Read Online Captain Future 16 - Magic Moon (Winter 1944) by Edmond Hamilton - Free Book Online

slipped down to the property-room, which by now had been re-loaded by Sam Martin’s men.
    “Simon!” he whispered in the dark room. “Greg! Has Otho been here?”
    Grag came stalking from the dark corner in which he had been stiffly standing, and the Brain also glided to Curt Newton from the shadows.
    “Otho has not been here,” Simon Wright declared.
    “I haven’t seen the pest, since he left us at the Fire Sea,” growled Grag.
    “I sent him after Kin Kurri, whom I believed was trailing Joan,” Newton explained. “Kin Kurri is here, and so is Joan, but where is Otho?”
    “Lad, I found out something when I searched Valdane’s suite today,” reported the Brain.
    He went on to tell about Su Thuar’s bringing the cases of hollow wooden tubes.
    “So that’s why Valdane left Su Thuar here — to get those aboard when no one was here to see,” muttered Captain Future thoughtfully. “Now what possible use has he got in mind for hollow wooden tubes?”
    “We may be able to find that out,” the Brain said. “I took an Ear with me, and hung it inside the grating of the ventilator in Valdane’s suite.”
    Captain Future uttered an approving exclamation. An Ear was a tiny supersensitive microphone and audio-transmitter which could pick up any nearby sound or speech and transmit it to a tuned receiver.
    Simon Wright had the little receiver of the Ear ready, and it was turned on. “I’ve been listening but haven’t heard anything yet. They’ve not returned to their quarters.”
    “Listen — they’re coming in now,” said Grag.
    They hung over the little receiver. From it came the sound of footsteps, then the slam of a door. And then Jon Valdane’s voice, cold and wrathful.
    “You bungled it, you fool,” Valdane was accusing. “I sent you to make sure of the Randall girl, and here she is, still on the ship. Why didn’t you catch up to her on the trail and do away with her so that it would look as though she’d been attacked by jungle beasts, as I ordered?”
    There came the answering, whining voice of Kin Kurri, the Saturnian politician. “I couldn’t do it. Someone trailed me. It was Rizo Thon, that Mercurian actor. He must have been a spy working with the Patrol.”
    “What happened?” Valdane demanded in alarm. “Where’s Rizo Thon now?”
    “Don’t worry — Rizo Thon is dead,” Kin Kurri answered. “I found he was trailing me, so I waited and took him by surprise and killed him. I tossed his body into the jungle. It’ll never be found.”
    Curt Newton looked up at his two comrades, his face suddenly gray with pallor.
    “If that’s true, Otho is dead,” he choked.
     

     
Chapter 7: Danger in Space
     
    HORRIFIED, Curt Newton and the two Futuremen looked at each other, stunned by the incredible news they had just heard.
    Otho dead? Their minds simply could not digest the possibility of it.
    And as they stood petrified with consternation, there came the echoing clang of the ship’s bells in sharp signal.
    “Take-off time!” warned the loudspeakers throughout the Perseus. “Take-off time!”
    “Otho can’t be dead,” cried Grag wildly. He started for the door. “We’ll go back there and find him.”
    “Wait, Grag — it’s too late now!” Captain Future ordered. “We’re starting.”
    The roar of the keel rockets punctuated his words. The whole bulk of the Perseus lifted sharply into the air, and then the liner was roaring up through the lurid red glow of the Jovian night.
    “Listen!” whispered the Brain.
    Voices again were coming from the tiny receiver. Valdane and his companions had stopped talking during the shock of take-off, but now their voices came again.
    “If you really killed Rizo Thon, there may be trouble when he’s missed,” Jon Valdane was saying. “You’ve botched the whole thing, Kin Kurri.”
    The voice of the Saturnian answered sullenly. “Why didn’t you have Su Thuar handle it, then?”
    “If I had, I would have made sure that the Randall