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  But then Rhog's heart seemed to skip a beat as he saw other shadows emerge from the darkness. An Arkonide officer with four combat robots joined the group.

  You couldn't fool an Arkonide as easily as you could a robot.

  Murgo was also sweating because he realized this as well. He had been depending on a mere robot-controlled checkpoint but to have an Arkonide show up at a time like this was fatal.

  "You will order all of your men to line up here," said the officer briskly. "They are to bring all personal documents with them."

  Murgo sensed the threat of a possible calamity but he pulled himself together. He reasoned that not much could happen to him and his nine men because they were carrying the special passes signed by the Admiral. Whatever might happen to Rhog could be of no consequence to him, other than the fact it was a bit sticky to have a man in the outfit with a doctored up I.D. However—

  "Hurry it up!"

  Murgo was jolted by the barked command. He went hurriedly to the line of parked caravan vehicles.

  "Everybody out!" he shouted. "Bring your papers with you!"

  This still wasn't so bad, he thought to himself. But hopefully the Arkonide wouldn't get the idea of inspecting his cargo. Of course he didn't know, himself, what was in those crates but he could well imagine that it was not intended for the eyes of any Arkonide. Just the mysterious setup in that cave alone was enough to convince him of that.

  The officer took a careful look at every pass card and inspected the special credentials with obvious interest. Rhog made an attempt to outsmart the procedures but the robots were too alert for him. When he was about to go back with the already-processed Zalites, he was stopped.

  "You have not yet presented your pass," said the robot who held him. The towering machine's voice was stridently metallic.

  The officer turned to him. "Come here, Zalite!" Your pass!"

  Rhog saw his mission going down in flames before it got started. In his pistol were two charges—at the most maybe 3. He could kill this Arkonide but how would that help him? The four robots—not to mention many more of them in the vicinity—would simply kill him in return. Not only himself, perhaps, but all members of the caravan as well. He would be pulling them into destruction with him and would have accomplished nothing.

  He let go of the weapon in his pocket and instead drew out the pass, which he handed to the Arkonide. In vain he scrabbled in his brain for an excuse but he finally had to admit that there wasn't any!

  The officer took the pass and inspected it with narrowed eyes. He finally looked up. In his reddish-albino eyes was a glimmer of surprise as though Rhog's presence here were not in his program. In fact the Arkonide appeared to be slightly at a loss.

  "This pass has been falsified," he said finally but his voice sounded neither triumphant nor malicious. It also carried the same note of confusion. "I have to take you with me. The caravan may pass."

  Murgo breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently they were not going to hold Rhog's presence against him. But he sought to avoid being caught in another circumstance like this because the next time somebody might want to look at the cargo.

  "May I have some kind of voucher or receipt for this inspection?" he asked.

  "What for?"

  "In case I'm stopped again. That way I can avoid any further delays and not have to attract the attention of the Arkon robots unnecessarily."

  The officer nodded as though he could appreciate the logic of the argument. He drew a slip of paper out of his pocket and gave it to Murgo, who looked at it briefly and then tucked it away. He gave an almost imperceptible nod to the unhappy Rhog shrugged his shoulders and then returned to his vehicle. The other Zalites were already sitting in their driver cabs. Seconds later the caravan rolled through the blockade point and soon found itself heading through the main avenues en route to the downtown area of the city.

  But Rhog remained behind.

  "Come along!" ordered the Arkonide, who had neglected, however, to have him searched.

  For this piece of negligence Rhog was grateful. Perhaps he might still be able to attempt an escape. Within the city there were enough hiding places.

  The two checkpoint robots had returned to their original positions. Without further delay the officer took Rhog by the arm and marched away. His four positronic escorts brought up the rear and covered him. Rhog guessed that, at this moment, there were at least eight beamer weapons aimed at his back, so any thought of escape was thereby nipped in the bud. It would be plain suicide.

