He let the vent remain open but a few seconds, knowing that Sert's
army, scattered and ready now, in a thousand secret nooks throughout
the domed city-state, would see the signal, know that the dome turret
was in friendly hands, and attack the Masters.
And he was right. Even as the _impervite_ section slid back into its
accustomed position he heard the Underling siren sound from one distant
corridor--then another sounded, and another, and another, until from
every weaving tunnel of the labyrinth that was this future city Larry
heard the ear-splitting tumult that was madness and death to the
Masters.
Then a small company of Underlings burst from one tunnel. Larry leaped
from the turret, grasped the leader, thrust him into the control room
and shouted, "Guard this! I have a little job to take care of!"
Jaw set, eyes hard, he was off toward the laboratory where--if the gods
were good to him--he would find the girl he loved and the miserable
parody of a man whom he most certainly did not love.
As he ran, his footsteps followed the tempo of an ever-increasing
volume of sound. Never before, he thought, since the creation of the
world had begun in the high celestial music of the spheres, had mankind
ever fought a life-and-death battle with such an accompaniment.
All about him--it seemed from every corridor, out of each vibrant
metal wall, through every air duct that fed the gigantic new world
labyrinth--came the hideous howling of the electrosonic intensifiers
which had been his invention.
His trip was not a short one, and as he sped toward the laboratory
he saw many men, both friends and antagonists. The Underlings,
straight-shouldered with a confidence born of the up-reaching hope for
liberty, were moving ever onward and onward against the foes. Armed
with lances, crude swords, whatever tools and instruments they could
lay hands on, they were pouring from the recesses of the city-state to
charge upon the heart of the city, where dwelt the Masters.
And in the van of each group was one Underling who carried as his
weapon a small, square box in which a whirling disc made music of
madness.
Larry saw no pitched battles. This was a strange warfare; one in which
the Masters possessed superior armaments--but could not use them.
Time and again a lone Master would break from some cubicle to face,
for a moment, the advancing host of erstwhile slaves. For seconds his
heat-ray gun would pour scorching death into their fore, blasting into
blackened hulks those who led.
But ever and again the Master, snapping on his golden force-field as
protection against the meaner weapons of the Underlings, would fall
prey to the ear-bursting delirium of the howler; would stagger, would
scream and reach for his _menaudo_, would die in a mist of shrieking
madness.
And then, suddenly, Larry was near his goal, and from a side corridor a
familiar figure was racing toward him. It was Sert, and the Underling
chieftain's face was radiant with joy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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