Fritz Leiber - The Science Fiction Anthology

Straut glanced at the men standing about. He would show them what leadership meant.

“You men keep back,” he said. He puffed his cigar calmly as he walked toward the looming object. The noise stopped suddenly; that was a relief. There was a faint and curious odor in the air, something like chlorine ... or seaweed ... or iodine.

There were no marks in the ground surrounding the thing. It had apparently dropped straight in to its present position. It was heavy, too—the soft soil was displaced in a mound a foot high all along the side.

Behind him, Straut heard a yell. He whirled. The men were pointing; the jeep started up, churned toward him, wheels spinning. He looked up. Over the edge of the gray wall, six feet above his head, a great reddish limb, like the claw of a crab, moved, groping.

Straut yanked the .45 from its holster, jacked the action and fired. Soft matter spattered, and the claw jerked back. The screeching started up again angrily, then was drowned in the engine roar as the jeep slid to a stop.

Straut stooped, grabbed up a leaf to which a quivering lump adhered, jumped into the vehicle as it leaped forward; then a shock and they were going into a spin and....

“Lucky it was soft ground,” somebody said. And somebody else asked, “What about the driver?”

Silence. Straut opened his eyes. “What ... about....”

A stranger was looking down at him, an ordinary-looking fellow of about thirty-five.

“Easy, now, General Straut. You’ve had a bad spill. Everything is all right. I’m Professor Lieberman, from the University.”

“The driver,” Straut said with an effort.

“He was killed when the jeep went over.”

“Went ... over?”

“The creature lashed out with a member resembling a scorpion’s stinger. It struck the jeep and flipped it. You were thrown clear. The driver jumped and the jeep rolled on him.”

Straut pushed himself up.

“Where’s Greer?”

“I’m right here, sir.” Major Greer stepped up, stood attentively.

“Those tanks here yet?”

“No, sir. I had a call from General Margrave; there’s some sort of holdup. Something about not destroying scientific material. I did get the mortars over from the base.”

Straut got to his feet. The stranger took his arm. “You ought to lie down, General—”

“Who the hell is going to make me? Greer, get those mortars in place, spaced between your tracks.”

The telephone rang. Straut seized it. “General Straut.”

“General Margrave here, Straut. I’m glad you’re back on your feet. There’ll be some scientists from the State University coming over. Cooperate with them. You’re going to have to hold things together at least until I can get another man in there to—”

“Another man? General Margrave, I’m not incapacitated. The situation is under complete control—”

“It is, is it? I understand you’ve got still another casualty. What’s happened to your defensive capabilities?”

“That was an accident, sir. The jeep—”

“We’ll review that matter at a later date. What I’m calling about is more important right now. The code men have made some headway on that box of yours. It’s putting out a sort of transmission.”

“What kind, sir?”

“Half the message—it’s only twenty seconds long, repeated—is in English. It’s a fragment of a recording from a daytime radio program; one of the network men here identified it. The rest is gibberish. They’re still working over it.”

“What—”

“Bryant tells me he thinks there may be some sort of correspondence between the two parts of the message. I wouldn’t know, myself. In my opinion, it’s a threat of some sort.”

“I agree, General. An ultimatum.”

“Right. Keep your men back at a safe distance from now on. I want no more casualties.”

Straut cursed his luck as he hung up the phone. Margrave was ready to relieve him, after he had exercised every precaution. He had to do something fast, before this opportunity for promotion slipped out of his hands.

He looked at Major Greer. “I’m neutralizing this thing once and for all. There’ll be no more men killed.”

Lieberman stood up. “General! I must protest any attack against this—”

Straut whirled. “I’m handling this, Professor. I don’t know who let you in here or why—but I’ll make the decisions. I’m stopping this man-killer before it comes out of its nest, maybe gets into that village beyond the woods. There are four thousand civilians there. It’s my job to protect them.” He jerked his head at Greer, strode out of the room.

Lieberman followed, pleading. “The creature has shown no signs of aggressiveness, General Straut—”

“With two men dead?”

“You should have kept them back—”

“Oh, it was my fault, was it?” Straut stared at Lieberman with cold fury. This civilian pushed his way in here, then had the infernal gall to accuse him, Brigadier General Straut, of causing the death of his own men. If he had the fellow in uniform for five minutes....

“You’re not well, General. That fall—”

“Keep out of my way, Professor,” Straut said. He turned and went on down the stairs. The present foul-up could ruin his career; and now this egghead interference....

With Greer at his side, Straut moved out to the edge of the field.

“All right, Major. Open up with your .50 calibers.”

Greer called a command and a staccato rattle started up. The smell of cordite and the blue haze of gunsmoke—this was more like it. He was in command here.

Lieberman came up to Straut. “General, I appeal to you in the name of science. Hold off a little longer; at least until we learn what the message is about.”

“Get back from the firing line, Professor.” Straut turned his back on the civilian, raised the glasses to observe the effect of the recoilless rifle. There was a tremendous smack of displaced air, and a thunderous boom as the explosive shell struck. Straut saw the gray shape jump, the raised lid waver. Dust rose from about it. There was no other effect.

“Keep firing, Greer,” Straut snapped, almost with a feeling of triumph. The thing was impervious to artillery; now who was going to say it was no threat?

“How about the mortars, sir?” Greer said. “We can drop a few rounds right inside it.”

“All right, try that before the lid drops.”

And what we’ll try next, I don’t know, he thought.

The mortar fired with a muffled thud. Straut watched tensely. Five seconds later, the object erupted in a gout of pale pink debris. The lid rocked, pinkish fluid running down its opalescent surface. A second burst, and a third. A great fragment of the menacing claw hung from the branch of a tree a hundred feet from the ship.

Straut grabbed up the phone. “Cease fire!”

Lieberman stared in horror at the carnage.

The telephone rang. Straut picked it up.

“General Straut,” he said. His voice was firm. He had put an end to the threat.

“Straut, we’ve broken the message,” General Margrave said excitedly. “It’s the damnedest thing I ever....”

Straut wanted to interrupt, announce his victory, but Margrave was droning on.

“... strange sort of reasoning, but there was a certain analogy. In any event, I’m assured the translation is accurate. Here’s how it reads in English....”

Straut listened. Then he carefully placed the receiver back on the hook.

Lieberman stared at him.

“What did it say?”

Straut cleared his throat. He turned and looked at Lieberman for a long moment before answering.

“It said, ‘Please take good care of my little girl.’“

Amos Parry, a regional manager for Whelan, Inc. (Farm & Ranch Chemicals & Feeds), had come to work a few minutes early and was waiting in the lab when Frank Barnes arrived. He saw that the division’s chief chemist was even more nervous than usual, so he invested a few minutes in soothing small talk before saying, “Frank, Sales is beginning to push for that new hormone.”