Flight From Tomorrow | Page 9

got out his supply of food concentrates, saw that he had only three capsules left, and
put them away again. For a long time, he sat under the dying tree, chewing on a twig and
thinking. There must be some way in which he could overcome, or even utilize, his
inherent deadliness to these people. He might find some isolated community, conceal
himself near it, invade it at night and infect it, and then, when everybody was dead, move
in and take it for himself. But was there any such isolated community? The farmhouse
where he had worked had been fairly remote, yet its inhabitants had been in
communication with the outside world, and the physician had come immediately in
response to their call for help.
The little aircraft had been circling overhead, directly above the place where he lay
hidden. For a while, Hradzka was afraid it had spotted him, and was debating the
advisability of using his blaster on it. Then it banked, turned and went away. He watched
it circle over the valley on the other side of the mountain, and got to his feet.

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Almost at once, there was a new sound--a multiple throbbing, at a quick, snarling tempo
that hinted at enormous power, growing louder each second. Hradzka stiffened and drew
his blaster; as he did, five more aircraft swooped over the crest of the mountain and came
rushing down toward him; not aimlessly, but as though they knew exactly where he was.
As they approached, the leading edges of their wings sparkled with light, branches began
flying from the trees about him, and there was a loud hammering noise.

He aimed a little in front of them and began blasting. A wing flew from one of the
aircraft, and it plunged downward. Another came apart in the air; a third burst into flames.
The other two zoomed upward quickly. Hradzka swung his blaster after them, blasting
again and again. He hit a fourth with a blast of energy, knocking it to pieces, and then the
fifth was out of range. He blasted at it twice, but without effect; a hand-blaster was only
good for a thousand yards at the most.
Holstering his weapon, he hurried away, following the stream and keeping under cover of
trees. The last of the attacking aircraft had gone away, but the little scout-plane was still
circling about, well out of blaster-range.
Once or twice, Hradzka was compelled to stay hidden for some time, not knowing the
nature of the pilot's ability to detect him. It was during one of these waits that the next
phase of the attack developed.
It began, like the last one, with a distant roar that swelled in volume until it seemed to fill
the whole world. Then, fifteen or twenty thousand feet out of blaster-range, the new
attackers swept into sight.
There must have been fifty of them, huge tapering things with wide-spread wings, flying
in close formation, wave after V-shaped wave. He stood and stared at them, amazed; he
had never imagined that such aircraft existed in the First Century. Then a high-pitched
screaming sound cut through the roar of the propellers, and for an instant he saw
countless small specks in the sky, falling downward.
The first bomb-salvo landed in the young pines, where he had fought against the first air
attack. Great gouts of flame shot upward, and smoke, and flying earth and debris.
Hradzka turned and started to run. Another salvo fell in front of him; he veered to the left
and plunged on through the undergrowth. Now the bombs were falling all about him,
deafening him with their thunder, shaking him with concussion. He dodged, frightened,
as the trunk of a tree came crashing down beside him. Then something hit him across the
back, knocking him flat. For a moment, he lay stunned, then tried to rise. As he did, a
searing light filled his eyes and a wave of intolerable heat swept over him. Then
darkness...
* * * * *
"No, Zarvas Pol," Kradzy Zago repeated. "Hradzka will not return; the 'time-machine'
was sabotaged."
"So? By you?" the soldier asked.
The scientist nodded. "I knew the purpose for which he intended it. Hradzka was not
content with having enslaved a whole Solar System: he hungered to bring tyranny and
serfdom to all the past and all the future as well; he wanted to be master not only of the
present but of the centuries that were and were to be, as well. I never took part in politics,
Zarvas Pol; I had no hand in this revolt. But I could not be party to such a crime as
Hradzka contemplated when it lay within my power to prevent it."

"The machine will take him out of our