Unto Him That Hath by Lester del Rey Read Free Book Online

heading westward at full speed, a little erratically, as Enright probably fumbled while learning to handle it. But it was soon lost to sight. Mike wondered how far he would get before the acid did its work—perhaps he'd reach his goal, though that seemed doubtful. But he had no way of knowing.
    Surprisingly, he was falling straight toward the little field. The air began to thicken, slowing his fall and setting up a shriek in his ears, while the suit became warm. Then it settled back. There was almost no wind, though he was surprised to find that it was raining gently here. It was too bad that he'd probably smash into the private little field. A man should keep his dying quiet, not make a mess of it where others would see. . . .
    The ground touched his feet! The long fall was over! And he felt nothing; no shock, no sudden impact, and no instant death he had expected.
    The purpose of the pseudo-transformer was plain now. Anti-inertial Some field that had no effect on gravity or acceleration up to the normal limit, but stubbornly refused to admit that mass had inertia or momentum beyond that normal. No wonder they hadn't detected an energy, output.
    It was hissing above him, probably hot. The cover on it had been removed and never replaced, and the rain was sizzling softly against it. He shucked it off, along with his heavy suit, and began kicking a hole into the damp earth to bury it, where even that trace of the Enigma would be gone, until its normal iron core could rust away in the ground.
    It was sizzling worse as he threw the last wet earth over it, but he paid no attention to that. Finished, he started back toward the ruined laboratory, his mind dulled, and without any purpose.
    Then he head a faint voice, and jerked erect, almost letting his prosthetic leg double under him.
    "Mike! Somebody! Hey!"
    It was his father's voice.
    Mike opened his mouth to answer. But there was no time. From the place where he had buried the gadget, there was a sudden eruption of steam as the wetness found some vital spot. Then the whole field seemed to explode. Mike caught a brief second of the glare, before something hit him with a giant's hand, and he was suddenly unconscious.
    Mike had vague memories of apparent clarity, and of the face of his father and that of Molly over him. But when he finally came out of the last of the drugs and the delirium, ten days had gone by, and only Custer was beside him. He sat up, or tried to, but the other man shook his head.
    "You're all right, Mike. You had a concussion that was a honey, and you lost a leg—but it was the prosthetic, not your good one, so I guess that won't matter. Here." Custer threw a small box on the bed, close to Mike's weak fingers.
    "Dad?" Mike asked, and was surprised at how rusty his voice felt.
    "So you heard him?" Custer grinned, though there was a strange shadow on his eyes. "He came back, unharmed—with no memory of any time elapsing, but he was stuck under a section of the control panel. A good diing we had the place cleared this time. He thinks nothing happened, except that the time-dredge exploded. We took him to the hospital with you, and managed to convince him that the shock had messed up his memory. He'll never know about the Enigma."
    It was probably quite possible, Mike realized. There had been no more than fifty men who knew the whole story, and none of them would talk.
    "Better open the box, Mike," Custer suggested, and then bent down to do it for him. There was a medal there, and two gold stars pinned to the velvet back.
    "For what?" he wanted to know. "For stealing the Enigma and losing it. Or don't they know about that?"
    "They know—between your raving and the black-light camera and pickup we had in the laboratory to keep tabs on the Enigma, we have the whole story." Custer reached into his pocket and brought out a heavily folded newspaper clipping.
    Mike caught the headline, and gasped, skimming down through the story. Poor Enrightl He'd apparently reached