Menace of the Mutant Master

  Perry Rhodan

  The Third Power #18

  Menace of the

  Mutant Master

  As if from the entrails of Hell itself an evil Mastermind materializes:

  MONTERNY!

  A super-hypnotist who enslaves the minds and bodies of his own band of mutants and sets them against Perry and his futuremen in a war of wills for the highest stake of all–

  THE FUTURE OF THIS PLANET EARTH!

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  Menace of the Mutant Master

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  1/ THE IMPOSSIBLE EXPLOSIONS

  Great risk always accompanied Perry Rhodan on his missions in space. One day he might he the victim of a crippling accident. Even a killing one. Or meet his master. Then Col. Freyt would have to try to fill his spacesuit. So the colonel smiled as he spoke the words, "The boss's arrival is scheduled for shortly after midnight,"

  and his relief that Rhodan was coming back was evident to his adjutant. Terrania, the Gobi base of the

  New Power, would breathe easier with its leader safely back. Freyt was convinced that the survival of the artificial political structure known as the New Power was dependent on Perry Rhodan's continued existence. And much more: the welfare of the entire human race. Which was why Freyt was rejoicing that Rhodan had emerged once again safe and sound from one of his interplanetary adventures and was now on his way back to Earth.

  "No official reception, as usual, I suppose?" ventured the adjutant. "As usual," confirmed the colonel.

  • • •

  Terrania, the capital of the New Power, established in the heart of the great Gobi desert, was a city in growth. It currently numbered half a million inhabitants.

  Science had transformed the climate. Artificial rainfall, produced according to need, changed 15,000 square miles of hilly desert country into an ever green and flowering garden. Terrania was indisputably one of the most beautiful cities of the world.

  In the immediate vicinity of the metropolis rose the shining energy dome which housed and protected the actual center of the New Power. The vibrations of the dome would ward off any hostile attempt to approach the heart of the new city.

  • • •

  Shortly after midnight, in anticipation of Rhodan's arrival, Freyt and his adjutant left the administration building and the energy barrier. The colonel and his aide walked along the outskirts of the city and saw the flat buildings at the edge of the rocketport loom up in the dim light of the stars. A bright light suddenly skittered across the landing area. Puzzled, Freyt stopped in his tracks, looked around. "What was that?"

  Another lightning flash, this time from far beyond the roofs of Terrania, and almost simultaneously there arrived the roaring thunder of an explosion. Freyt stood stock still. His eyes widened in frightened confusion, failing to comprehend what was going on when the roar of the second explosion swept over them.

  "It's over at the salt lake!" he groaned. "At the reactor installations!"

  He turned and sped back to the city. The adjutant was running close behind him. They had hardly advanced 30 yards when the thin wail of the alarm sirens reached them.

  Still running, Freyt ordered a car via the small sender and receiver set which was standard equipment for his uniform. The car met up with them as they were almost at one of the wide main roads leading into the city.

  "What's going on?" asked Freyt, flopping down in the seat next to the driver of the car.

  "An explosion in block G, sir!" answered the chauffeur. "No details are known so far."

  "Please drive me there!" ordered Freyt.

  They made a U-turn and the car took off at high speed. With blaring sirens they made sure nothing would obstruct their way. The driver was a real dare-devil but Freyt was too preoccupied with other things to pay attention to him.

  What the blazes was there in the reactor installation that could be made to explode? Freyt was a soldier first and a technician next but he had a definite idea how a reactor worked. He also knew what kind of materials were used for the construction of a reactor. But try as he might he couldn't think of anything that might have brought about two explosions of the kind they had just heard.

  And how was it possible such explosions could even occur in view of the extensive security measures in force there? Freyt could find no answer to either of his questions. The chauffeur drove the car to the entrance gate of block G where he came to a halt. Freyt was startled out of his thoughts.

  Before the two explosions, block G had consisted of a long, low hall in which various separate components, brought in from the outside, were assembled, the end product being the catalyst R reactors. Some 300 men worked there during the day.

  Now the outlines of the former assembly hall could still be recognized but otherwise it gave the appearance of a battlefield that had been bombarded for hours by steady gunfire.

  Rescue teams had arrived shortly before Freyt. Dressed in protective clothing, the men stomped through the heat of the area which was strewn with debris. They were searching for survivors. From a police inspector Freyt learned that at the time of the explosion about 10 men of the night crew and guards had been present in the building.

  Nobody knew anything about the cause of the explosion. With the help of special instruments they had found two spots within the area of block G whose current temperature was over 3600° Fahrenheit. In all likelihood this was where the explosions had taken place.

  Freyt turned to the police inspector. "Have you checked for radioactivity?" he asked.

  The police inspector put on a forced smile. "I beg your pardon, sir! There wasn't a single speck of radioactive material in the whole place!"

  Freyt shook his head. "I want to make sure in any case," he answered sceptically. "Call the dosimeter crew!"

  The police inspector walked over to his car to pass on the request.