  The streets of Tagnor were empty. Only infrequently did Rhog see a Zalite but every one of them ducked swiftly into a side street or alleyway whenever he caught sight of this patrol unit. No free Zalite seemed to have a clear conscience, even when carrying the special documents signed by the Admiral. This was a situation which should have caused Rhog to ponder the matter more deeply, but who could blame him if all he could think of was flight? For he had a mission to accomplish even if it cost him his life. If he were to be sent to Arkon instead, all would be lost.

  Opportunity came sooner than he had hoped.

  On the way to the Zarlt's palace, where the Arkonide admiral also had his headquarters, the group happened to pass the area of Tagnor's great war games arena. Rhog was familiar with it from previous times and he knew that precisely in this region there were many side alleys and passages and hiding places.

  Before he could think of what to do, a chance incident came to his aid.

  20 meters ahead of the Arkonide officer, two Zalites made an appearance as they came around a corner from a side street. They halted in surprise when they saw the patrol unit. Had they gone quietly on their way they might not have caused any suspicion. In fact Rhog wondered that the officer even noticed them. Thus far he had already passed up a number of questionable people without stopping them. Or maybe it was because in this case the two Zalites were too close to ignore.

  When they turned on the spot and ran back into the other street, the Arkonide came to a halt. He turned to the robots. "R-56 and R-763! After them and hold them for me!"

  Two of the robots responded by running after the suspicious fugitives. When they vanished around the corner, Rhog made a lightning move.

  He would have exactly 20 meters head start or at the most three or four seconds if he hurried. It was unlikely that the officer would be able to give orders to the two remaining robots any faster than that.

  Rhog went into a top burst of speed. When the lifesaving corner he was running for was only two meters away he felt the searing heat of a glancing shot. Ahead of him he saw bubbles boiling out of the wall of a house. Then he made a side dash into the safety of darkness. Behind him he was aware of the heavy footsteps of the robots and the shrill shouts of the officer echoing through the deserted streets.

  A narrow side alley—Rhog ducked into it.

  When the robots turned the corner they could no longer see the fugitive. Their searchlights swept over house fronts and closed doors.

  The Arkonide joined them, panting and out of breath. "Where is he?" he demanded of the robots. "He must not get away."

  "Disappeared!"

  "Search the houses—quickly!"

  While a few dozen Zalites were roughly awakened from sleep only to find to their relief that their own credentials were not in question, Rhog crept through a basement, found a rear exit and finally reached a small enclosed court. Here he discovered a suitable hiding place where he could safely wait until daylight.

  By no later than the day following, he hopes he might carry out his plan to completion.

  * * * *

  On this particular evening it had been Pucky's turn to teleport into the palace of the Zarlt so that he could exchange information with the false Admiral. As usual at this hour, 'Calus' was alone. He had taken the precaution to lock the door to his chamber so that no unwanted visitor or courier might interrupt him.

  This was the one brief time during the day when he could take off his mask and return to his
true identity as Sgt. Osega—that is, as far as his nature and mannerism were concerned.

  "Aha, so it's you!" he said as the mouse-beaver materialized and at once waddled toward the bed. In one small jump, the latter was on top of the pillow. "Can't you find some other place than that to sit?"

  "Let's get something straight," said Pucky reproachfully. "I'm a lieutenant and you're just a sergeant—so it would be more polite if you would show a little more respect when you talk to me. And then after all, this is Admiral Calus' bed, not yours. What's more, I feel more comfortable on a bed."

  Osega took it all with a grain of salt. "Alright, you just made your three little points," he said calmly. "So I'll make mine. First, look who's talking about paying respect to rank! You smart off to them all, whether they're privates or generals. Second, Ido happen to be Calus and that makes the bed my property. Third, I don't mind your using it if your paws are clean."

  Pucky gasped. "Here the Earth is facing a matter of life and death—yet you are worried about a few smudge spots on your pillow!"

  "That's right—I'm the one who has to sleep on those smudges," Osega reminded him gently. "But let's get with it! What's new?"

