Kitabı oku: «The Scarlet Lake Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story», sayfa 10

CHAPTER XX
The Earthman

Rick came back to life briefly. He saw a patch of something white overhead, and after much staring decided it was a ceiling. He turned his head an inch and saw a festoon of rubber tubes and hanging bottles. Thinking was too difficult. He closed his eyes and drifted off again.

When he again awoke the rubber tubes and bottles were gone. Grinning faces were grouped around him. Some he recognized, others were strangers. That was Scotty, and that was John Gordon, and that was Tom Preston. The others were doctors and nurses.

Rick said, "So we got down in one piece."

"Not exactly one piece." John Gordon smiled.

Scotty asked anxiously, "How do you feel?"

Rick thought about it. He didn't really know how he felt. "Sort of … light. I'm floating." Probably he had been asleep for some time. "What time is it?" he asked.

John Gordon gave a relieved chuckle. "Time sense returns. He's improving. You should ask what day it is, Rick. You've been asleep a long time. Pegasus went up three days ago."

"I must have needed sleep," Rick said weakly. Questions crowded into his mind. He asked the most important ones first. "How's the spacemonk? Did you get the Earthman?"

"The Prince is fine," John Gordon answered. "Yes, Rick, we got the Earthman. He gave himself away when we realized you were in the rocket. Now, no more questions. We'll be back again tomorrow and the doctor says we can talk more."

"Just one more question," Rick pleaded. He couldn't sleep without knowing. "Who is the Earthman?"

"Frank Miller."

And that was it, for the time being. Not until he was improved enough for Scotty and Gordon to spend most of the day with him did Rick get the whole story. They brought the spacemonk. The little creature petted Rick, then snuggled down and went to sleep against his side.

The landing had been cruel misfortune. The brakes were not strong enough to take the strain put on them. Worried because Rick had not signaled for a second time, Jerry had brought the rocket in faster than planned. Pegasus had buried its nose in the foothills.

Rick had suffered an amazing variety of bruises, coupled with internal damages, three broken ribs, and a dislocated right shoulder. On his right arm he had a permanent scar as a memento of the landing. A metal projection had given him a bad wound and cut an artery. He had lost considerable blood by the time the first-aid team was able to get him out and apply a tourniquet. He had also suffered concussion.

John Gordon described what had happened in the blockhouse.

"I just yelled your first message out loud. Jerry was staring at the radar screen at the time. He reached over and switched the equipment back on, then took control. At first we didn't know who was in the rocket. Then we took a quick nose count. You and two or three others were missing, but none of you had definite assignments, anyway. I was pretty sure it was you, knowing your ability for getting into trouble, but it wasn't until we got the message about the Earthman with your initials that we were really sure."

"When did you find out Frank Miller was the Earthman?" Rick asked.

"Then and there. He let out a sort of funny cry, grabbed his stomach, and fainted dead away. We brought him to, and he started crying that he hadn't meant to hurt anyone.

"Dr. Bond asked him bluntly if he was the Earthman, and he was so shaken I guess he didn't even think of trying to get out of it. He just nodded. Gee-Gee Gould had him by the throat in a minute, and I think he would have strangled him. But we got him off Miller and persuaded him to let the law take its course.

"After Dr. Bond and Miller finished putting the monk in place and started down, Miller said he had left his tool kit, and went back to get it. He must have changed the circuit then. I suppose in his excitement and fear of discovery he forgot the door. Later, he must have remembered and went back to close it, not knowing you were inside. Dr. Bond blames himself because he didn't stay with Miller."

Rick shook his head. "I can't understand it. Why would Miller do such a thing?"

"Obviously, he isn't a normal human being, in our sense of the word."

"You mean he's insane?" Scotty asked.

"No. Not insane. He's what some people call a psychopath. He is not morally responsible. In other words, he can't distinguish right from wrong, as most people understand the terms."

"That explains why he was able to do those things," Rick agreed. "But it doesn't explain why he became the Earthman and sabotaged rockets."

"We have a good explanation of that," John Gordon said. "It goes back to some time ago when selection of personnel for the projects began. Both Frank Miller and Dick Earle were professionally qualified to be electronics chief of Pegasus. But of course professional qualifications aren't everything. Miller was not well liked. Earle was given the assignment because it was thought he could do a better job of getting along with the staff."

"And Miller resented it," Rick said.

