by Jerry
“Half-life over one hundred years,” Reynolds answered shortly. “The last skirmish of the war was fought near here. Apparently this is where they buried the radioactive equipment left over from the battle.”
“But what the hell, that was seventy years ago—”
“There’s still enough residual radiation to contaminate anything inside a quarter-mile radius.”
“They must have used some hellish stuff.” Mayfield stared at the dull shine half a mile distant.
“Reynolds, how are you going to stop this thing?” The mayor had turned on the PA engineer.
“Me stop it? You saw what it did to my heaviest rigs: flattened them like pancakes. You’ll have to call out the military on this one, Mr. Mayor.”
“Call in Federation forces? Have them meddling in civic affairs?”
“The station’s only sixty-five miles from here. I think you’d better call them fast. It’s only moving at about three miles per hour but it will reach the south edge of the Mall in another forty-five minutes.”
“Can’t you mine it? Blast a trap in its path?”
“You saw it claw its way up from six hundred feet down. I checked the specs; it followed the old excavation tunnel out. It was rubble-filled and capped with twenty-inch compressed concrete.”
“It’s incredible,” Eaton said from the screen. “The entire machine was encased in a ten-foot shell of reinforced armocrete. It had to break out of that before it could move a foot!”
“That was just a radiation shield; it wasn’t intended to restrain a Bolo Combat Unit.”
“What was, may I inquire?” The mayor glared from one face to another.
“The units were deactivated before being buried,” Eaton spoke up, as if he were eager to talk. “Their circuits were fused. It’s all in the report—”
“The report you should have read somewhat sooner,” the mayor snapped.
“What—what started it up?” Mayfield looked bewildered. “For seventy years it was down there, and nothing happened!”
“Our blasting must have jarred something,” Reynolds said shortly. “Maybe closed a relay that started up the old battle reflex circuit.”
“You know something about these machines?” The mayor beetled his brows at him.
“I’ve read a little.”
“Then speak up, man. I’ll call the station, if you feel I must. What measures should I request?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Mayor. As far as I know, nothing on New Devon can stop that machine now.”
The mayor’s mouth opened and closed. He whirled to the screen, blanked Eaton’s agonized face, punched in the code for the Federation station.
“Colonel Blane!” he blurted as a stern face came onto the screen. “We have a major emergency on our hands! I’ll need everything you’ve got! This is the situation . . .”
I encounter no resistance other than the flimsy barrier, but my progress is slow. Grievous damage has been done to my main drive sector due to overload during my escape from the trap; and the failure of my sensing circuitry has deprived me of a major portion of my external receptivity. Now my pain circuits project a continuous signal to my awareness center, but it is my duty to my Commander and to my fallen comrades of the Brigade to press forward at my best speed; but my performance is a poor shadow of my former ability.
And now at last the Enemy comes into action! I sense aerial units closing at supersonic velocities; I lock my lateral batteries to them and direct salvo fire, but I sense that the arming mechanisms clatter harmlessly. The craft sweep over me, and my impotent guns elevate, track them as they release detonants that spread out in an envelopmental pattern which I, with my reduced capabilities, am powerless to avoid. The missiles strike; I sense their detonations all about me; but I suffer only trivial damage. The Enemy has blundered if he thought to neutralize a Mark XXVIII Combat Unit with mere chemical explosives! But I weaken with each meter gained.
Now there is no doubt as to my course. I must press the charge and carry the walls before my reserve cells are exhausted.
From a vantage point atop a bucket rig four hundred yards from the position the great fighting machine had now reached, Pete Reynolds studied it through night glasses. A battery of beamed polyarcs pinned the giant hulk, scarred and rust-scaled, in a pool of blue-white light. A mile and a half beyond it, the walls of the Mall rose sheer from the garden setting.
“The bombers slowed it some,” he reported to Eaton via scope. “But it’s still making better than two miles per hour. I’d say another twenty-five minutes before it hits the main ringwall. How’s the evacuation going?”
“Badly! I get no cooperation! You’ll be my witness, Reynolds, I did all I could—”
“How about the mobile batteries; how long before they’ll be in position?” Reynolds cut him off.
