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And that being the case, he could expect to see one door after another battered down and then a concerted, four-point rush which would end everything.... Eliot Leithgow said the extraordinary thing that pointed a way out. "May I suggest," he said mildly, "that we try to get Dr. Ku Sui's brains to help us?" "What do you mean?" The older man smiled, a little sadly.
He took two of his three laboratory assistants off their hurried manufacture of quantities of the V-27, and with Ku Sui went out into the air-car. Passing by way of tube and lake and air, they were quickly inside the dome on the asteroid, and then into Ku Sui's laboratory, where Friday waited on guard.
Ku Sui's general attitude did not fool him. He knew that the man's suave mockery and flowery courtesy were camouflage for a very real fear of the quick wits and brilliant, pointed action of his famous master, the Hawk. Carse walked steadily enough, but every step he took beat in his mind like the accents of a dirge.
"The bodies of your four white assistants, whom I have safely confined, and one of your robot-coolies, also confined. I did not intend to use these five, but, because you put a premium on time by your attempted destruction of the brains, it cannot be helped." Dr. Ku Sui's impassive demeanor did not change. He did not seem in the least surprised. He puffed quietly at the cigarro and nodded.
There was stillness in the laboratory then as his bleak gray eyes met and held for long seconds Ku Sui's enigmatic green-black ones. "If I don't?" For answer the Eurasian gestured apologetically to his guards. "I see," Carse whispered. There was nothing to be done. Three coolies, each with ray-guns at the ready; four white assistants.... No hope. No chance for anything. He looked at the negro.
Ku Sui's voice was echoing through the room, more than a trace of irritation in its tone: "Hawk Carse, you are beginning to annoy me you and your too-clever black satellite." Carse's eyes flashed to the ceiling. A small disklike object, almost unnoticeable, lay flat against it in one place. "Yes," continued Ku Sui, "I can talk to you, hear you and see you.
"We may be sure that he went for allies: Dr. Ku has several on Satellite III. Of them all, I think he would go for Lar Tantril." "Tantril?" "Yes, I think so. Lar Tantril, the Venusian. A fellow of much self-confidence and one of Ku Sui's chief agents, and who at present" he smiled faintly "nurses a special bitterness against me. I told you how I tricked him on his ranch.
Either of these alone was enough to seal the feud, but there was more. Carse was sworn to release from their bondage of life-in-death Ku Sui's most prized possession, his storehouse of wisdom the brains of five great Earth scientists, kept alive though their bodies were dead. These, then, were the forces glossed over so lightly by John Sewell's words.
That Ku Sui's sure a genius! To have that whole asteroid there, man, and to take it with him wherever he wants to go! Look at it! Fifteen, twenty miles long, it must be! And that dome " "Yes," said the Hawk shortly, "but easy on that now. We've work to do, and it's got to be done quickly.
The Hawk looked at him closely: the words had a hidden meaning, and it was clear he was not intended to miss the implied threat. But what was Ku Sui's thought? Back in his mind an anxiety grew, indefinite, vague and devilish.
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