He reached over and gave his wife a kiss and a hug as they climbed back into the jeep together. “Life with you has always been a picnic, my dear,” he said as he drove off.
* * *
Bill slithered up to the ridge and looked down at the barbed-wire enclosure. He gestured to Jeff and Judy, who scrambled up the hill and flattened themselves at the top.
It had been a long, hard two-day hike. Their food and water were gone, their clothes were dusty and sweaty, and they were very hot. But a new sense of exhilaration wiped out most of the fatigue. They had reached their goal.
“That’s it, all right,” Jeff said. The three astronauts could see the barracks (which seemed to be mostly empty), a hangar and warehouses, and a factory beyond. The railroad crane was moving a heavy crate down its track. A sharp, barbed-wire fence stretched all around the compound, guarded by watchtowers with sentries.
The three could see some kind of activity on the edges of the airfield. “They must be getting ready for the demonstration tomorrow,” Bill suggested.
“How are we going to get inside?” Judy inquired.
Jeff hefted the laser drill. “We could shoot our way in, but—”
“There are too many of them,” Bill said. “We’ll have to sneak in.”
“But how…?” Judy wondered aloud.
“I’m not sure yet.” Bill was looking around the area. “If there was only something…” His voice trailed off and he pointed along the ridge they were hiding on. “Jeff, see that?”
A hundred yards along the ridge was a smoking trash dump. It was outside the barbed-wire. They could clearly make out a pile of empty gasoline drums in the dump.
“That pile is pretty close to the fence,” Bill said.
“And above it,” Jeff added. “I getcha. We send them rolling down, causing a lot of noise, but make it seem like it happened naturally. They just broke loose, that’s all.”
“Right,” Bill agreed. “What about this: One of us goes over and makes that pile of drums roll down the hill. The other two run like crazy for the fence here. By the time the first one gets back here and down to the fence, the others have breached the fence and can help him.”
“Or her,” Judy corrected.
“Or her,” Bill laughed. “You’re volunteering for noisemaker?”
Judy nodded. “You bet!” She picked up a leafless branch and brandished it. “I’m ready.”
“Okay, let’s study the best place to try and get through,” Bill suggested.
They examined the fence for several minutes, then Jeff pointed at a spot not far away.
“How about there? I know it’s almost under that watchtower, but they’ll be looking in the other direction—and not there, I hope. And the other towers will be concentrating on their areas and expect that tower to watch its own.”
“Not bad,” Bill complimented Jeff. “What trees and brush there are here will give us some help on the approach to the fence.” He surveyed the sparse brush and a couple of dry-looking trees in the area where they were lying. “Let’s find a couple of forked sticks. We can use them to pry open and hold open the barbed wire.”
Searching the area, they finally found the right kind of forked sticks. Then Judy sneaked along the ridge, hiding from the watchtowers, and slipped into the trash heap.
“I wish we could wait until dark for this,” Jeff said, “but I guess we don’t have time.”
“Can you see her?”
“No, but then I wouldn’t want to. If I could, so could the guards.”
“Keep your eyes on the watchtower and the patrolling sentries,” Bill whispered. “Not the drums. When the guards look her way, then we make our move. Get set, hero, it’s about time that—”
The oil drums gave way with a rumble louder and move obvious than either man had expected. Bill and Jeff saw sentries move to the side of the watchtower to observe the drums careening their way down the hill, and then the two astronauts made their move.
Crouched low, they ran down the slope to their first cover, took a quick look at the watchtower, then raced toward the fence. They deftly propped up the wire with the forked sticks and scrambled through. Bill bolted for the shelter of a barracks, slithering under its raised floor, and looking back at Jeff, who sat hunched over near the fence waiting to help Judy through.
They heard the crash of the barrels before they saw their companion coming pell-mell through the brush. There was an unexpected explosion and a roar of flames from the crash site; the barbed-wire fence had quivered first with the impact of the barrels, and now with the force of the explosion.
Judy wiggled through the fence, then hurried with Jeff to slide under the barracks floor at almost full speed and freeze.
