CHAPTER IX
_Flowers of Martyrdom_
For a minute the Secret Agents were appalled by the air of might of thedeep-sea monsters of Moyen, brought bodily, almost into the Secret Roomby the activities of General Munson at the Sound-and-Vision apparatus.
Off the coast, miles away, yet looming moment by moment larger,indicating the deceptively swift speed of the monsters, were scores ofthe great under-water fortresses, traveling toward the coast of theUnited Americas in a far-flung formation, each submarine separated fromits neighbor to right and left by something like a hundred miles, easycruising radius for the little aero-subs carried inside the monsters.
That each submarine did carry such spawn of Satan was plainly seen, foras the great submarines moved landward, scores of aero-subs sportedgleefully about the mother ships. There was no counting the number ofthem.
Two hours Maniel needed for his labors, which meant that for two hoursthe flower of the country's manhood must try to hold in check the mightyhordes of Moyen.
"Somewhere there," stated Prester Kleig, "in one or the other of thosemonsters, is Moyen himself. I know that since he wished Charmion savedfor his attentions! Do your work with your apparatus, Munson, while I goout to the radio tower to broadcast an appeal for volunteers.Charmion--Carlos...."
But Prester Kleig found that he could not continue. Not that it wasnecessary, for Charmion and Carlos knew what was in his mind. Charmionwas a lady of vast intelligence, from whom life's little ironies had notbeen hidden--and Kane and Kleig had already discussed the activities ofMoyen where women were concerned.
* * * * *
Prester Kleig hurried to the Central Radio Tower, and as he passedthrough each of the many doors leading out to the roof of the newCapitol Building the guards at the doors left to form a guard for him,at this moment the most precious man in the country, because he knewbest the terrible trials which faced her.
The country was in turmoil. It seemed almost impossible that a whole dayhad passed since Prester Kleig had returned and entered the Secret Room.In the meantime a fleet of battleships had been drawn by some mysteriousagency out to sea from Hampton Roads, and a fleet of fighting planeswhich had followed the ghost column outward had not returned.
News-gatherers had spread the stories, distorted and garbled, across thewestern continents, and throughout the western confederacy men, womenand children lived in the throes of the greatest fear that had evergripped them. Fear held them most because they could not give the causeof their fear a name--save one....
Moyen.... And the name was on the lips of everyone, and frenzied womanstilled their squalling babes with its mention.
No word yet from the Secret Room, but Prester Kleig had scarcelyappeared from it than someone started the radio signal which informedthe frenzied, waiting world of the west that information, exact ifstartling, would now be forthcoming.
In millions of homes, in thousands of high-flying planes, listenerstuned in at the clear-all hum.
* * * * *
Prester Kleig wasted no time in preliminaries.
"Prester Kleig speaking. We are threatened by Moyen, with scores ofmonster submarines, each a mother ship for scores of aero-subs,combinations of airplanes and miniature submarines. They are moving upon our eastern coast, from some secret base which we have not yetlocated. They are equipped with death dealing instruments of which wehave but the most fragmentary knowledge, and for two hours I must callupon all flyers to combat the menace; until the Secret Agents,especially Professor Maniel, have had opportunity to counteract theminions of Moyen.
"Flyers of the United Americas! In the name of our country I ask thatvolunteers gather on the eastern coast, each flyer proceeding at once tothe nearest coast-landing, after dropping all passengers. Yourcommanders have already been named by your various organizations, asrequired by franchise, and orders for the movement of the entire wingedarmada will come from this station. However, the orders will simply bethis: Hold Moyen's forces at bay for a period of two hours! And knowthat many of you go to certain death, and make your own decisions as towhether you shall volunteer!"
This ended, Prester Kleig, excitement mounting high, hurried back to theSecret Room.
Now the public knew, and as the American public is given to doing, itsteadied down when it knew the worst. Fear of the unknown had changedthe public into a myriad-souled beast gone berserk. Now that knowledgewas exact men grew calm of face, determined, and women assumed thesupporting role which down the ages has been that of brave women,mothers of men.
* * * * *
A period of silence for a time after Prester Kleig's pronouncement.
