Buronto turned, stared, eyes flaming with desire that had washed away most of the fear and hatred. 'But why don't you do it? You kill. Why not save the kicks for yourself?'

Sam had antic.i.p.ated that question ever since he had begun their conversation. At first it had thrown him, the possibility of the giant asking that. He had gone through a dozen answers, considering each and the effect it would bring about, finally rejecting eleven of them. It was no use trying to fake the giant. No sense in putting him on. If Buronto thought for one moment that he was being used, and realized that Sam was afraid and unable to kill, he would turn on them and the end would be swifter and bloodier than anything the slugs could manage. 'Because,' he said, smiling what he hoped was rather an evil and superior smile, 'it is dangerous. You may have to fight your way from Ship's Core. The Central Being may be ten times more powerful than we can imagine. Your chances in a battle with It are probably no better than fifty-fifty. I like to kill sure. But not enough to risk dying for the pleasure.' But you, But you, Sam thought, are Sam thought, are willing to die for that pleasure. Or risk fifty-fifty odds for it. Fool that you are, you've swallowed the slimy bait, and you're ready to run to h.e.l.l and back with the line. willing to die for that pleasure. Or risk fifty-fifty odds for it. Fool that you are, you've swallowed the slimy bait, and you're ready to run to h.e.l.l and back with the line.

A blue explosion tore four floors from the middle of a nearby office complex. The top part wiggled, fell. Stone crashed down on the streets, huge hunks of it smashing into the surging crowds that were trying to run from the slugs. Truck-sized plastic mortar blocks tore off heads, ripped limbs free, crushed others beyond identification. Sam saw one man split down the middle by a sliver-like portion of a steel beam. Blood fountained up and gushed over the sidewalk as the man fell forward-one half slightly to the left, the other half slightly to the right, organs spread in between. The people were like animals in panic. Mindlessly, they fled first one direction, then the other. The slugs were moving down both ends of the avenue, cutting them down in a murderous crossfire that would insure total annihilation.

Bodies piled up at a frightening rate, torn and mangled, charred unrecognizable or, when struck directly by a sizzling beam, burned down to the bones with a few pieces of black raggedy flesh clinging to the skull and ribs.

'Okay,' Buronto said. 'I'll do it.'

It was certainly not patriotic fervor that drove him to the decision. He seemed thrilled by the carnage outside. Every eruption of gore seemed to set his eye adance with new flames until they glowed almost like the eyes of a cat at night. Or was that his imagination? Sam wondered. The giant actually seemed to ooze violence.

'Good.' Sam smiled, holding his stomach in check. 'Now is there any way out of here besides the front door? That looks particularly unhealthy at the moment.'

'Yes,' Buronto said. 'Wait just a minute.' He leaped from the doorway into the turmoil of the street.

'Come back!' Sam shouted convulsively.

'You'll be killed!' Coro bellowed even louder.

But the roar of the one-sided battle outside had smothered their protests.

A sled was landing a hundred feet from the Inferno, Inferno, and the slugs were starting to debark, rifles hanging from pseudopods, to search the buildings for those who had had the presence of mind to stay inside and hide. Buronto reached the sled before the slugs could set tail to ground. He brought a boulder fist down on the dome-segment head of the nearest slug as it tried futilely to bring its rifle around. The fist crushed cartilage, smashed in on brain tissue. Orange blood spouted through Buronto's fingers. As quickly as he could, he grabbed the falling slug, using him as a shield, and wrenched the rifle from its already limp pseudopod. A blast from another alien's rifle caught the dead slug instead of Buronto, ripped a deep hole in it. And by that time the giant had the stolen gun under control. and the slugs were starting to debark, rifles hanging from pseudopods, to search the buildings for those who had had the presence of mind to stay inside and hide. Buronto reached the sled before the slugs could set tail to ground. He brought a boulder fist down on the dome-segment head of the nearest slug as it tried futilely to bring its rifle around. The fist crushed cartilage, smashed in on brain tissue. Orange blood spouted through Buronto's fingers. As quickly as he could, he grabbed the falling slug, using him as a shield, and wrenched the rifle from its already limp pseudopod. A blast from another alien's rifle caught the dead slug instead of Buronto, ripped a deep hole in it. And by that time the giant had the stolen gun under control.

