Cutting down the intensity of his blaster, he ran the blunt muzzle up
and down the joint where the heavy slab of plastic fit, sealing it
tightly as the plastic flowed and fused. "That should hold them," he
thought. Something crashed against the door.
In the dim passageway, Heydrick could see several doors, all shut.
Which door?
He tried three, then saw one marked with a glittering star. It was
locked, but he put his shoulder against it and shoved violently. The
thin screen buckled.
The girl was rummaging in a drawer. She turned and lunged at him with
an ornamental dagger. Heydrick wrenched it away from her.
"Nice try, Ria."
She leaped on him, kicking and scratching. Locked together they crashed
into the mirror. All three went down in a smash of glass. The girl lay
still.
Heydrick took a needle from the paralysis gun and scratched her
lightly. Her breathing steadied and she lay relaxed, while he opened
the window and looked out. Below him, bathed in eerie Jupiter-light,
lay the rooftops of the city. He could just make it to the next roof.
Ria was lighter than she looked.
* * * * *
At security police headquarters, Heydrick sat back for a quiet smoke.
He had changed back into the crisp silvery grey of the Space Patrol.
The inspector was in an official mood. He had his shoes on.
"What's the quickest transportation back to Mars?"
The inspector grinned. "Anxious to get her off your hands, eh? I don't
blame you. The Martian Express is the quickest--you can get it at City
1. It doesn't stop, of course, but they pick up ore-lighters as they go
past Ganymede."
"How can I get to City 1?"
"I'll lend you a patrol flier. They're all old crates, rocket drive. If
it gets you there, you can leave it; we'll pick it up. If not, maybe
we'll get some decent equipment."
Heydrick walked down the dim passageway to the cell in which he had
deposited Ria Tarsen. She glowered at him.
"Did you kill my leopard?"
"He's all right. Be stiff a couple of days, that's all. I used the
paralysis gun. How d'you feel."
The girl did not answer. Heydrick went on. "I'm sorry, Ria. I'll have
to take you back now." He unlocked the cell, and the girl strode into
the corridor. She was still arrogant and glared at him with cold
insolence.
"You must feel proud of yourself," she said icily. "You'll never get me
back to Mars."
"I thought of that." He took a metal bracelet from his pocket. "Try
this on for size."
"That's a funny handcuff; it's not chained to anything," she said as he
clasped it on her wrist.
"Try running away," he suggested. Ria darted down the corridor, then
stopped as if she had run smack into a dur-steel wall.
"Magnetic," he explained. "Can be set for distances up to fifty feet.
Once that's on you, and the mate to it's on me, we're linked together
to the end of the trail. It's sealed with a coded beam of light. I
don't have the combination. I just don't want you to try anything
silly, that's all."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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