Read Online John Rackham by The Double Invaders - Free Book Online Page A

sure of was that it was not deliberate on
her part. He estimated her age as about twenty-five. Her shape was all that any
mature woman could possibly want, and the brief blue tunic-dress flattered it
effectively. Yet it wasn't her shape, her full curves that were revealed every
time she moved, nor the silk-satin texture of the skin so close to him. Bragan
had seen more, and better, and had been the object of deliberate enticement
often. He had learned to disregard such things, to consider himself immune to
them. Yet now he found his pulse unsteady and his breathing upset.
    He clenched his fists and found them sweaty,
and cursed himself for being so foolish, now of all times. And he wondered
why? It was not intentional on her part. Her attitude was one of blithe
indifference to the fact that he was a man at all. And she was by no means
tender. Once she had lifted the edge of the plaster on his head enough to get a
grip on it she had it off with a quick heave that brought a yelp as far as his
throat and halted only by his clenched teeth.
    She
proceeded to bathe the lump with hot water and massage it with strong fingers.
Then, to his relief, she applied a cool ointment and a new dressing. Nothing
tender there, indeed, and yet she had something—he veered away from that
thought in a hurry, to choose something less hazardous.
    -
"Ryth—tell me—how are your people so well-organized? In touch with each
other? Obviously, however you knocked out our ships, you did it to some
prearranged plan. By some signal. Yet your radio was silent."
    "Oh, that!" She patted the dressing
into place and subsided briskly by his side. "You didn't know? We have a
way of talking to each other over a long distance by wires from one place to
another. It is just as quick as by radio."
    Telephone! he thought. But then,
"What wires? We saw none!"
    "Of course not. They are
underground."
    So
simple and so obvious. He felt foolish as he echoed, "Underground?"
    "Of
course underground," she said with great patience. "Where do you
think you are now?" He felt more foolish than ever.
    "This is part of an underground
system?"
    "It is. All our cities -md all dwellings
have an underground part where we can live when it becomes necessary. Now, I
will just put this stuff away safely and then it will be time to go. Be
ready!" She took the tray of dressings and was gone before he could think
to ask her just what she had meant by "necessary."
     
    V
    H e followed heb at a brisk walk out of the cell, into a long
tunnel that was just wide enough for two people to pass, and about seven feet
high. It was surfaced on all four sides with smooth stone and lit every yard
with inset lamps that glowed like pearl. He didn't know which was the bigger
upset to his mind, this seemingly endless warren of galleries and cubicles, or
her distracting self, striding and swaying fascinatingly in front of him. He
tried to rationalize her charm. It was because she was artless, natural, real,
unstudied—and he blundered on from one inadequate word to another until he was
utterly confused. He shunted away from the topic altogether and concentrated
his attention on the cellar-warren.
    Every
so often, at regular intervals, there were marks and symbols in various colors,
and now, from all sides, other people began to join the quiet march, falling in
at his heels. All
these tunnels, he
thought, they
must cover whole acres of area—and yet there was never so much as a mention of
them on the surface. The Scartanni had never discussed this, nor spoken of U.
Not at all.
    Why? Why keep it secret? The question nagged. Secrecy after the event, yes. That made a land of sense. But Bragan and his invaders
had studied this planet for weeks prior to invasion, and there had been not a
word about an underground. And why have it, anyway? Why would these people go
to all this trouble to live underground—when necessary? The silly and
senseless questions were all the more irritating because he felt that