The lift dropped smoothly seven levels, then halted, and the gate
swung automatically open. And there, his eyes hidden behind a peculiar
faceplate, stood Fredric Stanton, hand in hand with Robert Lennick.
"_Bodger!_" Stanton exploded, seeing him through the filter of his
facepiece. Bodger, hearing the voice in the darkness, drew back into
a corner of the lift, staring wide-eyed, futilely, for the other man,
trying to hide the slim body of Grace Horton behind him, fearing a
repeat of Stanton's attack with the Snapper Beam.
"Where is he!?" she gasped, terrified by that disembodied, menacing
voice in the blackness. Stanton, secure in his invisibility, stepped
into the lift, ignoring the metal body of the supposed Goon, and
slapped Bodger viciously across the face. While Bodger choked at the
unexpected blow, and brought his hand up to his injured mouth, Frank
realized there was no longer a doubt where the sympathies of the
Secondary Speakster lay, and with one swing of the jointed metal arm
of the prop-Goon, he knocked Stanton unconscious with a blow to the
base of the skull.
"What happened?" Grace shrilled, clinging to Bodger.
Lennick, deprived of his guide, groped forward in panic, calling, "Mr.
Stanton--!" Frank spun the controls, and the metal arm swung up and
clasped Lennick viciously about the throat, lifting his kicking body
clear off the floor.
"Bodger--!" Frank called out, enjoying the icy terror that flickered in
Lennick's congested face at the sound of his voice. "Stanton's out cold
at your feet. He has some sort of facepiece he can see with. Put it on!"
Bodger, utterly bewildered as to the sudden turn of events,
nevertheless did as directed, and straightened up adjusting the filter
over his eyes. When he saw the grisly tableau of Lennick and the
prop-Goon, he stepped back, agape with shock. Frank answered his query
before Bodger's reeling mind could formulate it coherently. "This is a
movie prop. I'm Frank Shawn, a member of Andra's movement, Bodger. And
this wriggling worm in my hands is the guy who tried to undo all of us!"
"Frank ... please...." Lennick gurgled, his eyes distending while his
hands tore vainly at the heavy metal hands that were tightening about
his windpipe.
"Let him go," Bodger said impatiently. "He can't get far in Ultrablack,
anyhow! We've got to get to Lloyd, my son. He's down at the Brain, now.
With Stanton in our power, we can free the Hive forever in an hour's
time!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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