"Yes. That was natural enough. But because of his warped personality, he went from a natural reaction to a psychopathic one. He decided to take revenge. We don't know why he decided to call himself the Earthman, except that he apparently saw himself as a shining knight in armor, setting to rights the earth's wrongs – of course he meant the wrongs supposedly done to him. Being a design engineer he was naturally something of an artist, although his record didn't show any special talent."

"But," Scotty objected, "if he doesn't know right from wrong, why should he break up when he found Rick was in the rocket?"

Gordon shrugged. "Again, we can't be sure. My own opinion is that he had a shock reaction. The reaction was partly physical, and he was in poor physical condition. For another thing, Rick spoiled his beautiful design for destruction."

"Where is he now?" Rick asked.

"In custody at Nellis Air Force Base, awaiting trial."

There was still much Rick wanted to know, but his conversation with Scotty and John Gordon was interrupted. Gee-Gee Gould, Dick Earle, Dr. Bond, and others from the project stopped by. Gee-Gee brought him a medal, which he presented with proper ceremony. The staff had made it from a scrap of ribbon and the name plate of Pegasus.

"We salute you, young Brant," Gee-Gee proclaimed. "You will be forever recorded in our annals as the first, involuntary spaceman."

"Involuntary is right," Rick said, grinning.

"But, nevertheless, the first. Young Brant, we wish to bestow this small token of our esteem. We regret only that the world can never cheer you with us, on account of this being a classified project."

Dr. Bond shook hands with him. "Now that our hearts have come down out of our throats, Rick, we're pretty proud of you."

Dick Earle shook hands, too. "You certainly saved the project, Rick, even if by accident. If you hadn't been locked in, and able to get the control operating, Pegasus would have crashed."

Later, when he had a chance to talk with Scotty alone, Rick asked, "How about Mac and Pancho? Was anything stolen?"

"Mac and Pancho are still at large. Tom Preston hasn't let them know they're in any way under suspicion. And, yes, stuff was stolen. This time it was ionization chambers and photon counters."

Scotty had stayed in his position in the maintenance shop, where he could watch the warehouses. Luis Hermosa had also watched, from the firehouse. The janitor, Dusty Rhoads, had wandered casually into a warehouse, pushing his cart. On orders from Preston the clerks were on the job, instead of watching the shoot.

Then, fire had suddenly broken out in a small tool shed across from the warehouse area. Luis had to abandon the watch to go to the fire, and the clerks had all run out at the sound of the sirens. Whereupon, with Scotty watching, Dusty Rhoads had emerged, pushing his cleanup cart in front of him. He had even stopped to watch the fire being put out.

Scotty followed him, and watched Rhoads unload the stolen instruments from his cart and dump them into the base rubbish pile. The janitor covered them with other, noninflammable junk and went on about his business.

"So you got the stuff back," Rick commented.

"Nope." Scotty shook his head. "It's still there."

"What?"

"Under day and night guard. From a distance, of course. Rhoads doesn't know he was seen. Now Tom Preston is waiting for the next step."

"What's that?"

"Project Cetus shoots in two days."

The light dawned. "And you expect Mac and Pancho will get the stuff!"

"On the nose. Think you'll be around for it?"

"I wouldn't miss it," Rick said firmly.

He didn't miss it, although he was still too weak to be a participant. Instead, with arm in sling and ribs still taped, he was allowed to listen to the action in Tom Preston's office.

It started when Mac and Pancho picked up their radar unit in the maintenance shed. They drove to a dark area behind the shed where Dusty Rhoads was waiting with his cart. The stolen material was quickly transferred, and hidden behind the equipment racks in the truck. Then Mac and Pancho drove off, en route to Careless Mesa.

Dusty Rhoads put his cart away and started back to his barracks. Security officers fell in step on either side of him. Dusty was finished.

The gate reported by phone when Mac and Pancho went through, then there was a long wait. Tom Preston, John Gordon, and Rick had an early breakfast in the security chief's office. Just as they finished breakfast, the communications outfit on Preston's desk buzzed.

"Playboy One to Playboy Base. Come in."

Preston thumbed his microphone. "This is Playboy Base. Go ahead."

"Deadrock here, Tom. They're coming up the mountain."

"Roger. Keep us advised."

The waiting again, then Deadrock called once more, excitement in his voice. "Tom, there's another vehicle of some kind coming in from Steamboat."

