Gold in the Sky

by Alan Edward Nourse

  10. The Trigger

  In the first instance of astonishment they were speechless. Later, Tomsaid it was the first time in his life that he had ever seen Gregtotally without words; his brother jumped back, as if he had seen aghost, and his mouth worked, but no sounds came out.

  "Don't worry, it's me all right," Tom said, "and I'm mighty hungry."

  Greg and Johnny stared at the black hole behind the grill ... and thenGreg was pumelling him, pounding him on the back, so excited he couldn'tget a sentence out, and Johnny was hovering over them, incredulous butforced to believe his eyes, like a father overwhelmed by the impossiblebehavior of a pair of unpredictable children. It was a jubilant reunion.They broke open the cabinets and refrigerator in the back of the loungeand pulled out surro-ham and rolls, while Johnny got some coffee going.Tom was so famished he could hardly wait to make sandwiches of the ham.He ate it as fast as he got it.

  But finally he slowed up, got his mouth empty enough to talk. "Allright, let's have the story," Greg said, still looking as though hecouldn't believe his eyes. "The last we saw, you were blown into atomsout there in that _Scavenger_ ... you've got some nerve turning up nowand scaring us half out of our skins...."

  "You want me to go back in my hole?"

  "Just sit still and talk!"

  Tom told them, then, starting from the beginning.

  Through it all Greg stared in admiration. "We've got a genius among us,that's all," he said finally. "And I always thought you were the timidone...."

  "But what else could I do?" Tom said. "You know what they say aboutgrabbing a tiger by the tail ... once you get hold, you've got to holdon."

  "Okay," Greg said, "but the next time I make a crack about your retiringnature, remind me to stick my foot in my mouth."

  "I'll do it for him," Johnny Coombs rumbled.

  Tom nodded toward the open grill. "The only thing I don't see is how youknew I was back there."

  Johnny grinned. "We were busy taking down the grill when you camealong. We'd found three microphones in this place, and figured theymight have one behind the grill. And then we heard somebody breathingback there ... we thought they'd posted a guard back there, just to snoopus."

  "Well, I'm glad you didn't hit him any harder...."

  Johnny started to say something, then stopped, cocked his head towardthe door. There were footsteps in the corridor outside; they camecloser, stopped by the door. "Quick," Johnny hissed, "back inside!"

  There was no time to look for other concealment. Tom leaped across theroom, jumped up into the shaft again, and Greg slammed the grate up intoplace just as the hatchway door swung open.

  Merrill Tawney walked into the room, with two burly guards behind him.

  * * * * *

  For the first few seconds, Greg was certain that they were lost. Hestood with his back to the ventilator grill, frozen in his tracks as thefat little company man came in the room. He tried to keep his faceblank, but he knew he wasn't succeeding. He saw the puzzled frown formon Tawney's face.

  The company man motioned the guards into the room, peered suspiciouslyat Greg and Johnny. "Am I interrupting something, by any chance?"

  "Nothing at all," Johnny blurted. "We were just talking."

  "Talking." Tawney repeated the word as if it were some strange languagehe didn't quite understand. He looked at the guard. "Let's just checkthem."

  While one guard patted down their clothes, the other withdrew a stunner,held it on ready. Tawney prowled the lounge. He glanced at the food onthe table, then reached under the chair cushion and withdrew thedisconnected microphone, looked at the loose wires, and tossed it aside.

  "They're clean," the guard said.

  Tawney's face was a study of uneasiness, but he clearly could notpinpoint what the trouble was. Finally he shrugged, turned on the smileagain, although his eyes remained watchful. "Well, maybe you won't mindif I join in the talking for a while," he said. "You've beencomfortable? No complaints?"

  "No complaints," Greg said.

  "Then I presume we're ready to talk business." He looked at Greg.

  "You said you were ready to bargain," Greg said, "but I haven't heardany terms yet."

  "Terms? Very simple. You direct us to the lode, we give you half ofeverything we realize from it," Tawney said, smiling.

  "You mean you'll write us a contract? With a U.N. witness to it?"

  "Well, hardly ... under the circumstances. I'm afraid you'll have totake our word."

  Greg looked at the company man, and shook his head. "Not that I don'ttrust you," he said, "but I'm afraid I can't give you what you want,"Greg said.

  "Why not?"

  "Because I don't know where Dad made his strike."

  The company man's face darkened. "Somebody knows where it is. Yourfather would never have found something like that without telling hisown sons...."

  "Sorry," Greg said. "Of course, I can tell you where you can find out,if you want to go look."

  "We've already searched his records...."

  "_Some_ of his records," Greg said. "Not all of them. There was acompartment behind the main control panel in Dad's orbit-ship. Dad usedit to store deeds, claims, other important papers. There was a packet ofnotes in there before your men fired on the ship. But of course, maybeyou searched more thoroughly, the second time."

