Parncalas smiled. “Sit down, Evgeny. There is no reason to be alarmed. The monsters haven’t hurt anyone—even the emus and kangaroos aren’t afraid of them—and anyhow, you didn’t let me finish: the comrades in Jakoi are already investigating. They—Where are you going?”
Evgeny was hastily making ready. Into his pockets he stuffed dictaphone cartridges, microbook cases, and his tattered notebooks. “Jakoi—that’s the Australian cybernetic center, right?” he said. “They’ve built some interesting computer there, haven’t they?”
“Yes, the CODD computer,” Parncalas said in an offended tone. He was very disappointed that Slavin was leaving so soon. It was pleasant to converse with the correspondent-he very much liked listening.
“Why CODD?”
“Collector of Dispersed Data. A mechanical archaeologist, I’ve heard.”
Evgeny stopped. “So these monsters could be from there?”
“I already told you—no one knows,” Parncalas said crossly. “No one knows anything. Not in Jakoi, not in Gibson, not in the whole world… At least stay for supper, Evgeny.”
“No, thank you—I’m in a big hurry. Well, mon cher Jean, thank you for the hospitality. We’ll see each other again.” Evgeny drained his glass in one gulp, nodded cheerfully, and, jumping over the railing, ran down the hill to his pterocar.
The scientific settlement of Jakoi stood in the shade of monstrous black acacias with crowns forty or fifty yards in diameter. A little way off, on the shore of a deep lake with clear, dark blue water, the ruins of some ancient settler’s farm gleamed white. The rectangle of the landing pad stood out clearly between the settlement and the ruins. There were no vehicles on the pad, and no people either.
But the pterocar did not need a landing pad, and Evgeny flew around the acacias looking for a place closer to the settlement. A third of a mile from the settlement he suddenly noticed unusual activity. At first it seemed to him that there was a game of rugby on. A heap of intertwined black and white human bodies rolled and heaved in the grass. Up from the heap echoed heated cries. Wonderful! thought Evgeny. Well played! At that instant the pile broke up, exposing something round, black, and shiny, and one of the players spun like a top off to one side, and fell. He remained lying, contorted, holding his arms to his stomach. Or no, thought Evgeny, it’s no game after all Another three people darted out from under the acacia branches, throwing off their jackets on the run. Evgeny quickly headed for a landing.
As he jumped out of the pterocar, the man who had been twisted up with pain was already sitting up. Holding his stomach as before, he was shouting loudly, “Watch the hind leg! Hey! Watch the hind leg!”
Evgeny ran past him at a trot. Out of the heap of swarming bodies came shouts in Russian and English:
“Get the legs down! Push the legs to the ground!”
“The antennas! Don’t break the antennas!”
“Help, guys! It’s digging in!”
“Hold onto it, damn it!”
“Hey, Percy, let go of my head!”
“It’s digging in!”
Into Evgeny’s head flashed the thought, They he caught some sort of lizard, but here he caught sight of the hind leg. It was black, shiny, with sharp notches, like the leg of an enormous beetle, and it was clawing its way over the ground, leaving deep furrows behind it. There were also many other legs there-black, brown, and white, and also fidgeting, jerking, and dragging—but all these were ordinary human legs. Spellbound, Evgeny watched the hind leg for several seconds. Time after time it contracted, digging deep into the earth, and then with effort it straightened out again, and each time the shouting crowd moved another five feet or so.
“Ha!” Evgeny shouted in a blood-curdling voice, and, with both hands, he seized the hind leg by a joint and pulled it toward him.
A distinct crunch rang out. The leg tore off with unexpected ease, and Evgeny fell backward.
“Don’t you dare break it!” thundered a wrathful voice. “Get that idiot out of here!”
Evgeny lay there for a while, holding the leg in his embrace, and then he slowly got up.
“A little more! Just a little bit, Joe!” boomed the same voice. “Let go of my arm… Ha! Ha!… Now we’ve got you, my pretty!”
Something gave forth a plaintive ringing sound, and then silence set in. The heap of bodies froze, and only a heavy, intermittent breathing could be heard. Then everyone at once started talking and laughing, getting up, wiping their sweaty faces. A large, motionless black mound remained in the torn-up grass.
Someone said in a disillusioned voice, “The same thing again!”
“A tortoise! A septipede!”
“You’ve really got yourself dug in, you bad girl!”
“A little more and it would’ve gotten clean away.”
“Yes, it gave us a hard time.”
“Where’s the hind leg?”
All glances turned to Evgeny. He said boldly, “The hind leg is here. It tore off. I never thought it would come off so easily.”
They surrounded him, examining him with curiosity. An enormous half-naked fellow, with a shock of tousled red hair on his head, and with a ruddy orange beard, extended a powerful, scratched hand. “Give it here, will you?”
In the other hand this brawny lad carried a fragment of shiny wire. Evgeny happily handed over the leg. “I’m Evgeny Slavin,” he said. “Correspondent for the European Information Center. I flew out because they told me things were interesting here.”
The redhead flexed the black toggle lever of a leg several times, with a thoughtful expression. The leg gave a cheep. “I’m Pavel Rudak, deputy director of the CODD project,” said the lad. “And these”—he poked the lever in the direction of the others—”these are other servants of the Great CODD. You can meet them later, after they’ve taken the tortoise away.”
“Is it worth the bother?” asked a small curly-headed Australian aborigine. “We already have two just like it. Let it sit here.”
“The other two are similar, but not exactly the same, Tappi,” said Rudak. “The hind leg on this one has only one joint.”
“Is that so?” Tappi grabbed the hind leg from Rudak and flexed it several times too. “Yes, you’re right. Too bad it’s broken off.”
“I didn’t know,” said Evgeny.
But no one was listening to him any longer. Everyone had gathered around Tappi, and then they moved in a group to the black mound in the grass, and bent over it. Rudak and Evgeny were left by themselves.
“What’s this about a septipede?” asked Zhenya.
“It’s one of the monsters of the Great CODD,” Rudak answered.
“Ah,” said Evgeny, disappointed. “So they are your monsters after all.”
“It’s not so simple, Comrade Slavin, not so simple. I didn’t say they were our monsters, I said they were the monsters of the Great CODD.” He bent over, felt around in the grass, and picked up several pebbles. “And we go hunting for them. Within the last ten days, all we’ve done is go hunting. Anyway, it must be said that you’ve made a most timely appearance, Comrade Correspondent.” He began very accurately dropping the pebbles on the unhappy tortoise, which was being dragged back to the settlement. The pebbles banged resonantly against its hard armor.
“Paul Rudak!” shouted one of the draggers, “Our burden is heavy! Where are thy strong arms?”
“O thoughtless ones!” exclaimed Rudak. “My strong arms are carrying the hind leg! Tappi, where did you put it?”
“In the grass! Look in the grass, Paul!”
“Let me carry the hind leg,” said Evgeny. “I broke it off, so I should be the one to carry it.”