Читать книгу The Science Fiction Anthology онлайн

69 страница из 776

He went out. The door clicked shut behind him and Lon knew that this was the finish. He looked at Cathy’s dazed, horror-filled eyes. He knew this wasn’t a bluff. He was up against the same system that had brought colonists to Cetis Gamma Two. The brains that had planned that system had planned this. They’d gotten completely qualified men to do their dirty work in both cases.

“Lon, darling! Please kill me!” Cathy said in a hoarse whisper.

He looked at her in astonishment.

“Please kill me!” repeated Cathy desperately. “They—they can’t ever dare let us go, Lon, after what they’ve told me! They’ve got to kill us both. But—Lon, darling—please kill me first....”

An idea came into Lon’s mind. He surveyed it worriedly. He knew that he would have to tell what he knew and then he would be killed. The Cetis Gamma Trading Company wanted his inventions, and it would need him dead after it had them.

The idea was hopeless, but he had to try it. They knew he’d made gadgets which did remarkable things. If he made something now and persuaded them that it was a weapon....