by Alex Raymond
“Who was the slaver?”
“Zarle, I hear,” answered the saloonkeeper. “A wretched fellow, even among slavers.”
“He delivered her to the market?”
“Yes, she is said to be there now,” said Lilson. “I doubt she’ll fetch as good a price as the fat girls. Beauty, as I see it, is a difficult thing to sell.”
“How many guards do they have around the market now?” asked Hopp.
“A dozen, same as always.”
“And are they the same louts who were at work during my last visit to this quaint little seaside settlement?”
“I do believe so, except for Slepyan who ran off to take a job as a poleman on a barge.”
“Very good,” said Hopp.
Flash asked him, “You have an idea on how to get in there?”
“Yes, we can get in easily enough, I think,” he answered.
“Ah, but getting out,” said the old man.
CHAPTER 35
The big man with the white scar down the middle of his face wasn’t supposed to be there. Neither the man nor his gun.
“What you doing here?” he demanded.
Flash didn’t reply. He threw himself through the air, straight at the man.
The flying tackle knocked the man over onto the bare wood floor of the hallway.
With a swift chopping motion, Flash knocked the blaster pistol from the man’s grip. He dragged him to his feet, hit him twice in the middle, and once on the chin.
That took care of him.
But now a door midway down the shadowy corridor of the slave market opened. A blue man, wearing what looked like a striped nightgown, leaped out with a stun rifle clutched in both hands.
Flash dodged suddenly to the left, firing the blaster he had just scooped up from the floor.
The rifle was snapped out of the blue man’s hands.
“So much for the notion of doing this quietly,” muttered Flash as he jogged down the corridor toward the blue man in the nightgown.
The man was hopping around, waving his singed fingers in the air.
A series of punches to the jaw knocked him down and out.
With the man’s rifle in one hand and the pistol in the other Flash waited, breathing evenly in and out through his mouth. No one else appeared.
He went back to the door that was supposed to be Narla’s.
It was locked. Flash shot off the entire lock mechanism. Then kicked the door open.
“Excuse the flamboyant approach,” he said to the blonde girl.
She jumped up from the cot where she’d been sitting. “Flash! Oh, I’m glad to see you. How did you—?”
“A couple of guards were bribed,” he explained. “And then . . . wait a minute.” He heard footsteps thudding through the hall.
Flash shoved the cot across the bare floor, battering the door shut with it. He pivoted and ran to the one barred window. “Stand clear, Narla.”
The blaster crackled twice and the bars, and the glass, were gone.
“Are you alone?” she asked him.
“I hope not,” said Flash, taking a careful look out the window. They were two flights up. “I’m going to ask you to jump from here. Jape and another fellow are down there and they’ll probably catch you.”
“Probably?” Narla came to stand beside him at the window opening. “Well, the mud looks pretty soft”
Fists were pounding on the door.
“Go ahead,” said Flash. “I’ll follow.”
She touched his hand briefly before she jumped. “Take care, Flash.”
The door snapped open a second after the girl leaped.
Flash used the stun rifle to freeze the first man over the threshold, a hairy yellow man with some kind of ax in his hand.
He hopped to the edge, looked down at the backside of the slave-market grounds, and jumped.
The brown mud splashed five feet high as he hit. “I guess that stint in the circus was good training,” said Flash.
Jape, holding out three hands to him, tugged him to his feet. “Something went wrong, I see.”
“To the waterfront,” shouted Hopp, pausing to send a shot at the blue man who was about to fire down on them from the window of Narla’s recent prison.
They all—Hopp, Jape, Flash, and Narla—began running through the mud.
“Looks like I didn’t pass around enough bribes,” said Hopp as they hurried away from the big ramshackle building.
“An unexpected guard was up in the corridor outside Narla’s room,” said Flash.
“Well, a little surprise now and then makes life more interesting,” said Hopp.
“I’ve had enough surprises,” said Narla.
They reached the river well ahead of any pursuers.
CHAPTER 36
“Farms,” said Narla. “They mentioned something about farms.”
“That’s where they were taking Booker?” asked Flash.
The jungle was all around them again, the river far behind. The party was backtracking the way it had come.
“I know where they were probably heading,” said Hopp.
“Slash and burn,” muttered old Abel.
“It’s quite a way from here,” said the red-bearded Hopp. “A week of traveling, at least. Some of the less ambitious slavers sell workers to the landowners.”
“A week,” said Flash.
“Maybe Huk and the others caught up with them,” said Narla.
Jape said, “We haven’t mentioned this before, Narla. But there’s a strong possibility they’ve had a run-in with the militia.”
The blonde girl pressed her knuckles to her lips. “You mean they’ve been captured?”
“We don’t know,” said Flash. “Jape’s been monitoring that radio ever since he heard the first news about the militia closing in on them. Nothing further has been said.”
“It’s kind of odd,” said the four-armed man. “They’ve been talking a good deal about this Captain Suell and about the Mesmo National Militia. Now they don’t mention him at all.”
“Setting traps,” said the old man.
“They could be setting a trap for the rest of you,” said Hopp.
