by Perry Rhodan
A salvo of small explosive bullets hit the target. The horrible face of the dinosaur disappeared at once and a second later such a stupendous ear-splitting roar came from up above that Wlassow dropped his gun and pressed his hands against his ears.
• • •
"Now!" the lieutenant yelled excitedly. "Now it's seizing its prey!" He watched through the infra-red filter how the colossal animal lowered its neck and dropped its head down into the foliage. For a moment he saw only the scaly base of its neck. Then the head jerked up again with wide open jaws. And what a head it was!
At the place where the left eye had been gaped a deep jagged hole from which blood was spurting in streams. At first the lieutenant couldn't understand what animal was able to inflict such a terrible wound on the huge beast. He waited wide-eyed for a few moments for a second dinosaur to pop up from the darkness and continue mangling the first one. But this failed to materialize. The savage wounded creature kept howling; turned at last to the side and staggered away.
And then it suddenly dawned on the lieutenant. A well-placed volley of explosive bullets such as used in automatic pistols was capable of inflicting the hideous wound. He barked his orders so sharply and unexpectedly that he startled the sergeant: "Down lower! Search-the terrain where the dinosaur stopped!"
The sergeant obeyed. He dived down steeply and skimmed over the treetops. The enormous bulk of the dinosaur had broken a wide path through the jungle and the lieutenant directed his searchlight toward the spot where it veered sharply from its initial direction. The pilot held the machine steady and the lieutenant in his eagerness didn't realize the risk he was taking.
Tomisenkow was aware of the possible dangers that could evolve from the situation. Although he didn't know what had alerted the helicopter he had no doubts that it was chasing the fugitives. He shouted from his hiding place: "Nobody move till the 'copter leaves!"
But his shout didn't reach Wlassow's ears above the blasting jets and Wlassow probably wouldn't have paid any attention anyway: He was in the throes of an indescribable mood—a psychotic mixture of victorious frenzy and the after-effect of the horrible fright he had endured. With a wide leap he jumped into the path torn by the dinosaur, pointed his pistol at the clearly recognizable shadow of the helicopter and pulled the trigger. His salvo hit the Plexiglas cockpit of the machine squarely. The sergeant was killed instantly and the lieutenant, so far unhurt, realized at once what happened. Without trying to take over the controls of the aircraft, which retained its altitude for a few seconds, he grabbed the microphone of the still-operative radio and shouted his report. He was still talking when the machine toppled over and plummeted like a rock into the middle of the dinosaur's trail, bursting with a thunderous clap.
The radio station at Raskujan's post received the report: "Located fugitives! About two miles northeast of camp..." Then nothing but a weak tapping-the faint by-product of the thunderous explosion reaching the radio officer over the waves.
The officer was an experienced radio man. He could deduce the meaning of the sudden interruption of the agonized screaming. No doubt Colonel Raskujan would attach the greatest importance to the message.
He contacted the command center of the flagship and advised Colonel Raskujan of the call he had received.
4/ Menace of the Ants
Wlassow seemed to be protected by a benign fate. Leaping like a panther, he had thrown himself down far enough away and just in time to escape the dreadful force of the fiery detonation. He landed in a stinking bush with moist twigs which immediately began to wind themselves around his body. The shockwave that followed freed him of the unwanted embrace and carried him a few feet farther without inflicting other damage than some scratches on his face and hands.
The forest had suddenly fallen quiet after the furious events of the past minutes. Wlassow could hear the blood coursing in his ears before Tomisenkow's irate voice reached him:
"Who's the fool who shot at the helicopter?"
Wlassow raised himself up and tested his limbs. "I did!" he exclaimed. Then he started to walk back. Somebody had turned on a half-concealed flashlight to light up the ground. It was Tomisenkow. Alicharin and Zelinskij stood beside him. Breshnjew and Thora appeared from the undergrowth.
"Didn't you hear me order everybody to freeze?" Tomisenkow growled.