As he entered the first door leading into the Secret Room, Carlos Kanemet and passed him with a smile.
"You called for winged volunteers, did you not, Kleig?" he askedquietly.
Kleig nodded. "You are going?" he said.
"Yes. It is my duty."
No other words were necessary, as the men shook hands. Prester Kleiggoing on to the Secret Room, Carlos Kane going out to join the mightyarmada which must fight against the minions of Moyen.
The words of Prester Kleig were heard by the pilots of the sky-lanes.The passenger pits, equipped with self-opening parachutes which droppedjumpers in series of long falls in order to acquire swift but accurateand safe landing--they opened at intervals in long falls of two thousandfeet, stayed the fall, then closed again, so that drops were almostcontinuous until the last four hundred feet--and pilots, swiftly makingup their minds, dropped their passengers, banked their planes, and racedinto the east.
* * * * *
All over the Americas pilots dropped their passengers and their loads iftheir franchises called for the carrying of freight, and banked about totake part in the first skirmish with the Moyenites.
Dropping figures almost darkened the sky as passengers plunged downwardafter the startling signal from Washington. Flowers, which were theumbrellas of chutes, opened and closed like breathing winged orchids,letting their burdens safely to earth.
And clouds and fleets of airplanes came in from all directions to land,in rows and rows which were endless, wing and wing, along the easterncoast.
Prester Kleig had scarcely entered the Secret Room than the hated voiceof Moyen again broke upon the ears of the machinelike Secret Agents.
"This is madness, gentlemen! My people will annihilate yours!"
But, since time for speech had passed, not one of the Secret Agents madeanswer or paid the slightest heed to the warning, though deep in theheart of each and every one was the belief that Moyen spoke no more thanthe truth.
Too, there was a growing respect for the half-god of Asia, in that hewas good enough to warn them of the holocaust which faced their country.
By hundreds and thousands, wing and wing, airplanes dropped to theAtlantic coast at the closest point of contact, when the signal reachedthem. At high altitudes, planes crossing the Atlantic turned back andreturned at top speed, dropping their passengers as soon as over land.That Moyen made no move to prevent the return of flyers out over theocean, and now coming back, was an ominous circumstance.
It seemed to show that he held the American flyers, all of them, inutter contempt.
* * * * *
Prester Kleig regarded the time. It had been half an hour since Moyenhad spoken of attack, half an hour since the monsters of the deep hadstarted the inexorable move toward land. On the screen the submarineswere bulking larger and larger as the moments fled, until it seemed tothe Secret Agents that the great composite shadow of them already wassweeping inland from the coast.
As the coast came close ahead of the monster subs the little aero-subs,to the surprise of the Secret Agents, all vanished into their respectivemother ships.
"But they have to use them," groaned Munson. "For their submarines areuseless in frontal attack against our shores!"
"I am not so sure of that," said Prester Kleig. "For I have a suspicionthat those submarines have tractors under their keels, and that they cancome out on land! If this is so the monsters can, guarded byarmour-plate, penetrate to the very heart of our most populated areasbefore their aero-subs are released."
None of the Secret Agents as yet had stopped to ponder how the monstershad reached their positions, and why Moyen was attacking from the east,when the Pacific side of the continents would have appeared to be theobvious point of attack, and would have obviated the necessity of long,secret under-sea journeys wherein discovery prematurely must have beenone of the many worries of the submarine commanders.
The mere fact of the presence of the monsters was enough. What hadpreceded their presence was unimportant, save that their presence, andtheir near approach to the shore undetected, further proved theexecutive and planning genius of Moyen.
Two miles, on an average, off the eastern coast the submarines laidtheir eggs--the aero-subs, which darted from the sides of the motherships in flights and squadrons, made the surface, and leaped into thesky.
Five minutes later and the signal went forth to the phalanx of thevolunteers.
"Take off! Fly east and engage the enemy, and hold him in check, and theGod of our fathers go with you!"
One hour had passed since Moyen's ultimatum when the first vanguard ofthe American flyers, obeying the peremptory signal, took the air anddarted eastward to meet the winged death-harbingers of Moyen.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930 Page 11