Captain Future 04 - The Triumph of Captain Future (Fall 1940)

by Edmond Hamilton

  Already a few of the deadly spores were drifting inside!

  Curt snapped on his aura and dashed to the window. He stood against it, his blue aura preventing the spores from entering. But he couldn’t leave the window or the deadly dust would enter.

  The Life-lord had effectively prevented Curt from pursuing him!

  Chapter 12: Weird Mystery

  EZRA GURNEY, Grag and Simon were in the offices of the dead Doctor Qarth, Which had been one of the Lifewater syndicate’s branches. The Brain spoke, after Curt Newton had departed.

  “Curtis wants us to stay here while he’s searching the fungus forest. He thinks Thomas Keene may, have gone to some other of the syndicate’s secret outlets to try to get Lifewater. He wants us to recapture Keene.”

  “So we’re to grab any people who come here to buy the Lifewater,” Ezra Gurney drawled. “We find out from ‘em’ where the elixir can be bought in the city. Then we raid any other outlet we learn of, to capture Keene.”

  “That’s the idea,” Simon Wright said. “There must be more than one place, in a big city like Ops, where the syndicate sells the elixir.”

  “But we won’t find Keene anywhere in Ops,” Ezra predicted. “Why? ‘Cause Keene himself is the Life-lord that Cap’n Future is after!”

  “I do not think so, Ezra,” boomed Grag, the robot. “Martin Graeme, that Earthman ethnologist, is our man. Why else would Graeme disappear right after we reached Saturn and began to question him? It was Graeme who killed Zin Zibo in the Governor’s office. Then he shook off the shadow railing him, and vanished.”

  “I wonder,” muttered the Brain thoughtfully. “That’ Martian author, Sus Urgal where does he figure in all this? And is there any real reason for suspecting Khol Kor, the Governor?”

  “Hardly seems likely that a man of high office like Khol Kor could be the Life-lord,” dissented old Ezra Gurney.

  “Domination of the System through the Lifewater traffic might tempt even a Governor,” the Brain retorted. “Remember how that Space Emperor on Jupiter turned out to be the vice-governor.”

  Ezra nodded. He well remembered that terrific struggle in the Jovian jungles, in which Captain Future finally defeated the man who had unloosed a blight of atavism on Jupiter.

  “Listen, I hear someone entering!” Grag declared.

  The morning was by now far advanced, and an increasing bustle of traffic from the street had become audible. The bell of the televis-announcer rang sharply.

  “You take it, Ezra,” directed the Brain. “Grag or I would scare anyone away.”

  Ezra Gurney went into the front office of the late Doctor Qarth, and touched the door-release switch.

  It was a pretty, youthful Saturnian girl who entered. She looked hesitantly at the weather-beaten old marshal. Ezra had thrown a cloak over his dark uniform, but the girl appeared suspicious.

  “I want to see Doctor Qarth,” she said quickly.

  “He’s not here,” Ezra told her. “If it’s the Lifewater you want, Doctor Qarth left me in charge of that.” The Saturnian girl seemed relieved.

  “Yes, I want another vial of the elixir. They told me I’d have to have it by now. I’ve brought money to pay for it — all I could get together. Will it be enough?”

  Ezra looked at the money she anxiously held out. Then be raised his voice.

  “Grag!”

  THE girl screamed in terror as the great robot stalked into the room from the rear.

  “No one’s going to hurt you,” Ezra told her with, rough kindliness. “But we want you to answer a few questions!’ “You’re not Lifewater sellers! You’re the Police!”

  “We’re that, but we’re not after you,” Ezra informed heir.

  “Come back in here.”

  He and Grag led the frightened girl into the rear office. She shrank in increased fear from the searching eyes of the Brain.

  “You’ve been drinking the Lifewater?” Ezra said.

  “Yes, I drank it once,” the girl faltered. “I was an actress, but I was getting middle-aged. I heard of the Life-water, and Doctor Qarth sold me it. Then, later, he said I must keep, drinking it or I would die!”

  “The same pitiful story,” Ezra commented, and swore aloud. “Cerberus prison is too damned good for those cursed elixir vendors.”