“I’ve heard nothing from Federation Central—typical militaristic arrogance, not keeping me informed—but I have them on my screens. They’re two miles out—say three minutes.”
“I hope you made your point about N-heads.”
“That’s outside my province!” Eaton said sharply. “It’s up to Brand to carry out this portion of the operation!”
“The HE Missiles didn’t do much more than clear away the junk it was dragging.” Reynolds’ voice was sharp.
“I wash my hands of responsibility for civilian lives,” Eaton was saying when Reynolds shut him off, changed channels.
“Jim, I’m going to try to divert it,” he said crisply. “Eaton’s sitting on his political fence; the Feds are bringing artillery up, but I don’t expect much from it. Technically, Brand needs Sector okay to use nuclear stuff, and he’s not the boy to stick his neck out—”
“Divert it how? Pete, don’t take any chances—”
Reynolds laughed shortly. “I’m going to get around it and drop a shaped drilling charge in its path. Maybe I can knock a tread off. With luck, I might get its attention on me and draw it away from the Mall. There are still a few thousand people over there, glued to their Tri-D’s. They think it’s all a swell show.”
“Pete, you can’t walk up on that thing! It’s hot—” He broke off. “Pete, there’s some kind of nut here—he claims he has to talk to you; says he knows something about that damned juggernaut. Shall I . . .?”
Reynolds paused with his hand on the cut-off switch. “Put him on,” he snapped. Mayfield’s face moved aside and an ancient, bleary-eyed visage stared out at him. The tip of the old man’s tongue touched his dry lips.
“Son, I tried to tell this boy here, but he wouldn’t listen—”
“What have you got, old timer?” Pete cut in. “Make it fast.”
“My name’s Sanders. James Sanders. I’m . . . I was with the Planetary Volunteer Scouts, back in ‘71—”
“Sure, dad,” Pete said gently. “I’m sorry, I’ve got a little errand to run—”
“Wait . . .” The old man’s face worked. “I’m old, son—too damned old. I know. But bear with me. I’ll try to say it straight. I was with Hayle’s squadron at Toledo. Then afterwards, they shipped us—but hell, you don’t care about that! I keep wandering, son; can’t help it. What I mean to say is—I was in on that last scrap, right here at New Devon—only we didn’t call it New Devon then. Called it Hellport. Nothing but bare rock and Enemy emplacement—”
“You were talking about the battle, Mr. Sanders,” Pete said tensely. “Go on with that part.”
“Lieutenant Sanders,” the oldster said. “Sure, I was Acting Brigade Commander. See, our major was hit at Toledo—and after Tommy Chee stopped a sidewinder at Belgrave—”
“Stick to the point, Lieutenant!”
“Yessir!” The old man pulled himself together with an obvious effort. “I took the Brigade in; put out flankers, and ran the Enemy into the ground. We mopped ’em up in a thirty-three hour running fight that took us from over by Crater Bay all the way down here to Hellport. When it was over, I’d lost sixteen units, but the Enemy was done. They gave
us Brigade Honors for that action. And then . . .”
“Then what?”
“Then the triple-dyed yellow-bottoms at Headquarters put out the order the Brigade was to be scrapped; said they were too hot to make decon practical. Cost too much, they said! So after the final review”—he gulped, blinked—“they planted ’em deep, two hundred meters, and poured in special high-R concrete.”
“And packed rubble in behind them,” Reynolds finished for him. “All right, Lieutenant, I believe you! Now for the big one: what started that machine on a rampage?”
“Should have known they couldn’t hold down a Bolo Mark XXVIII!” The old man’s eyes lit up. “Take more than a few million tons of rock to stop Lenny when his battle board was lit!”
“Lenny?”
“That’s my old command unit out there, son. I saw the markings on the Tri-D. Unit LNE of the Dinochrome Brigade!”
“Listen!” Reynolds snapped out. “Here’s what I intend to try . . .” He outlined his plan.
“Ha!” Sanders snorted. “It’s a gutsy notion, mister, but Lenny won’t give it a sneeze.”
