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necessity of moving quickly, now that he had set the conquest in motion.
Leaving two of his ships to hold down Moon Base Headquarters, he headed for
Earth and Long Island Sound Spaceport to join Alia, Will, and the others from
the Nansh Rakh seeking Cully, who alone could coordinate the conquest.
By the time Leestrom landed on Earth, however, word had leaked over the
laser-beam communications to Earth, ahead of him, and the voice of rumor had
done the rest. Leestrom found Earth in disorganization, the Spaceport itself
deserted, and the majority of Earth's population with no place to run to,
quaking in their homes like rabbits at the ultimate end of their burrow,
hearing the claws of the ferret scrabbling up the dark earth-tunnel toward
them.
He landed almost beside the Nansh Rakh at Long Island Sound Spaceport, and
made phone contact with Will, Doak and Alia, who were then with Tom Donough in
Braight's private office outside the Council Building. Donough, shaken by
events, and by the effect of them upon Amos, had located Cully for Alia by the
time Leestrom, with Pete Hyde and a dozen armed men, had joined them. They had
made their way to Cully's cell and, with only a last-minute resistance from
the guard holding him, had set him free.
"Where's Amos, then?" demanded Cully as soon as the big man had finished.
"He's in the Council Meeting Room on the sixty-second floor," Leestrom
answered. "Donough says you've been there, so you know what the place is
like "
"Let's go!" interrupted Cully, heading off down the corridor nearly at a run.
"Which way?"
"This way," said Leestrom, catching up with him. "Head for the elevators."
They took the elevators. Riding up on one of the large, floating discs, Cully
turned to Leestrom.
"You've got men in command at Moon Base now?" he demanded.
"That's right," answered the big man.
"Message them with your body-phone through the Nansh Rakh to put the whole
Base on combat-ready alert. I don't think that Moldaug fleet's coming on
in but if they do, we have to be ready. Pete?"
He turned to the Navigator.
"How close is that Moldaug fleet, actually?"
"A good three shifts out," answered Pete. "But the last I heard from the duty
Navigator I left on the Nansh Rakh, one of the ships from it was already
shifting into the Solar System. That'll be Ruhn and his Brother Ambassadors
aboard that ship."
"Then he'll be here soon," said Cully. "He may even have landed on Earth
already. You've got the little Princes with you on the Nansh?"
"Right," said Pete.
"Get them. Bring them here safely. If you have to use every man on the ship to
guard them."
"Right," said Pete. He stepped off the disc at the next floor and turned to
the down tube of floating discs.
"Will?" said Cully, turning to the older man.
"Yes, Cully?" Will's voice answered behind him.
"Send a man to the ground floor to find out how soon Ruhn is due here. Have
him call up to you by direct body-phone as soon as he finds out."
Will turned to speak to a man beyond him.
"Cully& " It was Alia's voice. "What are you going to do?"
He looked at her.
"I'm going to try to talk to Amos, to talk him into letting me take over
negotiations with Ruhn and his Brothers when they get here."
"What if. Braight won't listen to you?" Leestrom asked. Cully glanced around
briefly at the big man, then turned back to find Alia staring steadily at him,
her eyes a little dilated.
"Then& I'll have to take over anyway," he said.
"You mean you'll have to kill Dad, don't you?" said Alia in a dead voice. "The
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Moldaug won't believe you've taken over his authority unless he tells them so,
or they see his dead body."
"Not necessarily," said Cully. "Anyway, I still think I can talk to him."
"You can't," said Alia. "No one can& now. But it doesn't matter any more. You
do what you have to do for everybody's sake& "
"No, I really think I can talk " Cully broke off, abruptly, glancing around.
He looked past her. "Will, I want you and Doak " He broke off. "Where's Doak?"
Will met the question with a strange look.
"He was the man I just sent down to find out when Ruhn was due here," Will
answered.
"Get him back!" said Cully. "I need the two of you alongside me when I face
Ruhn. He's got to see our whole personality unit, the personality unit of the
Demon of Dark. Or am I wrong?"
"No," said Will slowly. "If you're going to pick up negotiations with a
Moldaug Admiral in the place of the people he was negotiating with here on
Earth, you'd better meet him as a full three-person individual."
"Well, then, get Doak back. Right away " Cully broke off as Will turned slowly
from him. "Wait a minute. Not you, Will. I'll need you with me. Harv " he
said, turning to one of the other men. "You go find Doak, and tell him to get
back up here as fast as he can."
"Wait " began Will. But the man Cully had spoken to had already turned,
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