Shadow of the Mutant Master Read online

  The treasonous pair lost no further time. Nomo had used his telepathy to find the unconscious Zintz left behind in the abandoned apartment of the Volatian and concluded that Lloyd had foiled their ruse. "I can't get a hold of Lloyd," Yatuhin replied despairingly to the nervous prodding of Tropnow after they had left the building and run to the car, followed by a combat team of 30 men.

  "Then try to locate Lloyd's men!" Gregor snarled at his partner. "Hurry up or...!" He paused. He was gripped by a terrible suspicion. "Search the surroundings of the Re-9, Nomo!"

  The telepath made out the Springer Ulmin the moment they reached their vehicle. They stopped for a second and Yatuhin whispered unnoticed to the ashen-faced Tropnow what he had read in Ulmin's mind.

  Gregor Tropnow, who had followed in the footsteps of the criminal Mutant Master before he joined Perry Rhodan, now proved to be the true "Shadow of the Mutant Master". In cold blood he gave his combat team the callous hypnotic command again: Be ready to shoot your thermo-beamers! Everybody to the Re-9!

  He glanced at his watch as the car raced away. The action against the office complex had started 58 minutes ago and it would take them seven minutes to reach the Re-9, a total of 65 minutes. And Fellmer Lloyd had based his calculations on 55 minutes!

  • • •

  Kuri Onere had observed seven fast cars leaving from the Springer building and racing out to the landing field. She tried to contact Lloyd with the little transceiver he had given her but failed to reach him. She quickly switched to Ulmin's wavelength and the Springer responded at once. Ulmin was breathing audibly when she reported her observation. "Okay!" he answered and Kuri was confined to her impatient waiting again.

  • • •

  Only a molten puddle was left of the robot in the Control Center and the air was filled with foul-smelling metallic gases.

  Next Lloyd went to work on the recalcitrant protective cover with his thermo-beamer and it dissolved it in a cloud.

  "Damn!" He had damaged the cross-junction element. But did he really need it? Rhodan's agents had been constantly trained for more than half a century, not as specialists but as the best jacks-of-all-trades and the positronic of a Springer ship was as familiar to them as that of an Arkonide vessel. If he couldn't use the ruined element for his intended short circuit he would find another way.

  Another warning signal of approaching danger! two of the officers stormed through the corridor toward the Control Center. The dense smoke billowing from the door spurred them on to their utmost speed.

  The cosmic agent welcomed the smoke screen as the best protection he could have hoped for. Standing in the open door and shrouded by the heavy flames, he blasted the officers with his hypno-beamer while giving them his directives: "Leave the ship at once! Go to the Arkonide spaceships and reassure their captains that it's not necessary for them to intervene. Make sure they stay away!"

  Then he turned his attention again to the shipboard positronic. It would have presented no problem whatsoever with a bomb. However the energy output of his small raygun was insufficient to melt the huge computer brain.

  He connected phase 'Jut' to data-sector V-Zt and 'Jut' to 'Haz' on the opposite side. Lloyd was thinking in Arkonide terms. He worked like an Arkonide technician. Now he was ready for the final connection with the main energy conduit.

  He spun around abruptly. The hatch was cleared of the smoke. Several clear and some warped brainwave patterns reached him. Three robot fighting machines and three Springers charged down the corridor to the Control Center.

  Fellmer Lloyd gambled with his life in cool determination. He had 10 seconds before the fighting machines reached the Control Center. In 10 seconds he had to hook up the main energy source with his short circuit design. Arkonide technology no longer used wired connections. The modular block system was much simpler.

  Two more operations!

  He heard the pounding steps of the robots behind him. As he reached out for the main current switch to turn on the energy from the transformer banks in the ship's stern, he was driven back by a blinding blue streak.

  Fellmer Lloyd broke out in an atavistic scream but he didn't hear himself. The positronic brain of the first robot splattered and disintegrated in the thermo-beam of his handgun. Man proved to be faster than machine!

  Main switch on!

  With the thermo-gun in one hand the hypno-beamer in the other he blasted away at the second robot and shot off its metal leg. The third automaton stumbled over the damaged machine and they crashed together to the floor where Lloyd vaporized them with a steady stream from his thermo-weapon. Simultaneously he raked the three Springers with a sweep of the hypno-beamer. "Leave the ship and..." was all he could order before The inferno exploded and shattered his further thoughts.

