by Alex Raymond
Zarkov unhitched the backpack and lifted it up above his head where the water had not yet reached. If he could remove the plyowrap outerskin from the pack, inflate it with the air left in the airscout, and seal the airpack around his head . . .
Zarkov chuckled softly.
“I’d be a fool to call myself anything but a genius,” he said, chortling. The water bobbed about his chin now, and still rose. “But I don’t really have time to congratulate myself. Must get to work.”
He quickly tore the plyowrap from the backpack, dropped the pack in the water, watched it emit bubbles as it cascaded to the deck, and quickly formed the plyowrap into a large balloonlike object, using a heat cube from the emergency pack commonly used for starting cooking fires.
He blew hard into the newly constructed balloon, feeling his temples throb with the exertion. The air inflated the plyowrap quickly, until it was pressing down into the water around Zarkov’s ears. Soon the plyowrap balloon filled the entire space in the airscout where air had been.
Zarkov, underwater now, slowly enlarged the hole through which he had inflated the balloon, and slipped his head through it as if putting on a very tight ski cap. Now he had the balloon full of air around his head.
He picked up a wrench from the toolkit attached to the instrument console, and dove downward toward the hatch dogs. Quickly, he turned them from the inside, and the hatch loosened.
He pushed hard, sending the hatch out at a slanted angle. Oozing slime bulged over the top and poured up into the airscout. Zarkov quickly wriggled through the opening, his airbag balloon half-pulling him upward in the water.
As he pulled his boots through the opening, he realized the hatch was closing once again, and he had a moment’s panic when his left boot caught in the steel jaws.
But after a fierce struggle, he was free and ascending quickly through the cloudy water.
The air in the balloon was very bad, and the pressure on him from the water made him dizzy. He kept spiraling upward, paddling his boots slightly, and making swimming motions with his hands.
Something slimy and scaly touched him on the side. He turned, looking out through the weird transparent balloon around his head. The water was lighter now, since he was obviously approaching the surface.
He saw an enormous tadpole, a good five feet in length, the first growth stage of Mongo’s giant killer frogs.
It stared at him out of its slitted green eyes, and fishtailed quickly away.
Zarkov broke surface a few seconds later, his body absolutely exhausted from immersion and pressure. He bobbed on the surface for a moment or two, the big balloon flailing in the air. Then, with an earth-quaking bang, it exploded.
The air which had been pressurized in the airbag escaped into the atmosphere.
Zarkov was stunned.
He sank.
The chill of the water revived him, and he swam for the surface again, blinking his eyes when he emerged into the air, trying to see where he was.
Enormous lily pads floated in the water, big enough for a dozen men to walk on. In the distance, he saw high oak trees with some type of hanging moss suspended from their branches. It was called mongomoss. Even though it was an unearthly bright yellow, it resembled Spanish moss.
Zarkov saw the shore, and he turned to make his way toward it.
He finally dragged himself up onto the bank and flopped down on his back. He wheezed and coughed.
He lay there, his eyes closed.
“I’ve had it,” he said. “Just let me lie here.”
Then he heard something.
One eye opened.
He stared.
Above him, not five feet away on the grassy bank of the swamp, stood a youth. He was dressed in a plain earth-colored tunic laced with leather thongs in the center. He had on roughspun trousers tucked into boots made of soft animal hide. He wore a skullcap with a bright-yellow feather, apparently from some alardactyl. Under the cap Zarkov saw long brown hair tied in a pirate’s pigtail.
The youth stared down at him without a flicker of expression. In his hands he held a huge crossbow, longer than he was tall. He had it fully drawn. The arrow in the string was aimed directly at Zarkov’s throat.
“Should ye move a muscle,” said the youth in a voice which had not yet changed, “ye’re a dead man.”
“Friend,” Zarkov said tiredly, trying to smile. “Friend, do not mistake me for an enemy. I am a friend to those of the forest kingdom.”
