The Defiant Agents Read online

  17

  There were ten of them riding on small, wiry steppe ponies--men andwomen both, and well armed. Travis recalled it was the custom of theHorde that the women fought as warriors when necessary. Menlik--therewas no mistaking the flapping robe of their leader. And they weresinging! The rider behind the shaman thumped with violent energy a drumfastened beside his saddle horn, its heavy boom, boom the same call theApache had heard before. The Mongols were working themselves into themood for some desperate effort, Travis deduced. And if they were toodeeply under the Red spell, there would be no arguing with them. Hecould wait no longer.

  The Apache swung down from a ledge near the valley gate, moved into theopen and stood waiting, the alien weapon resting across his forearm. Ifnecessary, he intended to give a demonstration with it for an objectlesson.

  "_Dar-u-gar_!" The war cry which had once awakened fear across a quarterof Terra. Thin here, and from only a few throats, but just as menacing.

  Two of the horsemen aimed lances, preparing to ride him down. Travissighted a tree midway between them and pressed the firing button. Thistime there was a flash, a flicker of light, to mark the disappearance ofa living thing.

  One of the lancers' ponies reared, squealed in fear. The other kept onhis course.

  "Menlik!" Travis shouted. "Hold up your man! I do not want to kill!"

  The shaman called out, but the lancer was already level with thevanished tree, his head half turned on his shoulders to witness theblackened earth where it had stood. Then he dropped his lance, sawed onthe reins. A rifle bullet might not have halted his charge, unless itkilled or wounded, but what he had just seen was a thing beyond hisunderstanding.

  The tribesmen sat their horses, facing Travis, watching him with theferal eyes of the wolves they claimed as forefathers, wolves thatpossessed the cunning of the wild, cunning enough not to rush breakneckinto unknown danger.

  Travis walked forward. "Menlik, I would talk--"

  There was an outburst from the horsemen, protests from Hulagur and oneor two of the others. But the shaman urged his mount into a walking pacetoward the Apache until they stood only a few feet from each other--thewarrior of the steppes and the Horde facing the warrior of the desertand the People.

  "You have taken a woman from our yurts," Menlik said, but his eyes weremore on the alien gun than on the man who held it. "Brave are you tocome again into our land. He who sets foot in the stirrup must mountinto the saddle; he who draws blade free of the scabbard must beprepared to use it."

  "The Horde is not here--I see only a handful of people," Travis replied."Does Menlik propose to go up against the Apaches so? Yet there arethose who are his greater enemies."

  "A stealer of women is not such a one as needs a regiment under ageneral to face him."

  Suddenly Travis was impatient of the ceremonious talking; there was solittle time.

  "Listen, and listen well, Shaman!" He spoke curtly now. "I have not yourwoman. She is already crossing the mountains southward," he pointed withhis chin--"leading the Reds into a trap."

  Would Menlik believe him? There was no need, Travis decided, to tell himnow that Kaydessa's part in this affair was involuntary.

  "And you?" The shaman asked the question the Apache had hoped to hear.

  "_We_," Travis emphasized that, "march now against those hiding behindin their ship out there." He indicated the northern plains.

  Menlik raised his head, surveying the land about them with disbelieving,contemptuous appraisal.

  "You are chief then of an army, an army equipped with magic to overcomemachines?"

  "One needs no army when he carries this." For the second time Travisdisplayed the power of the weapon he carried, this time cutting intoshifting rubble an outcrop of cliff wall. Menlik's expression did notchange, though his eyes narrowed.

  The shaman signaled his small company, and they dismounted. Travis washeartened by this sign that Menlik was willing to talk. The Apache madea similar gesture, and Jil-Lee and Buck, their own weapons well insight, came out to back him. Travis knew that the Tatar had no way ofknowing that the three were alone; he well might have believed an unseentroop of Apaches were near-by and so armed.

  "You would talk--then talk!" Menlik ordered.

  This time Travis outlined events with an absence of word embroidery."Kaydessa leads the Reds into a trap we have set beyond the peaks--fourof them ride with her. How many now remain in the ship near thesettlement?"

  "There are at least two in the flyer, perhaps eight more in the ship.But there is no getting at them in there."

  "No?" Travis laughed softly, shifted the weapon on his arm. "Do you notthink that this will crack the shell of that nut so that we can get atthe meat?"

  Menlik's eyes flickered to the left, to the tree which was no longer atree but a thin deposit of ash on seared ground.

  "They can control us with the caller as they did before. If we go upagainst them, then we are once more gathered into their net--before wereach their ship."

  "That is true for you of the Horde; it does not affect the People,"Travis returned. "And suppose we burn out their machines? Then will younot be free?"

  "To burn up a tree? Lightning from the skies can do that."

  "Can lightning," Buck asked softly, "also make rock as sand of theriver?"

  Menlik's eyes turned to the second example of the alien weapon's power.

  "Give us proof that this will act against their machines!"

