Second Variety and Other Stories (9 page)

Hendricks stood up. "Klaus!" He started towards him.

"How the hell did you --"

Tasso fired. Hendricks swung back. She fired again, the blast passing him, a searing line of heat.
The beam caught Klaus in the chest. He exploded, gears and wheels flying. For a moment he continued
to walk. Then he swayed back and forth. He crashed to the ground, his arms flung out. A few more
wheels rolled away.

Silence.

Tasso turned to Hendricks. "Now you understand why he killed Rudi."

Hendricks sat down again slowly. He shook his head. He was numb. He could not think.

"Do you see?" Tasso said. "Do you understand?"

Hendricks said nothing. Everything was slipping away from him, faster and faster. Darkness,
rolling and plucking at him.

He closed his eyes.

Hendricks opened his eyes slowly. His body ached all over. He tried to sit up but needles of pain
shot through his arm and shoulder. He gasped.

"Don't try to get up," Tasso said. She bent down, putting her cold hand against his forehead.

It was night. A few stars glinted above, shining through the drifting clouds of ash. Hendricks lay
back, his teeth locked. Tasso watched him impassively. She had built a fire with some wood and weeds.
The fire licked feebly, hissing at a metal cup suspended over it. Everything was silent. Unmoving
darkness, beyond the fire.

"So he was the Second Variety," Hendricks murmured.

"I had always thought so."

"Why didn't you destroy him sooner?" he wanted to know.

"You held me back." Tasso crossed to the fire to look into the metal cup. "Coffee. It'll be ready
to drink in a while."

She came back and sat down beside him. Presently she opened her pistol and began to
disassemble the firing mechanism, studying it intently.

"This is a beautiful gun," Tasso said, half-aloud. "The construction is superb."

"What about them? The claws."

"The concussion from the bomb put most of them out of action. They're delicate. Highly
organized, I suppose."

"The Davids, too?"

"Yes."

"How did you happen to have a bomb like that?"

Tasso shrugged. "We designed it. You shouldn't underestimate our technology, Major. Without
such a bomb you and I would no longer exist."

"Very useful."

Tasso stretched out her legs, warming her feet in the heat of the fire. "It surprised me that you did
not seem to understand, after he killed Rudi. Why did you think he --"

"I told you. I thought he was afraid."

"Really? You know, Major, for a little while I suspected you. Because you wouldn't let me kill
him. I thought you might be protecting him." She laughed.

"Are we safe here?" Hendricks asked presently.

"For a while. Until they get reinforcements from some other area." Tasso began to clean the
interior of the gun with a bit of rag. She finished and pushed the mechanism back into place. She closed
the gun, running her fingers along the barrel.

the gun, running her fingers along the barrel.

"Yes. Very lucky."

"Thanks for pulling me away."

Tasso did not answer. She glanced up at him, her eyes bright in the firelight. Hendricks examined
his arm. He could not move his fingers. His whole side seemed numb. Down inside him was a dull steady
ache.

"How do you feel?" Tasso asked.

"My arm is damaged."

"Anything else?"

"Internal injuries."

"You didn't get down when the bomb went off."

Hendricks said nothing. He watched Tasso pour the coffee from the cup into a flat metal pan.
She brought it over to him.

"Thanks." He struggled up enough to drink. It was hard to swallow. His insides turned over and
he pushed the pan away. "That's all I can drink now."

Tasso drank the rest. Time passed. The clouds of ash moved across the dark sky above them.
Hendricks rested, his mind blank. After a while he became aware that Tasso was standing over him,
gazing down at him. "What is it?" he murmured.

"Do you feel any better?"

"Some."

"You know, Major, if I hadn't dragged you away they would have got you. You would be dead.
Like Rudi."

"I know."

"Do you want to know why I brought you out? I could have left you. I could have left you there."

"Why did you bring me out?"

"Because we have to get away from here." Tasso stirred the fire with a stick, peering calmly
down into it. "No human being can live here. When their reinforcements come we won't have a chance.
I've pondered about it while you were unconscious. We have perhaps three hours before they come."

