The Whispering SpheresWinterbotham, R. R. (Russell Robert)
Science
The Whispering Spheres
Winterbotham, R. R. (Russell Robert)
Science fiction
A car moved rapidly through the streets of the city. At the wheel
was a man dressed in a captain's uniform. The machine whirled
onto the highway that led toward the factory. A barricade,
lighted by torch-lanterns, barred his path. A sentry with a
bayoneted gun stood to one side, signaling a halt.
The car slowed.
"Captain Ted Taylor, ordnance department!" the captain said,
extending his pass toward the sentry.
The sentry signaled him on.
The car came within a stone's throw of the factory, where it
turned into a parking lot. The officer climbed out, noiselessly,
and moved into the shadows.
Once Captain Taylor had been a scientist, but that was long ago,
before wars had made biology very unexciting.
Out of the shadows a second figure moved. He was a short, stocky
man, compared with the slender, graceful figure of the captain.
"Ps-st! Captain!"
"Masters!"
"You got my short-wave call, I see. I was afraid you would be
asleep. He came late, but he's in the tunnel now."
"Who is it?"
"The fellow we've suspected all along. Poses as an ignorant
laborer, but he's not ignorant by a long shot. His name is Hank
Norden."
Masters pointed toward a clump of bushes. As he did, he caught
the captain's arm with his left hand. The bushes were moving.
A black hole appeared at the base of the bushes and from it
emerged the head and shoulders of a man. Taylor drew his pistol.
The man's head turned, searching the shadows to see if he was
observed. He failed to detect the figures of Taylor and Masters,
huddled nearby in the shadows.
The man scrambled from the hole. He closed the trap door behind
him and then started to move rapidly away.
"Halt!" barked Taylor.
The man began to run. The captain's pistol spat, kicking up dust
beside the running feet. The fleeing man jumped to one side, to
spoil Taylor's aim on the next shot, but as he did so, he
stumbled and fell.
A moment later Taylor had landed on top of him, pinning him to
the ground.
The faded moonlight showed angry eyes, a jutting, undershot jaw
and a sharp, pointed nose.
"Damn you!" spat the captive.
Taylor removed a revolver from the prisoner's clothing and tossed
it to Masters.
"It's Norden, all right," Masters said, scrutinizing the captive.
"I'd know that jaw in a million. What are you doing here,
fellah?"
"I'm blowing the factory to hell!" Norden said between his teeth.
"You can't stop me. Everything's fixed. In a minute a bomb'll go
off. You, I, everyone will be smashed to atoms. And I'm glad. For
the fatherland."
"We know why you're doing it," Taylor said. "Come on, Masters.
Get your short-wave working. Notify the factory office. Where's
the bomb, Norden? Come on, speak up, or I'll pull you to pieces!"
Norden said nothing. Masters was calling the office. He turned to
the captain:
"I can't raise anyone."
"We'll go to the gate." Taylor prodded the prisoner ahead on the
run.
"You can't make it in time," Norden panted.
"We'll die trying!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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