“You didn’t come here to tell me we were licked,” Reynolds cut in. “How about Brand’s batteries?”
“Hell, son, Lenny stood up to point-blank Hellbore fire on Toledo, and—”
“Are you telling me there’s nothing we can do?”
“What’s that? No, son, that’s not what I’m saying . . .”
“Then what!”
“Just tell these johnnies to get out of the way, mister. I think I can handle him.”
At the field comm hut, Pete Reynolds watched as the man who had been Lieutenant Sanders of the Volunteer Scouts pulled shiny black boots over his thin ankles and stood. The blouse and trousers of royal blue polyon hung on his spare frame like wash on a line. He grinned, a skull’s grin.
“It doesn’t fit like it used to; but Lenny will recognize it. It’ll help. Now, if you’ve got that power pack ready . . .”
Mayfield handed over the old-fashioned field instrument Sanders had brought in with him.
“It’s operating, sir—but I’ve already tried everything I’ve got on that infernal machine; I didn’t get a peep out of it.”
Sanders winked at him. “Maybe I know a couple of tricks you boys haven’t heard about.” He slung the strap over his bony shoulder and turned to Reynolds.
“Guess we better get going, mister. He’s getting close.”
In the rock car, Sanders leaned close to Reynolds’ ear. “Told you those Federal guns wouldn’t scratch Lenny. They’re wasting their time.”
Reynolds pulled the car to a stop at the crest of the road, from which point he had a view of the sweep of ground leading across to the city’s edge. Lights sparkled all across the towers of New Devon. Close to the walls, the converging fire of the ranked batteries of infinite repeaters drove into the glowing bulk of the machine, which plowed on, undeterred. As he watched, the firing ceased.
“Now, let’s get in there, before they get some other damn-fool scheme going,” Sanders said.
The rock car crossed the rough ground, swung wide to come up on the Bolo from the left side. Behind the hastily rigged radiation cover, Reynolds watched the immense silhouette grow before him.
“I knew they were big,” he said. “But to see one up close like this—” He pulled to a stop a hundred feet from the Bolo.
“Look at the side ports,” Sanders said, his voice crisper now. “He’s firing antipersonnel charges—only his plates are flat. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t have gotten within half a mile.” He unclipped the microphone and spoke into it:
“Unit LNE, break off action and retire to ten-mile line!”
Reynolds’ head jerked around to stare at the old man. His voice had rung with vigor and authority as he spoke the command.
The Bolo ground slowly ahead. Sanders shook his head, tried again.
“No answer, like that fella said. He must be running on nothing but memories now . . .” He reattached the microphone, and before Reynolds could put out a hand, had lifted the anti-R cover and stepped off on the ground.
“Sanders—get back in here!” Reynolds yelled.
“Never mind, son. I’ve got to get in close. Contact induction.” He started toward the giant machine. Frantically, Reynolds started the car, slammed it into gear, pulled forward.
“Better stay back.” Sanders’ voice came from his field radio. “This close, that screening won’t do you much good.”
“Get in the car!” Reynolds roared. “That’s hard radiation!”
“Sure; feels funny, like a sunburn, about an hour after you come in from the beach and start to think maybe you got a little too much.” He laughed. “But I’ll get to him . . .”
Reynolds braked to a stop, watched the shrunken figure in the baggy uniform as it slogged forward, leaning as against a sleet storm.
“I’m up beside him.” Sander’s voice came through faintly on the field radio. “I’m going to try to swing up on his side. Don’t feel like trying to chase him any farther.”
Through the glasses, Reynolds watched the small figure, dwarfed by the immense bulk of the fighting machine, as he tried, stumbled, tried again, swung up on the flange running across the rear quarter inside the churning bogie wheel.
“He’s up,” he reported. “Damned wonder the track didn’t get him . . .”
Clinging to the side of the machine, Sanders lay for a moment, bent forward across the flange. Then he pulled himself up, wormed his way forward to the base of the rear quarter turret, wedged himself against it. He unslung the communicator, removed a small black unit, clipped it to the armor; it clung, held by a magnet. He brought the microphone up to his face.
