The Robot Brains [with w_cat] | страница 18

285 "In the end!" Brant smiled cynically. "Listen, Marten, I am a financier, not a philanthropist. I want results - now. All right," he went on, "I'll give you five thousand."

"Ten," said Marten.

286 At this moment, though the door was locked, a dwarf-like figure, dressed in grey, suddenly appeared in the room. The man raised his hand and pointed a strange-looking gun at Marten. A bright ray appeared from the gun.

287 The next moment Marten's headless corpse fell on the floor. The weapon turned to Brant...

288 Afterwards the man in grey turned the ray on Marten's invention, and then disappeared.

289 In South America five men died.

290 In Africa and Mexico, in Sweden and Madagascar, the decapitations continued. Reports from behind the Iron Curtain said that this process was now world-wide. Brains were seen in Berlin, Hawaii, and other places. More and more people were murdered, and all of them were scientists - until the incident in Caribou City.

291 Caribou City was a small town on the banks of the Peace River in Canada. Uranium had been discovered there, and a group of scientists were doing some research work. One night a scientist was decapitated there in the presence of a large group of people, but this time the Brain who had decapitated him did not escape.

292 The scientist's assistant had a gun and shot the Brain through his heart.

293 There was a full hour of triumph in Caribou City. Then the revenge came. There appeared a lot of Brains in the town. They used the weapons, which were of the same type as the decapitators, but much bigger and more powerful. Whole buildings were burned to the ground. In a short while Caribou City was completely destroyed...

294 After that the Brains returned to their practice of killing the world's scientists. Every day reports of new decapitations came from different parts of the world: from Athens and Tokyo, Lisbon and Vienna. Newspapers attacked the governments for doing nothing.

295 The British Prime Minister declared a state of emergency.

296 The police and Military Intelligence were looking for the Brains' base, but could not find anything. The Brains simply appeared, killed, and disappeared again.

297 Sitting in an armchair in the cabin of his yacht, Captain Christian raised his glass.

298 "It's nice to be a free man again. Thanks, Doc."

299 Doctor Fox, sitting opposite him, opened a fresh bottle of beer.

300 "You did it yourself, Chris," he said. "You got the decapitator."