He fanned the sled party. Blood fountained up in three separate places, drenching the street with a slick film of dull orange. Flesh caught fire and bloomed like gasoline, then subsided to a steady yellow blaze. The slugs either fell instantly or slithered about in circles until the fire had so consumed them that they were not even capable of postmortem muscle spasms.

A second sled drifted across the roofs, and its aft laser shot a long beam at Buronto, just barely missing him. He fell behind the empty sled, raised his gun, caught the alien marksman in the midsection and blew him in two. Thick alien blood rained down and spattered across the window of the Inferno. Inferno.

'He'll never make it!' Coro shouted over the chaos.

'It's horrible,' Lotus said, clutching her lover.

'He'll make it,' Sam snapped. He has to, He has to, he thought. he thought. He's our only chance. And, dreams of Hope, how low have we gone and how desperate our situation when our only hope is a madman, a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t, a vicious killer! He's our only chance. And, dreams of Hope, how low have we gone and how desperate our situation when our only hope is a madman, a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t, a vicious killer! He stared grimly at the destruction. His stomach was beyond vomiting now. The destruction was too great, the killing too overwhelmingly horrible to affect him. It was a dream, an unreality of ghastly proportions but an unreality just the same. That was the only way his mind could accept what he was seeing. He stared grimly at the destruction. His stomach was beyond vomiting now. The destruction was too great, the killing too overwhelmingly horrible to affect him. It was a dream, an unreality of ghastly proportions but an unreality just the same. That was the only way his mind could accept what he was seeing.

Further down the street, a woman burst into flames, her hair a wild torch*

A child fell, went under trampling feet that bruised, cut, killed unknowingly in blind panic*

Buronto was holding a beam on the guidance module of the second magno-sled. Suddenly there was a curling of black smoke seeping from the underslung bubble, and the sled began hobbling out of control. The slugs on it wrestled against it, found it was a losing battle. The sled started a climb, then choked off and plunged into the wall of another building, pushing fire and debris ahead of it. There were screams from the men and women inside the building. Fire gushed up through the ten floors of the place, singeing away the screams.

Mounting the sled, Buronto fiddled, determining the method of operation, raised the vehicle and turned toward the Inferno. Inferno.

'Get back!' Sam shouted as the giant guided the sled on a collision course with the doorway.

There was a pregnant pause while the alien craft accelerated, then a birth of ear-shattering noise as wood disjointed from plastiglued sockets and the wall around the door shattered and fell inward.

'Get on!' Buronto was shouting. 'Get on! Hold fast!'

They boarded, held tightly to the small railing; Buronto gunned the machine, tore through a plastigla.s.s window at the rear of the building, the front of the sled shattering it before them. The shards, sharp and dangerous, showered into the air just as they pa.s.sed through, fell back after they had pa.s.sed and were speeding silently down the alleyway, ten feet above the ground.

Buronto clutched the rifle in one hand as if it were a tiny pistol-or a toy from some more violent time. With the other hand, he steered the sled. 'Where to?' he called over his shoulder.

'We have the starship hidden,' Sam said. 'We figured they would take over the s.p.a.ceport, so we landed in the Five Mile Park. They shouldn't bother with that.'

At the end of the alley, another sled and four slugs appeared. They seemed not to notice, for the moment, that these were humans and not other slugs. They came fluttering down the narrow pa.s.sage, swiftly closing the blocks between them. Buronto raised the rifle, fired straight-on at the pilot of the other sled. The alien was flung apart like a doll, tossed from the sled in pieces. One of the others went for the controls, but the sled bucked before it could reach them, went out of control. It slammed back and forth from wall to wall, still advancing. One of the slugs-at a moment of extreme tilt-slid over the edge, grabbed the railing with pseudopods to pull itself back aboard. The sled swung into a wall again, crushing it, severing it in half and dragging it another fifty feet, leaving an orange smear along the building blocks.

'We're going to crash!' Lotus shouted, throwing her small hands over her eyes-but peeking through her slender fingers.

Buronto pulled on the stick, lifted the sled. They grabbed and fought the sharp upward slant. The out-of-control craft careened toward them. Buronto took the sled even higher, pushing the drive into whining protest. But the other craft started climbing too. And there was just not any room in which to dive.