"No," Wlassow replied truthfully and puzzled.
"What were you thinking of when you shot at the helicopter?" The question was even more baffling for Wlassow.
"Well," he answered hesitantly, "I thought the same any other machine gunner would, shooting at a hostile aircraft. I can't find anything wrong..."
Tomisenkow didn't let him finish. "So you can't find anything wrong with it!" he shouted angrily. "Don't you know the men in that machine could send a call back before they were knocked out?"
"In such a short time....!" Wlassow was skeptical.
"In such a short time!" Tomisenkow mocked. "And suppose they made no report, Raskujan will miss them no later than in half an hour and send another chopper to look for them. It's only a matter of minutes to find this mass of metal by radar. Everything we've done so far has been ruined. Raskujan won't have to pick up our track at the camp to follow us, he can start right here."
Wlassow stood with drooping shoulders. A few moments ago he had considered himself the hero of the day, now he felt a dumb clod, disgraced.
"I can see it now," he mumbled dejectedly. "What can I do about it?"
"There's nothing you can do now! You'll have to get moving in double time just like the rest of us."
Tomisenkow turned around and looked at Thora and Breshnjew. "If Raskujan didn't know where we're heading, he knows it now. We can't go on marching northeast. We'll have to proceed to the southeast and try to mislead his helicopters. This means a detour and it's a great nuisance for us but we've got no other choice. Let's go!"
In great haste they scurried eastward along the swath cut by the wounded dinosaur that had meanwhile disappeared in the depth of the jungle. They used a small gap in the thicket to penetrate once more into the dark forest.
Tomisenkow assumed again, as he had the first time, that Raskujan's men would begin to look for the escaped prisoners in the broad trampled down lane. With luck their manoeuvre could help them avoid the pursuing helicopters.
• • •
A few minutes past 213:00 o'clock Perry Rhodan and his companions reached the edge of a swamp stretching—much to their discomfort as far as the eye could see to left and right. Rhodan had learned enough from his experience with Venusian swamps that he didn't even consider for a moment walking around the treacherous terrain. He asked Son to investigate the trees in the swamp and decided they were satisfactory.
"We'll swing through the trees over the swamp," Rhodan told them. "Son, you take the lead! Marshall, keep your eyes open. One wrong step or missed grip and you'll have had it." They clambered up the trees on some vines. Okura led the way and set the pace because he was the only one who could see in the darkness and was also the most handicapped of the three. Okura had a birth defect that impeded his walking. Though he always endeavored to keep pace with other people, there were occasions—such as the present one—when he was forced to slow down by his encumbrance. Despite their extended rest they were all close to the breaking point and Okura felt it worst.
However, Rhodan didn't fare much better. There was no time to take care of the wound in his shoulder. He felt the injury throbbing again and his blood running hotter through his veins than before. The damp air of the jungle was laden with bacteria and his wound was bound to start festering or he would get a fever. Perhaps both!
He knew that it was time to take a 30 hour rest to recuperate from the hardships which had abused their bodies. But 30 hours were too valuable at this time to be used for repose.. Thora was in danger and with her the Venusian base as well. Although Rhodan had great respect for Thora's resoluteness, there was a grave possibility that she would be unable to withstand i
ndefinitely the inquisitionary methods of Raskujan. And even if she didn't give Raskujan information enabling him to gain immediate access to the bulwark, he had a great number of capable technicians and electronics experts available who would reap more knowledge from Thora's allusions to the workings of the positronic brain in particular and the structure of the base in general than the New Power would want them to have in their possession.
Therefore, Thora had to be freed. And since the liberation of Thora from the heavily guarded post was, without adequate means, likely to be doomed to failure from the outset, it was imperative that Rhodan first remove the barrier of the positronic brain so that he could obtain the necessary equipment. This didn't pose any undue difficulties except that they had to take into account the considerable distance separating them from the circumference of the defense screen girdling the fortress. It was impossible for Rhodan to identify himself before reaching the border of the field. He had no practical means permitting him communications across a long distance. Only when he faced the protective mantle would the positronic brain examine him and determine that he was the one for whom the fortress opened its gates at all times. From then on everything else would be easy going.
