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Then Dark realized it was awaiting a patrol car from Mars City to check and take him in custody if necessary. Immediately, he put the groundcar in drive and whipped out of the cloverleaf under full acceleration. If he could only achieve top speed, 350 kilometers-an-hour, the copter couldn't match it. But the copter was on his tail at once as he swerved out of the tight curve. Its guns spat fire.
He had found his intruder, perhaps a traveler who had run into engine trouble in the desert and had fortuitously been near enough to take shelter here while making repairs. But, again, there was no reason to anticipate unfriendliness. Carrying his marsuits, Dark walked up to the groundcar, overhearing a muffled bit of profanity as he approached.
Later he would see infrequent dome farms, but he could expect no more than two or three score of these in the entire long drive to Hesperidum. Dark slowed and entered the cloverleaf that took him onto the bypass expressway. Even as he did so, the radio crackled and the thin voice of the Chief sounded over the groundcar loudspeaker. "Attention, Phoenix," said the Chief intensely.
Maya trained the glasses in the direction indicated, through the groundcar's transparent dome. It was difficult to get them focused, for the groundcar swayed and jolted, but at last she was able to make brief identification. "They're Martians, Nuwell," she said. "Can we drive over that way?" "You've seen Martians before," he said. "But I'd like to speak with them," she said.
"I checked the chart carefully," he said. "The oxygen supply of a marsuit won't take us either back to the Canfell Farm or to Ophir, even with extra tanks. We're just going to have to cannibalize two of these machines and repair us a groundcar." "But, Nuwell, how long will that take?" "I don't know," he admitted. "It looks like it may be quite a job.
That house at the end of your exit will have a dozen or so of our men in it, waiting to drift away one by one, but you can't afford to worry about them. I want you to get in that groundcar, alone, and take off like Phobos rising." "You're going out the other emergency exit?" "That's none of your business. But, as a matter of fact, no.
She stretched lithely, to the delight of the assembled viewers, and padded gracefully toward the chateau's second-floor entrance, trailing the huge hat in one hand. She walked lightly along the balcony over the lobby, toward her room. As she turned its corner, passing the grand stairway, she could see the chateau entrance and the registration desk. The groundcar had brought a new guest.
About ten miles out was the circular bypass highway that surrounded Mars City, and Dark proposed to turn right on that, for his destination was Hesperidum. The highway he was on would take him eastward, and Hesperidum was about 8,000 kilometers southwest of Mars City a little better than two-days' drive at groundcar speed on the straight, flat highways.
As the groundcar emerged onto the sage-covered plain, the men were helping the two policemen from Ophir unload the box containing Dark Kensington's remains from another groundcar and load it into the baggage bay of the copter. Nuwell and Maya slipped into their marsuits, secured the helmets and climbed out of the groundcar.
A groundcar came rolling out from the side of the landing-grid enclosure. The groundcar ran on wheels, and wheels were not much used on modern worlds. Dara was behind the times in more ways than one. "This car will take you to Defense and you can tell them anything you want. But don't try to sneak back in this ship! It'll be guarded!"
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