  "What proof, Shaman?" asked Jil-Lee. "Shall we burn down a mountain thatyou may believe? This is now a matter of time."

  Travis had a sudden inspiration. "You say that the 'copter is out.Suppose we use that as a target?"

  "That--that can sweep the flyer from the sky?" Menlik's disbelief wasopen.

  Travis wondered if he had gone too far. But they needed to ridthemselves of that spying flyer before they dared to move out into theplain. And to use the destruction of the helicopter as an example, wouldbe the best proof he could give of the invincibility of the new Apachearms.

  "Under the right conditions," he replied stoutly, "yes."

  "And those conditions?" Menlik demanded.

  "That it must be brought within range. Say, below the level of aneighboring peak where a man may lie in wait to fire."

  Silent Apaches faced silent Mongols, and Travis had a chance to tastewhat might be defeat. But the helicopter must be taken before theyadvanced toward the ship and the settlement.

  "And, maker of traps, how do you intend to bait this one?" Menlik'squestion was an open challenge.

  "You know these Reds better than we," Travis counterattacked. "How wouldyou bait it, Son of the Blue Wolf?"

  "You say Kaydessa is leading the Reds south; we have but your word forthat," Menlik replied. "Though how it would profit you to lie on such amatter--" He shrugged. "If you do speak the truth, then the 'copter willcircle about the foothills where they entered."

  "And what would bring the pilot nosing farther in?" the Apache asked.

  Menlik shrugged again. "Any manner of things. The Reds have neverventured too far south; they are suspicious of the heights--with goodcause." His fingers, near the hilt of his tulwar, twitched. "Anythingwhich might suggest that their party is in difficulty would bring themin for a closer look--"

  "Say a fire, with much smoke?" Jil-Lee suggested.

  Menlik spoke over his shoulder to his own party. There was a babble ofanswer, two or three of the men raising their voices above those oftheir companions.

  "If set in the right direction, yes," the shaman conceded. "When do youplan to move, Apaches?"

  "At once!"

  But they did not have wings, and the cross-country march they had tomake was a rough journey on foot. Travis' "at once" stretched into nighthours filled with scrambling over rocks, and an early morning ofpreparations, with always the threat that the helicopter might notreturn to fly its circling mission over the scene of operations. Allthey had was Menlik's assurance that while any party of the Redoverlords w
as away from their well-defended base, the flyer did justthat.

  "Might be relaying messages on from a walkie-talkie or something likethat," Buck commented.

  "They should reach our ship in two days ... three at the most ... ifthey are pushing," Travis said thoughtfully. "It would be a help--ifthat flyer is a link in any com unit--to destroy it before its crewpicks up and relays any report of what happens back there."

  Jil-Lee grunted. He was surveying the heights above the pocket in whichMenlik and two of the Mongols were piling brush. "There ... there ...and there...." The Apache's chin made three juts. "If the pilot swoopsfor a quick look, our cross fire will take out his blades."

  They held a last conference with Menlik and then climbed to the perchesJil-Lee had selected. Sentries on lookout reported by mirror flash thatTsoay, Deklay, Lupe, and Nolan were now on the move to join the otherthree Apaches. If and when Manulito's trap closed its jaws on the Redsat the western ship, the news would pass and the Apaches would move outto storm the enemy fort on the prairie. And should they blast any callerthe helicopter might carry, Menlik and his riders would accompany them.

  There it was, just as Menlik had foretold: The wasp from the opencountry was flying into the hills. Menlik, on his knees, struck flint tosteel, sparking the fire they hoped would draw the pilot to a closerinvestigation.

  The brush caught, and smoke, thick and white, came first in separatepuffs and then gathered into a murky pillar to form a signal no onecould overlook. In Travis' hands the grip of the gun was slippery. Herested the end of the barrel on the rock, curbing his rising tension asbest he could.

  To escape any caller on the flyer, the Tatars had remained in the valleybelow the Apaches' lookout. And as the helicopter circled in, Travissighted two men in its cockpit, one wearing a helmet identical to theone they had seen on the Red hunter days ago. The Reds' long undisputedsway over the Mongol forces would make them overconfident. Travisthought that even if they sighted one of the waiting Apaches, they wouldnot take warning until too late.

  Menlik's bush fire was performing well and the flyer was headingstraight for it. The machine buzzed the smoke once, too high for theApaches to trust raying its blades. Then the pilot came back in a lowersweep which carried him only yards above the smoldering brush, on alevel with the snipers.

  Travis pressed the button on the barrel, his target the fast-whirlingblades. Momentum carried the helicopter on, but at least one of themarksmen, if not all three, had scored. The machine plowed through thesmoke to crack up beyond.

  Was their caller working, bringing in the Mongols to aid the Redstrapped in the wreck?

  Travis watched Menlik make his way toward the machine, reach the crackedcover of the cockpit. But in the shaman's hand was a bare blade on whichthe sun glinted. The Mongol wrenched open the sprung door, thrust inwardwith the tulwar, and the howl of triumph he voiced was as worldless andwild as a wolf's.