“Now, ye don’t say so, do ye?” said the youth. “Ye nay would be pulling me leg?”
Zarkov sank back. He knew better than to try to argue. Forest-kingdom folk were a breed unto themselves. They were hard, being reared in adversity. They were stubborn by nature. And they were tough from necessity.
I can argue with any man on a scientific level, Zarkov thought. But when I argue with men on a lower level of intellect, I always lose.
He saw the gleam in the youth’s brown eyes. He saw the arm tense and the string quiver.
Why am I not an orator or a politico? he wondered. Why am I not blessed with the golden tongue of the pol?
Zarkov could almost feel the metal tip of the arrow lodged in his throat.
CHAPTER 12
In his panic, Kial ran hard through the forest’s undergrowth without further thought. He did not see the low-hanging branch and smashed headlong into it. The blow knocked him to the ground, where he lay for a moment before he came to his senses and sat up.
“Where am I going?” he asked himself. “What happened to Lari?” He shook his head and stood up, gazing fearfully about him.
He was in a deep part of the giant forest growth. He heard the sound of trees moving and branches snapping in the distance. It was the giant aphid coming after him. He knew that.
“Lari? I wonder what happened to Lari. I ran off. I never waited for him.”
Kial moved through the woods and emerged in a small clearing. There, across a draw, he saw the purple monster crouching in the trees, looking for him. A purple giant aphid.
Behind the beast, Kial saw the purple substance where Lari had been encapsulated by the aphid’s spittle.
It’s Lari! thought Kial. What happened to him?
Kial trembled.
“I should go to help Lari,” he muttered. “But if I go, I may be killed by the beast. Perhaps Lari is already dead. How can I carry out the mission of Ming XIII if I, too, am dead?”
Kial nodded thoughtfully.
“I’ll go into the woods and find the Tempendulum again. Then I can talk to Ming XIII and report the imprisonment of Lari.”
He turned and moved through the thick trees. He had not gone more than a hundred yards before he stumbled over a metallic object in the underbrush. It had been covered over with branches to camouflage it.
Kial stared.
“The antimatter neutralizer ray gun!”
He and Lari had mounted it there on the ground when they had first come from the Tempendulum with it. It was at that spot that they had aimed it at Flash Gordon’s jetcar and destroyed its suspension system.
“I can use it on the aphid!” Kial exclaimed, suddenly smiling in glee. “He can’t get me!”
He turned to watch the aphid. It stood near the edge of the superway, looking over at Kial. Kial could not tell if it actually saw him or was simply searching for him. It did not matter. If he could set up the antimatter neutralizer, he could destroy the aphid.
Then he would be safe.
He pushed the branches away from the ray gun and cleared it out from the undergrowth. It came in two separate parts. There was a long slender barrel about six earth feet long, made of a dark-red translucent mineral that scientists had devised as the best medium for that type of laser destructor.
The laser rod in turn was mounted on a swivel gun base, with the base mounted on small wheels. The dials and solid-state mechanism of the ray gun were arrayed along a panel at the rear of the weapon.
Kial shifted the elevation and declin
ation until he had the magniscope sights of the weapon centered on the large purple monster.
“Let’s see,” he said, puzzled. “Lari is the technician. I think I activate this lever.” Kial flipped the lever.
He could hear an almost hushed whishing sound inside the laser rod.
Nothing happened.
Kial glanced at the dials and readout ports.
“Here it is. I’ve got it set at metal and hard minerals. I want to set it to animal flesh and soft-bone structure.”
He turned the ray-intensity dial.
He heard the screech, and when he looked up to observe the aphid he saw that it was rapidly turning to a puff of cloudy vapor.
Then, as he watched, it quite suddenly was not there at all.
It was gone.
Kial flipped up the activator button.
The vapor of the destroyed giant insect vanished in the air above the mongospike growth in which it had stood.
Kial was stunned at the speed of the beast’s destruction.
He walked through the brush, back to the spot where he had last seen Lari.