  Freyt began to feel ill at ease. "There's nothing we can do for the time being," he told his adjutant. "We'll have to wait till at least the first check has been made." In the midst of all the excitement he had forgotten all about Rhodan and his impending arrival.

  This incident was not just another accident: one of the most important factories had been destroyed. Without the Arkonide reactors there would be no nuclear drive engines—without power units no spaceships—without spacecraft no protection for Earth.

  Was it by chance that of all things block G should have fallen victim to the first major accident inside the area of the New Power?

  Colonel Freyt began to wonder what chances a saboteur would have of getting inside the domain of the New Power, and in case he did get this far how much chance would he have of actually carrying out an act of sabotage? None whatsoever, was Colonel Freyt's conclusion.

  Still, this thought was no comfort to him now.

  Freyt looked around, wishing to see the police inspector and find out from him what in the meantime the result of their search for survivors and traces of radioactivity had been. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he had failed to notice the arrival of the dosimeter group, all dressed in bright red uniforms, who meanwhile had spread out all over the devastated terrain.

  But he couldn't avoid noticing the ear-rending zeeep—zeeep—zeeep of the radiation alarm. The radiation crew had activated their sirens atop the roof of their trucks. Freyt saw that the rescue team began fleeing abruptly from the heap of ruins.

  One of the men in the bright red protective uniform approached him. He saluted him hastily and blurted out: "Emergency, sir! Highest danger. The entire area is contaminated, at least 10 roentgen per hour!"

  This was the moment that Freyt changed his opinio
n about the absolute efficacy of the anti-sabotage safety measures. For a second he lost his composure but regained it instantaneously, his cool reasoning mind winning out. "What radioactive material?" he asked sharply.

  The dosimeter man shook his head. "We don't know yet; it'll take another 15 minutes to find out."

  "Okay. Let me know as soon as you get the result!" The man in the bright red uniform saluted. Freyt turned away and marched off. He paid no attention to whether his adjutant was following him. Not until they were both sitting in the car next to each other did he become aware of him again. "What do you think of this whole affair?" he asked with a grim expression.

  "What's the use guessing as long as we have no clues, sir?"

  This seemed to make sense. Freyt nodded his head as if to say, you're right!

  The whole incident made Freyt feel depressed. It had taken place during the time he had acted as substitute in Terrania during Rhodan's absence. And although it was quite obvious that he personally had had no influence either way in aggravating or easing the catastrophe, he nevertheless felt responsible for it. The fact that the accident had occurred during his term of office was interpreted by him as a personal failure.

  Another warning signal came painfully loud over the car's radio. "Stop the car!" shouted Freyt.

  The car came to a sudden halt. Freyt was hurled forward and hit his head against the windshield but paid no attention to it. He concentrated on the announcement: "Three recently completed ships of the Z fleet, so called space destroyers, took off a few minutes ago without starting clearance. The identities of the pilots aboard are unknown. The ships almost immediately reached top speed and have already passed beyond the local radar range.

  "Calling Colonel Freyt! Calling Colonel Freyt!..."

  Freyt gritted his teeth. He flipped on the switch of the telecom sender. The small screen came alive showing the grim face of the man who was giving the alarm.

  "This is Freyt speaking! What's the matter?"

  Freyt noticed how the man switched off all sender channels except his own. "Three destroyers have been kidnapped, sir!" he reported curtly.

  "Kidnapped!" growled Freyt. "How on earth can a destroyer be kidnapped?"

  The answer was immediate if unsatisfactory. "We've no idea, sir, how this could have happened. Our robot guards functioned in the usual manner, we know that for sure. None of the robots noticed anybody or anything attempting to approach these three destroyers."

  Freyt stared straight ahead. "Who's conducting the investigation?" he asked shortly.

  "Major de Casa, sir."

  Freyt shook his head wearily. "Over and out."

  He ordered his driver to proceed at once to the field where the destroyers were kept. He drove to an area near the immense final assembly halls located in the southern part of the city. These class Z destroyers had been designed by Perry Rhodan himself, based on the original design of the one-seater space fighters which Rhodan had found many years ago in the underground hangars of the ancient Arkonidian Venus base. They couldn't properly be called spaceships since they lacked the hyper drive. Their corpuscular-drive engines merely enabled them to accelerate within an extremely short time to the speed of light. However, they were incapable of escaping into the outer reaches of space via a hyperspace jump.

  Nevertheless, these Z ships were at least 500 years ahead of anything that the most modern techniques on Earth could produce. They were a potentially fearful weapon in the hands of those who knew how to handle them.

  While the car was speeding south to the assembly halls Freyt issued a series of commands. The defense corps was instructed to shoot immediately and without warning at any plane trying to take off from Terrania. Hand in hand with this order followed another command grounding all air vehicles. And finally, a large number of robot guards were sent inside all spaceships to prevent any unauthorized take-off.

  There were more important things to lose than these three destroyers. There was so much more at stake. Freyt broke out in a cold sweat wondering what might have happened if the unknown abductors had managed to steal the two cruisers of the new Terra class—space-spheres with a diameter of nearly 600 feet, armed with the most sophisticated weapons and capable of executing instantaneous hypertransitions throughout the universe.

