That should be enough, and suddenly Blade had a different plan. The trap in the park forgotten for the moment, Blade quickly gave Saorm his instructions, conscious of the robot tramping steadily toward them. The merchant staggered off toward the next bridge, his eyes so glazed with fatigue Blade wondered if he could even see the robot, let alone hit it. Well, with luck he wouldn't need to hit it to draw its attention.
Then the robot was within range and Blade began his dance of death with it. He darted back and forth across the street high above the canal, never stopping even to fire his rifle, always watching the robot, always seeing it tramp steadily forward, firing every few yards. He began to fear it would step on one of the loose slabs and spring the trap prematurely.
Now the robot needed only about ten more steps before it reached the loose slabs. «Fire,» Blade whispered to Saorm. «Fire!» He wanted to scream, but his throat felt as if someone was firing a miniature laser inside it. His chest felt as tight as if the robot was already gripping him in one hand.
«Fire!»
Green light speared out from a window on the far side of the canal. The robot's head swiveled to scan the direction of the new attack, while its feet took the last few steps onto the first of the loose blocks.
For a moment Blade couldn't be sure his trick had worked. Then several tons of robot made the slab give up its long struggle against the force of gravity. Instead of tilting toward the canal, the slab tilted toward the buildings inland. It tilted so slowly that for another moment Blade thought the robot might have time to step backward. The robot stopped, sensed that something was wrong, and lifted a foot for a backward step. Then the slab cracked completely in two, and the robot vanished as if it had fallen through a trapdoor.
Blade was running toward the hole before the echoes of the robot's fall died. He approached the hole from the rear to avoid the laser but quickly saw he needn't have bothered. The robot's chest was crushed against a steel column, and the laser was sizzling and sputtering like all the frying pans in the world put together. Acrid gas poured up past Blade, and sparks and bits of molten metal dripped down into the water from the lower roadway. Blade sighted in on the robot's neck and fired his rifle. He kept firing until the rifle was too hot to hold. He let it cool off, then started firing again until the power cell was completely dead. By then half the robot's neck was black and distorted, and clouds of foul-smelling smoke told Blade of burned-out circuitry. By the time Saorm staggered up with the other rifle, Blade was sure the robot was helpless if not permanently wrecked.
He clapped the merchant on the back. «Saorm, I don't know what the Law says, or what the Law says I can say. But I say here and now-this day you've been a warrior and a friend. Let no one say a word against Geyrna's father in my presence.»
«Thank you, Blade. I-«Suddenly he went down on hands and knees, started shaking all over, then vomited into the hole. Blade let him alone. Tougher men than Saorm could have got the shakes after this weird battle. As long as he'd waited until after the fight, it was all right.
Finally Saorm rose, wiped his mouth, and looked down at the robot. «So we've won.»
«We've won today's battle,» said Blade. «But I suspect it was only the first battle in what could be a very long war.»
«The Law spare us that!» exclaimed Saorm.
Blade shook his head. «I do not think the Law will make much difference one way or another. In fact, I would say that today saw the end of Kaldak of the Law.»
Chapter 11
Blade examined the robot quickly, ignoring the danger of booby traps. He wanted the job done before either new enemies or the Kaldakans arrived. By the time he'd finished, he was even more sure than before that nothing would ever be the same again in this Dimension. Strictly speaking, the fallen machine was not a robot, a selfcontained mechanical imitation of a human being. Instead it was controlled from a distance by a computer or possibly a human operator, getting commands by radio and sending back visual and sound information from its sensors. In spite of its humanoid form, it reminded Blade of the remote-controlled waldoes in Home Dimension used for handling radioactive materials. Now if he could just find a way to disable or jam the radio equipment…
That hope soon vanished. The radio equipment was so sophisticated and apparently so nearly indestructible that Blade couldn't have figured out a way of defeating it with all the resources of Home Dimension technology available. Lord Leighton might have been able to improvise something, but Blade wasn't that kind of electronics expert.
Blade's grim look seemed to depress Saorm even more. The merchant was sitting on the edge of the hole, staring at nothing. It seemed he couldn't face the idea of a Kaldak totally without the Law.
«Blade, Blade,» he moaned. «If there is no Law, what will become of my daughter, who has already given herself to Bairam? Without the Law, how will he think of her?»
«He'll think of her as his bride, or at least a woman to be well treated. If the Law doesn't tell him that, my fist will,» said Blade. «I think Peython and Kareena will help me too.»
The idea that the passing of the Law would not necessarily bring dishonor to his daughter seemed to cheer up Saorm. He rose and began in a fumbling way to study the two laser rifles.
He was still at work when the rest of the expedition came up on foot, with Kareena in the lead. When she saw Blade standing unharmed, she gave a wordless little cry and ran to him, ignoring Hota's black look.
«Blade! Are you all right? We thought-«
«You were wrong,» said Blade wearily. He was too tired and too conscious of the need for haste to be polite. «I am all right. Are the munfans ready to go?»
«Yes. But must we leave so soon, when there is so much new Oltec to learn?»
She had a point. There ought to be some alternative to a headlong retreat, waldoes or no waldoes. However, they couldn't really afford to risk losing what they'd already gained in the hope of winning more. He explained the situation.
«So the Oltec machine had to be sent by men?» asked Sidas when Blade was finished. «Is it possible that-the Tower Builders still live somewhere in the land?»
Blade shook his head. «If the Tower Builders still lived, there would have been other signs of them long before now. Also, this war machine would not have gone mad. I think someone in a city has learned how to use these machines and is sending them against his enemies.»
«The Doimari!» growled Bairam. He cursed. «They have always lived under a weak Law. Now instead of being cursed, they find these to sweep the land.»
«We shall not keep the Doimari from sweeping the Land by throwing aside the Law ourselves,» said Hota firmly. «So before we do anything else, let us all take new oaths to the Law.»
«Before we do anything else,» said Kareena, «we shall let Blade of England finish what he has to say.»
«A man outside the Law?»
«A man who has beaten an enemy not even you could have fought. You are not outside the Law, Hota, but you will be outside my favor if you speak again before Blade has finished.»