  “Do you know of any other place in Ops where the Lifewater can be bought?” the Brain asked the girl’

  “This — this was the only place I knew of. A beauty-science shop sent me here.”

  The Brain turned his strange eyes to Ezra.

  “Nothing to be learned from her, Ezra. But maybe other customers can tell us something. You watch for them. We’ll hold this girl here for awhile.”

  As the next few hours of the morning passed, a half dozen other people furtively entered Doctor Quarth’s offices to buy the Lifewater. Ezra Gurney and Grag instantly detained them as they came, and the Brain questioned them.

  Two of them were aging men who had never drunk the Lifewater but had heard of it and come to buy it. The others were men and women, apparently youthful, who had drunk the elixir once and had then learned that they must continue drinking it or meet a terrible death.

  These, like the girl, recoiled in the most frightful terror when they found themselves unable to purchase the elixir. They cried that they must have the Lifewater, pleaded frantically with Ezra Gurney for it.

  “This is the rottenest, vilest traffic I ever heard of in the System!” Ezra burst out violently. “And to think it’s goin’ on right now in hundreds of cities, on all nine worlds. Thousands an’ thousands more every day, becomin’ hopelessly enslaved to that poisonous stuff!”

  “That’s why Curtis is working so urgently to stop the poison from spreading, Ezra,” commented the Brain somberly.

  “But isn’t there any way these addicts can stop drinkin’ the Lifewater without dyin’?”

  “I’ve already tried to find an antidote for the insidious effects of the Lifewater. But until I have some of the Lifewater itself to analyze, I can’t find such an antidote.”

  We’re gettin’ nowhere here,” Ezra declared. “None of these people we’ve caught knows of another syndicate branch in Ops.”

  “And while we’re here, Master may be in trouble in the fungus forest,” Grag boomed anxiously.

  BUT their next customer changed their luck. This was a foppish Saturnian youth who was really an elderly, rich man who had been rejuvenated by the Lifewater.

  Terrified by the unhuman aspect of Grag and Simon Wright the Saturnian stammered an answer to their question.

  “Yes, I know of another place in Ops that sells the Life water. One of my friends bought it there. Its on the Street of Ten Moons. A chemical shop there is the blind for the elixir sellers”

  “That’s all we want to know!” Ezra declared jubilantly. “I’ll bet Thomas Keene is there now. I’m callin’ headquarters and we’re goin’ to raid that place right now.”

  A few minutes later, four Planet Police rocket-cars screamed through the streets of the fashionable shopping section between the Hyrcanian River and Government Park.

  Ezra Gurney was in one car with Simon Wright and Grag. The old marshal had given detailed orders to the uniformed officers in the other ears, which they now proceeded to execute.

  Two of the four cars split off to block the rear entrance of the chemical shop, which was an impressive looking establishment, ostensibly dealing in rare planetary drugs. The other two cars drew up in the busy street in front of the place.

  Whistles screamed and a gaping crowd began to gather in, the street, Ezra and Grag, the robot carrying the Brain plunged toward the door of the shop. They led the rest of the Police officers, as usual.

  The door had been hastily locked by the occupants of the place.

  “Bring that ato-torch!” Ezra yelled. “Cut through there!”

  An officer wielded the hissing atomic flame, which seared through the heavy metal door like cheese. They burst inside.

  Th
e interior of the shop, lined with shelves of planetary drugs, was empty of human beings. Police were bursting in from the rear.

  “Where the devil are they?” Ezra cried.

  “Look in the sublevel,” rasped the Brain. “They’d conduct the Lifewater business from down there.”

  They poured down the stair into the sublevel rooms. Here the Lifewater business had indeed been conducted. Empty racks, overturned tables, showed that the elixir and money had just been taken.

  Eventually they found a secret tunnel through which the Lifewater vendors had escaped. They had blocked it by pulling out an underpinning and allowing the passageway to cave in.

  “Got away, curse them!” Ezra swore. “And if Thomas Keene was with them, he got away with them.”

  “If they’d just left one vial of the Lifewater!” muttered the Brain. “I could have analyzed it, perhaps even have found an antidote.