"And you expect me to get us away?"

"That's right. I expect you to get us out of here."

"Why me?"

"Because I don't know any way." Her eyes shone at him in the half-light, bright and steady. "If
you can't get us out of here they'll kill us within three hours. I see nothing else ahead. Well, Major? What
are you going to do? I've been waiting all night. While you were unconscious I sat here, waiting and
listening. It's almost dawn. The night is almost over."

Hendricks considered. "It's curious," he said at last.

"Curious?"

"That you should think I can get us out of here. I wonder what you think I can do."

"Can you get us to the Moon base?"

"The Moon base? How?"

"There must be some way."

Hendricks shook his head. "No. There's no way that I know of."

Tasso said nothing. For a moment her steady gaze wavered. She ducked her head, turning
abruptly away. She scrambled to her feet. "More coffee?"

"No."

"Suit yourself." Tasso drank silently. He could not see her face. He lay back against the ground,
deep in thought, trying to concentrate. It was hard to think. His head still hurt. And the numbing daze still
hung over him. "There might be one way," he said suddenly.

"Oh?"

"How soon is dawn?"

"How soon is dawn?"

"There's supposed to be a ship near here. I've never seen it. But I know it exists."

"What kind of a ship?" Her voice was sharp.

"A rocket cruiser."

"Will it take us off? To the Moon base?"

"It's supposed to. In case of emergency." He rubbed his forehead.

"What's wrong?"

"My head. It's hard to think, can hardly -- hardly concentrate. The bomb."

"Is the ship near here?" Tasso slid over beside him, settling down on her haunches. "How far is it?
Where is it?"

"I'm trying to think."

Her fingers dug into his arm. "Nearby?" Her voice was like iron. "Where would it be? Would
they store it underground? Hidden underground?"

"Yes. In a storage locker."

"How do we find it? Is it marked? Is there a code marker to identify it?"

Hendricks concentrated. "No. No markings. No code symbol."

"What, then?"

"A sign."

"What sort of sign?"

Hendricks did not answer. In the flickering light his eyes were glazed, two sightless orbs. Tasso's
fingers dug into his arm.

"What sort of sign? What is it?"

"I can't think. Let me rest."

"All right." She let go and stood up. Hendricks lay back against the ground, his eyes closed.
Tasso walked away from him, her hands in her pockets. She kicked a rock out of her way and stood
staring up at the sky. The night blackness was already beginning to fade into gray. Morning was coming.

Tasso gripped her pistol and walked around the fire in a circle, back and forth. On the ground
Major Hendricks lay, his eyes closed, unmoving. The grayness rose in the sky, higher and higher. The
landscape became visible, fields of ash stretching out in all directions. Ash and ruins of buildings, a wall
here and there, heaps of concrete, the naked trunk of a tree.

The air was cold and sharp. Somewhere a long way off a bird made a few bleak sounds.

Hendricks stirred. He opened his eyes. "Is it dawn? Already?"

"Yes."

Hendricks sat up a little. "You wanted to know something. You were asking me."

"Do you remember now?"

"Yes."

"What is it?" She tensed. "What?" she repeated sharply.

"A well. A ruined well. It's in a storage locker under a well."

"A well." Tasso relaxed. "Then we'll find a well." She looked at her watch. "We have about an
hour, Major. Do you think we can find it in an hour?"

"Give me a hand up," Hendricks said.

Tasso put her pistol away and helped him to his feet.

"This is going to be difficult."

"Yes it is." Hendricks set his lips tightly. "I don't think we're going to go very far."

They began to walk. The early sun cast a little warmth down on them. The land was flat and
barren, stretching out gray and lifeless as far as they could see. A few birds sailed silently, far above
them, circling slowly. "See anything?" Hendricks said. "Any claws?"

"No. Not yet."

They passed through some ruins, upright concrete and bricks. A cement foundation. Rats scuttled
away. Tasso jumped back warily.

