Asteroid Man (19 page)

Through labyrinth after labyrinth and chamber after chamber, they drove his blemished army back until they reached the throne room of the insane creature itself. The mighty portal split and twisted from the heat of Rotherson's gun blast, and they were through! On a raised dais at the end of the chamber, they beheld their enemy!

The asteroid man himself, hidden by the mysterious shadows beyond his dazzling, camouflaging light beams. Chained to a wall, a few yards from him, were the Princess Astra of Altair and Squadron-Leader Greg Masterson.

"Stop!" screeched Ultimus in frenzy. "Stop where you are and surrender, or I shall destroy them!"

The tableau was frozen into dramatic immobility. None of the rescuers dared move.

Masterson wrenched at his chains like Prometheus in his underground cavern.

Ultimus dared not carry out his threat, for if he did so, nothing would stop his opponents from destroying him in vengeance. His voice became oily again.

"Perhaps we can strike some kind of bargain?"

Astra and Greg exchanged glances. They knew just how much reliance could be placed on the word of this scheming, lying devil incarnate.

Rotherson was wondering whether or not he could pull the trigger before the asteroid man could carry out his threat. It was a risk he did not wish to take.

Imperceptibly the chain holding Greg Masterson to the wall began to weaken. The squadron leader sweated blood in a last desperate effort. The chain snapped.

"Rush him!" he roared, flinging himself between Astra and the asteroid man's gun.

Two shots crashed simultaneously, and the battle was over. Singed and breathless, but otherwise unhurt, Greg Masterson began freeing the Princess.

The asteroid man was dissolving in a heap of charred flesh. Rotherson reholstered his smoking gun.

It was Tandos, the red Altairian priest, who expressed the thoughts in every mind.

"If all the races and all the planets will work together," he said softly, "there is nothing which they cannot achieve—"