XIII.

The Central Being was overwhelmed by Hope. Hope the planet; Hope the city. The other planet-what had it been?-Chaplin, yes, was interesting. But here-the architecture, the parks, the ports. It was so-the Central Being reluctantly admitted-beautiful. But the forces of evil were often beautiful, often overwhelming. But only gaudiness, never any depth. The Central Being willed Itself to forget the surface shimmering and glittering and to concentrate on other things. Such as the success of the raiding parties and destruction teams. The purpose of the raiding parties was to kill in their a.s.signed areas and leave buildings and other artifacts intact as much as possible so that later historical teams could photograph and catalog the culture. The destruction teams, on the other hand, were concerned with nothing but death. Kill, burn, ruin, crush, obliterate. Both were doing well in their respective areas. In fact, the entire blasphemous race should be wiped from the slate of existence in another month. This world would be bare in another twelve hours. Then on to smaller colony worlds. The easy marks*

XIV.

Sam gritted his teeth, fought against closing his eyes. His ears, already booming with noise, antic.i.p.ated the crash. No, that was blood rushing. His own blood. Fear blood. The alien sled climbed almost equal with theirs. The distance between closed rapidly.

Twenty yards*

Ten*

Five*

There was a sickening crunch, a severe jolt, and they were rushing past the other sled toward the end of the alley a few blocks further on. Behind, the other sled smashed into the wall, bearing its headless pa.s.sengers, and crashed into the street. They had had the advantage of being four feet higher when they met the other sled. It had been a deadly encounter for the slugs, their heads sheared away by the bottom of the sled. But they they had gotten away untouched, miraculously. had gotten away untouched, miraculously.

Buronto roared with laughter. A laughter, somehow, too deep for his fragile voice. The added depth of bloodl.u.s.t.

'Land here!' Sam shouted a while later, his voice almost washed away by the whistling wind and the booming of the slaughter progressing in the depths of the center city behind them.

Buronto brought the sled to a jolting halt, gouging out five feet of gra.s.s at the entrance to the park. They clambered off and through the gate just as a slug stepped from behind a free-form aluminum statue.

'Watch it!' Coro shouted, catching the movement first.

Buronto brought his gun around, smashed the barrel into the slug's head, brought it up, down again. Up and down, up and down. Blood sprayed out with every swing.

'That's enough!' Sam shouted.

Buronto laughed, spittle flecking the corners of his lips. He poked the narrow barrel through the middle of the alien's chest as if it were a bayonet, gouged the soft flesh, twisted and tore as orange blood poured down the gun and over his hands.

'I said that was enough!' Sam shouted even louder, his face red with disgust.

Buronto looked up, got angry, then realized who he was talking to. He still had that minimum of fear. Besides, this was the man who had given him the chance to kill. 'Hurry up, then,' he snapped shrilly.

Sam realized the savage l.u.s.t of the giant was pushing any thought of servile obedience further and further from his mind. That last had sounded much like an order, not an agreement. 'I'll say who is to hurry and when!' Sam roared.

Buronto looked at him, looked away. 'There'll come a day-'

'But it's d.a.m.n far off!' Sam snapped. 'Now, 'Now, let's hurry.' let's hurry.'

They moved briskly through the park. The green trees, leafy and rustling with the pa.s.sage of the wind, the gra.s.s as green as a finely woven carpet, the flowers multi-hued and full-bloomed, all belied the horror transpiring in the streets beyond, denied the death and pain Buronto had perpetrated in their midst only moments before.

The ship was where they had left it, almost invisible, half submerged in a large pond, the other half well-hidden by thick ma.s.ses of Spanish moss strung from the trees like beards. They slopped through the water, activated the portal, and entered the last free ship on Hope.

'Now do you understand?' Sam asked, staring the giant down.

The lights on the control console flashed, pulsated, flooded the room with weird currents of color. Coro sat bent over the monitoring devices, occasionally rubbing a hand across dry lips. The time had come. Almost. Very near. Blessed be the time. Frightening too. Lotus sat beside Coro, a hand on his arm, pointing now and then to different dials and scopes.

'I understand,' Buronto growled.