In the comm shack, Mayfield leaned toward the screen, his eyes squinted in tension. Across the field, Reynolds held the glasses fixed on the man lying across the flank of the Bolo. They waited . . .
The walls are before me, and I ready myself for a final effort, but suddenly I am aware of trickle currents flowing over my outer surface. Is this some new trick of the Enemy? I tune to the wave energies, trace the source. They originate at a point in contact with my aft port armor. I sense modulation, match receptivity to a computed pattern. And I hear a voice:
“Unit LNE, break it off, Lenny. We’re pulling back now, boy. This is Command to LNE; pull back to ten miles. If you read me, Lenny, swing to port and halt.”
I am not fooled by the deception. The order appears correct, but the voice is not that of my Commander. Briefly I regret that I cannot spare energy to direct a neutralizing power flow at the device the Enemy has attached to me. I continue my charge.
“Unit LNE! Listen to me, boy; maybe you don’t recognize my voice, but it’s me. You see, boy—some time has passed. I’ve gotten old. My voice has changed some, maybe. But it’s me! Make a port turn, Lenny. Make it now!”
I am tempted to respond to the trick, for something in the false command seems to awaken secondary circuits which I sense have been long stilled. But I must not be swayed by the cleverness of the Enemy. My sensing circuitry has faded further as my energy cells drain; but I know where the Enemy lies. I move forward, but I am filled with agony, and only the memory of my comrades drives me on.
“Lenny, answer me. Transmit on the old private band—the one we agreed on. Nobody but me knows it, remember?
Thus the Enemy seeks to beguile me into diverting precious power. But I will not listen.
“Lenny—not much time left. Another minute and you’ll be into the walls. People are going to die. Got to stop you, Lenny. Hot here. My God, I’m hot. Not breathing too well, now. I can feel it; cutting through me like knives. You took a load of Enemy power, Lenny; and now I’m getting my share. Answer me, Lenny. Over to you . . .”
It will require only a tiny allocation of power to activate a communication circuit. I realize that it is only an Enemy trick, but I compute that by pretending to be deceived, I may achieve some trivial advantage. I adjust ci
rcuitry accordingly and transmit:
“Unit LNE to Command. Contact with Enemy defensive line imminent. Request support fire!”
“Lenny . . . you can hear me! Good boy, Lenny! Now make a turn, to port. Walls . . . close . . .”
“Unit LNE to Command. Request positive identification; transmit code 685749.”
“Lenny—I can’t . . . don’t have code blanks. But it’s me . . .”
“In absence of recognition code, your transmission disregarded,” I send. And now the walls loom high above me. There are many lights, but I see them only vaguely. I am nearly blind now.
“Lenny—less’n two hundred feet to go. Listen, Lenny. I’m climbing down. I’m going to jump down, Lenny, and get around under your fore scanner pickup. You’ll see me, Lenny. You’ll know me then.”
The false transmission ceases. I sense a body moving across my side. The gap closes. I detect movement before me, and in automatic reflex fire anti-P charges before I recall that I am unarmed.
A small object has moved out before me, and taken up a position between me and the wall behind which the Enemy conceal themselves. It is dim, but appears to have the shape of a man . . .
I am uncertain. My alert center attempts to engage inhibitory circuitry which will force me to halt, but it lacks power. I can override it. But still I am unsure. Now I must take a last risk; I must shunt power to my forward scanner to examine this obstacle more closely. I do so, and it leaps into greater clarity. It is indeed a man—and it is enclothed in regulation blues of the Volunteers. Now, closer, I see the face and through the pain of my great effort, I study it . . .
“He’s backed against the wall,” Reynolds said hoarsely. “It’s still coming. A hundred feet to go—”
“You were a fool, Reynolds!” the mayor barked. “A fool to stake everything on that old dotard’s crazy ideas!”
“Hold it!” As Reynolds watched, the mighty machine slowed, halted, ten feet from the sheer wall before it. For a moment, it sat, as though puzzled. Then it backed, halted again, pivoted ponderously to the left, and came about.