  The same energy, which could ram the Re-9 out into space, was unleashed inside the positronic and tamed the intricate brain into liquid metal in one bright flash.

  The infernal heat seared the intrepid mutant. He didn't know how he escaped the lethal discharges of the short-circuited power. With a desperate leap he jumped over the glowing lumps of metal in the corridor, which were all that was left of the three fighting machines.

  Farther ahead the three Springers ran outside under their hypnotic spell. Lloyd was not slow in following them.

  Suddenly a thunderous blow shook the spaceship. It must have come from the Control Center. Lloyd looked back over his shoulder. He was aghast at what he saw: the nose of the ship dissolved! Surely now the entire spaceport would be in a state of uproar.

  The Springer who had worked in the power station appeared on the deck, dazed by the explosion. Lloyd aimed his hypno-beam at him and aided him out of the trap, then darted down the loading ramp onto the landing field, where he was astounded to find a fog spreading out in all directions. Someone must have thrown a smoke bomb. The shroud surged toward the Re-9 and obstructed his view.

  He tried to make telepathic contact with Ulmin but Ulmin was gone.

  Lloyd ran alongside the Re-9 toward the little auxiliary ship whose hatch was still open. He kept trying to make contact with his commando team and was horrified when he received the last thoughts of a dying Springer.

  He was already past the stern of the Re-9, the small craft with the powerful engine, and saw it being swallowed up by the fog behind him, when he received a terrible shock. Paralysis! pounded his brain.

  He writhed under the tremendous mental blow. He trembled, shook, then felt his face become a rigid mask. His muscles lost all strength.

  Paralysis—but I mustn't give in! he commanded himself grimly.

  The shot from an unknown weapon had come from the Re-9. He sensed the brainwave patterns of a pair of Springers and then he was engulfed by the artificial fog.

  Lloyd stumbled and struck a wall. The auxiliary craft! With his last ounce of strength he forced himself to climb in. He fell into the seat and groaned as he tried to close the hatch. His limbs obeyed him less and less as the effect of the paralysis increased.

  Got to get... to the... Gazelle! He blindly manoeuvred the small ship through the fogbank in his desperate flight.

  He could hardly move his lips any longer. "Not this!" he squirmed as his ship roared at dangerous speed toward the primordial forest that concealed his Gazelle.

  Jim Markus, commander of the Lotus, standing by in space 10 light-years from Volat, was jolted when he read the message which had been unscrambled 10 seconds earlier:

  THREE BELLS! MUTANTS TROPNOW & YATUHIN WANT BETRAY EARTH BECAUSE DENIED CELL SHOWER. FELLMER LLOYD.

  The officers stared at Markus. His face was bone-white, his eyes wide in horror.

  • • •

  The pair of Volatians made their way through the alien jungle toward the Omniscient Mother. They had started out at the edge of the forest and were now deep inside, continuing to move day and night without respite.

  They proceeded in silence; their antennae were at rest. There was no need to communicate their compassion for the moanin
g man they carried. Fellmer Lloyd was a physical wreck, completely paralyzed but mentally as alert as ever. Despite his painful convulsions his thoughts went out to someone else.

  For the second time he questioned his rescuers by telepathy:How do you know Kuri Onere is also on her way to the Omniscient Mother?

  Again he received the same reply: We know, Fellmer Lloyd... we know.

  After he received the same answerless answer for the third time, he stopped asking questions. If the Volatians would not tell him, perhaps Time would provide the information which at the present time remained an enigma.

  SHADOW OF THE MUTANT MASTER

  Copyright © Ace Books 1974

  by Ace Publishing Corporation

  All Rights Reserved

  THE SHIP OF THINGS TO COME

  PEACE in the Galaxy. The strongest force in the continuing struggle of the Terranians to preserve not only interplanetary but interstellar peace is the group of espers, audiopath, seer, cephalopath, ignitive twin-head et al that Perry Rhodan employs to assist him.

  The famous Mutant Corps.

  But two members of the corps have turned renegade! Are against Rhodan rather than for. So far the anti-Rhodanites have not revealed their secret to strangers... but how long can they be depended upon to remain silent when their situation becomes critical?

  And it does in the near future.

  In the next episode, when—

  THE DEAD LIVE

  by Clark Darlton