A jeepful of gorillas sped past the three only a few feet away. The barbed wire was still quivering from Judy’s passage, but the guards did not notice.
After the jeep passed Jeff hissed at Judy. “That explosion? What did you do?”
She grinned, “I noticed there was also a small line of full oil drums almost right in line. Then, crawling through that trash, I found a couple of not-quite-empty bottles of booze. I combined all the alcohol into one bottle, soaked a piece of cloth in it, and made myself a little Molotov cocktail—which I jammed into the spout of one of those full drums. Next, I lit it with an ember from the trash fire and started the barrels rolling. The rest is, well, history.”
Bill grunted and slapped her on the back. “Good work! You’re a regular Joan of Spark!” His two companions nearly burst, but held their mouths tight shut. “Now we’ve got to get some spot where we can get a good close-up look at what’s going on around here.”
The gorillas were shouting “Fire!” and “Emergency!” in the background as Bill, Jeff, and Judy crawled out from under the barracks and slipped away.
“That warehouse!” Bill whispered.
They ran quickly, just missed being spotted by a jeep patrol, and flattened themselves against the far wall of the warehouse. Jeff clutched the laser drill as Bill attempted to open the warehouse door.
“Look out! Patrol!” Judy gasped fearfully, and they skipped quickly around the corner.
Bill looked around and gestured toward a barracks nearby. “That looks empty, and it’s even closer. Come on!”
The barracks door was unlocked and they crowded through it. Jeff swung the deadly laser around but no one was inside.
“Why is it empty?” Judy asked.
“Maybe he expects a bigger army,” Bill suggested as he crossed toward the stairs to the second floor. “Or else the gorillas that normally live here are out on duty.”
The three astronauts slipped quietly upstairs and kneeled below an open window.
Judy sighed. “Well, we got in. Now the question is, Can we get out?”
“We’ll worry about that burnt bridge when we get to counting our eggs,” Jeff quipped, setting down the laser close to hand.
Bill was already inspecting the view below them. The hangar was not far off. It had sliding doors on the end facing them. The railroad tracks went past and into the large factory building just beyond. A switch engine was tugging several freight cars and a flatcar with the big crane on it. A loading dock was built next to the track, just in front of a smaller building that they hadn’t been able to see before.
“That building there, with the sliding doors. It has to be a hangar. Or it could be, anyway. They’d need one.”
“You’re probably right, Bill,” Jeff said, putting his head out the window. “But to make sure, we’ve got to get a look in there somehow.”
Bill pointed at the train. “We could slip between those buildings, then use that train for cover. There doesn’t seem to be anyone on it except the engineer, and fireman and the crane operator.”
“And from the train we go to those windows on the side of the hangar,” Jeff added.
“And then it’s Operation Grand Larceny, Aircraft,” Judy said with a weak smile.
The three astronauts left
the barracks. In order to slip around more easily, Jeff left the heavy, cumbersome laser behind, concealing it in an upstairs closet that apparently had not been used for some time. The trio then ran quickly between the buildings and up to the slowly moving train. The crane had dropped the loading it was carrying and seemed not to be in use at the moment. A forklift passed, a dusty gorilla driving, and the three humans hid. Then they climbed between the cars of the train and crouched behind some cases, looking for a way to run across to the hangar windows.
As they watched, the hangar doors began to rumble open. The first thing they saw was the P-40, sitting on its tailskid with, the pointed nose aimed high into the sky.
“There it is!” Judy whispered.
“Look beyond!” Jeff said in an awed voice.
They could see behind the plane partially completed frameworks, tail assemblies, propellers, and other aircraft parts—the unmistakable evidence of an entire airplane assembly line.
“An airplane factory!” Bill exclaimed.
As they watched in surprised fascination, the doors at the other end of the hangar opened to admit a forklift with more parts on a wooden pallet.
“That other building,” Bill said hurriedly, “is the factory making the parts that are assembled here!”
Jeff looked extremely glum. “Stealing the P-40 won’t work. They’ll simply build more.”
“There must be something we can do!” Judy was angry.
“We could—Hey! What’s that?”