'No indiscriminate killing. We have to sneak in. If we're confronted with the choice of killing a guard or sneaking past him-we sneak.'

'I don't like it.'

'You wouldn't.'

'Or you either?' Buronto said, laughing slyly.

'It's a matter of necessity,' Sam said wearily. They had been through it ten times now. He could think of no blunter, more forceful manner of putting it. 'If you start killing everything that moves, the Central Being will have us pegged and dead before we're anywhere near It. It'll blow your head off the first moment It knows you're in Raceship. Raceship. It'll win, Buronto. And you'll be real dead.' It'll win, Buronto. And you'll be real dead.'

'Okay, okay. I got it well enough. Play it pansy. Gentility is the byword. No rough stuff until we b.u.mp off the big boy. But then, mister, I am going to have myself a lot of fun with the slugs.'

'And you'll have earned it.'

'You too, huh?'

'Yeah.'

'And you'll be twice as b.l.o.o.d.y about it, I'll bet.'

'Most likely,' Sam said, leering false-heartedly. 'Twice as b.l.o.o.d.y.' He wondered how he would handle Buronto after the mission was completed-if it was completed. It was going to be a tight situation. A kill-crazy giant running amok with a laser rifle. How could he control him? If he refused to kill after the Central Being was disposed of, then Buronto would realize his masochism was a front, a trick. What would the giant's reaction be to that? Or, rather, not what would it be-but how fast would it come? Well, that was a problem he would have to think about later. Later, when he was driven to the wall.

'They seem settled for the duration, Sam,' Coro said, turning from the controls. 'Raceship 'Raceship hasn't moved since we've been monitoring it. But the battle is raging beyond belief. Millions of people have died. I wish we hadn't waited for dark.' hasn't moved since we've been monitoring it. But the battle is raging beyond belief. Millions of people have died. I wish we hadn't waited for dark.'

'But it is dark now,' Sam answered, standing, stretching. 'And we have a much better chance with darkness as a cover.'

Buronto went to get their weapons and a laser hand-torch.

'Look, Sam,' Coro said, moving close and whispering. 'He frightens me. And-'

'Me too.'

Coro hesitated. 'Yeah. I see. He may be hideous, but he's the best-looking chance we have. But do you really think he can kill this Central Being that easily?'

'No.'

'No?'

'Our G.o.d was weak and easy to dispatch because Breadloaf's Shield had drained Him of His strength over the centuries. This G.o.d has not been drained.'

'Then why the devil-'

'He doesn't have to kill G.o.d,' Sam said, pulling the black hood of the nightsuit over his head.

'What? I don't understand this at all.'

'Oh, he may kill G.o.d. He just might. But it isn't necessary. If we can get him in there and let G.o.d kill him, and let G.o.d kill him, I think-' I think-'

But Buronto had returned with a rifle for each of them and a cutting torch. 'Let's go,' he said.

The two of them stepped quietly through the portal into the black blanket of night*

XV.

Raceship had settled in the vast wild game reserve that stretched forty-seven miles on a side behind the Congressional Archives. It took a great deal of s.p.a.ce to park a boat that big, and as he and Buronto stood among the still forms of oak trees looking at the vessel, Sam wondered how many animals had been crushed by its descent. And how many tourists. had settled in the vast wild game reserve that stretched forty-seven miles on a side behind the Congressional Archives. It took a great deal of s.p.a.ce to park a boat that big, and as he and Buronto stood among the still forms of oak trees looking at the vessel, Sam wondered how many animals had been crushed by its descent. And how many tourists.

'They came in that?' Buronto asked.

Sam grinned. It was a difficult thing to do under the circ.u.mstances of the moment. 'Scare you?' Delicately, delicately lead on the brute*

'Nah! But, Mother, how big!'

The black hull loomed so high overhead that it was difficult to tell just where it ended and the night began. Trees had been snapped off around its base and were jutting outward like splintered toothpicks. The earth had settled under the tremendous weight, and the ship now rested in a pit of its own making.

'Put these in your ears,' Sam said, handing two plugs to the giant.

'What for?'

'There's an hypnotic command constantly played in the ship. You go in there without earplugs and you'll be blubbering like a helpless idiot in seconds.'

'But how do we talk?'