A third of the way down the blue walk he ran into the invisible
electric shock wall, and staggered backward. The lunch packet that
he carried fell from his hand, and he was obviously too stunned to
remember to pick it up as he started back.
He had retreated only a short way before he paused and stood
considering his situation. After a minute he returned and examined the
buildings at each side of the electrified area. He must have found that
the conduction outlets did not extend to the ground, for soon he began
crawling forward on his hands and knees.
"A point for the alien," I heard Srtes murmur. I detected a hint of
admiration in his voice.
The alien kept his caution, for when the ground caved beneath his hand,
at the end of the third street, he did not fall into the trap. He
simply rolled back and lay quietly for a moment. Another decision.
He was equal to it. Rising to his feet, he took a short run and
leaped for the balcony on the nearest building. From there it was an
easy matter to reach the roof. Observing carefully below before each
venture, he leaped from roof to roof until he reached the end of the
street.
We lost him for a short time then. He had gone down into the last
house. A few minutes later a guard in front of the door stumbled
abruptly backward and disappeared inside.
Another moment passed and the guard reappeared. He walked briskly up
two streets before we became aware of what had happened. The alien had
changed to the guard's clothes!
That would not take him far, of course. At the beginning of the third
street he was stopped by two sentries. When they demanded a password,
he whipped his sword out from beneath his cloak and ran the nearest
through. The second shouted for help and drew his own sword. He offered
only a moment of resistance. We saw then the alien's reason for
grinding down the long sword. He handled it almost like a whip, and the
sentry was unable to parry his swift thrusts.
As I noted the councilors' exchange of wondering glances I understood
that a new weapons concept had been born.
When the second sentry fell, the alien sprinted into the house, and
reappeared a minute later on the roof. Soon he was a block away from
the scene of the fight.
The sentries at the second intersection had run back in answer to the
shout for help, and the alien was able to cross the street unmolested.
Once again he took to the roof, and when he came down again he had
reached the Building Administrates. He was directly below us!
We followed him on the screen as he ran down the stairs to the
basement. A sound from the front of the building attracted our
attention and we switched back. Two sentinels had not been caught off
guard. They had spotted him entering Administrates and were following
closely.
We switched back to the fugitive, and just in time. He had dragged
himself almost all the way under the bottom ramp of the stairs. Soon
he had disappeared entirely. Now the sentinals were looking about in a
confused way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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