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Updated: May 21, 2025
He explained the theft of the model Tube, and how it was that their first contact with Earth had been with the dregs of Earth humanity. On behalf of his countrymen he offered reparation for all the damage Jacaro and his men had done. He proposed a peaceful commerce between worlds, to the infinite benefit of both. There was silence until he finished. The faces before him were immobile.
And the people of Earth, all of them, would seem enemies. Jacaro would never be identified as an unauthorized invader. He would seem to be a scout, an advance guard, a spy, for hordes of other invaders yet to come. As the long night wore away, Tommy's grim hopelessness intensified. The Ragged Men would hunt them for sport and out of hatred for all sane human beings.
Tommy grasped Evelyn's wrist in what was almost a painful grip. "Noises in the Tube!" he told her sharply. "Earth-folk doing something in the Tube Jacaro came through. Your father...." There was an alert silence in the Council hall. The white-bearded old man had listened to the messenger. Now he asked a grim question of Tommy. "They may be my friends, or your enemies," said Tommy briefly.
We will cover her towers with gas until her people starve in the gas masks they've made!" The lean man in the tunic of Rahn snarled bitterly: "What matter? We starve now!" Tommy turned upon him as Jacaro whirled and cursed him bitterly for the revealing outburst. "We will ransom the women with food," said Tommy coldly and then his eyes flamed, "and thrash you afterwards for fools!"
A chance bullet blew something up. One of the flame weapons flew to bits, spouting what seemed to be liquid thermit upon friend and foe alike. The way of the gangsters back to their Tube was barred. The route they knew was a chaos of scorched bodies and melting metal. The thermit flowed in all directions, seeming to grow in volume as it flamed. Jacaro and his gangsters fled.
A coupla months organizin' here, buildin' a big Tube, then...." Tommy's expression did not change. "If it were that easy," he said drily, "you wouldn't be bargaining. I'm not altogether a fool, Jacaro. We want those women back. You want something we've got, and you want it badly. Cut out the oratory and tell me the real price for the return of the women, unharmed."
Tommy Reames stared at the picture. His face went grimmer still. He thought of sounds he had heard beyond the Tube, not long since. "There's no question where they came from. The Fifth Dimension. But if Jacaro brought them back, he's a fool." "Jacaro's missing," said Denham savagely. "Don't you understand? He could get through to the Golden City. These beast-things are proof somebody did.
A fleet of 'em floatin' over N'York, loaded with gas that white stuff y' can steer wherever y' want it. We could pull a hundred million from Chicago! We c'd take over the whole United States! Try that on y' piano! Me, King Jacaro, King of America!" His dark eyes flashed. "I'll give y' Canada or Mexico, whichever y' want. Name y' price, guy.
He puffed and said: "A guy who works for you caught himself on fire this mornin'. It happened on a bus. Very peculiar. The guy's name was Jacaro." Brink did not look surprised. "What happened?" "It's kind of a strange thing," said Fitzgerald. "Accordin' to the report he's ridin' this bus, readin' his paper, when all of a sudden he yells an' jumps up. His pants are on fire.
A snaky rope went coiling down into the lower ship's cockpit. A burly figure began to climb it hand over hand. A second figure followed. A third figure, in the drab clothing that distinguished Jacaro's men from all others, wrapped the rope about himself and was hauled up bodily. And Tommy had seen Jacaro but once, yet he was suddenly grimly convinced that this was Jacaro himself.
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