  In the meantime, however, the little red warning lights were blinking regularly and calmly from atop the gigantic spacespheres stationed on their launching pads.

  The car stopped in front of the heavy, shining figure of a robot that barred the way leading to the area where the three kidnapped destroyers had been standing. Freyt motioned to the robot to step closer, then looked at it. The robot registered the brain-wave pattern of the colonel and raised his hand in salute.

  The car started up again and drove another 150 feet till it came to a halt once more before a group of men who were engaged in an animated discussion. Freyt got out of the car. Major de Casa stepped over to Freyt. His face showed clearly the effect that the sudden disappearance of the three ships had had on him: surprise, disbelief...and some fear.

  "How did it all happen?" asked Freyt.

  "There are no eye-witnesses except for our robots, sir," answered de Casa readily, obviously relieved that somebody would now take charge of the whole affair. "All we know is what the robots told us, and that was very little indeed. They reported they walked up and down their assigned route. The area is absolutely flat and unobstructed. Their infra-red eyes could have spotted even a tiny mouse trying to approach the destroyers.

  "But neither man nor mouse nor anything else had been seen by them. All they noticed was the destroyers suddenly beginning to lift off the ground, then vanishing at top speed. The incident was reported at once to the command center but before anyone there could react and undertake any counter measures not a trace of the destroyers could be found."

  "What course were they flying when they took off?" asked Freyt.

  "Southeast, sir."

  Freyt looked attentively at the major. "Any conclusion one might draw from this?" he wanted to know.

  De Casa smiled. "Most likely that we should not try looking for the unknown in that direction."

  Freyt nodded in agreement. "Probably so."

  Together with de Casa he marched once around the area where the three destroyers had been standing. De Casa had made sure beforehand that the radioactive traces remaining from the starting thrust of the rockets had become minimal and harmless.

  No traces were to be seen except for the three burnt-over glassy spots which the engines had left behind after they had started. There were no footprints, no tire tracks—nothing! Freyt sighed as he returned to his adjutant. "We don't have even the slightest hint here whether we're dealing with human beings or intelligent extraterrestrial life forms."

  At this instant the driver of the car that had brought them to the airfield stuck his head out of the window. "A call for Colonel Freyt!" he shouted.

  Freyt took the telecom-receiver the man handed him through the window and saw on the screen a man dressed in the protective suit of the dosimeter crew.

  "We've pinpointed the sources of the radiation," he stated calmly, "and measured them. Both places with the highest temperatures are also the spots with the most intense radiation, five hundred roentgen per hour each at their center. The radiation consists of beta-minus with about 1.8 and 1.6 MeV, of beta-plus with..."

  "Tell me the elements, will you!" interrupted Freyt impatiently.

  "Magnesium-27 and zircon-87, sir."

  Freyt was confused. "What conclusions can you draw from this?" he asked.

  The radiation expert looked annoyed. "None, sir!" he said. "Neither magnesium-27 nor zircon-87 belong to the fission products given off during uranium or plutonium fission. We know of no nuclear reaction in connection with these two explosions which would produce these two isotopes."

  • • •

  Perry Rhodan landed amidst all this confusion.

  He realized something unusual must have
happened when Colonel Freyt failed to meet him at the landing strip. He ordered one of the all-purpose vehicles to be lowered to the ground from aboard the 180 foot high spacesphere. Then he together with his friend Reginald Bell drove over to the glowing dome of protective energy.

  Bell kept peering intently through the windshield. "What's going on there?" he asked.

  Rhodan didn't reply. The automatic barrier registered his mental radiation and the dimensions of the arriving vehicle. A sector opened for a few moments, just large enough to let the car with its occupants pass through the shimmering wall of the energy screen.

  The car plunged ahead. Rhodan and Bell got out in front of the tall administration building. A few minutes later they were standing in Freyt's office.

  Freyt made no attempt to apologize for his failure to meet them at the landing field. He made his report, precise and grim.

  "That's serious," said Rhodan after having listened to Freyt's account. "Still, Freyt, you shouldn't blame yourself for what's taken place. We seem to be dealing here with somebody who has a few more tricks up his sleeve than we do."

  "I'm glad you think so, sir," answered Freyt. "Nevertheless..."

  Rhodan waved his hand in protest. "No nevertheless, Freyt! We'll soon find out what's at the bottom of all of this."

  Freyt cleared his throat. "Do you think... perhaps... extraterrestrial enemies, sir?" he asked.

  Rhodan looked at him in surprise. "Extraterrestrial? No. We couldn't possibly have missed their approach to the airfield."

  Freyt had been thinking about this probability, even before Rhodan had landed. He wasn't sure but what an enemy who could seize unnoticed three destroyers couldn't also have approached Earth unnoticed.

  But he kept silent about his thoughts. He knew there was nothing better he could do in such a case than to leave such problems for Perry Rhodan to solve.