The quagmire below them strained their patience. Since the Japanese, too, was unable to look through the dense foliage, they had to cut off a piece of a branch from time to time, clean away the leaves and drop it down, listening to the sound of its impact to guess the kind of surface it was. For hours on end they heard only the splash of the weighty object landing in the heavy morass. Rhodan was fully aware that the whole undertaking would have been an act of folly without the mutant ability of Son Okura. At 217:00 o'clock they stopped for another break. Rhodan would have very much preferred to go on a few hundred feet more because Okura claimed that the trees farther ahead were much closer together than where they had stopped, leading him to the conclusion that the swamp ended there. But by that time nobody was able to lift a leg, let alone move along a vine stretched between trees with the whole weight of his body hanging from his hands.
The swamp was sufficiently devoid of animals climbing about in the trees for Rhodan to deem it unnecessary to set up a watch. All three of them fell into a deep coma-like sleep—till they were suddenly awakened by a noise, not because it was very loud but rather because it was so uncommon in these surroundings. The whistling of helicopter engines and the rattling of machine guns!
It was too far away to have been meant for them. The sound came from northwest and Raskujan's gunships seemed to have detected something there to shoot at.
Rhodan looked at his watch, set for Terrestrial time, and saw that about three hours had passed since they interrupted their journey. It was shortly before 220:00 o'clock. Although the shooting soon ceased and the helicopters flew away, Rhodan was interested to know what had caused the commotion. The origin of the noise was in the direction of their march anyway. The three hours of rest had sufficiently restored their strength—at least temporarily, so that they were able to leave at once.
Son Okura's conclusion proved to be correct. A few minutes after their departure they noticed that the ground below was solid again. They climbed down and thereafter made better time. Half an hour later the terrain began to rise. They had reached the foothills of the mountains and regarded it as a friendly fate. The mountain they were approaching was the same one where the fortress was located.
• • •
They constantly heard the helicopters whirring above them, sometimes close over their heads and sometimes a little farther away.
Raskujan's men had found the burned out metal pile of the gunship shot down by Wlassow just as Tomisenkow and his group slipped into the jungle. As Tomisenkow had foreseen, they first flew along the path broken by the dinosaur, scouring it for the fugitives. When this proved fruitless they changed their tactic and drew wide circles over the land, stopping at regular intervals to lower a man on a cable with a winch to look around below the roof of leaves.
Tomisenkow kept his little band together. Finally the terrain began to rise, at first gently and comfortably and then suddenly at such a steep angle that it required the skill of mountain climbers to ascend. Using their hands and feet they climbed up step by step on a 70° wall that was well overgrown with bushes and trees. At the top Tomisenkow expected to find one of the rocky mesas rising here and there high above the jungle.
"Up there," Tomisenkow pointed out to Alicharin, "the trees are standing farther apart. We can see the lights of the helicopters and hide till they give up the search."
Half an hour later they reached the rim of the plateau. Tomisenkow's guess had been correct. As far as they could see in the darkness the vegetation was much sparser but, on the other hand, dense enough so that the rocky surface could be seen from the helicopters only at a few places. Tomisenkow walked around these spots and looked for a location where he and his men could watch the searching aircraft. They found the right spot. It was close behind the edge of the plateau. Toward the northwest a wall fell almost vertically down to the jungle. Behind the ridge lay a glen with a nearly flat bottom, well suited for a camping ground. Tomisenkow told Zelinskij, Breshnjew, Wlassow and Thora to take a rest while he and Alicharin stayed together on the rocky ledge and kept a watchful eye on the colorful lights of the helicopters.
