuters got there first and
snapped open the metallic sheets of their morning newsfax and hid behind them.
The ride was not a long one, and before they knew it, the train had stopped at
the immense Padng-tun station in Haggis City and the commuters rushed for the
exits.
Slug-Togath made sure that they went slower than the others, then pointed out
why.
"See - as each one approaches the exit, it produces a pass of some kind which
it shows to the officer stationed there."
"We have no pass?" Jerry queried.
"You took the words right out of my speaking hole."
"Then let's try in the opposite direction, back along the track. There will be
freight exits, workers'
entrances, something. And they will be a little more deserted if there is any
trouble."
Clattering along casually on its twenty claw-tipped feet, the hulking form of
the Hagg-Loos robot trotted away from the rushing workers. The platform ended
in a metal gate with an unreadable inscription, and after a quick look around,
Jerry cut the gate in half with a quick snick of the claws. There was a ramp
beyond that plunged into the bowels of the station, so into the bowels they
plunged.
"Don't you think we should change the porno broadcast to something more
suitable for the occasion?"
Jerry asked.
"Sound idea. There is a program here of the mental retardation of a longtime
DnDrf sniffer whose chitin is about to go soft."
"No, I think not, not in a railroad station."
"Then how about this. A low-type mind working on computations for betting on
the daily jeddak races."
"That's more like it, sort of person who would work here, I imagine. Plug it
in."
They entered an area of wide corridors and great stacks of boxes. Occasionally
a flatbed cargo carrier would appear, driven by a Hagg-Loos, but they were so
noisy that they announced their arrival, and there was always time to hide.
Soon after this they found one of the cargo carriers standing idle, and after
a swift look at the controls, they climbed their machine aboard. With a twist
of the handles they were off, moving much faster now, part of the busy
workings and ignored by all the other workers they passed.
Jerry was whistling happily when they spotted a high arched exit ahead with a
patch of blue sky shining through.
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"This looks like it," he told Slug-Togath. "Press the button, and let's get
out of here."
They rumbled forward and were almost free of the station when the ugly form of
a Hagg-Loos popped out of an opening in the waIl. A very official-looking
monster with cop written all over it, from the golden shield nailed to its
chitin in front to the ugly-looking weapon it clutched, and even to the fiat
claws on its feet. As the thing trundled in their direction, Jerry flipped a
switch that allowed thoughts to enter but not leave.
"You jeddak racing fan moron," the thought arrived,
"what do you think you are doing driving out of the station with that
load of bombs? Can't you read?
Now let me see your ID, and get away from those controls before I let you have
it."
It was disaster.
14
BIRTH OF THE GALAXY RANGERS!
Really a disaster for the cop. Jerry was ready at the gun controls, and he
swiveled the tail about and pressed the right button, and from the poison
sting the supersonic crumbler beam lashed out. The hapless minion of the law
instantly crumbled into a heap of white chitin dust, and the cargo carrier
rumbled on.
But the alarm was out! Sirens warbled and alarms clanged while the guards
converged from all directions.
"We had better leave the cargo carrier here," SlugTogath shouted, busy at the
controls.
"Not just leave it - make them a real present of it!" Jerry yodeled, spinning
the wheel that sent the clumsy machine crashing into the doorway.
Great motors hummed in the legs of their robot Hagg-Loos machine as it jumped
clear just in time. At full power they sprinted away from the station and the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]