Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 94: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

92 one hand into Karst’s pack, depositing one egg in the silicone-foam nest from which he had taken it, and withdrew the hand again grasping an ugly Schmeisser acceleration-pistol. This he thrust into the waistband of his breeches. “Up the stairs, Karst. Fast. I had to shave it pretty fine. Go on, I’m right behind you. Where would the controls for those machines be, by your guess? The control lead went up through the roof of that cavern.” “On the top of the Temple,” Karst said. He was mounting the narrow steps in huge bounds, but it did not seem to cost him the slightest effort. “Up there is Star Chamber, where the Great Nine meets. There isn’t any way to get to it that I know.” They burst up into the cold stone antechamber. Amalfi’s flash roved over the floor, found the jutting pyra- mid; Amalfi kicked it. With a pro- longed groan, the tilted slab settled down over the flight of steps and be- came just another block in the floor. There was certainly some way to raise it again from below, but Heldon would hesitate before he used it; the slab was noisy in motion, noisy enough to tell Amalfi that he was being fol- lowed. At the first, such squawk, Amalfi would lay a black egg, and Heldon knew it. “I want you to get out of the city, and take every serf that you can find with you,” Amalfi said. “But it’s going to take timing. Somebody’s got to pull that switch down below that I asked you to memorize, and I can’t do it; I’ve got to get into Star Cham- ber. Heldon will guess that I’m going up there, and he’ll follow me. After he’s gone by, Karst, you have to go down there and open that switch.” Here was the low door through which Heldon had first admitted them o the Temple. More stairs ran up ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION from it. Strong daylight poured under it. 3 Amalfi inched the old door open and peered out. Despite the bright- ness of the afternoon, the close-set, chunky buildings of IMT turned the alleyway outside into a confusing multitude of colored shadows. Half a dozen leaden-eyed serfs were going by, with a Proctor walking behind them, half asleep. “Can you find your way back into that crypt?” Amalfi whispered. ““There’s only one way to go.” “Good. Go back then. Dump the pack outside the door here; we don’t need it any more. As soon as Heldon’s crew goes on up these stairs, get back down there and pull that switch. Then get out of the city; you'll have about four minutes of accumulated warm-up time from all those tube stages; don’t waste a second of it. Got it?” “Yes. But—” Something went over the Temple like an avalanche of gravel and dwin- dled into some distance. Amalfi closed one eye and screwed the other one skyward. “Rockets,” he said. “Some- times I don’t know why I insisted on a planet as primitive as this. But maybe I'll learn to love it. Good luck, Karst.” He turned toward the stairs. “They'll trap you up there,” Karst said. “No, they won’t. Not Amalfi. But me no buts, Karst. Git.” Another rocket went over, and far away there was a heavy explosion. Amalfi charged like a bull up the new flight of stairs toward Star Chamber. 2 The staircase was long and widely curving, as well as narrow, and both its rises and its treads were infuriat- ingly small. Amalfi remembered that the Proctors did not themselves climb stairs; they were carried up them on CoOMmMiGhooksnico nn