  At that moment, a televisor in the wall broke into loud buzzing, a call-signal. Grag stepped warily toward the instrument with Simon.

  “This televisor is set to a non-standard wave, Simon,” declared the robot.

  “Then it must be the secret wavelength used by the syndicate!” the Brain exclaimed. “Those criminals who just escaped didn’t have time to smash this instrument. Turn on the receiver, Grag,but not the transmitter. Then we can hear and see without being seen.

  Grag switch on the receiver of the televisor. In its screen a man shrouded in a growing blue aura. That’s the Life-lord! Grag whispered excitedly.

  THE Life-lord was rapidly giving harsh orders from under his disguise.

  “All syndicate branches and spaceships. General order. Rendezvous One in the fungus forest has been discovered by Captain Future. He raided it and nearly captured us, though we managed to leave him trapped there. Use of Rendezvous One will be discontinued from now on. We will use Rendezvous Two henceforth. All syndicate operatives, and all space ships coming from the other planets for new consignments of the Lifewater, will report at Rendezvous Two at the regularly scheduled times. That is all.”

  The screen went dark, as the Life-lord clicked off. Grag, Simon and Ezra Gurney stared at each other.

  “Rendezvous Two?” Ezra repeated. “Where can that be?”

  “The Life-lord was too cunning to give its location on a wave that might be tapped,” muttered the Brain. “He’s been operating from a headquarters in the fungus forest. But he had another rendezvous in readiness somewhere, to be used if anything went wrong at the other one”

  Grag twitched with extreme anxiety.

  “Simon, you heard what he said. He left Master trapped in Rendezvous One in the fungus forest. Master may be in deadly peril!”

  “We’re, going to find Curtis!” the Brain declared, sharing the robot’s fear. “Ezra, take us to the Comet.”

  Some twenty minutes later, the Comet rose from the landing court behind Government Building. Recklessly it dashed up through the swarming local traffic of rocket-flies. Then it hurtled eastward, over the sunlit streets of the great black Saturnian city.

  Grag sat nervously at the controls. The big robot’s anxiety made him maintain a speed that set even the super-insulated ship’s friction alarms ringing wildly. Over the rolling fields and grassy blue swales they sped. Finally, in the thin, bright noonday sunshine, they glimpsed the ominous yellow blot of the great-valley of the fungi.

  Low above the fantastic growths of the fungus forest swept the Comet. The photo-electric eyes of Grag and the faded, blue eyes of old Ezra. Gurney eagerly searched the grotesque, deadly forest for sign of Captain Future.

  “There’s a clearin’ that’s been used for a landin’ field!” Ezra cried. “An’ there’s a metal buildin’ of some kind near it.”

  At that moment, the televisor in the Comet’s control room broke into a buzz. Grag lipped the switch. To their relief, the resonant voice of Curt Newton came from the instrument.

  “Grag! Simon I just spotted you coming. Otho, Joan and I are in the metal building — directly under you.

  “You’re all right, lad? Asked the Brain worriedly.

  “Right as can be,” reassured Captain Future. “Listen, I want you to land near this building. But don’t come out. We’ll come to you.”

  THE Comet came to a flawless landing in the clearing. Then they saw Captain Future, Otho and Joan Randall, all wearing protective blue auras hurrying to them. The three entered the Comet taking care not to admit the deadly golden spore dust.

  “You can kick me from Mercury to Pluto for a blundering fool,” Curt declared. “I let the Life-lord get away when I should have been able to collar him in there.”

  “The chief only let the devil escape because he stopped to save Joan and me,” Otho protested loyally.

  “So Otho gummed the works, as usual,” Grag snorted. Curt swiftly explained what had happened. “The Life-lord smashed a window as he sped off,” he concluded. “I had to stand with my aura against the window to keep the spore dust out, till Otho could roll over and let me untie him. By that time, the Life-lord was clean away.”

  “Yes, lad, we knew he had escaped you,” the Brain replied, and told of the general televisor alarm the Life-lord sent out.

  “So they’re going to operate now from another headquarters Rendezvous Two, as they call it,” Curt repeated. His tanned face tightened. “We’ve got them on the run, Simon. But till we find it, we can’t stop the cursed elixir traffic, while they operate from a new rendezvous.”

