Free Skyprobe by Philip McCutchan Page B

we’ll move into Stage Two, then. Tell Kortweiler, Horn.”
    “Okay.” Horn let go Shaw’s arm; so did Moss. Horn dug his gun into Shaw’s spine, hard. “On your feet, Limey.”
    Shaw got up. As he did so, he side-stepped, neat and fast, grabbed hold of Horn and swung the man in front of Ms body, with one hand like a vice on the American’s gun-wrist. He twisted and the gun dropped. Shaw flung Horn smack into Moss, bent quickly and picked up the revolver. Rencke fired and missed by a hair’s-breadth. Then Shaw had both Rencke and Thixey covered, and as Moss and Horn picked themselves up from the floor he backed away to the door.
    Thixey looked undecided as to whether or not to chance beating Shaw to the next bullet, and it was Beatty who decided the issue. As quick as light she had reached inside her skirt and Shaw never even saw the lightweight leather thong flicking through the air towards him before it had wMpped the gun from Ms hand. Beatty jerked the gun towards her and levelled it at Shaw just as Horn and Moss were closing in again.
    After that Thixey took charge.
    “Leave it!” he rapped as the two men looked like starting to rough Shaw up. Then his tone became bantering. “Calm yourselves, gentlemen! Leave it to Kortweiler.” He walked over towards Shaw. “Don’t try that sort of thing again, old man. It really doesn’t pay, you know. Beatty’s a useful girl to have around. She used to work in a circus, hence the handiness with the wMp.” He glanced at the American and said, “Right-ho, Horn.”
    Horn got behind Shaw and this time the prod of the gun was full of meaning and intent. Horn ordered him out of the room and once again they headed for the cellar, this time in full possession, with Moss, Thixey and the girl astern of them. Only Rencke remained behind. As they came up to the cellar door Horn pressed a switch outside and they went on down into light. For the first time Shaw was able to take a full, unhurried look at the place. There was something he hadn’t been aware of in the darkness that had followed close on last night’s fall into the coal, or in the faint flickers of daylight through the grille that morning, and this was a heavy manhole cover in the floor of the cellar with, above it, what looked gruesomely like a makeshift gallows.
    Thixey seemed about to say something concerning this gallows when Moss uttered. “Here’s Kortweiler,” he said.
    There was a shuffling sound on the stone steps and Shaw, turning, saw a dwarf descending into the cellar. This dwarf had a long, dead-white face, and enormous hands dangling by Ms sides, and he was dressed entirely in black. Beneath a scalp as bald as Rencke,’s he wore a mask, his eyes reflecting the light, beadily, through the slits. Only the axe was missing from the picture. . . .
    Maybe, Shaw thought, this latter-day executioner was another circus turn, like Beatty.
    * * *
    Already in America certain preliminary precautions had been taken. Units of the United States Sixth Fleet, detailed as the recovery force for the Skyprobe project and standing by in Key West, had been ordered to sea and were proceeding at full speed for the splashdown area in the Caribbean in case the programme should have to be speeded up. Only the Commanding Officers and certain senior specialists in the ships knew that they might be called upon actually to pick up the capsule ahead of time; all other personnel, as well as the Press, had been told that the early movement was merely part of an exercise designed to eliminate any possible hitch in the smooth progress of America’s biggest-ever prestige probe into space. The only exceptions in the lower echelons were those men, including aircraft crews, whose job it would be to operate the equipment that would be watching out for any hostile submarines in the area.
TEN
    As Kortweiler reached the bottom of the steps Thixey nodded at Moss; Moss and Horn lined up on either side of Shaw. Kortweiler moved round behind and