Bill pointed to a tractor pulling a large cage behind the hangar along the edge of the landing field, and finally into the hangar. The cage was filled with silent and morose human-like forms.
“Humanoids!” Judy exclaimed.
“Hey, remember what we saw in the clearing a few days ago—the dummies?” Bill asked.
Jeff replied, “They’re not going to use dummies tomorrow!”
Crouched, in hiding, between the train and some packing, cases, the three friends were silent. Then, all at once, Jeff heard a new sound and peeked over the cases.
“Hey, get a load of this!” He almost whistled.
A shiny new command jeep was roaring between the buildings and up to the hangar. They could see three figures in the vehicle beside the driver.
“It’s Urko!” Jeff whispered. “And to think I left the laser back in the barracks!”
“Can we get closer and hear what they’re up to?” Judy asked.
Bill surveyed the area ahead. “We’ll go right, around that second stack, then straight ahead to between those two big stacks of boxes.”
Jeff nodded and took off, with Judy following and Bill just behind her. Squatting down, they peered out cautiously; they were within eavesdropping distance. A chimpanzee in a white lab coat got out of the general’s jeep, followed by a gorilla in flying clothes.
“Thank you for the ride, General Urko,” the chimpanzee said graciously and with great deference.
“You’re welcome, Doctor Lykos. Well, Larko, are you ready for tomorrow?”
“Yes, general,” the gorilla flyer answered. “I can’t wait for them to see me fly the sky vehicle.”
Urko laughed indulgently. His manner was expansive and regal. “Yes, Wing Commander Larko, tomorrow we will show them all what sky power can do!” Bill and Jeff exchanged worried looks when they heard the gorilla commander speak to the lab-coated chimpanzee. “Thanks to you, Doctor Lykos!”
“I knew when I found the ancient relic,” Lykos said smoothly, “that it would be useful to you, general.”
The burly general waved a black-gloved hand. “And, as soon as you know exactly how to build them, we’ll fill the skies with these—these air vehicles!” He laughed harshly and with relish. “Then the whole planet will be under my control!”
Bill, Jeff, and Judy sagged back against the piles of boxes as the general drove off and the other two apes strolled toward the hangar.
“Did you hear that?” Jeff asked. “They don’t really know what they’re doing!”
“Yes. They’re building the parts, all right,” Bill replied. “But they don’t know how to put them all together.” Suddenly he grinned. “They are just aping, so to speak, the original find!”
Jeff groaned and then sobered. “We can stop them cold if we destroy the plane. I’ll just go get out the laser and—”
“We can’t,” Judy said. “Look!” The three peered around the boxes and saw that another large cage of humanoids had been brought inside the hangar. “More targets for tomorrow!”
“We’ve got to think of something,” Bill said. “And we don’t have much time!”
* * *
In their house near the Humanoid Behavioral Studies Laboratory, Cornelius was reading a newspaper. Zira was seated nearby, watching a television show. By her expression, however, Cornelius could tell she wasn’t paying much attention to “The Unlikely Three,” a series about a smart chimpanzee detective, his gorilla partner, and Plato, a juvenile orangutan, who roamed about Ape City solving crimes and making smart remarks to each other.
“Don’t you like the show tonight, dear?” he asked.
“Oh, Cornelius,” Zira sighed, “I’m very concerned about Blue-Eyes and Jeff—and Judy.”
Cornelius lowered his paper, breaking off his reading about the most recent ball game between the Ape City Maulers and the Kulak Killers (of a town not far north of the capital) and gazed at his wife. “They must be safe, for if they were caught we would have heard.” He pointed at the television screen. “It would be broadcast over TV.”
“But do you think they will be able to stop Urko?”
Cornelius sighed. “I certainly hope so, Zira. I hate to think what Urko might do with that weapon of his.”
“Against the humanoids?” Zira asked agitatedly.
Cornelius sighed deeply. “An ape with Urko’s ambition might not stop there, Zira.”
The two chimpanzees, each lost in private thoughts, watched the round television screen inattentively for several minutes.
As the show ended, a commercial came on for a fur brightener, then another for a simian deodorant.