  Tawney stared at him for a moment, then at Johnny. Johnny Coombsshrugged his shoulders solemnly, and shook his head. Without a word, thelittle company man walked to the intercom speaker on the wall. He spokesharply into it, waited, then had a brief, pungent conversation withsomeone. Then he turned back to Greg, his face heavy with suspicion."You saw these papers?"

  "Certainly I saw them. I didn't have time to read them through, but whatelse could they be?"

  "Let me warn you," Tawney said coldly, "if I send a crew out there on awild goose chase, the party will be over when they get back, do youunderstand? You've been given every consideration. If this is a fool'serrand, you'll pay for it very dearly." He turned on his heel, snarledat one of the guards. "I want them watched every minute," he said. "Oneof you stay with them constantly. It won't take long to find out if thisis a stall...."

  He stalked out, and the hatchway clanged behind him. One guard wentalong; the big one with the stunner stayed behind, eyeing his prisonersunpleasantly. The stunner was in his hand, the safety off.

  Johnny Coombs started across the room toward the kitchennette, passingclose to the guard. Suddenly he turned, swung his fist heavily down onthe guard's neck. The stunner crackled, but Greg had jumped aside.Another blow from Johnny's fist sent the gun flying. Another blow, andthe guard's legs slid out from under him. He fell unconscious to thefloor.

  In an instant they were across the room, lifting down the grill, helpingTom out of his hiding place. "Okay, boy," Johnny said to Greg, "I guessyou pulled the trigger with that story of yours."

  "Not me," Greg said. "Tom did. He's the one that showed us the wayout ... the same way he came in."

  * * * * *

  The guard was out for a while, they made sure of that first. Then therewas a hasty consultation. "The airlocks are guarded," Johnny said, "andif they tumble to the ventilator shafts, they can smoke us out in notime. How are we going to get a scout-ship without showing ourselves?For that matter, how are we going to get a scout-ship away from herewithout being blown up the way the _Scavenger_ was blown up?"

  "I think I know a way," Tom said. "We have to have something to keep alot of the crew busy. If we could get to the ship's generators and putthem out of commission somehow, it might do it."

  "Why?" Greg wanted to know.

  "Because of the air supply," Tom said. "Without the generators, the fanswon't run. They'll have to get a crew to fix them or they'll suffocate."

  "But that would only take a few men," Johnny said. "As soon asthe generators went out, they'd look for us, and if we weremissing ... well, they'd have the whole crew beating the bushes for us.It
wouldn't be long before somebody thought of the ventilators."

  "But we've got to do something, and do it fast," Tom said.

  "I know." Johnny chewed his lip. "It's a good idea, but we need morethan just the generators. We've got to disable the ship ... throw somany things at them so fast from so many different directions that theydon't know which way to turn. That means we'd need to split up, and we'dneed weapons." He hefted the guard's Markheim. "One stunner betweenthree of us isn't enough."

  "Well, we have this." Tom unbuckled Roger Hunter's gun case from hisbelt. "Dad's revolver. It's not a stunner, but it might help." He tossedthe case to Johnny. "I can give you both a rundown on how the shafts go.We could plan to meet at a certain spot in a certain length of time...."

  He broke off, looking at Johnny. The big miner had taken Roger Hunter'sgun from the case, and hefted it in his hand, started to check itautomatically as Tom talked. But now his hand froze as he stared at theweapon.

  "What's wrong?" Tom asked.

  "This gun is wrong," Johnny said. "All wrong. Where did you get thisthing?"

  "From Dad's spacer pack, the one the Patrol brought back. The Major gaveit to us in Sun Lake City." Tom peered at the gun. "Is it broken orsomething? It's just Dad's revolver...."

  "It is, eh?" Johnny turned the gun over in his hand. "Whoever told youabout guns?"

  "What's wrong with it?"

  There was an odd expression on Johnny's face as he handed the weaponback to Tom. "Take a look at it," he said. "Tell me whether it's loadedor not."

  Tom looked at it. Except for a few hours on the firing range, he had hadno experience with guns; he couldn't have taken down a Markheim andreassembled it if his life depended on it. But he had seen his fathertake the old revolver out of the leather case many times before.

  Now Tom could see that this was not the same gun.

  The thing in his hand was large and awkward. The hand-grips didn't fit;there was no trigger guard, and no trigger. Several inches along thegleaming metal barrel was a shiny stud, and below it a dial with notcheson it.

  "That's funny," Tom said. "I've never seen this thing before."

  Greg took it from him, balanced it in his hand. "Doesn't feel right," hesaid. "All out of balance."

  "Look at the barrel," Johnny said quietly.

  Greg looked. There was no hole in the end of the barrel. "This thing'scrazy," he said.

  "And then some," Johnny said. "You haven't had this out of the casesince you took it from the pack?"

