Weird Space 2: Satan's Reach Read Online Free PDF Page B

through with the ’port authorities. They should take five minutes, no more. After that... Judi should take only a matter of minutes to find us. So perhaps in another ten, fifteen minutes at most.”
    She leaned against him in the darkness. He was aware of her odour, a sweet scent combined with sweat. She murmured, “I still find it impossible to imagine a life away from Ajanta. I fear a last minute tragedy, the green men finding us or your ship not being allowed to leave.”
    He smiled. “There is no risk of the latter. I booked the ’port berth for a temporary stopover. The ship’s leaving now will arouse no comment.”
    “And then?”
    “And then we will phase into the void and never look back.”
    “Bound for...?”
    “I had been thinking of a holiday on the atolls of Amahla, before Rasnic robbed me.”
    “Maybe you will be able to go there, after all,” she said.
    He stared at where he thought her face should be. His vision had adjusted to the darkness, but even so he could make out only the vague outline of her oval face. “Meaning?”
    She gripped his arm suddenly. “Shhh! Listen. I thought I heard...”
    He tensed, listening.
    “There!” she hissed. “That long, high note. There are more than just one of them. They are combing the jungle, and heading this way. Oh, I knew it was too good to be true!”
    Among the cacophony of other animal noises – which sounded like an undisciplined orchestra tuning up – he made out long fluting sounds coming from the direction they had fled.
    Zeela bounded to her feet, dragging Harper with her. “This way!” she cried, and was off.
    They ran side by side, Zeela still clutching his wrist. The heat was oppressive, the humidity murderous. Harper dragged in lungfuls of fetid air. He wondered if the Ajantans’ hearing was acute. Certainly he and Zeela were making enough noise, as they thrashed through the undergrowth, to alert any but the most stone deaf of pursuers.
    As if to abet their chances of capture the canopy high overhead became patchy and two sailing moons sent long silver searchlights probing down into the jungle. Harper saw grotesque shapes to right and left, growths more like tumours or goitres than anything arboreal. It was a nightmare landscape, and it seemed entirely appropriate that they were fleeing for their lives from aliens bent on eventual murder – once they had had their fun.
    He shut out that thought and concentrated on running.
    At least Judi would be monitoring his progress and would intervene in due course – but how long might that be? He’d lost all sense of time. He seemed to have been running for ten minutes or more, or did it just seem that long because the aliens were giving chase?
    He heard a roar, and his heart leapt with elation. The braking jets of his ship’s auxiliary engines... He must have exclaimed aloud, as Zeela hissed at him, “What?”
    “I heard my ship. It can’t be far away now.”
    “Your ship?” Zeela cried. “No – the green men’s fire-guns, more like.”
    The sound came again, and he knew that the girl was right. He looked over his shoulder. The jungle bloomed as the goitrous growths burned like phantasmagorical candles. He saw a dozen tiny figures swarming in pursuit, perhaps a hundred metres away. One fired again, and a couple of metres to Zeela’s right a tree trunk exploded like a defective firework. Sparks and timber shrapnel peppered his head and chest.
    Zeela yelped and dragged him around the burning tree. She pulled him to the right, and he saw her reasoning. Behind them the tree was billowing smoke which concealed their flight from the chasing aliens.
    He wondered whether it was too soon to hope that they might escape with their lives.
    Zeela jinked again, using the cover of the smoke to take off on a trajectory almost at right angles to their original flight. Harper looked over his shoulder but saw no sign of the Ajantans or evidence of their fire-guns.
    He activated his wrist-com and