Free The Avenger 34 - The Glass Man by Kenneth Robeson Page A

wear off in a few more hours.
    Lamont increased the pressure on the gas pedal. The stolen car roared ahead on the desert back road.
    “How did that Gray girl know it was me?” he asked himself as he drove toward the Perseus Project.
    He hadn’t made any mistakes, not a one.
    Well, not anticipating that damn dog of Montez’s—that wasn’t very bright. But that had nothing to do with the little blonde knowing him.
    He’d never believed that the Justice, Inc., gang was as smart as the papers and magazines made out. And yet . . .
    It was going to be tough getting back to his place. If Pike or the Gray girl phoned a warning to the facility, the cottage might be surrounded before he got there.
    “Can’t be helped. I’ve absolutely got to get that stuff.”
    He wasn’t planning very far ahead. One thing he was certain of: he was going to go ahead with his plan.
    The rest of them would die.
    Every single one of them who’d been in on the murder of his brother.
    “Rusty was the smart one,” Lamont said to himself while the car raced through the bright day. “If only he’d lived . . . he could have done much more than I’ve been able to do. If only he’d lived.”
    So they had to die.

    The sheriff blinked when he saw the car go barreling by the bare intersection up ahead.
    It wasn’t just the speed of the vehicle. There didn’t seem to be anybody at the wheel. The car looked empty.
    He’d had a report that a car similar to the one stolen near Montez’s place had been seen out this way.
    “Seems like that report was right,” he said as he tromped on the gas.
    He didn’t use his siren much, which probably accounted for the rusty wail it emitted when he turned it on now.
    “Hope these retreads hold up.”
    He went squeeling onto the road after Lamont.
    His middle boy had souped up the engine of the official car right before going into the Army. The sheriff knew he could do at least eighty if he had to.
    “Looks as though I’m going to have to.”
    Lamont’s car was not slowing. It was rocketing along the shimmering road.
    Giving the siren another shot, the sheriff fed the car more gas.
    The distance between the two speeding cars was narrowing.
    Despite the circumstances, the sheriff smiled. That middle boy of his had done a darn good job.
    It was spooky. He knew the driver was invisible, but still couldn’t get used to being able to look clean through the car ahead.
    He was getting ever closer.
    Suddenly a tire exploded.
    A flash of adrenalin rushed through the sheriff’s body. But it wasn’t one of his prewar tires.
    Lamont’s left rear tire had blown. The speeding car went sluicing across the road, spinning and bucking. It jumped from the roadway altogether, tilted to one side, then slammed into the ground. Its doors popped open.
    The sheriff pulled up and swung his car to the side of the road away from the wreck.
    He stepped out of the car, then dropped to the ground.
    Lamont’s car turned into a spire of flame. It made a series of tremendous whomping sounds. It rose into the air, then fell, turning black.
    The sheriff stood up. He very slowly crossed the road. “That’s got to be the end of that poor fellow,” he said.
    He took off his hat and rubbed a palm across his perspiring forehead.
    He was still watching the flaming car when a heavy rock floated up off the ground and slammed against the side of his head.

    A delivery truck came rolling along not ten minutes after Lamont got to the gates. He ditched the sheriff’s car a half mile from here. If he was lucky he might be able to reclaim it and use it to get away from here again.
    He sprinted, still invisible, limping slightly, across the hot tar road and caught hold of the tailgate of the Army truck.
    Chemical supplies, it looked like. Couldn’t really tell with all that canvas. Maybe it was only chocolate bars. Several of the researchers were candy fiends.
    Everything seemed relatively normal. No extra guards in view, no unusual