  More Mongols flooding down ... Hulagur ... a woman ... centering on thehelicopter. This time a spear plunged into the interior of the brokenflyer. Payment was being extracted for long slavery.

  The Apaches dropped from the heights, waiting for Menlik to leave thewild scene. Hulagur had dragged out the body of the helmeted man andthe Mongols were stripping off his equipment, smashing it with rocks,still howling their war cry. But the shaman came to the dying smudgefire to meet the Apaches.

  He was smiling, his upper lip raised in a curve suggesting the victorypurr of a snow tiger. And he saluted with one hand.

  "There are two who will not trap men again! We believe you now, _andas_,comrades of battle, when you say you can go up against their fort andmake it as nothing!"

  Hulagur came up behind the shaman, a modern automatic in his hand. Hetossed the weapon into the air, caught it again, laughing--disclaimingsomething in his own language.

  "From the serpents we take two fangs," Menlik translated. "These weaponsmay not be as dangerous as yours, but they can bite deeper, quicker, andwith more force than our arrows."

  It did not take the Mongols long to strip the helicopter and the Reds ofwhat they could use, deliberately smashing all the other equipment whichhad survived the wreck. They had accomplished one important move: Thelink between the southbound exploring party and the Red headquarters--ifthat was the role the helicopter had played--was now gone. And the"eyes" operating over the open territory of the plains had ceased toexist. The attacking war party could move against the ship near the Redsettlement, knowing they had only controlled Mongol scouts to watch for.And to penetrate enemy territory under those conditions was an old, oldgame the Apaches had played for centuries.

  While they waited for the signals from the peaks, a camp was establishedand a Mongol dispatched to bring up the rest of the outlaws and allextra mounts. Menlik carried to the Apaches a portion of the dried meatwhich had been transported Horde fashion--under the saddle to soften itfor eating.

  "We do not skulk any longer like rats or city men in dark holes," hetold them. "This time we ride, and we shall take an accounting fromthose out there--a fine accounting!"

  "They still have other controllers," Travis pointed out.

  "And you have that which is an answer to all their machines," blazedMenlik in return.

  "They will send against us your own people if they can," Buck warned.

  Menlik pulled at his upper lip. "That is also truth. But now they haveno eyes in the sky, and with so many of their men away, they will notpatrol too far from camp. I tell you, _andas_, with these weapons ofyours a man could rule a world!"

  Travis looked at him bleakly. "Which is why they are taboo!"

  "Taboo?" Menlik repeated. "In what manner are these forbidden? Do younot carry them openly, use them as you wish? Are they not weapons ofyour own people?"

  Travis shook his head. "These are the weapons of dead men--if we canname them men at all. These we took from a tomb of the star race whoheld Topaz when our world was only a hunting ground of wild men wearingthe skins of beasts and slaying mammoths with stone spears. They arefrom a tomb and are cursed, a curse we took upon ourselves with theiruse."

  There was a strange light deep in the shaman's eyes. Travis did not knowwho or what Menlik had been before the Red conditioner had returned himto the role of Horde shaman. He might have been a technician orscientist--and deep within him some remnants of that training could nowbe dismissing everything Travis said as fantastic superstition.

  Yet in another way the Apache spoke the exact truth. There was a curseon these weapons, on every bit of knowledge gathered in that warehouseof the towers. As Menlik had already noted, that curse was power, thepower to control Topaz, and then perhaps to reach back across the starsto Terra.

  When the shaman spoke again his words were a half whisper. "It will takea powerful curse to keep these out of the hands of men."

  "With the Reds gone or powerless," Buck asked, "what need will anyonehave for them?"

  "And if another ship comes from the skies--to begin all over again?"

  "To that we shall have an answer, also, if and when we must find it,"Travis replied. That could well be true ... other weapons in thewarehouse powerful enough to pluck a spaceship out of the sky, but theydid not have to worry about that now.

  "Arms from a tomb. Yes, this is truly dead men's magic. I shall say soto my people. When do we move out?"

  "When we know whether or not the trap to the south is sprung," Buckanswered.

  The report came an hour after sunrise the next morning when Tsoay,Nolan, and Deklay padded into camp. The war chief made a slight gesturewith one hand.

  "It is done?" Travis wanted confirmation in words.

  "It is done. The Pinda-lick-o-yi entered the ship eagerly. Then theyblew it and themselves up. Manulito did his work well."

  "And Kaydessa?"

  "The woman is safe. When the Reds saw the ship, they left their machineoutside to hold her captive. That mechanical caller was easilydestroyed. She is now free and with the _mba'a_ she comes across themountains,
Manulito and Eskelta with her also. Now--" he looked from hisown people to the Mongols, "why are you here with these?"

  "We wait, but the waiting is over," Jil-Lee said. "Now we go north!"