Rebels of the Red Planet | Page 9

lot of other
things we'll have to have from Earth. Don't you realize what a disaster
it would be if Marscorp decided to drop the only spaceship line to Earth
because its cargo fell off to the point that it was economically
unsound?"
Goat looked at him with shrewd blue eyes.
"I think I can jump to a conclusion," he remarked mildly. "Marscorp
has some sort of control over the 'foods' you're trying to make practical
for human consumption in the approved experiments, doesn't it?"
"Well, yes. Marscorp wants to make man gradually self-sufficient on
Mars, and I think it's legitimate that Marscorp derive some economic
benefits from its efforts in that direction."
"I've wondered for some time just how close Marscorp and the
government were tied together," said Goat dryly. "Obviously, if I don't
do as you say, my supplies here will be cut off. So I have no choice but
to discontinue this work and turn my attention to the approved line."
"That isn't quite adequate now," said Nuwell. "You're going to have to
leave here and come to Mars City where you can do your research
under supervision. Your experimental humans here will be destroyed,
of course."

"Destroyed?" There was an agonized note to Goat's voice. "All of them?
How about the two mothers I have who haven't given birth yet?"
"You'd destroy them anyhow, as you have the others, not long after the
births. And that brings up another thing. When you get to Mars City,
watch your tongue. You almost revealed to Miss Cara Nome that the
government has been kidnapping an expectant mother now and then for
your experiments."
"Years of work, gone to waste," mourned Goat somberly. "When must
I do this?"
"As soon as possible. You'll be expected in Mars City within two
weeks. Now, I'd like to see these experimental humans."
A few moments later, they made their way together through a large
dormitory in which all of Goat's charges were sleeping. Nuwell
shuddered at the sight of the small, deformed bodies.
"I don't worry that you could ever take any of these to Mars City
undetected. But," he said, pointing to Brute, "that one looks too near
normal. I want to see him destroyed before I leave."
"Brute? But he's the most successful one I have left!"
"Exactly. That's why I want to see him destroyed, tonight."
Goat awoke Brute, and the monster man sleepily followed them back to
the study.
Goat picked up the huge knife, still stained with Adam's blood, and
looked Brute squarely in the face. Brute returned the gaze, no
comprehension in his dull blue eyes.
"You think I can't kill you, Brute?" said Goat coldly. "I'll show you!"
With a surgeon's precision, Goat plunged the sharp point between
Brute's ribs and into the heart.

Shock swept over Brute's mind.
Father kills me!
Reject! Reject!
Father, all kindness, all hope, all wisdom and love, wants me no more.
Father rejects me! Father kills me!
Despair!
Reject! Reject!
Blackness swept fading through Brute's despairing brain.
One agonized note of pleading in the pale-blue eyes, and they closed in
acceptance. Brute swayed and fell forward, crashing to the floor,
driving the knife into his chest to the hilt.
Brute shuddered and rolled over on his back. He lay sprawled, arms
flung out limply, the knife hilt protruding upward. He sighed, and his
breathing stopped.
Goat stared down at him. He picked up Brute's wrist and held it. There
was no pulse.
* * * * *
Shortly after dawn, Maya awoke. Remembering what she had seen
dimly the night before, she went curiously to the window.
There were two of them now. They were bodies, human bodies, naked
and unquestionably dead. In the night, the dry, vampirish Martian air
had dessicated them. They were skeletons, parchment skin stretched
tightly over the lifeless bones.
Even as she stood and looked, a group of figures appeared on the
horizon and came slowly nearer. They were Martians--monstrous
creatures, huge-chested, humpbacked, with tremendously long, thin

legs and arms, their big-eyed, big-eared heads mere excrescences in
front of their humps.
Trailing slowly through the desert toward Aurorae Sinus, they passed
near the skeleton bodies. One of the Martians saw them. He boomed
excitedly at the others, loudly enough for Maya to hear through the
double window.
The Martians stopped and gathered around the bodies.
What, she wondered, could interest them in two corpses? There was no
guessing. Martian motives and thought processes were alien and
incomprehensible, even to one who had lived among them and
communicated with them as a child.
One of the Martians picked up one of the corpses, and the whole group
moved away toward the lowland, the Martian carrying the body easily
with one long-fingered hand. Wisps of sandy dust trailed them