Poor Lari, he thought. If only he could have escaped.
But Lari was gone.
Again Kial shook his head sorrowfully.
As he stumbled down the slope of the draw, crossed the dried creekbed, and began to climb the opposite bank, he heard a sudden movement from the underbrush in front of him.
He froze.
Had the giant aphid rematerialized somewhere else?
He hid behind a thick overhang of moss. The noise moved toward him. It sounded almost like human footsteps.
He peered out to see what was coming.
Lari.
Kial was too shocked to speak.
Lari was brushing gobs of purple jelly off his clothes as he walked along, looking repeatedly back over his shoulder. He seemed quite shocked.
Kial stepped out and stood in front of him.
Kial was bluffing. He had no idea how Lari had escaped from the blob of goo that had entrapped him.
“Hey,” cried Lari, “How did you get the big monster?”
“The aphid?” said Kial with a superior snort. “It’s gone. Vanished in a big cloud of smoke.”
“I saw it. How did you do it?”
“I used the antimatter neutralizer ray gun!”
Lari nodded.
“How did you get away?”
Lari frowned. “That monster covered me with a lot of blob and I couldn’t move. I saw you running away. Then after a little bit the monster seemed to come toward me. I thought he was getting ready to have me for dinner, but then there was a whirring sound and he disappeared.”
“Right. I turned the neutralizer ray on him.”
“Well, I was still frozen in that gunk. But after the monster vanished, suddenly the gunk melted. In fact, it did more than melt—it fell away and shriveled up into small pieces.”
Kial rubbed his chin. “Probably the stuff has an affinity to the giant aphid. When the aphid was destroyed, then the gunk was destroyed, too.”
“I guess so,” agreed Lari.
“It’s got to be that way.”
“What do we do now, Kial?” Lari asked.
Kial considered. “Look. We know Flash Gordon and Dale Arden are dead. Now the only thing we have to do is to get rid of Prince Barin.”
“Yeah,” said Lari. “How do we do that?”
“Well, I think we’d better contact Ming XIII again.”
“Right.” Lari frowned. “How do we get to the Tempendulum?”
“I think it’s in back of us. That way.” Kial pointed past the spot where he had found the antimatter ray gun.
“Then let’s go.”
Kial stood still. “Hold it, dummy. I’m thinking.”
“Well?”
“Ming XIII hasn’t been very complimentary about our mission in the time probe.”
“So?”
“Maybe we should take something back to him to prove we did get Gordon.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Lari. “What?”
“Something like his military insignia. Or maybe his ring or his chronometer.”
“Yeah. That makes sense.”
Kial started through the underbrush to the top of the slope. Once there he could see across the area of mongospike almost to the superway. He stared in dismay.
“What’s the matter?” Lari asked.
“Look!”
Lari came to the top of the rise and peered ahead. “It’s Gordon. And that girl.”
“They’re alive.”
CHAPTER 13
Astonished, Flash and Dale watched the tightly encompassing purple spittle with which the giant aphid had encapsulated them slowly turn a deeper color and then loosen its grip.
Immobile, they had watched through the purple jelly as Kial and Lari had startled the creature. They had seen Lari slowly enmeshed in the spittle and paralyzed in the same way they were. They had watched helplessly as Kial had fled into the forest.
And then they had seen the amazing destruction of the giant aphid as it had advanced into the forest. Before it had gone far, it had vanished in a cloud of smoke.
Then Kial had run toward them.
Moments later, the purple sputum in which they were so tightly enmeshed fell away from them. Then they could move their arms and legs, and walk. The purple matter clung to them in a kind of film.
“Are you all right?” Flash asked Dale.
“Y-y-yes,” said Dale, trying to brush the jelly off her face and hair. “I think so.”
“It was that disintegrator ray,” said Flash. “The same thing that took out our suspension system. It simply dissolved the aphid.”
“I suppose so,” replied Dale, shaking her hair vigorously.
