Page 10 (1/2)

"AND how did you plan to get inside when the place is closed for the night?" Carstairs prodded sardonically

For answer Phil cocked his eyebrows defiantly and gave the restaurant door a shtily, vaguely aware that Llewellyn was exa room was very dark It smelled stalely of people and liquor and seared uish Juno&039;s burned rabbit chops Otie snuffed eagerly and tugged Buck forward by his leash Phil steered their course confidently between the counter and the booths He was feeling particularly pleased with himself because Mitzie had found opportunity to ask hiht," he heard Carstairs whisper behind him to Llewellyn, "so the lock was burned So out"

Phil pushed open the door to the stairs, and hesitated Inside it was now co hissed softly beside him and a luminescent cone puffed out A couple of seconds later, the half dozen treads of the stairway glowed milkily

Buck chuckled inches from Phil&039;s ear "Lum&039;niscint oing I&039;ll spray"

Phil started up, thetwo or three treads ahead of hilowed like the Hound of the Baskervilles Soot on Phil&039;s trouser bottoms and sockasins

"We&039;re certainly marked if we have to run away and hide," Phil commented dubiously as he reached the corridor he and Juno had coh and then took the unknoay upward

"Uh-uh," Buck chuckled wisely, "&039;cause I&039; a neutralizer behind us" He directed at Phil&039;s feet a dark, faintly hissing canister and Phil&039;s feet blacked out, along with a blob of surrounding treads Looking back, Phil saw that the glow on the stairs vanished abruptly He could not see Mitzie Carstairs, and Llewellyn

He asked Buck, "How do you e two canisters and Otie all at the same time?"

"Hell, I could aim a squirrel rifle and run a still in addition," Buck assured him

Phil becae of Buck&039;s mist Buck hurriedly neutralized all the lu that on Otie and Phil Phil cautiously went up the last ten treads, the upper radiance increasing all the while, and found hiot shorter and shorter, then stopped

A couple yards ahead lay three swollen furry shapes, each with a half dozen slis stuck into thenized at least two of the dead cats Although grotesquely puffed up, their s told him they were a Siamese and a short hair he had seen at the Akeleys&039;

"Watch it!" he heard Carstairs whisper, but at the same instant Otie jerked away fro, to snuff at the nearest swollen shape The tail of the dart next to Otie&039;s nose began to revolve with a faint, feathery rustle Otie beca his master&039;s anxious, "Back Otie!" The rustle became a whirr Otie suddenly snapped sidewise at the dart, but at the same instant the dart withdrew quickly from the dead cat Otie&039;s teeth clashed emptily The dart hovered a few feet in the air, just like a huge black wasp &039;don&039;t anybody go closer" Carstairs ordered hoarsely Buck grabbed for the end of the leash, but it was flirted away fro the dart with deadly intentness

The whirr becas and the hovering dart tre, Phil saw that Carstairs was shooting at it with soan to waltz in little loops Otie leaped straight up, and snapped at it as a dog ht at a bee, but the dart curtsied away

Buck&039;s "Back, Otie," was desperate Otie stayed on his feet and batted at the dart with his paws There were un The dart looped back and hovered in front of Otie&039;s muzzle As he opened his jaws for a snap, it shot down his throat

Otie, his eyes and jaws open wide, beat the air with his paws Then he dropped to all fours and hurled hiot up with difficulty, trembled over to Buck, and fell down and didn&039;ta deep breath, and then Phil suddenly felt sick, for the coyote was beginning to swell

"Don&039;t touch hi his distance Carstairs cas swinging out fros in action," he said softly

"They&039;re what they call singular missiles, aren&039;t they?" Llewellyn asked fascinatedly, co up "Anti-individual, I mean"

Carstairs nodded "Used theot out They were for assassinations The FBL and the Russkies could tell tales They&039;re supposed to be driven by a tiny, ion-e radioactive fan I wish I had a counter so I could know And of course, they home on the radiant heat of flesh and then inject a poison"

Buck muttered, "Otie" The coyote&039;s puffed eyes turned toward hilazed over Buck jerked up and made a derisive noise "Alas a dumb pooch," he said harshly Mitzie, drawn even with Llewellyn, looked on coldly

Phil started ahead, drugs battling nausea inside him, so that the dioing?" Carstairs deed "To find what I came for," he said hazily

"Well, keep away from the cats," Carstairs called after hi the wall

"Hoe know those sing&039;lar o for us like they went for Otie?" he heard Buck deh, didn&039;t they?" Carstairs said irritably

"What others?" Phil heard Buck ask

"The ones who burnt the lock on the door, the ones who threw the cats ahead of them to draw the missiles," Carstairs told him impatiently "Incidentally, if any of theyour coat over them"

Beyond the dead cats, Phil caed cuts in it, three of the enough to have kept the wasps on this side He stepped over the fallen section of mesh The cut ends of silvery ere rounded and fused, as if by great heat

Just beyond the uard uniforun in his hand He was intact except that the top of his head had rolled about a foot away It had been sliced off tidily just above the nose by so hot Phil remembered how neatly the blue needle had sliced the steel beam He hurried past toward an open arch just ahead, and jerked back froray snake coiled there Then he saw that the snake was a robot doorher he saw that it had been sliced off close to the wall

Mitzie and the rest caerly by the dead ot up with a shrug

"Not an ortho, eh?" Buck inquired "Usin&039; those sing&039;lar missiles, you&039;d think they&039;d be up to date in other things"

"No, just an ordinary gas gun," Carstairs told him "But we can be pretty sure his head wasn&039;t taken off by a red hot buzz saw The others rabbed him by the lapels of his jacket "Look here, clown," he said quietly, "who are those others? You ht You were counting on that door being open"