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upon a path that they particularly liked, and stuck to it monotonously from then on. Every evening they
would take their rented car and drive it from the hotel to the corner of the grounds where the forest
began;
then they would park it and begin their six kilometer hike along a dark, heavily wooded area of hills and
-42-
rocks. It was a route on which they encountered no other people; a route that had five places to order
for
an ambush; and a route that they had gone to much trouble to publicize.
For six nights they swung along their chosen path at a steady eight-kilometers-an-hour gait, swathed in
complete silence ...
Completesilence? Yes. Their flashy but sturdy walking boots made not even a whisper of sound as they
trod across the soft ground; no item of their apparel or equipment rattled or tinkled or squeaked or even
rustled - everything had been designed that way. They could hear, but they could not be heard. Anyone
lying in wait for them would have to spot them before moving into action - and the d'Alemberts
themselves
had very acute hearing and aerialists' eyesight.
As they reached a clearing with minimal potential for danger, Yvette asked, 'Do you suppose we
goofed,
Julie?' 'Uh-uh, pretty sure not. I've learned to trust your intuitions. I think it's just taking them some time
to
get the operation set up. Consider: Senor and Senora Velasquez can't just disappear into thin air - it
would raise entirely too many questions. Also, besides the king-sized fortunes we're wearing, everyone
knows we've got enough capital tucked away in the Splendide's safe to start a bank. They'll want to get
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their hands on that, too. I think they'll want to use substitutes for us, after getting us out of the way - and
that will take a bit of planning. We didn't specifically design these three-quarters naked outfits of ours to
make it hard to impersonate us, but it worked out well that way. There aren't too many people around
who
could carry off that imposture.'
'That's right. They'd have to check out the Splendide, going past the entire staff that knows us well
because of our tips, and pry our fortune out of the safe. Nice; I never thought of it cutting both ways.
The
only way they can match our physiques is to get two other DesPlainians or ex-Puritans, or people from
some other heavy gravity world.' Jules nodded. 'And for that, they'll have to send out. Heavy grav types
like us just don't do much unessential traveling to light-grav planets. It's just not comfortable, as you and
I
both know. In fact, another month of this with no work at grav and we'll both be as flabby as two tubes
of
boiled noodles.'
'So let's hope it won't be a month, then. But we certainly should give them a couple more days. Anyone
who thinks they can ambush us certainly deserves the opportunity to try.'
Five more hikes proved uneventful, and the two of them began feeling very discouraged. But on the sixth
evening following that conversation, at a place where the path passed close to a dense stand of trees on
one side and a thick patch of underbrush on the other, their straining ears heard rustling sounds and their
keen eyes caught the blur of movement. 'Rube!' Yvette whispered to her brother, and Jules nodded.
Both
were braced for action.
For concealment, the place the attackers had chosen was ideal - as the d'Alemberts had set it up to be.
But in order to make their attack, the muggers would have to move-and, being of a relatively low
echelon
in the criminal world, they could not take effective precautions against their movements being detected.
Also they had no idea whatsoever of how terribly fast their proposed quarries were.
At the first hint of activity, Yvette and Jules became lightning incarnate. Jules' hat and swagger stick hit
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the ground almost instantaneously, and Yvette's tiara was right beside them. The two used their
wellmuscled
legs as springs to catapult them in low dives, Jules to his side of the road and Yvette to hers.
Diving straight through a bush, Jules found himself in the center of a clump of five men. Four of them
were in a tight configuration, with the fifth standing a short distance away. Having Jules' powerful body
come flying suddenly into their midst upset them no end. As he landed, Jules slapped the nearest man on
the head - but gently, so as not to break his neck. As his momentum carried him still further forward, he
grabbed the shirt of this first unconscious man and pulled him along. Then, rolling quickly to his knees, he
picked his victim up and hurled him bodily at another man some three meters away. The second man, hit
by the ninety-five kilo mass of his compatriot, staggered backwards and fell to the ground.
-43-
Jules, of course, had not stopped to watch the effect of his throw; what was most important to him was
to
keep moving, to do as much damage as quickly as possible and to present as small a target as he could.
Springing to his feet, he jumped straight at the third man, who cringed reflexively. Jules' powerful fist
lashed out and struck his would-be assailant squarely in the solar plexus. The manwhooshed and
crumpled lifelessly to the ground. In the same motion, Jules spun, almost ballet-like, on one foot while,
with the other, he kicked the fourth man in the face - not with his toe, but with the whole big flat sole of
his
boot. The impact crushed the man's face in and rendered him instantly unconscious.
That made the score four down and one to go. But that one would be a little more difficult, Jules realized
as he peered through the darkness at his remaining adversary; this one was a DesPlainian, by the look of
him - the man who had obviously been intended to substitute for 'Carlos Velasquez'. He had been
standing several meters away from the scene of the battle, not originally intending to take part in it, and
the five seconds it had taken Jules to dispose of the other crooks had given this one time to regain his
senses. He had a gun drawn, but Jules couldn't tell in the darkness whether it was a stunner or a blaster.
Jules hit the ground immediately and used the darkness of the night to cover him. His opponent with the
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gun was moving about and making what to Jules seemed like an awful lot of noise, though the criminal
hardly realized that. As a result, Jules could track his adversary by sound, and kept low. Circling around,
he came up behind the man, grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. The man had time to
register only the briefest look of surprise before Jules' right fist came smashing up under his jaw.
Knowing
that the man was another DesPlainian, Jules made no effort to pull his punch, and gave the hapless
fellow the full strength at his command.
The DesPlainian criminal fell to the ground, his gun dropping from his hand. Jules caught the gun on the
fly; it was a stunner, set on eight. A nasty setting, because it would leave a person helpless for days and
could have permanent paralytic effects on the nervous system.
A movement caught his eye where there should not have been one, and Jules whirled to face the threat.
The second man, at whom he'd thrown the first, was getting to his feet, gun in hand. Jules had no time to
reset the controls on his stunner; he fired point-blank and the man went down again. This time he lay
very
still.
Yvette, too, had had a busy time of it. Her dive took her between two trees and into a small crowd of
people. With arms spread apart, she grabbed two heads in her hands and brought them together with a
frightening crack. She rolled as she hit the ground, regained her feet and looked around. A shadow
moved, and she attacked it. Bringing her knee up, she produced a sharp cry of pain from the man whose [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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