"This used to be a town," Hendricks said. "A village. Provincial village. This was all grape
country, once. Where we are now."

"This used to be a town," Hendricks said. "A village. Provincial village. This was all grape
country, once. Where we are now."

A pit yawned, an open basement. Ragged ends of pipes jutted up, twisted and bent. They
passed part of a house, a bathtub turned on its side. A broken chair. A few spoons and bits of china
dishes. In the center of the street the ground had sunk away. The depression was filled with weeds and
debris and bones.

"Over here," Hendricks murmured.

"This way?"

"To the right."

They passed the remains of a heavy-duty tank. Hendricks' belt counter clicked ominously. The
tank had been radiation blasted. A few feet from the tank a mummified body lay sprawled out, mouth
open. Beyond the road was a flat field. Stones and weeds, and bits of broken glass. "There," Hendricks
said.

A stone well jutted up, sagging and broken. A few boards lay across it. Most of the well had
sunk into rubble. Hendricks walked unsteadily toward it, Tasso beside him.

"Are you certain about this?" Tasso said. "This doesn't look like anything."

"I'm sure." Hendricks sat down at the edge of the well, his teeth locked. His breath came quickly.
He wiped perspiration from his face. "This was arranged so the senior command officer could get away.
If anything happened. If the bunker fell."

"That was you?"

"Yes."

"Where is the ship? Is it here?"

"We're standing on it." Hendricks ran his hands over the surface of the well stones. "The eye-lock
responds to me, not to anybody else. It's my ship. Or it was supposed to be." There was a sharp click.
Presently they heard a low grating sound from below them.

"Step back," Hendricks said. He and Tasso moved away from the well.

A section of the ground slid back. A metal frame pushed slowly up through the ash, shoving
bricks and weeds out of the way. The action ceased, as the ship nosed into view. "There it is," Hendricks
said.

The ship was small. It rested quietly, suspended in its mesh frame, like a blunt needle. A rain of
ash sifted down into the dark cavity from which the ship had been raised. Hendricks made his way over
to it. He mounted the mesh and unscrewed the hatch, pulling it back. Inside the ship the control banks
and the pressure seat were visible.

Tasso came and stood beside him, gazing into the ship. "I'm not accustomed to rocket piloting,"
she said, after a while.

Hendricks glanced at her. "I'll do the piloting."

"Will you? There's only one seat, Major. I can see it's built to carry only a single person."

Hendricks' breathing changed. He studied the interior of the ship intently. Tasso was right. There
was only one seat. The ship was built to carry only one person. "I see," he said slowly. "And the one
person is you."

She nodded. "Of course."

"Why?"

"You can't go. You might not live through the trip. You're injured. You probably wouldn't get
there."

"An interesting point. But you see, I know where the Moon base is. And you don't. You might fly
around for months and not find it. It's well hidden. Without knowing what to look for --"

"I'll have to take my chances. Maybe I won't find it. Not by myself. But I think you'll give me all
the information I need. Your life depends on it."

"How?"

"If I find the Moon base in time, perhaps I can get them to send a ship back to pick you up. If I
find the base in time. If not, then you haven't a chance. I imagine there are supplies on the ship. They will
last me long enough --"

"If I find the Moon base in time, perhaps I can get them to send a ship back to pick you up. If I
find the base in time. If not, then you haven't a chance. I imagine there are supplies on the ship. They will
last me long enough --"

"Major! Wake up."

He opened his eyes, groaning.

"Listen to me." She bent down, the gun pointed to his face. "I have to hurry. There isn't much
time left. The ship is ready, but you must tell me the information I need before I leave."

Hendricks shook his head, trying to clear it.

"Hurry up! Where is the Moon base? How do I find it? What do I look for?"

Hendricks said nothing.

"Answer me!"

"Sorry."

"Major, the ship is loaded with provisions. I can coast for weeks. I'll find the base eventually.
And in a half hour you'll be dead. Your only chance of survival --" She broke off.