"Good! How are you fixed?"

"We can handle a regiment. Scotty is going down around the mesa to cut them off in case they try to run for it. Hank is going down on the base side. How important is it for Careless Mesa to track the shoot?"

John Gordon gave Preston the answer. "Not important enough to risk not catching all of them. The other stations are tracking."

"Get 'em," Preston ordered.

"Right. Soon as it's a little lighter. We don't want one wriggling away in the dark."

Rick looked outside. Dawn was just breaking. It would be light enough in ten minutes. The ten minutes took an hour to pass. Then he had to wait ten more, until Deadrock came back on the air.

"They're all yours, Tom. I fired a shot and they looked up. Then Scotty and Hank fired over their heads from each side and they saw they were trapped. They upped hands, polite as you please, and we moved in to put the cuffs on."

Scotty elaborated later. Deadrock had waited until some of the stolen goods had changed hands before firing his warning shot. That was for purposes of evidence.

Pancho and Mac maintained a stony silence, but Dusty Rhoads was eager to talk. The other two had threatened to kill him, he claimed, and had forced him to steal. No one believed this, but Dusty's tale at least showed the connection between Miller and the thefts.

Pancho had stumbled across evidence that Miller was the Earthman, Dusty said. Dusty didn't know what the evidence was, and Pancho refused to tell him. But when Big Mac heard about it, he accused Miller, and promised to keep silent in exchange for co-operation. He demanded to be told when a shoot was to be sabotaged. Miller agreed, in exchange for part of the profits. Mac, Pancho, and Dusty had not participated in any way in the sabotage.

The other men, who had captured Rick and Scotty at Steamboat, proved to be well-known thieves with prison records. One admitted they had depended on Mac and Pancho to tip them off to any trap that might be waiting, but of course Preston had made sure no inkling reached Mac and Pancho that they were under suspicion. For that reason, the thieves had driven without hesitation to Careless Mesa to pick up the latest batch of stolen equipment – and had received the shock of their lives.

Rick thought that the trail of the Earthman had been a pretty devious one, complicated as it was by a gang of thieves as well as the saboteur himself.

He wondered briefly if Miller's identity would ever have come to light if he hadn't been trapped in the rocket. But the next moment he realized it would have, eventually, because the thieves were known, and at least the janitor would have talked.

Rick and Scotty still had their jobs. Both had done well in their assigned work, and could have stayed on indefinitely. But in spite of the temptation to remain for a while, the call of Spindrift was strong.

As Rick said, "It's nice to travel, but one thing that makes it nice is that we can go back home."

A letter from Barby had made him a little homesick. Everyone was fine. Dismal was lonesome. Jan Miller was back, with her parents. Dad was worried because he hadn't heard from Tony Briotti and Howard Shannon, but that was probably just the slowness of mail. Barby urged them to hurry back and hoped they were finding life dull enough so they would. She and Jan needed instruction in sailing, because they had just bought a new Comet-class sailboat.

The boys said farewell to their friends at Scarlet Lake, not forgetting Prince Machiavelli, and returned to Spindrift two days after the successful Cetus shoot.

Back at Spindrift they spent their time instructing the girls in proper sailing technique, but Rick still had to avoid exertion, and he couldn't swim because his arm was still bandaged. Then, one day the Brants' family doctor announced that he was fine, and a bandage was no longer needed.

Barby looked at the scar on Rick's forearm and her eyes opened wide. "Rick! That was a terrible cut! How on earth did you get it?"

He couldn't tell her the real story. He had been instructed by his father not to mention it, even to Barby. "It was pretty exciting," he said. "It happened when they let me fire a rocket."

"You fired a rocket?" Barby gasped.

"Sort of," Rick said. "I lit the fuse. I didn't jump back far enough, though. The tail fin clipped me as it went by."

For a long while Barby wasn't sure whether Rick's story was true or not. She didn't know whether the big rockets had fuses. When she found out by questioning Dr. Zircon, she asked Scotty to remind her not to talk to Rick for twenty-four hours.

But before the day was over, Rick was packing, in company with Scotty and Dr. Zircon, for an emergency trip to the Sulu Sea. Their mission: find two missing Spindrift scientists!

What happened during the search will be told in the next exciting book of Rick's adventures: THE PIRATES OF SHAN.