  He drew from his jacket a dozen vials of milky, opalescent shining fluid — Lifewater!

  “They left plenty of the elixir in there when they escaped,” Curt said. “I destroyed all the poison except what I saved for you to analyze, Simon.”

  “Good. Now maybe I can find an antidote.”

  “But who is the Life-lord?” Ezra persisted. “Keen, Graeme, or Sus Urgal? Until the slippery devil is identified an’ caught, the traffic will go on.”

  “I know,” Curt Newton rapped out savagely, “We’ve got to work on those suspects fast. Keene and Graeme must be found without further delay. And I want to see that Martian, Sus Urgal.”

  “This business gave you a new lead?” Ezra cried eagerly.

  “Maybe,” Curt parried. “Head back for Ops, at once.”

  Chapter 13: Legendary Clue

  JUST as the Comet landed again in the court behind the Government Building, a tall, rangy man hurried to meet them. It was Khol Kor, the Governor.

  “Any luck, Captain Future?” the Saturnian cried.

  “Not much,” Curt Newton answered, eying the Governor. “Have the Planet Police found Graeme or Thomas Keene yet?”

  “No they haven’t,” Khol Kor replied. The Governor swore explosively. “Both those damned men have been around Ops for months and know every cursed alley. They’ve managed to keep out of sight.”

  “What other place, besides the fungus forest, would be a good secret hideout around here?” Captain Future asked the Governor.

  Khol Kor deliberated. “Well, I don’t know. North of here, there’s nothing but the Great Plains for hundreds of miles, and then the Mistlands that nobody ever enters. West, there’s the Hyrcanian and Katalbian River valleys. Southwards the Wandering Lakes country.”

  “Will you try to find out if anyone has noticed, unusual activity at any isolated points in those, regions?” Curt asked.

  “I’ll find out from the Planetography Bureau if they’ve heard of anything,” Khol Kor puzzledly assented.

  When the Governor had gone, Curt Newton rapidly explained his plans to the Futuremen, Ezra and Joan.

  “I’m going to search Graeme’s rooms, and then perhaps see Sus Urgal,” he stated. “Simon, you’ll want to start analyzing the Lifewater at once.”

  “Aye, lad,” rasped the Brain. “Grag can help me.”

  “It’s always Grag who has to stay and help,” complained the big robot “Why not Otho? He’s no good for anything else.”

  “Listen to what’s talking
!” Otho sneered. “A big hunk of old iron that goes wallowing off in space when he’s needed. He drifts around with that moon-pup while we’re in trouble on Mars.”

  The two Futuremen’s voices rose. Joan Randall, laughing, asked Curt a question that had often puzzled him.

  “Don’t they ever get tired of scrapping?”

  “They don’t, but I do” Curt sighed. “Cut your rockets, you two! You’re both staying here in the Comet. Ezra will go with me.”

  Ezra Gurney and Captain Future were soon threading the teeming, ancient, narrow black streets of Ops. The old marshal knew where to find Martin Graeme’s rooms, which were not far away.

  “Danged if I like to see so many blue faces,” Ezra growled as he and Curt shouldered through the Saturnian throngs. “Makes me remember the first time I ever landed on this world, long before you were born. I had a hangover from the Martian liquor we’d drunk the night before to celebrate our successful voyage. I wake up to find we’ve already landed, and I look out an’ see a thousand blue men. Blazin’ meteors, what a shock!”

  Curt grinned “You don’t sound very repentant, you old reprobate. Those were the good old days, eh?”

  “That they were,” replied Ezra with a wheezy chuckle. Then he sobered. “Here’s where Graeme’s apartment is.”

  WHEN they entered the ordinary apartment building of black cement, they found Graeme’s door locked. No one answered the televis-announcer. But Curt deftly manipulated the electro lock till its bolt slid back.

  Martin Graeme’s rooms were empty. The Earthman ethnologist was not here, but some of his baggage and belongings were.

  Captain Future began a swift, thorough search. He found a number of abstruse ethnological reference works in various planetary languages, some large scale maps of Saturn, a note-book in which had been jotted many references to the possibility of a winged race having existed.