Chapter 16

“Bring that dirty little space crawler in here!”

Captain Strong had never seen Commander Walters so angry. The cords stood out in his neck and his face was red with fury as he paced up and down the Solar Guard office in Venusport. “A spy,” he roared. “A spy right in the heart of our organization!” He shook his head.

The door opened and two burly Solar Guardsmen entered, saluted, and turned to flank the doorway, hands on their paralo-ray pistols. The private secretary of E. Philips James shuffled in slowly, followed by two more guards. Walters stepped up to the thin, intense young man and glared at him. “If I had my way, I’d send you out to the deepest part of space and leave you there!”

The man bit his lip but said nothing.

“Where is your secret base?” demanded Walters.

“I don’t know,” replied the secretary nervously.

“Who told you to intercept this message from Mercury?” Walters tapped a paper on his desk. “Who gave you your orders?”

“I receive orders on an audioceiver in my home,” answered the man, a slight quaver in his voice. “I have never seen my superior.”

“And you followed the Nationalist movement blindly, doing whatever they told you, without question, is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, sir!” roared Walters.

“Yes, sir,” corrected the secretary.

“Who told you to forge those orders for priority seats on the _Venus Lark_?”

“My superior,” said the man.

“How did you know Major Connel was coming here to investigate the Nationalists?”

“I read the decoded message sent to the Solar Delegate, Mr. James.”

“Who told you to send men to bomb the Polaris?”

“My superior,” said the man.

“Your superior--your superior!” Walters’ voice was edged with contempt. “What else has your superior told you to do?”

“A great many things,” said the young man simply.

Walters studied the thin face and then turned to Captain Strong. “There’s only one thing to do, Steve. There’s no telling how many of these rats are inside our organization. Relieve every civilian in any position of trust and put in our own man. I’ll make a public teleceiver broadcast in half an hour. I’m declaring martial law.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Strong grimly.

“If you hadn’t been in the code room when this message from Mercury came in, we would never have known the Nationalists were trying to get the Mercurians to join them in their attack on us until it was too late. It’s the only break we’ve had, so far, learning that the Mercurians are still decent, loyal Solar citizens. I hate to think of what would have happened if they hadn’t warned us.”

“He very nearly got away with it, sir,” said Strong. “If I hadn’t heard the signal for a top-secret message come through on the coding machine, I never would have suspected him. He tried to hide it in his tunic. He also confessed to trying to kidnap the cadets when he heard me tell them that a cab would be waiting for them.”

“Well, we know now,” said Walters. He turned to one of the guardsmen. “Sergeant, I’m holding you personally responsible for this man.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” said the guard, stepping toward the secretary, but Walters stopped him and addressed the man.

“I’ll give you one last chance to tell me where your base is and how many ships you have,” he said.

The secretary looked down at his feet and mumbled, “I don’t know where the base is, and I don’t know how many ships there are.”

“Then what does this list we found in your tunic mean?” snapped Strong. “These are the names of ships that have been lost in space.”

“I don’t know. That list was sent to me over the audioceiver by my superior. I was to relay it to Mercury should they accept our proposal to join forces against--” He stopped.

“Get him out of my sight!” barked Walters.

The guards closed in around the little man and he slowly shuffled out of the office.

“I wonder how many more there are like him in our organization, Steve?” The commander had turned to the window and was staring out blindly.

“I don’t know, sir,” replied Strong. “But I think we’d better be prepared for trouble.”

“Agreed,” said Walters, turning to the Solar Guard captain. “What do you suggest?”

“Since we don’t know how many ships they have, where their base is, or when they plan to attack, I suggest putting the Venus squadrons in defense pattern A. Meanwhile, call in three additional squadrons from Mars, Earth, and Luna. That way, we can at least be assured of an even fight.”

“But we don’t know if they’ll attack here on Venus. Suppose we weaken Earth’s fleet and they attack there?” Walters paused, looking troubled. Then he sighed. “I guess you’re right. Put the plan into effect immediately. It’s the only thing we can do.”

At exactly midnight every teleceiver on Venus was suddenly blacked out for a moment and then came into focus again to reveal the grim features of Commander Walters.

In homes, restaurants, theaters, arriving and departing space liners, in every public and private gathering place, the citizens of Venus heard the announcement.

“As commander in chief of the Solar Guard, I hereby place the entire planet of Venus under martial law. All public laws are suspended until further notice. All public officials are hereby relieved of their authority. A ten P.M. until six A.M. curfew will go into effect immediately. Anyone caught on the streets between these hours will be arrested. An attack is expected on the city of Venusport, as well as other Venusian cities, momentarily. Follow established routine for such an occurrence. Obey officers and enlisted men of the Solar Guard who are here on Venus to protect you and your property. That is all!”

In the living room of Sinclair’s house Tom waited impatiently for the sound of Sinclair’s yacht taking off before attempting to free himself from the rope on his wrists. But when a half-hour had passed with no sound from outside, he decided not to waste any more time.

Relaxing completely, the curly-haired cadet began working his wrists back and forth in the loop of rope. It was slow, painful work, and in no time the skin was rubbed raw. George and Mrs. Hill watched him, wide-eyed. They saw the skin of his wrists gradually turn pink, then red, as the cadet pulled and pushed at the rope. A half-hour had passed before he felt the rope slipping down over the widest part of his hand. Slowly, so as not to lose the precious advantage, he pulled with all his strength, unmindful of the pain. He heard a sharp gasp from Mrs. Hill and then felt the rope become damp. His wrists were bleeding. But at the same time he felt the rope slipping over his hands. He gave a quick tug and the rope slipped off and dropped to the floor, a bloody tangle. He spun around and untied the foreman and his wife quickly, removing the gags from their mouths gently.

“Your wrists!” cried Mrs. Hill.

“Don’t worry about them, ma’am,” said Tom. He looked at Hill. “How long have you been tied up?”

“Just about an hour before you came,” answered the foreman. “I found Sinclair in front of a teleceiver in his room. It’s in a secret panel and I didn’t know it was there. I waited and heard him talking to someone in Venusian. But he spotted me and pulled a ray gun.”

“Do you know where he’s gone?” asked Tom.

“No, but I sure wish I did!” said the burly foreman stoutly. “I have something to settle with him.”

“That’ll have to wait until the Solar Guard is finished with him. Come on!” Tom started toward the door.

“Where are we going?” asked Hill.

“To the Polaris! I’ve got to warn the Solar Guard of their plans. They’re going to attack the Venusport garrison and take over Venus!”

“By the stars!” gasped Mrs. Hill. “Here I’ve been feeding that man all these years and didn’t know I was contributing to a revolution!”

Tom was out of the door and running toward the Polaris before she had finished talking. George followed right behind him.

As the cadet raced across the dark clearing one hope filled his mind--that the Polaris would be in the same condition in which they had left it.

The port was still open where Sinclair had caught him and he climbed inside the giant ship quickly. As soon as he entered, he snapped on the emergency lights and searched the ship carefully. After examining every compartment, and satisfied that there was no one aboard, he made his way back to the radar bridge. There, he saw immediately why Sinclair had felt free to leave the ship. All radar and communications equipment had been completely smashed.

The young cadet returned to the control deck and called down to George Hill, waiting in the air lock. “George! Get Mrs. Hill aboard quickly. We’re blasting off!”

“Blasting off?” the foreman called back. “But I thought you were going to contact Venusport!”