The idea that the pressure of his work was getting to him troubled Kane nonetheless. He hated the thought of being so weak. How could he win high rank if his nerve failed him?
With a feeling of foreboding, Kane entered the air-cycler and told himself to concentrate on the mission at hand. Few people could do what he was about to attempt.
A sub-aqua entry was one of the most dangerous ways to insert onto a planet. To calm himself, Kane practiced controlled breathing. Then, he closed his eyes and hardened his resolve. When he opened his eyes, a green light appeared on a panel.
“It’s time,” he rumbled.
Kane pressed a control. The entire chamber rotated as air hissed away. Finally, another light winked on, and the hatch before him lifted. He stared into space. In three slow steps, he reached the hauler’s outer hull.
“It’s beautiful,” Kane whispered, the words reverberating gently in his helmet.
With heavy cloud cover of the whitest color, the Earth spread out before him. It was gorgeous.
Here in Low Earth Orbit, hundreds, possibly thousands, of spaceships, haulers, shuttles and satellites filled Earth’s security sensor stations with moving blips. Kane couldn’t see any of those vessels now. Each ship and satellite was impossibly small compared to the planet.
To his left, Kane saw a small dark object. For all he knew, it could be a SW battleship or cruiser.
Enough sightseeing, it’s time to go to work.
As big cargo shuttles launched from the various bays in Cestus Hauler EV-3498-Z109, Kane switched on his magnetized boots. He walked along the outer hull, a flea following seemingly innocuous symbols painted on the metal.
Soon, Kane stood before a secret hatch. He pressed his gloved hand into the correct depression. The hatch opened, revealing a thruster-harness with hydrogen tanks and nozzles.
Kane pulled the frame and tanks out of the compartment. In four minutes of concentrated work, he buckled himself into the harness. Testing the control throttle caused him to grunt with appreciation.
Kane bent his knees, demagnetized his boots and jumped. Slowly, he, the harness and hydrogen tanks floated away from the hull. After gaining one hundred meters of separation, he squeezed the throttle. As nearly invisible hydrogen spray pushed him, Kane left the giant hauler with growing velocity. One time only, Kane craned his head to look back. The hauler was massive. Behind it on either side shined a thousand stars, the depths of space. Once more, he’d made the journey through the interstellar void.
Kane faced forward again, settling himself for the next leg of the journey. He propelled himself lower into orbital space. He moved incredibly slowly compared to the space vehicles and satellites around him. Doing it this way also made him less than a blip on any security sensor.
Kane laughed. Traveling toward the planet felt glorious. This was exciting, a reason for being. Then, a beep inside his helmet warned him it was time.
Kane worked briskly and efficiently, unhooking himself from the thruster-harness. Once finished, he pressed his teeth together and tightened his muscles. Then, he flipped a switch. Two seconds later, he catapulted out of the harness.
For a time, Kane drifted. He watched the instrument panel superimposed on his inner visor. The tug of gravity had taken hold. It pulled him down.
Kane waited, waited—patience was one of the greatest virtues in his line of work—and then it happened. He began to truly fall. In the stratosphere, the process increased to terminal velocity. He plunged down toward the surface like a meteor.
This was the dangerous time. He began to spin. A sound alerted him that he spun at too many Gs. He would black out soon. With a yank, he deployed a drogue stabilization chute. The change slammed against him. He lost his breath and deployed a second chute. Finally, the spinning lessened and then stopped altogether.
I’m going to make it.
As Kane reached lower atmospheric levels, entering nighttime over the Mediterranean Sea, he deployed more chutes. They were big billowing things, slowing his descent to a manageable speed.
Finally, Kane raced down toward the visible sea feet-first. At two hundred meters, he cut the chutes and plunged, hitting the water hard. He went down, down, down into the darkness. This was the sub-aqua entry.
Finally, he stopped.
Kane pressed a tab and ripped away the pressurized suit. Underneath, he wore a wetsuit with a rebreather. He had a small mobile unit, unhooking it from his back. Soon, he gripped the butterfly controls with his gloved fingers.
For a half minute, Kane rested in the depths, letting himself relax. He had made the space drop. Now, how close was he to the next step?
Using his chin to tap an interior helmet control, Kane discovered that the target was three kilometers away. That was fantastic. He engaged the mobile unit. It propelled him underwater. Finally, fifty minutes after entering the Mediterranean Sea, Kane spied the underwater chamber.
It was made of composite materials, impervious to radar or other sensors. Still, Star Watch might have discovered it.
Soon, Kane clicked on a helmet light, illuminating a pad on the hull of the underwater chamber. He tapped the needed sequence. An air-cycler opened for him. He swam within, shut the hatch and waited as his heart rate accelerated. Would enemy Intelligence agents be waiting for him?
As the water drained away past his legs within the cycler, Kane drew a gun. It would be better to die fighting than being captured. Finally, the interior hatch opened to a lit and empty room.
Kane heaved an explosive sigh. The enemy hadn’t discovered the underwater safe house. This was excellent news.
Kane staggered into the chamber, taking off his helmet. For a moment, he recalled the feeling of being watched aboard the space hauler. He shrugged. It didn’t matter now. Whatever he had felt up there had absolutely no bearing on him down here below the waves. He was truly on his own again.
A low and satisfied chuckle escaped his throat. It was time to plan the next move. Now that he was down, Kane knew exactly what to do. The next phase would run even more smoothly than the first. Of that, he had no doubts.
-23-
Starship Victory raced for Earth as the crew met in the conference chamber. The sergeant had put Villars back into stasis. Galyan stood watch on the bridge, having agreed to shut off the monitoring system in the conference room for the duration of the meeting.
Maddox sat at the head of the table. He eyed the others before clearing his throat. “If the professor was right about the doomsday machine, the clock could be ticking to zero faster than we think.”
“Is there any reason to doubt Ludendorff?” Valerie asked. “You saw the recording of what the machine did in the New Arabia System.”
“I think there is reason to doubt,” Maddox said. “For one thing, we haven’t found the long-distance communicator. Without the device, how could Ludendorff have shown me anything other than a holo-mockup?”
“We should wake him up and ask,” Dana said. “That seems like the simplest solution.”
Maddox gave the doctor a wintery grin. “Ludendorff is the trickiest individual I’ve ever met. Remember, he’s fooled the New Men before. In fact, he remained hidden from them while they were in orbit at Wolf Prime. He’s repeatedly tricked us. I think waking Ludendorff would be the most dangerous solution.”
“That’s nonsense,” Dana said. “We would put him in restraints.”
“And if he’s installed another hidden device in Galyan?” Maddox asked.
“Ludendorff is one man,” Dana said. “I agree he’s very clever—”
“More than just clever,” Maddox said, interrupting her. “For one thing, he’s a Methuselah Man with an intense curiosity quotient. He doesn’t seem to be set in his ways like the others of his kind. That’s another thing. His team members have all taken the longevity treatments. They’re each dangerous in their own right. Consider, too, that Ludendorff broke Per Lomax from the brig and convinced the New Man to use the jumpfighter to race to the planet-killer. What did he tell Per Lomax that the other found so convincing? It’s obvious the professor hasn’t told us everything. His reasons for keeping quiet won’t have changed with a few days in stasis.”