Chapter 5: House of The Gods

"Hey, Luana! Snap out of it and drink your beer. Next round's on me, so bottoms up."

"Oh, hi Charlie." She came back to her surroundings with a start, looking around at the dimly lighted commons room as though she had never seen it before. "Sit down and rest the feet. What's on your alleged mind, beside another beer?"

"Same thing as yours, I'll bet." He chuckled, wiping foam from his gray whiskers. "Your friend, Phil Hadley and his fellow conspirators."

"Don't say that!" she flared at him. "I still can't believe that he had anything to do with that sabotage."

"Then why'd he kidnap that pore girl, and take off for the hills? He must've known he had friends out there. Nobody's gonna take off like that on a world where there's no people but him, even with a pretty girl along. Besides, them bombs wasn't brought in through our portals. We double check for anything like that, so there must be another portal operating from somewhere else to this here planet."

"And you figure that proves he's in with them?" Luana inquired acidly.

"Well, don't it? Otherwise, why'd he run? There ain't no way for him to get back to Earth 'cept through our portal, unless his friends have one." Beaming triumphantly, Charlie drained his mug of beer and waved his arm to catch the bartender's eye. "Another round over here."

"I'm sure that you're wrong." Her pretty brown face was set in a stubborn scowl. "He's just not that kind of person."

"You sound like you're sweet on him," Charlie teased.

"I am not," she flared. "I'm not 'sweet' on any Whitey, but you should've seen him when those bombs went off. He was shook up, and mad clean through. He wasn't putting on, either!"

"He had phony papers, didn't he? If he wasn't in with the crooks what set off the bombs, why were his papers faked? Tell me that!"

"I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that he isn't the kind of person who would do that sort of thing, and kidnap that girl. I'll bet that she's the one who's really mixed up in this business, and that she tricked him into escaping with her." She didn't notice Charlie's start of surprise at her comment. "If I didn't have to be at work first thing in the morning, I'd start out hunting for him. he could be in real trouble out there."

"Huh!" Charlie snorted derisively. "You couldn't, even if you wanted to. The rolligons are all locked up, and even if you could get at them you couldn't leave the base without running into the new guards they've set out."

Six or eight beers later, Luana never did manage to remember just how many they had consumed, she and Charlie slipped waveringly out through a side door. Shushing each other loudly when they stumbled in the bright starlight, they made their unsteady way to the shed where the crew's rolligon was parked.

With alcoholic cunning they evaded the routine patrols and headed out across the open prairie. Once past the sentries they had the automatic alarm system to cope with, but once again luck was with them. The computers were set to react to any input from the scanning radars of large objects moving in a purposeful manner.

The rolligon's wavering course didn't fit any standard pattern, wandering from side to side and even going in circles a time or two, and the computerized alarm system ignored them completely. With less mass to soak up the alcohol from her mugs of beer, Luana soon curled up on the seat and snored softly, leaving Charlie to steer by the stars.

"That looks like a good 'un," he chortled, picking out a particularly bright constellation that hung not far above the horizon. "Hey, Luana! Aw, she's asleep. Well anyhow, I'll find her feller for her."

He laughed and sang, steering recklessly over and around gullies and boulders that taxed the small vehicle's capabilities to the utmost. He didn't even notice when the ground began to slope upward and get rougher. It wasn't until the rolligon had wedged itself immovably between a boulder and a wall of rock that he realized that they were in trouble.

"C'mon, buggy!" He jerked and twisted at the controls, rocking the rolligon back and forth, but it was stuck fast. he leaned back in his seat to think, and the next thing he knew it was morning and someone was shaking him by the shoulder.

"Wake up, Charley!" Luana was pleading tearfully. "Wake up!"

"Huh? Whazzamatter? Can't be time to go to work yet."

"Charley, please wake up. We're in real trouble."

"Can't be," he protested sleepily. "I'm too old to get you... Ulp!"

He opened his eyes to find a snarling wolf glaring at him from only inches away. He closed his eyes tight, squeezing them shut for a long moment before warily opening them again. The wolf was still there, red-lighted black eyes gleaming hungrily at him.

"H-hey now! Easy there! I'm too old and tough to eat."

"Meaning that I'm not?" Luana hisses at him fiercely.

"Out!" Charley sagged back in his seat, his jaw dropping. "Out! Ge' out's!"

Still not really believing his ears, Charley climbed cautiously to the ground, followed by a frightened Luana. The wolf leaped easily down after them, joining a ring of his fellows who surrounded the stranded vehicle.

"Didja hear what I heard?" His whisper was just barely audible. "Theses here wolves can talk!"

"Yeah, but cool it," Luana whispered back. "These guys mean business."

Silenced by a snarl from the pack leader, they were herded away from the rolligon, back farther into the hills. The trail was steep and narrow, winding along between boulders and up steep canyon walls. Working off the effects of his hangover, Charley was soon sweating copiously as the sun rose higher into the sky. Though younger and in better shape, Luana was but little better off.

The hills were dry and barren, the air seeming to suck the moisture out of their bodies before it could bead up into droplets on their skin. The sun was sliding down the western sky, and Charley was barely managing to stagger along when Luana stopped abruptly, dropping down onto a nearby boulder.

"I've got to stop and rest," she gasped. "I need a drink of water."

"Yeah, you can't make us go any farther without a little rest," Charley told the snarling wolves at their heels. "We just can't do it!"