At that instant, Kial and Lari appeared at the edge of the superway with the two blaster pistols in their hands.
“All right, Gordon,” said Kial. “I may have freed you from that monster, but you’re not going anywhere.”
“Who are you two, anyway?” Flash asked, walking toward them.
Dale followed.
“It’s none of your business,” Kial said threateningly.
“What do you want with us?” Flash persisted.
“Get back!” cried Kial, waving the blaster pistol.
Flash strode on, closing the distance between them.
“I’ll zap you!”
Flash laughed, “Go ahead. Try. I recognize that pistol. It’s mine. Try to zap me. I have a special safety device on that pistol to keep it from working for just anyone.”
“You’re lying,” snapped Kial, but his face was contorted with doubt. He stared at the weapon.
“Kial!” cried Lari. “They’re coming!”
“Right,” said Flash, and he gave a sudden leap to the side as Kial aimed the blaster pistol at him. The blaster sizzled harmlessly, taking out the branches of a giant fern behind him.
“You lied to me,” shouted Kial, twisting the blaster pistol to one side. “Stop!”
Flash ducked and launched himself in a low-flying tackle. His arms found Kial’s legs and he quickly upended him. “It wasn’t a lie,” he said, chuckling. “It was a slight exaggeration.”
They rolled together on the superway.
“I was a defensive back once.” Flash laughed as he twisted Kial’s neck. “I don’t think you ever played the game, did you?”
Kial was gasping now and Flash’s hands were around his throat. The blaster pistol had fallen to the surface of the superway. Lari stood to one side, mouth open in shock.
“Flash!” cried Dale. “I can’t reach the blaster pistol. You’re rolling on it!”
“I don’t know where you clowns got that blaster pistol of mine,” Flash said grimly, “but it doesn’t matter now. I’m glad I’ve got my hands on you, at last I’ve been meaning to teach you a few manners.”
Kial could say nothing. He was clawing at Flash’s strong hands clamped around his throat.
Lari aimed his blaster pistol at Dale, but now he began to think about Kial. He saw that Flash had twisted Kial’s arms around behind his back and was trussing him up with his belt.
“Hey!” cried Lari.
“Hey!” Flash responded.
Lari aimed the blaster pistol at Flash, but then saw that if he fired it he would disintegrate Kial, too.
Quickly, he shifted the pistol in his hand and slammed the handle at Flash’s head.
Flash had turned when the hand grip of the pistol hit his skull.
He saw all the planets of Mongo’s system, a couple of Earth suns, and the Milky Way.
Then nothing.
CHAPTER 14
Dale was scrambling onto the pavement toward the loose pistol dropped by Kial when Lari hit Flash and knocked him out. She had barely reached out for the weapon when she felt a blow on her own shoulder.
She fell.
Kial was up now, grinning at her, his mustache quivering. His boot lashed out and stepped on the blaster pistol. The tip of Dale’s fingers were pinched by the toe of Kial’s boot.
“Ouch!” She drew back her hand.
Kial leaned over and grabbed the weapon. Dale tried to get to her feet, but she was off-balance.
She turned frantically. Flash lay on his side on the superway, holding his head in his hand, but unable to rise.
“You’ve stunned him!” cried Dale. “What is it you want with us?”
“We want Gordon,” said Kial with an evil grin. He adjusted the blaster pistol in his hand and turned to study Flash as he lay at the edge of the roadway.
Dale leaped to her feet and grabbed Kial’s arm. “No, you don’t!” she cried.
Kial almost fell over. “Ah!” he said, leering. “You’re one of those strong-willed women, are you? Lari, here’s one that wants taming. Let’s give her our lesson for the day, shall we?”
Lari was standing looking down at Flash Gordon. “You’d better do something about Gordon, Kial. I don’t think he’s going to like it when he finally comes to.”
“Forget Gordon,” Kial said, snorting. “We’ve got better prey now. Dale Arden, isn’t it?” He turned to her.
