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At last they reached the top, and the groundcar arrowed out over the desert again, picking up speed. Far to the left and ahead of them there was another dust-cloud drifting up, one that was not of the thin wind, but nearly stationary. Nuwell found the binoculars in the storage compartment and handed them to Maya. "What's that over there?" he wondered. "Another groundcar? Take a look, Maya."
Nuwell gave his men some final instructions to follow before returning to Mars City by groundcar. Then he and Maya went aboard the copter. They strapped themselves in the seats. Nuwell sealed the copter door, and released oxygen from the tanks into the interior.
"Why by copter?" asked Maya. "Groundcar is faster." For the first time, Nuwell's face broke into a genuine smile, and his ordinary charming self shone through. "Because," he replied drolly, "I've just made that trip by groundcar, and every bone in my body aches. It may be slower, but I want to go back by air, where there aren't as many bumps!" Maya was able to laugh at this.
There was a terrific impact, and the groundcar dome shattered above him. Unprotected, he felt the air explode from the groundcar, from his lungs. Oxygenless death poured in through the broken dome. It all happened in an instant. Even as the dome shattered under the copter's shell and Dark recognized the imminence of death, the groundcar twisted out of control and careened from the highway.
Do a good job, but do it fast, and don't get caught up there by the rebels blasting the airlock." "I won't," promised Vidonati. "It'll only take me a few minutes, and I can be down the ramp before they can focus their beams on the airlock." In the lead groundcar, as the three of them wheeled around and headed slowly for the north building, Cheng turned to one of his companions with a frown.
As soon as she answered it, her ears were assailed by Nuwell's agonized voice. "Maya, I can't get up there tonight!" he said. "There aren't any jets here, and these idiots refuse to bring one in from Hesperidum or Cynia for me to use. I'll have to come up by groundcar." Maya sat silent, stunned.
"This shaft leads up into the walls of the structure above above, although it is still underground and I have been up there often at night. It has long been my hope that I might be able to get a marsuit or a groundcar and make my escape, but they are kept locked up and always guarded, against the Jellies and the Toughs.
They would admit the refugees, after requiring them to lay down their arms, and then leave the house in their marsuits. Dark grinned happily, and walked quickly through the house to the attached garage. He climbed into the groundcar, started the engine, and opened the garage door by the remote control mechanism on the dashboard.
The groundcar bumped and slithered, and an orange dust-cloud boiled up from its broad tires and wafted away across the sculpted sand. The desert stretched away, silent and empty, to the distant horizon; the groundcar the only humming disturbance of its silence and emptiness. The steel-blue sky shimmered above, a lens capping the red surface.
Dark switched his radio to the official channel. " ... await check. Repeat: groundcar in cloverleaf, stop at once and await check." Dark braked the groundcar to a stop. As soon as the copter grounded, he could accelerate and escape. But the copter did not ground. It hovered, directly over him.
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