Cornelius sniffed at the second one. “I don’t see anything wrong with smelling like a chimpanzee,” he said. “It’s a perfectly fine smell.”
“Shush, dear,” Zira admonished him. “It’s time for the news!”
The newscaster, a sharp-tongued but handsome young chimpanzee named Julius, kidded around with a pretty young female chimp beneath a big sign that read APEWITNESS NEWS. Then his manner became serious as he announced that a military demonstration was imminent at Strategic Defense Headquarters, A brief film clip followed, of General Urko, looking as arrogant as ever. “…I can only say that this will be a momentous occasion in the history, of apekind,” Urko said. Then he smiled modestly but could not conceal the glitter in his eyes.
“Power glutton!” Zira said to the screen.
Zira sighed as another commercial came on, this time for Baby-Chimp’s Breath mints.
“Oh, Cornelius, Urko is likely to turn any advantage he has into power over the rest of us. You’re right about that. He is supremely ambitious!”
“And unscrupulous and dangerous,” Cornelius added. “He is capable of anything to get his ends. He’d destroy every humanoid down to the last child in order to gain power—and any ape, too, who got in his way!”
Zira nodded. “I’m worried about Blue-Eyes, Cornelius. He’s just one against many. Even with Jeff and Judy, they are only three against—”
“But they are rather special humanoids, Zira.”
“Special, yes. But are they special enough?”
Julius, grinning and self-satisfied, now came back on with an interview with the coach of the Ape City Maulers. “…What do you feel your chances are, Coach Durka? The Wuwanni Blue Sox are a pretty tough team this year…”
“Oh, Cornelius, please turn that thing off! You’re closer to the set. Those people say the same thing, over and over, every year.”
> “Yes, dear,” Cornelius said, rising. “You’re just not in the mood. I understand. Maybe a little soothing music…?”
“Yes, Cornelius, that would be nice.” Zira closed her eyes and sank back in her chair.
* * *
The searchlight from the nearest guard tower swept across the face of the barracks, where the three astronauts were hiding again. Jeff went to kneel by the window once more as soon as the glare moved on, and followed the light’s progress as it roved over the hangar and aircraft factory. He could see rows of military equipment—readied for the next day’s demonstration—as well as parked files of tanks, troop carriers, and jeeps. As another searchlight beamed across from the other side of the stronghold, he pulled his head down out of sight.
Judy sat cross-legged on the bare floor, against the wall, while Bill stretched out with his hands behind his head.
The black astronaut looked over thoughtfully at Judy, then asked her, “Are you certain you can fly that P-40…?”
She nodded. “I flew one once, in an air show. I had someone to check me out in it first, though. Aircraft of that period were pretty simple, of course—all pre-jet, pre-rocket. Yes, I think I can fly it.”
Bill turned his head to look at Jeff. “I guess the rest of it is up to us.”
Jeff nodded. “Yeah, us… and a lot of luck.”
“One thing…” Bill advised, “we’d better leave the laser behind. If that should fall into Urko’s hands…”
“You’re right,” Jeff agreed. “If he could duplicate that laser that would be a worse threat than the plane! We’ll leave it here again and retrieve it as we leave.”
Bill grinned. “You make it sound like leaving your hat at the hatcheck booth and just sauntering out.”
“Well, that was just my ole heroic self talking.”
“I don’t feel like a hero,” Judy said.
“Heroine,” Jeff corrected.
“That, either. Well, what’s the brilliant plan, Commander Hudson?”
Bill winced. “You can decide, this time tomorrow, if it’s brilliant or not, Judy. But here’s what I was thinking we could do…”
* * *
A banana-yellow and fur-brown Welcome banner now fluttered over the main gate to Urko’s Strategic Defense camp. Stiff guards in spit-’n’-polish uniforms stood at attention, flanking the entrance arch. Cloth bunting in Gorilla Army colors lined the street straight from the main gate to the edge of the airfield, where temporary bleachers had been set up for the occasion. Several feet in front of the bleachers was a bunting-draped high platform that would serve as a reviewing stand; it held chairs for dignitaries and a podium with a microphone for General Urko.
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