Retief-Ambassador to Space by Keith Laumer Read Free Book Online

when they hatch out!"
     
     "On
the other hand," Retief went on, "I could give you a
break."
     
     "Yeah!"
the Skweeman breathed. "Now you're talking, Terry!"
     
     "You
just carry on as though nothing had happened. We'll go about our business and
trouble you no more. I don't think you'll want to bother Uncle Lith by
mentioning our departure; he might take the unreasonable attitude that you're
in some way to blame. Just play them close to your medals and act innocent when
they notice the cell's empty."
     
     "You
bet, boss. I always knew you Terries were gents. Between us, I never went much
for that two-legged slicker—"
     
     "Mind
your derogatory references to the number of a being's limbs, sir," Magnan
said stiffly. "Two legs appears to me to be an admirable endowment of such
members."
     
     "Sure,
no offense, gents. Now, how's about beating it quick, before somebody comes
along? And you better give me back my gun. Somebody might get nosy if I don't
have it."
     
     Retief
ejected the power cylinder from the butt of the gun, dropped it into his
pocket, handed the empty weapon over.
     
     "We
can't reach the car," he said to Magnan. "They towed it away to
tinker with at leisure. Weil have to ease out the back way and see how far we
get."
     
     Keeping
to the narrow alley, Retief and Magnan safely traversed a block of ragged grass
dwellings, emerged at the end of a long avenue that meandered down a slope
toward the mile-distant fence marking the South Skweeman border, barely visible
now in the late twilight.
     
     "If
there were just some way to cover that ghastly open stretch," Magnan
muttered, "we could be safe in a matter of minutes ..."He broke off,
pointed at a flickering glow, a smudge of smoke rising lazily from a point near
the gate where the road crossed the international line. "What's that?
Dust, perhaps? Or smoke?"
     
     "The
wind's from the north," Retief said. "And there's nothing but twenty
miles of dry mud-wheat between here and those haystacks housing our friends,
the South Skweeman leaders. Something tells me that's a fire, Mr. Magnan—and
not an accidental one."
     
     "Fire?"
Magnan gasped. "Great heavens, Retief— the capital is directly down-wind!
They'll be roasted alive—the Ambassador, the staff, the South Skweemans—and no
water anywhere to fight the blaze!"
     
     "That's
one way of influencing an election," Retief pointed out.
     
     "Why,
there's nothing to keep it from burning off the prairie all the way to the
sea," Magnan blurted. "The entire country will be incinerated!
There'll be nothing left of our allies but a pall of smoke!"
     
     There
was a scratchy Skweeman shout from behind the Terrans. They turned to see a
policeman approaching up the alley on the run—a spectacle not unlike a cubic
yard of olive-drab noodles rolling up-hill.
     
     "Let's
go," Retief snapped. He turned and ran for it, with Magnan pelting at his
heels and a gathering force of pursuers baying on the trail.
     
    -
     
     "It's
... no ... use," Magnan gasped as they toiled up the last hundred yards
toward the mighty flank of the dam. "They're ... gaining." He cast a
look back at the mob of half a hundred North Skweeman patriots strung out in a
torch-waving line-halfway to the village.
     
     "Just
a little farther," Retief caught Magnan's arm and hauled him along.
"You're doing fine."
     
     They
reached the top of the dam, massive and ominous in the darkness. A blaster bolt
crackled blue nearby, from extreme range.
     
     "Retief,
we're not going to cross that!" Magnan stared in horror at the
narrow unrailed catwalk that led out to disappear in darkness, the great black
void on one side, the lapping waters slapping at the concrete on the other.
     
     "Unless
we want to be shot, we are." Retief started out at a trot. Magnan bleated,
then followed, edging along flat-footed. Another shot chipped concrete behind
him. He yelped and broke into a nervous canter.
     
     They
reached the far side, scrambled up