No one escaped from Zadda, Earth's grim penal star.
The barriers were too steep. The Zirthan guards too
clever. The mertha hounds too keen at trailing. Only
4W382ZT won free—though he couldn't beat the awful rap.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories May 1952.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
There was silence in the grim room broken only by the riffle of filingcards from the corner where a trusty, in gray uniform, sat working ata small desk. Warden Hughes sat at his large desk, idly fingering asmall scale-model of a space ship which he used for a paperweight.Across the desk from him, in a stiff-backed, plastic-covered chair,sat Greg Purnell, special investigator for the Congress of Earth.
Before Purnell had time to speak a bell shrilled on the warden's desk.Hughes tabled the paperweight and picked up the phone. Purnell couldnot tell from any change of expression what the message might be. Thewarden listened carefully, grunted an uninforming "Yes, and then?" intothe phone, listened some more, and finally hung up. Immediately helifted it again and dialed a number.
"Send Rol, Dorta, and two mertha to my office at once. Have thehelicopter ready to go in ten minutes.... What?... Then have two zerdasaddled and ready. Hop to it."
Purnell nodded but the warden had already turned his back and waspunching out a code on the panel behind his desk. He had scarcelyfinished when there was a sigh and a ting. He slid a panel aside andtook a flat spool out of the cavity behind it. He placed it carefullyin a squat machine which stood beside his desk.
There was evidently nothing more to be done until the arrival of Rol,Dorta, and the two mertha, for the warden settled back in his chair andturned toward Greg.
"That spool is the mentape of 4W382ZT, the prisoner who escaped. You'llsee what it's used for in a minute or so."
There was a firm tap at the warden's door. Purnell mentally chalked upa note to commend Hughes for efficiency when he sent in his report. Thewarden touched a button on his desk and the door swung open violently,pushed aside by two creatures which bounded into the room.
Purnell jumped up from his chair and bit his lower lip to keep fromscreaming. Then two tall men followed through the door and the biting,tearing flashes faded out of his mind. He slumped back into his chair.His forehead was covered with fine droplets of perspiration and hisshirt fluttered to his heart's violent throbs. Yet Greg Purnell wasa hard man who had come face to face with death many times on manystrange planets.
Purnell looked over towards the desk in the corner. The trusty haddropped a set of cards and was trying to pick them up. His handsshook so violently that in three trials he succeeded in getting onlytwo cards back on the desk. His face was pale and the sound of hisbreathing rasped through the room.
The warden looked over towards the man. "I'm sorry, Jim, I forgot itwas your tour of duty. You can leave now."
Jim hastily went through the side door of the room. Purnell turned backtowards the warden's desk. Rol and Dorta, for Greg decided that thesemust be their names, were not men, though almost human. Their faces hadtwo eyes, a nose and a mouth, but no ears.
Purnell had seen natives of many different planets and knew howdifficult it was to try to interpret the meaning of an alienexpression. But he was certain that Rol and Dorta had absolutely noexpressions on their faces. The two mertha walked on all fours andhad heads which were more carnivorous lookin