The Dueling Machine Page 13

And Hector didnot notice his own battered helmet laying on the ground between them.

  Odal, for his part, had Hector's charge and swing timed perfectly inhis own mind. He would duck under the swing and bury his ax in theWatchman's chest. Then he would face the others. Probably with theirleader gone, the duel would automatically end. But, of course, Hectorwould not really be dead; the best Odal could hope for now was to winthe duel.

  Hector charged directly into Odal's plan, but the Watchman's timingwas much poorer than anticipated. Just as he began the downswing of amighty broadsword stroke, he stumbled on the helmet. Odal started toduck, then saw that the Watchman was diving face-first into theground, legs flailing, and that heavy broadsword was cleaving throughthe air with a will of its own.

  Odal pulled back in confusion, only to have the wild-swingingbroadsword strike him just above the wrist. The ax dropped out of hishand, and Odal involuntarily grasped the wounded forearm with his lefthand. Blood seeped through his fingers.

  He shook his head in bitter resignation, turned his back on theprostrate Hector, and began walking away.

  Slowly, the scene faded, and Hector found himself sitting in the boothof the dueling machine.

  XV

  The door opened and Leoh squeezed into the booth.

  "You're all right?"

  Hector blinked and refocused his eyes on reality. "Think so--"

  "Everything went well? The Watchmen got through to you?"

  "Good thing they did. I was nearly killed anyway."

  "But you survived."

  "So far."

  Across the room, Odal stood massaging his forehead while Kor demanded:"How could they possibly have discovered the secret? Where was theleak?"

  "That is not important now," Odal said quietly. "The primary fact isthat they have not only discovered our secret, but they have found away of duplicating it."

  "The sanctimonious hypocrites," Kor snarled, "accusing us of cheating,and then they do the same thing."

  "Regardless of the moral values of our mutual behavior," Odal saiddryly, "it is evident that there is no longer any use in calling ontelepathically-guided assistants, I shall face the Watchman aloneduring the second half of the duel."

  "Can you trust them to do the same?"

  "Yes. They easily defeated my aides a few minutes ago, then stoodaside and allowed the two of us to fight by ourselves."

  "And you failed to defeat him?"

  Odal frowned, "I was wounded by a fluke. He is a very ... unusualopponent. I cannot decide whether he is actually as clumsy as heappears to be, or whether he is shamming and trying to make meoverconfident. Either way, it is impossible to predict his behavior.Perhaps he is also telepathic."

  Kor's gray eyes became flat and emotionless. "You know, of course, howthe Chancellor will react if you fail to kill this Watchman. Notmerely defeat him. He must be killed. The aura of invincibility mustbe maintained."

  "I will do my best," Odal said.

  "He must be killed."

  The chime that marked the end of the rest period sounded. Odal andHector returned to the their booths. Now it was Hector's choice ofenvironment and weapons.

  Odal found himself enveloped in darkness. Only gradually did his eyesadjust. He saw that he was in a spacesuit. For several minutes hestood motionless, peering into the darkness, every sense alert, everymuscle coiled for immediate action.

  Dimly he could see the outlines of jagged rock against a background ofinnumerable stars. Experimentally, he lifted one foot. It stucktackily, to the surface. _Magnetized boots_, Odal thought. _This mustbe a planetoid._

  As his eyes grew accustomed to the dimness, he saw that he was right.It was a small planetoid, perhaps a mile or so in diameter. Almostzero gravity. Airless.

  Odal swiveled his head inside the fishbowl helmet of his spacesuit andsaw, over his right shoulder, the figure of Hector--lank and ungainlyeven with the bulky suit. For a moment, Odal puzzled over the weaponto be used. Then Hector bent down, picked up a loose stone,straightened, and tossed it softly past Odal's head. The Kerak majorwatched it sail by and off into the darkness of space, never to returnto the tiny planetoid.

  _A warning shot_, Odal thought to himself. He wondered how much damageone could do with a nearly weightless stone, then remembered thatinertial mass was unaffected by gravitational fields, or the lack ofthem. A fifty-pound rock might be easier to lift, but it would be justas hard to throw--and it would do just as much damage when it hit,regardless of its gravitational "weight."