  Pucky sighed. "It's awful the way you can switch the subject so fast. Oh well... What's new? Hm-m... oh, yes, the caravan came in with the backup supplies from the California. Everything worked like a charm, No hitches! The transport crew will leave again tomorrow and go after the second load."

  "Well thank heaven for that! Couldn't you bring me a few items of food from the good old Earth? Even in cans! I'm sick of this Arkonide ersatz food."

  "Whatever are you thinking about?!" retorted the mouse-beaver indignantly. "There'd be the devil to pay if anybody found wrappings or empty tins in your wastebasket with a label like Genuine Imported Bavarian Mushrooms!"

  "I'm not interested in mushrooms," Osega admonished him but he should have chosen his words better because Pucky flared up adamantly.

  "I don't care if it's mushrooms or smoked herring, you aren't allowed to have any! Rosberg's orders! Any slightest suspicion against you could jeopardize all our plans." Then he slowly winked and exposed his incisor tooth in a sly grin. "But maybe I can do you a personal favor, old buddy. Tomorrow I'll sneak a little something to you."

  "You're a good little fellow." Osega had sat on the bed beside him and praised him now by stroking his fur. But again he changed the subject. "I wonder how Rhodan and the others are doing?"

  "Search me, Osega. We can only hope that it's going OK. If they'd struck a snag we'd know about it by now. So we should just make sure everything goes according to plan right here on Zalit. Oh—that reminds me: just to be safe, we sent somebody out to meet the caravan at the checkpoint—an Arkonide officer with a hypnoblock and four reprogrammed robots. According to Toffner the caravan crew was made up of just 10 men but when the officer stopped them there were 11 of them. Since one of them had a falsified pass, the Arkonide detained him. He wanted to bring him to us separately but on the way to the catacombs the fellow got away. Well anyway it's not so important but it's keeping you up to date. If you hear anything about the affair you'll be able to act accordingly. Probably just another Zalite who's a fugitive from the Arkonides."

  "The poor guy," said Osega, not realizing who the object of his sympathy really was. "But I don't think I can help him if they catch him. We can't arouse any suspicions—that's Law #1."

  "I've tried to pick him up on the brainwaves but that's not so easy in the millions of thoughts around Tagnor. If I had gotten into this sooner—"

  "Well, it can't be so important as all that," said Osega but in dismissing the subject so lightly he committed the biggest mistake of his life. "So other than that, anything else to report?"

  "Nothing as far as my side is concerned. What about you? Want me to tell anything to the Major?"

  "No, it's all clear on my side. Tomorrow I'll be making the usual TV appearance and I'm planning on talking about the impending military campaign again. So far, Arkon hasn't let slip one word about who the target may be of all these war preparations. Everybody thinks it's against the Druufs—that is, if they know anything about Druufs in the first place."

  "Are they going to make up any more troop transport quotas?"

  Osega shook his head. "No, as strange as that may sound. We have the required number of recruits ready for another shipment but Arkon has suddenly stopped the transport flights. It's as if the continuation of their schedules had run into a snag of some kind. I don't mean any blockage here—it's directly due to something going on in the Arkon System itself."

  The mouse-beaver started to grin. His incisor thrust forth in all its glory. "Rhodan!" chirped Pucky elatedly. "Who else?"

  Osega raised a brow at him. "You mean Rhodan may be behind it? That would really be fantastic!"

  "Maybe a little fringe benefit from the operation that we hadn't counted on. Now the poor Zalites may still have a chance, even if they're drafted."

  Osega nodded. "Yes, it could be. Maybe they'll not be transported to Arkon any more. Too bad we can't give them the good news instead of having to still keep them in the dark."

  "Keep in there and lean on them hard, Calus!" urged Pucky. "We don't want any mistakes now!"