"Go!" The command from the pack leader was mostly snarled. "Go or die! No' far now."

Urged on by fangs that nipped at their clothes and left bloodily painful marks on their calves and ankles, they trudged wearily on up the trail. They crossed another ridge, the trail sloping down and widening before them until they realized that that they stood on the rim of a broad bowl floored with grass and trees. Before they had time to notice more, they were herded into the mouth of a cave.

"Bring them through here."

Blinded by the sudden change from twilight to darkness, they hadn't even seen the guard before he spoke. With the pack leader still at their heels, they followed the guard through an arched opening to face a man seated at a makeshift desk.

"Who sent you to spy on us, and how did you know where to look?" He snapped the questions at them in his flat voice before they had time to catch their breaths.

"We weren't spying," Luana responded.

"Naw, we was lost," Charley added defensively. "What is this place anyhow, and what're you doing here, Steve Jordan? Nothing good, if I know you."

"Still the same old Charley Burke," Jordan's words were followed by an icy chuckle. "Still poking your nose into things that don't concern you, I see. What I'm doing here is none of your business. You say you were lost? How did that happen?"

"We was just out riding around, and ended up getting stuck. We'd had a few too many drinks."

"Quite a few," Luana added plaintively. "Could we please have a drink of water?"

"When you've answered my questions." He turned to the guard. "Bring Hadley in. We'll see if he knows them or not."

"Is Phil here?" Luana blurted out the words before she could catch herself. "Is he all right?"

"Of course he is. Why shouldn't he be?" Jordan's voice was as flat as ever, but his thin-lipped smile radiated triumph. He opened a file drawer, thumbing through a list while he waited. "Hadley, take a look at these two. Do you recognize them?"

"Sure, I do. Luana Grayson, she's on the same survey crew with me, and Charley Burke. What're they doing away out here?"

"That's what I've been trying to find out. They've been giving me some cock-and-bull story about going riding in the moonlight, and getting lost." His flat voice slashed at Charley like a knife. "They are company spies, and they will be treated accordingly."

"Phil! What's he going to do to us?" Luana was suddenly frightened, more frightened than she'd ever been in her short life. "Tell him we haven't done anything!"

"Yeah," Charley added. "We was having a few beers, and I guess we thought we'd go out lookin' for ya in case you'd run into trouble. The rolligon got stuck, and when I woke up a bunch of wolves was lookin' down our throats. I 'bout fell over when one of them talked to us. Hey! If these here wolves are intelligent, then that means that the company's gotta clear outa here, don't it?"

"That's enough," Jordan snapped. "Take them out and put them in the lockup. I'll tend to them myself, when there's time."

"But, Mr. Jordan..." Phil started to protest.

"Keep your nose out of this, or I'll throw you in with them. Now, all of you get out of here and let me get some work done."

The last thing Phil saw of the prisoners as they were led away was Luana's anguished face turned entreatingly to him. He spent most of the afternoon making and discarding plans, trying to figure out some way he could rescue Luana and Charley. He was roaming aimlessly about the valley, not really seeing the groups of playing cubs when Rowlf and Harg came trotting up, pacing alongside of him as he walked.

"Your fur is rumpled," Rowlf observed after watching silently for some time. "Is i' tha' you worry abou' your friends?"

"Yes. Unless I can think of something, Jordan will have them killed." Phil scowled a the placid landscape. "I don't see how I'm going to rescue them, but if I could only get back to World Traders' base with them in tow, a lot of our problems would be solved."

Harg shifted uneasily, then spoke, "Man Zhordan no' have them killed."

"What do you mean?" Phil and Rowlf whirled to face him.

"I listen. Men no' know I understand. He say, send to 'nother world, no' Earth. No' kill, bu' no' ever come back. Many, many world. Men no' know all."

"That's right, we don't know all of them. Not by a long shot. That's just as bad, though. Did he say when he would do this?"

"Morning, early."

"That settles it! I've got to rescue them. Can you tell me where they are being held?"

"I no' know." Harg laid his ears back and hung his head.

"I do," Rowlf cut in. "It's down a couple of levels. "They fenced off par' of a tunnel, one tha' no' go any place. Door in fence will be locked."

"I think that I can handle that. We'd better wait until dinner time, so that most of the men will be out of the way. It isn't enough just to get them loose, though. It's a long way from here back to the base."

"Maybe we ge' thing they ride," Harg suggested. "It no' too far."

"We'll have the res' of the wolves on our trail," Rowlf warned. "If they catch up, they tear us to pieces."

"We'll just have to risk it!"

"Risk what?" Audrey's voice came from behind them.

"Audrey!" Phil smiled his welcome to the blond girl in her slacks and sweater. "Am I glad to see you. We need your help."

"For what?" Her expression changed from inquisitive to wary. "Is it something to do with those two spies they caught?"

"They aren't spies, just a couple of friends of mine who were out joy riding and got lost. Jordan's going to exile them to some undeveloped planet where nobody'll ever find them."

"So?" she prompted.

"So, we've got to rescue them. They might not even be able to eat the food on whatever planet they land on. Jordan might as well murder them outright!"

"I'm sure Steve... I mean, Mr. Jordan wouldn't do anything like that. I'm sorry, Phil, but I won't have anything to do with your wild scheme. All it will do is to get all of us in trouble, maybe sent into exile with your 'friends'. You can count me out."