  "Just once," said Tom. "And I put it right back. I hardly looked at it.Look, maybe it's just a new model Dad got."

  "It's no new model. I'm not even sure it's a gun," Johnny said. "Doesn't_feel_ like a gun."

  "What happens when you push the stud here?" Greg asked.

  Johnny licked his lips nervously. "Try it," he said.

  Greg leveled the thing at the rear wall of the lounge and pressed thestud. There was a sharp buzzing sound, and a blinding flash of bluelight against the wall. It looked for all the world like the flash of alive power line shorting out. They squinted at the flash, rubbed theireyes....

  And stared at the wall. Or at what was left of the wall, because most ofthe wall was gone. The metal had bellied out in a six-foot hole into thestorage hold beyond....

  Johnny Coombs whistled. "This thing did _that_?" he whispered.

  "It must have...."

  "But there's no gun ever made that could do that." He walked over to thehole in the wall. "That's half-inch steel plate. There's no way to packthat kind of energy into a hand gun."

  They stared at the innocent-looking weapon in Greg's hand. "Whatever itis, Dad must have put it in the gun-case."

  "Yes, he must have," Johnny said.

  "Well, don't you see what that means? _Dad must have found itsomewhere_. Somewhere out here in the Belt ... a gun that no man couldhave made...."

  He took the weapon, ran his finger along the gleaming barrel. "Iwonder," he said, "what else Dad might have found out there."

  * * * * *

  Somewhere below them they heard a hatch clang shut, and even deeper inthe ship generator motors began throbbing in a steady even rhythm. Inthe silence of the lounge they could hear their own breathing, andoutside a thousand tiny sounds of the ship's activity were audible.

  But now they had attention only for the odd-shaped piece of metal inGreg's hand, and for the hole that gaped in the wall.

  "You think that _this_ was what Dad found?" Greg said. "The Big Strikehe told Johnny about?"

  "It must be part of it," Tom said.

  "But what is it? And where did it come from? It doesn't make sense,"Greg protested.

  "It doesn't make sense the way we've been looking at it," Tom said. "Allwe've found was some gobbledegook in Dad's private log to tell us whathe found ... but it couldn't have been a vein of ore, or Tawney's menwould have unearthed it. It had to be something else. Something that wasso big and important that Dad didn't even dare let Johnny in on it."

  "Yes, that's been the craziest part of it, to me," Johnny said. "I'vedone a lot of mining with your Dad. If he'd hit rich ore, he would havetaken me out there to mine it with him. But he didn't. He said it wassomething he had to work on alone for a while, and he sent me back."

  "As if he'd found something that scared him," Tom said, "or somethingthat he didn't understand. He was _afraid_ to tell anybody. And whateverhe found, he managed to hide it somewhere, so that nobody would findit...."

  "Then why didn't he hide this part of it, too?" Greg said.

  "Maybe to be sure there was some trace left, if anything happened tohim," Tom said.

  They were silent for a moment. The only sound was the stertorousbreathing of the unconscious guard. "Well," Greg said finally, "I haveto admit it makes sense. It makes other things add up better, too. Dadwas no fool, he must have known that Tawney was onto something. And Dadwould never have risked his life for an ore strike. He'd either havemade a deal with Tawney or let him hijack the lode, if that was allthere was to it. But there's still one big question ... where did hehide what he found? And we aren't going to find the answer here." Hewalked over to the hole in the wall.

  "Made quite a mess of it, didn't it?" Johnny said.

  "Looks like it. I wonder what that thing would do to a ship's generatorplant." He turned to Johnny. "We haven't much time. With this thing, wecould tear this ship apart, leave them so confused they'll never knowwhat broke loose. And if we could get that gun back to Major Briarton,he'd have to listen to us, and get the U.N. Patrol into the search...."

  They had been so intent on their talking that they did not hear thefootsteps in the corridor until the door swung open. It was anotherguard, the one who had departed with Tawney. He stopped short, blinkingat his companion on the floor, and then at the gaping hole in the wall.When he saw the twins, side by side, his jaw sagged and a strangledsound came from his throat.

  Then Johnny grabbed his arm, jerked him into the lounge, and slammed thehatch shut. Greg pulled the stunner from his holster and tossed it toTom. The guard let out a roar, twisted free, and met Johnny's fist as hecame around. He sagged at the knees and slid to the floor beside theother guard. "All right," Johnny said, "we've dealt the cards, now we'dbetter play the hand. Tom, you first."

  Tom pulled the ventilator grill down, and climbed up into the shaft.Greg followed, with Johnny at his heels, pulling the grill back up intoplace from the inside. They waited for a moment, but there was no soundfrom the lounge.

  "All right," Johnny said breathlessly. "Let's move."

  Swiftly they started down the dark tunnel.