  "I'll make 'em shake in their boots," Osega assured him, and he stretched out his hand to the mouse-beaver. "Until tomorrow night. And don't forget what you promised. Maybe a nice slice of ham—that'd be terrific!"

  "Cannonball!" Pucky grunted in revulsion as he dematerialized before Osega could point out to him the word he meant was cannibal. It was as though he had been frightened that meat stirred Osega's appetite.

  10 minutes later, Osega admitted into his room the Arkonide officer who had carried out the inspection of the caravan. He had to listen to all the details about the suspicious Zalite who carried a falsified set of documents and had gotten away. Without scolding the officer, he finally dismissed him.

  Then he lay down to sleep.

  * * * *

  The following morning was taken up by routine business, after which he had lunch—synthetic dishes as usual. He also received several officers from the recruiting camp. He could not tell them anything new since Arkon so far had not given any reasons for the lull in troop shipments.

  In the afternoon he called his car around and drove to the broadcast station. There a cordon of security robots made way for the Admiral and allowed him to pass inside without hindrance. The Zalites present were immune from the military draft because of their essential occupations. They all bowed to the Admiral whenever they encountered him.

  In the broadcasting room everything was in readiness. Every day at this time Calus made a half-hour speech. Three cameras were aimed at him as he sat down at the crescent-shaped table and arranged his notes.

  The Zalite technicians gave him a signal. The cameras began to hum.

  "Zalites!" said Osega in a cold tone of voice. It made him realize how much he hated the role into which he had been forced—ironically in order to help the suppressed people of this world. "The Regent is displeased with you! Everywhere on Zalit the conscientious objectors and draft dodgers have hidden themselves and our appeal to these men has appeared to be in vain. It must therefore he assumed that our measures are too mild. This is why the Regent has ordered an immediate sharpening of our controls and security procedures. Exceptions will be less frequent than before. Only in unusual cases will those draft classifications be honored which indicate disabilities. The Regent has also directed that all Zalites without exception must be registered within one month's time. After that time, anyone caught without proper passes can expect the severest punishment, including execution."

  Osega paused for a moment.

  The humming of the three cameras made him nervous. The automatic devices did not need operators but today there was one. The man was a Zalite whom he did not know. In fact he had never seen him before in the broadcasting station.

  Osega felt cautiously for the grip of h
is weapon in his belt. He always had to be on the lookout for fanatic natives who threatened his life. Even here where he was virtually surrounded by security robots. But how could an assassin ever get this far? Nobody got into the transmission section unless he belonged to the technical personnel.

  The Zalite inspected the flawless functioning of the cameras, nodded his head in apparent satisfaction and disappeared from the immediate area.

  Osega sighed with relief. Over by the door was the motionless figure of a watchful robot. Both his weapon arms just now pointed to the ceiling. In any given second he could send their deadly beams in all directions.

  "At this point I should like to emphasize once more," said Osega, continuing his address, "that Arkon is very desirous of being able to look upon Zalites as their allies We are mutually facing a powerful enemy who must be destroyed. Perhaps our methods of enforced conscription are somewhat hard but Arkon does not have any other choice."

  Osega got only that far before he was interrupted.

  The door where the robot was standing banged open and a Zalite dashed into the broadcasting room. He pushed past the colossus and charged toward Osega. Behind him sounded a hue and cry of alarm.

  The robot reacted swiftly but to no avail. If it had used its weapons it would have endangered Admiral Calus. It could only move toward the table behind which Calus sat.

  But Osega was no longer seated. He had seen his danger.

  The Zalite intruder stood next to him before the cameras as billions of Zalites observed the scene on their viewscreens. "Let Arkon spare us from this war!" yelled Rhog at the top of his voice, while whipping his weapon out of his pocket. "Send that robot away, Admiral Calus!"

  Osega gave an order to the robot but the behemoth did not obey. Although it maintained a distance of about three meters from them, it did not draw back. Osega realized he would have to act quickly if he wanted to save his life. On the other hand, he could not cross up Rhodan's plans.