“That wouldn’t account for the radio silence, would it?” said Flash. “Far as they know we don’t understand their language at all; we’re just like animals to them. Back on Earth the dog catcher doesn’t worry if the dogs hear about his plans or not.”
“Still,” said Hopp, “we have to be prepared for any eventuality.”
“Can we get to the route to the farmland area some other way?” asked Flash. “And avoid the militia that way?”
“Grain of sand,” said the old man.
“Not quite that difficult, said Hopp. “Abel feels that finding your friends at all is going to be as difficult as finding a specific grain of sand on a beach.”
“I know it would be easier to find Huk and the rest if we simply followed their trail,” admitted Flash. “What I’m—”
“Trouble ahead,” said the old man.
Hopp, who was at the head of the procession, stopped abruptly. “Scatter,” he warned. “Something’s coming this way.”
Taking hold of Narla’s arm, Flash pulled her down with him into the brush. He could hear it now, too. A thrashing sound up ahead of them. Something was coming through the thick jungle in their direction.
“What is it, do you think?” whispered Narla close to his ear.
“Not sure. It could be the militia.”
“Move a little faster, you nitwit gadget,” boomed a familiar voice. “I keep stepping on that tin tail of yours.”
Flash waited a few more seconds, then stood up and called out, “Doc!”
Dale answered first. “Flash, are you all right?”
“Don’t nip at my leg, you fool engine,” Zarkov was rumbling. “I’m not your quarry.”
Dale came running up to Flash. She put her arms around him, hugging him tight.
He kissed her, then said, “I was going to say this i
s a surprise. But that’s an understatement. How did you get here?”
“Well, from Earth in a new ship Dr. Zarkov conceived,” said the dark-haired girl. “And from the landing spot in the jungle to here we just walked.”
Zarkov thrust out a big hand and shook Flash’s. “I only had to make a few simple adjustments in these robot dogs and then I could use them for my purposes. Zarkov doesn’t usually like to rely on gadgets, but since we were in a slight rush—but tell me about what’s been happening to you.”
“That gigantic devil moves even faster than I do,” roared Mallox as he came puffing onto the scene. “Ah, you’ve found Narla.”
Dale noticed the blonde girl now. Narla had been standing a few feet away from them, watching the reunion with a glum expression on her face.
“We feared,” said Jape to the strongman, “that you’d all been caught by the militia.”
“A dozen of those little blue devils were no match for us,” said Mallox. He gave Zarkov a friendly punch on the shoulder.
“We stumbled onto the fracas,” said Zarkov. “And I took a hand. Using my native cunning, plus a few tricks I learned when I was in the commando reserves in my youth, we outfoxed the militia. Got them all stunned, then trussed them up.”
Her eyes still on Narla, Dale took hold of Flash’s arm. “We learned from Huk, who recognized Doc, what you were doing, Flash.”
“He’s okay? And Sixy?”
“We left them guarding our ship,” said Zarkov in his booming voice. “And our prisoners. I figured I could find you more efficiently on foot and using these tracking gizmos. As usual, I was absolutely right.”
“Well,” said Jape, “if you have a spacecraft, Doctor, then that solves all our problems. Once we get together with all our friends we can leave Mesmo forever.”
Dr. Zarkov twisted his beard around his finger. “I’m afraid it’s not going to be that simple,” he said. “The ship is only big enough to carry four people off the planet.”
CHAPTER 37
The spacecraft dropped down through the night. It came in low over the treetops, skimming the high metal wall which circled the small spaceport at the forest’s edge.
The cabin door opened and a blue man dropped down to the surface of the field.
There was another larger ship nearby, sitting on a launching area. Further off was a hangar which held two other spaceships.
Two blue men in white cloaks came running out of a lighted office, carrying electric hand lanterns.
“What’s the meaning of this?” one of them asked the blue pilot.
The man spread his hands wide. “It’s an emergency.”
“You’re not authorized to use this field,” the other port official told him. “And if you had an emergency situation why didn’t you radio us?”
“The radio’s not functioning,” thought the blue man. “If you’ll take a look inside the cabin, you’ll understand why I did what I did.”
“We’ve no time for that. You’ll have to get off the field at once.”
“I can’t. I don’t think the ship will take off anyway,” he said. “But look for yourselves and you’ll see why.”
One of the men thought, “Very well.” He pulled himself up into the ship. “I don’t see any—”
He was grabbed from behind by powerful hands; his helmet was ripped off.
Down on the ground, his partner thought, “What’s the trouble up there?”
He got no answer.
“Better look for yourself,” suggested the blue man who was pretending to be the pilot.
The official drew out his shockstick. “That I will.” He went up into the cabin.
His stick was chopped from his hand with one sharp blow. Before he could even turn, he was caught around the neck. His helmet was pulled free from his round head. Dizzy, he went stumbling across the cabin to land in a heap atop his partner.
“So far so good,” said Zarkov in a subdued boom.
“We’ve got six more men to take care of,” said Flash, “if Hopp’s figures are correct.”
