The Witches of Karres Read Online Free PDF Page B

to get the guns ready..."
    The captain didn't answer. He was marching down the passage towards the rear of the Venture. He passed the captain's cabin and noted the door was shut. He went on without pausing. He was mad clean through—he knew what had happened! After all he'd told her, Goth had teleported again. It was all there, in the storage. Items of up to a pound in weight seemed as much as she could handle. But amazing quantities of stuff had met that one requirement—bottles filled with what might be perfume or liquor or dope, expensive-looking garments and cloths in a shining variety of colours, small boxes, odds, ends, and, of course, jewellery...
    He spent half an hour getting it loaded into a steel space crate. He wheeled the crate into the big storage lock, sealed the inside lock door and pulled the switch that activated the automatic launching device.
    The outer lock door slammed shut. He stalked back to the control room. The Leewit was still in charge, fiddling with the communicators.
    " I could try a whistle over them," she suggested, glancing up. She added, " But they'd bust somewheres, sure."
    " Get them on again!" the captain said.
    "Yes, sir," said the Leewit, surprised. The roaring voice came back faintly.
    "SHUT UP!" the captain shouted in Imperial Universum. The voice shut up.
    "Tell them they can pick up their stuff—it's been dumped out in a crate," the captain instructed the Leewit. "Tell them I'm proceeding on my course. Tell them if they follow me one light-minute beyond that crate, I'll come back for them, shoot their front end off, shoot their rear end off, and ram 'em in the middle."
    "Yes, SIR!" the Leewit sparkled. They proceeded on their course. Nobody followed.
    "Now I want to speak to Goth," the captain announced. He was still at a high boil. "Privately," he added. "Back in the storage— "
    Goth followed him expressionlessly into the storage. He closed the door to the passage. He'd broken off a two-foot length from the tip of one of Councilor Rapport's over-priced tinklewood fishing poles. It made a fair switch.
    But Goth looked terribly smal l just now! He cleared his throat. He wished for a moment he was back on Nikkeldepain. "I warned you," he said. Goth didn't move. Between one second and the next, however, she seemed to grow remarkably. Her brown eyes focused on the captain's Adam's apple; her lip lifted at one side. A slightly hungry look came into her face.
    "Wouldn't try that!" she murmured. Mad again, the captain reached out quickly and got a handful of leathery c l oth. There was a blur of motion, and what felt like a small explosion against his left kneecap. He grunted with anguished surprise and fell back on a bale of Councilor Rapport's all-weather cloaks. But he had retained his grip—Goth fell half on top of him, and that was still a favorable position.
    Then her head snaked around, her neck seemed to extend itself, and her teeth snapped his wrist. Weasels don't let go—
    "Didn't think he'd have the nerve ! ” Goth's voice came over the intercom. There was a note of grudging admiration in it. It seemed she was inspecting her bruises. All tangled up in the job of bandaging his freely bleeding wrist, the captain hoped she'd find a good plenty to count. His knee felt the si z e of a sofa pillow and throbbed like a piston engine.
    " The captain is a brave man," Maleen was saying reproachfully. " You should have known better."
    " He's not very smart, though!" the Leewit remarked suggestively. There was a short silence. "Is he? Goth? Eh?" the Leewit urged.
    "You two lay off him!" Maleen ordered. "Unless," she added meaningfully, "you want to swim back to Karres —on the Egger Route!"
    "Not me," the Leewit said briefly.
    "You could do it, I guess," said Goth. She seemed to be reflecting. "All right—we'll lay off him. It was a fair fight, anyway."
    They raised Karres the sixteenth day after leaving Porlumma. There had been no more incidents; but then, neither had there been any