Read Ebook: You'll Like It on Mars by Harris Tom W Berry D Bruce Illustrator

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Ebook has 120 lines and 6911 words, and 3 pages

We wove around people and moved to Kettering's kitchen. It was nice to be with her again, and I could tell she thought so too. And I owed it to myself, my career, and to Myron to stay with her just a bit longer. The fact that I couldn't see any scars didn't prove there weren't any. I would try to get a chance for a more thorough check. The sense of touch versus the sense of sight.

"You people did a wonderful job in 'Mars Hazard,'" I said. "I suppose the party is kind of in your honor." Then I noticed something, and ran my eyes over the crowd to check. "It looks like Renn only invited the actors from the Mars part of the film!"

"It isn't really a party for the whole cast. Some of us happen to be staying out here." That sounded almost as fishy as the I-like-Mars-bit.

"Renn afraid somebody'll get some secrets?" I smiled.

"Could be," she said, with that hazardous shrug. "You weren't going to ask me for any, were you?"

"As a matter of fact I wasn't," I said with disarming frankness. "But I will now. Just how did he make those terrific shots?"

Arden just smiled. It wasn't an answer, but the smile was a nice one. "How about those drinks?"

We decided to go outside with our drinks, to look at the stars, and maybe she could show me the one she'd been to. But Mars wasn't out that night. At least we didn't see it. Maybe because we didn't look too hard. After awhile we went back into the living room, and I had learned something, at least. There weren't any scars on her.

I strolled us over to the group around Kettering. Little Dick Lutz, the critic, was peppering questions at him, and Kettering was loving it.

"I may never make another," he was saying. "Would you ask Shakespeare to write two Hamlets?"

"Then why so quiet about your technique? If you don't want to use it, let the rest of the boys in."

"That's my secret too," Renn Kettering answered smugly, sipping his drink.

"Look, R. K.," popped Lutz, who was getting nettled, "I hear the secret is out already. People talk."

Kettering laughed. "The secret isn't out--I know it isn't. Like to know how I know?"

"Okay, so how do you know?"

"That's my secret, too."

I thought that Lutz would choke to death. "You used Martians," he said with conviction. "Disguised."

Renn donned a look of pain. "That theory is shabby, shabby as the robot rumor. Do you really believe Martians could be disguised that well? And if they could, do you think they'd want to throw their lives away?"

"What do I know about Martians?" Lutz spluttered, but he was beat. It was a shame. There for a minute I thought he'd come up with something.

I was just about where I'd been when I'd arrived at the party--except perhaps with Arden, which wasn't exactly what Myron sent me for. I hung around near Kettering but he didn't say anything revealing, and finally it was time to go. Arden and I had been occupied in the kitchen, and I was the last guest.

Renn went with me to the door, slipping past the tawny which jumped at both of us.

"Goodnight, R.K.," I said. "It was real."

He put his hand on my shoulder, "You're a great boy, Manny. I've been hearing a lot of nice things about you."

It was coming.

"I do as well as I can," I said modestly.

"I know that," he said, pompous and serious as an old gibbon. "I keep an eye on people. I'd like you to have lunch with me sometime."

In a way, I wished I could work for him. He was heading Up, but def. Myron was right, though. Renn would hire me just to get me away from Stupendous, then pigeon-hole me because he wouldn't be able to trust me.

I let my mouth flop open for just a second. "Why--I'd be delighted. How about tomorrow?"

"Love it, but I'm leaving tomorrow. Let's make it in about a month."

I must have looked surprised, and he said, "We're going back to Mars, you know. Some of the cast liked it so much--may even want to live there. I'm traveling up with them. The government has another ship going--they've been most accommodating."

Him and his fancy wire-pulling.

"Thank you," said Kettering. "Goodnight, now. Be careful going across the grounds, Manny. I let my little watchdog out in about ten minutes."

"Uh," I said expressively. "Well, goodnight."

His big gates opened ahead of the car and shut behind it, and I drove down the road a little and parked. Would Myron want to wait a month before I could even see Kettering again? I mulled awhile, picked up the dash phone, and rang up Myron. He was sore when he answered--apparently I'd interrupted something--and sore when I got through talking. When I hung up I had received an ultimatum--get the dope, get it now, or....

Well, I did look forward to keeping my job, which financed a blonde, a brunette, and two cars. I couldn't let all those dependents down.

I am much opposed to hard thinking, but I decided to do some. Finally I snuffed up an idea. Just to show you what hard thinking leads to, it was the idea that changed everything.

Renn was much too cool to show the secret. But the cast had to be in on it. And there was this liking this Mars business, and the trip back there, and all that jazz.

I would sneak back to the house and spy on the actors and actresses. Preferably the actresses. Only, of course, because they talk more.

I drove back with the lights out and parked by the big gate. I didn't see anything of the tawny. The gate was made of upright iron bars, sharp-pointed at the tips, and I climbed up. The bars were set loosely into holes in the cross-pieces, resting solid on the bottom crosspiece but not welded. I worked one out. A spear. Too heavy to throw at a tawny or anybody else, but I remembered a movie I saw as a kid, back when they had jungle movies. The jokers in this movie had done something I might do with the tawny.

I began to sweat a little.

I was about halfway to the house when I saw the tawny. It was coming toward me, from behind the house a quarter-mile away. I crouched and started a trot, and that seemed to attract it. It came in long, clumsy bounds, and I could hear it huffing.

It was time to try the stunt from the old movie. The flick showed some jungle joes hunting boar. This character was kneeling on the ground with a spear in his hands. The butt was braced against the ground and the point was toward the boar. The boar was charging. The idea seemed to be that it would spit itself.

The tawny was close and I ran. I wanted him coming at a nice clip when he hit my spear. I was between him and the moon, which I hoped would keep him from seeing what he was running into.

I glanced over my shoulder and he was almost on me, coming like a roller-coaster. I whirled, knelt, and raised the pointed rod.

The tawny took a terrific bound. I guess he thought he had me. He went right over me, right over the spear, hit the ground and started rolling.

I got my legs going, covering ground in the opposite direction. Glancing back, I saw the tawny getting up. His mouths were opening and closing, but he wasn't making any noise. Couldn't, I guess, because of some Earth difference, or his wind knocked out. It was obvious that he wanted to.

This time he came like two roller-coasters and probably a rocket. I jammed the butt of my spear down solid and shut my eyes. There was a big thud. I opened my eyes. He had run the bar right through him and was still coming, sliding right on down it. There was a hissing and rushing, and clouds of violet vapor spurting from the puncture in him.

I got the hell out of there. Finally I stopped running and looked back. He was staggering in ragged rings, his mouth gnashing at the bar, moving slower and slower like a machine running down. He stumbled into some little bushes, tangled, toppled, and there was a thrashing. The air stunk with the escaping vapor. The thrashing quieted.

I could go on to the house.

I picked the nearest window and it was the right one. Arden and the rest were in there, moving around, changing clothes, packing, and talking. They were talking about Mars, and how badly they wanted to go back there. They seemed a little sorry about the people they wouldn't be seeing any more, and Arden mentioned me.

But that was all I got to hear. There was a rustle in the bushes and I whirled to see the tawny coming at me, with the iron bar still sticking through it and the puncture sealed by something like scar tissue.

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