  Odal crouched down and selected a stone the size of his fist. He rosecarefully, sighted Hector standing a hundred yards or so away, andthrew as hard as he could.

  The effort of his throw sent him tumbling off-balance, and the stonewas far off-target. He fell to his hands and knees, bounced lightlyand skidded to a stop. Immediately he drew his feet up under his bodyand planted the magnetized soles of his boots firmly on the iron-richsurface.

  But before he could stand again, a small stone _pinged_ lightly offhis oxygen tank. The Star Watchman had his range already!

  Odal scrambled to the nearest upjutting rocks and crouched behindthem. _Lucky I didn't rip open the spacesuit_, he told himself. Threestones, evidently hurled in salvo, ticked off the top of the top ofthe rocks he was hunched behind. One of the stones bounced into hisfishbowl helmet.

  Odal scooped up a handful of pebbles and tossed them in Hector'sgeneral direction. That should make him duck. Perhaps he'll stumbleand crack his helmet open.

  Then he grinned to himself. That's it. Kor wants him dead, and that isthe way to do it. Pin him under a big rock, then bury him alive undermore rocks. A few at a time, stretched out nicely. While his oxygensupply gives out. That should put enough stress on his nervous systemto hospitalize him, at least. Then he can assassinated by moreconventional means. Perhaps he will even be as obliging as Massan, andhave a fatal stroke.

  A large rock. One that is light enough to lift and throw, yet also bigenough to pin him for a few moments. Once he is down, it will be easyenough to bury him under more rocks.

  The Kerak major spotted a boulder of the proper size, a few yardsaway. He backed toward it, throwing small stones in Hector's directionto keep the Watchman busy. In return, a barrage of stones beganstriking all around him. Several hit him, one hard enough to knock himslightly off-balance.

  Slowly, patiently, Odal reached his chosen weapon--an oblong boulder,about the size of a small chair. He crouched behind it and tugged atit experimentally. It moved slightly. Another stone zinged off hisarm, hard enough to hurt. Odal could see Hector clearly now, standingatop a small rise, calmly firing pellets at him. He smiled as hecoiled, catlike, and tensed himself. He gripped the boulder with hisarms and hands.

  Then in one vicious uncoiling motion he snatched it up, whirledaround, and hurled it at Hector. The violence of his action sent himtottering awkwardly as he released the boulder. He fell to the ground,but kept his eyes fixed on the boulder as it tumbled end over end,directly at the Watchman.

  For an eternally-long instant Hector stood motionless, seeminglyentranced. Then he leaped sideways, floating dreamlike in the lowgravity, as the stone hurtled inexorably past him.

  Odal pounded his fist on the ground in fury. He started up, only tohave a good-sized stone slam against his shoulder, and knock him flatagain. He looked up in time to see Hector fire another. The stonepuffed into the ground inches from Odal's helmet. The Kerak majorflattened himself. Several more stones clattered on his helmet andoxygen tank. Then silence.

  Odal looked up and saw Hector squatting down, reaching for moreammunition. The Kerak warrior stood up quickly, his own fists filledwith throwing stones. He cocked his arm to throw--

  But something made him turn to look behind him. The boulder loomedbefore his eyes, still tumbling slowly, as it had when he had thrownit. It was too close and too big to avoid. It smashed into Odal,picked him off his feet and slammed against the upjutting rocks a fewyards away.

  Even before he started to feel the p
ain in his midsection, Odal begantrying to push the boulder off. But he could not get enough leverage.Then he saw the Star Watchman's form standing over him.

  "I didn't really think you'd fall for it," Odal heard Hector's voicein his earphones. "I mean ... didn't you realize that the boulder wastoo massive to escape completely after it had missed me? You could'vecalculated its orbit ... you just threw it into a, uh, six-minuteorbit around the planetoid. It _had_ to come back to perigee ... rightwhere you were standing when you threw it, you know."

  Odal said nothing, but strained every cell in his pain-wracked body toget free of the boulder. Hector reached over his shoulder and beganfumbling with the valves that were pressed against the rocks.

  "Sorry to do this ... but I'm not, uh, killing you, at least ... justdefeating you. Let's see ... one of