Zarkov used a stungun on the second man before he could untangle himself. “Let’s proceed,” he said.
Flash stripped the official’s white cloak from him, then patted his remaining clothes until he found a ring of keys. He dropped those down to the blue man waiting on the ground.
Then Flash searched the other stunned man, taking his key ring and cloak. He wrapped the cloak around his own shoulders. “Stand by here, Doc, in case our bluff doesn’t continue to work.”
Flash leaped down into the darkness. He sprinted across the field to the lighted office from which the two blue men had come.
There was a third man standing in the doorway.
“No, I guess the cloak doesn’t fool you,” said Flash.
The man, mouth gaping, was reaching for a pistol.
Flash’s stungun sounded first.
He ran on to the office, shoved the frozen man aside, and entered. “Well, Hopp’s right so far. Three men stationed here.”
Flash located the radio set against the far wall. He deftly removed a few essential parts. Then he left.
Across the dark field, a blaster rifle crackled. It lit up the wall of the barracks, turning it a bright yellow for a second.
In that second, Flash saw that Hopp was using the rifle, that the red-headed man had wounded one of the other field staff men.
By the time Flash reached the area of the blast, there was no more fighting.
Mallox came out of the barracks doorway rubbing his big hands together. “Knocked out three of those little blue devils with one hand,” he announced.
Sixy came out after him. “We’ve taken care of everyone.”
Dr. Zarkov materialized out of the darkness now. “Jape, you said you know how to pilot one of these space-warp jobs.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Let’s take a look at the baby that’s ready to launch,” said Zarkov. “I’ll fill you in on anything that may be puzzling to you.”
The two men jogged away toward the launching area.
Through the open gate in the metal fence, which had been opened by Hopp’s man in his official disguise, now came Booker. “We did it,” he said. “I knew we could.”
Dale and Narla followed him.
Huk came out of the barracks and joined the rest of them. “The entire staff is safely stunned,” he announced.
“Zarkov is going over the ship on the launching area with Jape,” Flash told him. “If everything is okay, you can take off pretty soon.”
Huk said, looking around at all of them, “I’m anxious to get back to Mongo. And yet, well, I’ll miss all of you.”
“Oh, we can keep in touch,” said Sixy. “Maybe once a year we can have a reunion. You know, pick some planet that’s convenient to all and . . .” He let the words trail off. “No, I guess we won’t do that, will we?”
“No,” said Narla, “we won’t be seeing each other again.”
“Still,” said Sixy, brightening, “we’ll probably be seeing Flash again. He travels all over the universe.”
Flash grinned. “Yes, I’m sure we’ll all see each other again.”
“I doubt it,” said Narla. She turned away and walked off across the dark field toward the launching area.
Dale watched her for a few seconds. “I think she likes you, Flash,” she said.
Flash didn’t reply to that. To Huk, he said, “That ship is big enough to carry most of you. I’ll travel with Zarkov and Dale.”
“It’s not going to be an express, though,” said Sixy. “We’ll be making a lot of local stops, dropping each of us off on his home planet.”
“I don’t see why I have to go with them,” said Booker. “I mean, I’m from Mars. I want to go back there. That’s in the solar system, Flash. I ought to go with you.”
“But we’d miss you, Booker,” said Sixy. “And there are several places I’d like to drop you. I have a nice roomy asteroid especially in mind.”
“Okay,” Flash told him. “We’ll take you along.” He took a few steps toward Hopp. “What about you? Ready to leave Mesmo?”
“We’ve been talking about what you’re going to do next, Flash,” said the red-bearded man. “When you get home and alert the various interplanetary peace-keeping outfits, they’ll be sending a task force out here to Mesmo to rescue all the rest of the slaves and convince the locals to stop the slaving business.”
“Yes, Mesmo won’t be a slave-market planet much longer.”
“So I think I’ll hang around until that happens.” He held out his hand. “But I hope we’ll run into each other again sometime, somewhere.” After they shook hands, he and his blue associate left the field, returning to the forest beyond.
Mallox watched them go. “It might be fun to stay on in the jungle,” he mused, “and have a go at more of these little blue devils myself.”
“I thought you were homesick,” said Sixy.
The strongman said, “That’s true. And yet—but, no, I’ll go home now. There’ll be plenty of fights to be had on my own planet.”
Across the field, Jape emerged from the large spacecraft. He held a lantern in one hand and was waving the other three hands. “Just about ready to go,” he called.
The group began to walk, somewhat slowly, toward the launching area.
“I don’t foresee any problems,” Jape said to Flash as he approached.
Dr. Zarkov dropped down out of the ship. “Childishly simple to operate,” he bellowed. “Somewhat clumsy construction, but there’s no time to modify. You’ve got it all straight in your mind, Jape?”
“Yes, Doctor.” The four-armed man held out a hand to Zarkov and one to Flash. “I won’t forget my stay on Mesmo. And I won’t forget our time together, Flash.”
“All this talking is okay,” said Booker. “But some more of those blue guys are liable to show up any minute. And I ain’t in the mood to get captured again.”
“You can go over and get in our ship,” Flash told him.
