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

the dry slope, lit only by the blaster that
peppered them with flying gravel as the shots struck around them.
     
     "Where
are they?" a Skweeman voice sounded. "I can't see a thing; those
Terries must have eyes like a weenie-bug!"
     
     "Lights,"
someone else called. "Don't let 'em get away, boys!"
     
     Retief
stood, cupped his hands beside his mouth.
     
     "Lith,"
he called. "A word of advice: don't light up!"
     
     "We
can't ... hide here," Magnan gasped out. "No cover ... and those
shots ... getting close!" He dived flat as a shot kicked up dirt almost at
his feet.
     
     "They
won't find us in the dark," Retief said.
     
     "But—they'll
switch on the lights."
     
     "There
is that chance—but they were warned."
     
     There
was a shock through the mound that bounced both men three inches into the air.
Then a deep-throated tooom! rolled from the abyss like chained thunder,
as brilliant light flooded the entire length of the dam.
     
     Retief
raised his head, saw great chunks of masonry rising with languid grace high in
the air. Atop the stricken dam, the few bold Skweemans who had started across
dithered momentarily, then pelted for safety as the walkway subsided with
dream-like majesty under them. Most of them reached the far side as the immense
bulk of the dam cracked with a boom like a cannon; the rest dived for the
glistening surface of the pent-up water, splashed desperately for shore as dust
boiled up from the gorge, obscuring the scene of destruction.
     
     Polyarcs
still blazing bravely, the great dam crumbled, sinking from sight. Wave after
wave of sound rolled across the slope. Rocks and pebbles thudded down near the
diplomats. They gained their feet, sprinted for the top of the hill, then
turned, watched as the surface of the artificial lake heaved, recoiling
ponderously from the blast, then bulged toward the broached dam, formed a vast
spout like translucent black syrup that arched out, out, over, and spilled
down, foaming white now, plunging into the boiling dust. The ground shook as
the incalculable tonnage of water struck far below. A roaring like caged
dinosaurs bellowed upward from the gorge as the river poured back into its bed
in a torrent that shredded concrete and steel from the broken rim of the dam
like water dissolving dry mud. In a scant five minutes, nothing remained of the
great Groaci Dam but the denuded abutments, studded with the stripped ends of
clustered reinforcing rods.
     
     "Retief!"
Magnan piped over the roar of the waters. "The ... the dam broke!"
     
     Retief
nodded judiciously. "Yes, Mr. Magnan," he said. "I think you
could say that."
     
     
V
     
     Retief
and Magnan waded past the tattered remains of the soggy huts thrusting up from
the swirling, mud-brown waters that covered the site of the South Skweeman
capital, inundated by the flood that had swept down so abruptly an hour
earlier. Ambassador Treadwater stood with his staff before the remains of the
Chancery hut, waist deep in the flow. "Ah, there you are, Magnan." He
turned to look disapprovingly at the new arrivals. "Remind me to speak to
you about punctuality. I'd almost begun to wonder if you'd met with foul play.
Even considered sending someone after you."
     
     "Mr.
Ambassador—about all this water—"
     
     "Hark!"
Someone raised a hand torch, shot its blue-white beam out across the water,
picked up the low silhouette of an inflated dinghy on which a number of
bedraggled, knobby-kneed Groaci crouched. Several Skweemans splashed forward to
intercept the craft.
     
     "Well,
nice of you to drop in, my dear Shish," Treadwater called. "Most
unfortunate that your engineers have apparently proved unequal to their task.
Possibly their slide-rules were out of adjustment. Still their timing was good,
conflagration wise."
     
     He
smiled sourly as the staff chuckled dutifully.
     
     "Bah,
the design was flawless," Shish whispered as the raft bobbed on the
ripples. "We were