• • •
Major Pjatkow—the man who had located Perry Rhodan's life raft and had dropped the bomb before the cave of the seals—had his radioman connect him with Colonel Raskujan. Pjatkow was one of Raskujan's favorite officers, so the connection was made without delay.
"I've got an idea," Pjatkow began without further introduction. "The search area is quite uniform—completely level up to the southern precipice of the mountain. But Tomisenkow couldn't have gone that far. There's only one other outstanding feature of the landscape, a vast mesa rising about 100 to 120 feet above the jungle. Tomisenkow needs a place from which he can observe our mission to see how close we get or when we'll break off our pursuit. He knows that we're forced to fly with our lights on. All he has to do is find a convenient lookout and watch us leisurely."
Raskujan wasn't quite convinced. "In which direction is this mesa located?" he asked.
"Southeast of the shot-down gunship."
"We figure it's Tomisenkow's intention to get to the defense screen of the fortress which is northeast." Pjatkow was ready with an answer. "I believe," he said, "Tomisenkow has thought along the same line. After we discovered a point on his route of escape, he realized his goal was known to us. Tomisenkow will march in any direction except where we're looking for him until we abandon our effort."
"Hmm," Raskujan mumbled.
"I suggest," Pjatkow continued eagerly, "we secretly land two or three 'copters on that bluff and surprise Tomisenkow in his hideaway. If all other machines raise enough hell it won't be difficult for us to set down on the plateau unobtrusively."
Raskujan finally consented. Pjatkow ended his conversation and instructed two other machines of his formation to follow him. They flew away northeast almost as far as the cliffs of the mountain, switched off their lights when they reached a point where they were sure they could no longer be seen from the plateau, then returned and approached the elevated plain from the eastern direction. The aircraft touched down in a little clearing not far from the rim and the men climbed out. Pjatkow held them back for a few minutes to make sure that nothing suspicious or dangerous lurked in the shadows. Then he gave the order to move.
The men didn't particularly care for the task at hand. They had never left their camp except in helicopters or in relatively safe rubber boats but after marching for 20 minutes their fear of the unknown was beginning to diminish. Pjatkow estimated the length of the way to be traversed to the opposite rim as about three miles. He figured this distance could be covered, even in the darkness, in about one and a half to two hours. Then he'd show Raskujan that he was right!
• • •
Alicharin turned around.
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"What's the matter?" Tomisenkow grunted.
A moment later Alicharin answered: "I believe I heard something... from over there!" He pointed across the mesa.
"Nonsense!" Tomisenkow muttered. "What did you hear?"
"A helicopter!"
"Do you still hear it?"
"Not now!"
"Well, well," Tomisenkow said, leaning again on his elbows. "How would they get in back of us?
They're all out there in front."
Alicharin thought that the argument was rather foolish. Nothing was easier for a helicopter than to fly around the plateau and land on the opposite side. But as long as he was uncertain whether he'd heard right, he preferred to say nothing.
He was startled when machine guns suddenly began to chatter over the jungle. Tomisenkow raised himself up a little more and stared with amazed eyes into the dark night. Then he began to laugh.
"Wonderful!" he exclaimed. "One of these idiots thinks he's found us." The shooting didn't last very long. Without apparent reason it stopped just as quickly as it had started. Simultaneously the battery of lights began to move around irregularly. The helicopters broke off the search and veered away. Minutes later they were out of sight. Only the whistling of the jets could be heard for a time.
"I don't understand it," Tomisenkow commented. He remained still for awhile and then got up. "Are you tired?" he asked Alicharin.
"No, chief."
"Alright. I'll lie down a little. Keep your eyes open. I'll tell Breshnjew to relieve you in one hour."
• • •
Major Pjatkow carried very powerful night-binoculars which were equipped with a small infra-red searchlight and filter. With these binoculars he detected the campground in the dell close behind the eastern rim of the plateau. He posted his men in a circle around the camp and instructed them to overpower and seize the sleepers at his command.