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But if, at the last, he saw his own defeat, his death perhaps impending would he treat her kindly then? I loved Elza very deeply. A new torture came from it now. Did she love me or Tarrano? I remembered the gentleness of the man with her. His dignity, his power his undoubted genius. And who, what was I? A mere news-gatherer. A man of no force, and little personality. A nonentity.
There was, indeed, a tenseness about them all an air of vague expectancy which made my heart beat faster as I realized it. Was Tarrano totally unaware of what was about to happen? Was he unaware of this hidden, lurking menace to him, which now, to me, was so obvious? I could not believe that; yet, he was imperturbable, solemn as ever. A shaft of golden light upon Tarrano. The darkened chamber.
Spreading light beams rising from points a hundred feet apart along the wall. The beams spread fan-shape, so that within fifty feet above their source they met and merged into a thin sheet of effulgence rising into the sky. Tarrano's barrage. It seemed then that beyond suicidal sorties of the kind we had just repulsed, Tarrano was planning to stand purely on the defensive.
I felt Tarrano bending swiftly over me; felt the forcible insertion of a branched metal tube in my nostrils; a hand over my mouth. I struggled to hold my breath failed. Then inhaled with a gasp, a pungent, sickening-sweet gas. Roaring, clanging gongs sounded in my ears roaring and clattering louder, then fading into silence. A wild, tumbling phantasmagoria of dreams. Then complete unconsciousness.
Tarrano called: "The Princess Maida can't you locate her?" The scene blurred momentarily, then showed us the outside of the Station. A white expanse of snow, with purple starlit sky above. From a side door of the building, as we watched, the figures of two women appeared. A woman leading Maida.
The belief that they could win confidence to their cause by the very truthfulness in their hearts! The belief that right makes might which Tarrano would have told them was untrue! Yet it was a good plan, and the Earth Council approved it, since it could do no harm to try. And it perhaps would have been successful but for one thing, of which even at that moment I in Venia was aware.
But she was whispering, "Drop to the floor when Tarrano dances with the Red Woman drop or the rays might strike you!" Another girl was plucking at me from behind. Alda shouted: "You shall not have him!" and cast me off. But I heard her whisper, "Come outside for a moment then come back!" and then, aloud, she cried to the other girl, "You shall not have him! He is coming to watch me dive and swim!
Tarrano barely moved. "So? You tell me he was asleep at the mirrors, Argo?" "Master, I could not help it! Since first you made your move in Greater New York at Park Sixty, I have sat there. Two nights and a day " "And you fell asleep without asking for a relief?" "Master, I " "Did you?" "Yes. I did not realize I was sleeping " A gesture to Argo, and the man was flung closer to Tarrano's feet.
It was a light strong enough to penetrate the barrage the boat was disclosed to observers in the house. But Tarrano raised a small metal projector. A dull-red beam sprang from it and mingled with the other. A surge of sparks; then Tarrano's red beam conquered. It absorbed the white light. And Tarrano's beam was curved. It lay over the lake in a huge bow, bending far out to one side.
I could have talked to them both for a day, questioning them; and they, no doubt, had as much to ask of us. But they were solemn, grave and anxious. "Not now, Jac," Georg said to check me. "Elza dear I have been so worried over you." "But " I demanded. "Jac the situation here our own cause the safety of our Earth itself this Tarrano " But Maida stopped him. "The very air has ears. Not now."
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