"You had a clear shot!"

"I know! I missed!"

They rounded the pile just as two of the guard cars vanished intothe tunnel. Three more lay in smoking ruin. The sixth had evidentlypreceded the other two out through the passage.

"Here it comes now!" cried Murdock. "Around the other end of thepile! Kill it! Kill it!"

The ancient guardian of the graveyardчit looked like a Ford, buthe couldn't be sureчmoved forward with a dreadful chattering sound andinterposed itself in the line of fire.

"My range is blocked."

"Smash that junkheap and cover the tunnel! Don't let the Caddyescape!"

"I can't!" she said.

"Who not?"

"I just _can't_!"

"That's an order! Smash it and cover the tunnel!"

Her guns swivelled and she shot out the tires beneath the ancientcar.

The Caddy shot past and into the passageway.

"You let it get by!" he screamed. "Get after it!"

"All right, Sam! I'm doing it! Don't yell. _Please don'ttell!_"

She headed for the tunnel. Inside, he could hear the sound of agiant engine racing away, growing softer in the distance.

"Don't fire here in the tunnel! If you hit it we may be bottledin!"

"I know. I won't."

"Drop a couple ten-second grenades and step on the gas. Maybe wecan seal in whatever's left moving back there."

Suddenly they shot ahead and emerged into daylight. There was nosign of any other vehicle about.

"Find its track," he said, "and start chasing it."

There was an explosion up the hill behind him, within themountain. The ground trembled, then it was still once more.

"There are so many tracks..." she said.

"You know the one I want. The biggest, the widest, the hottest!Find it! Run it down!"

"I think I have it, Sam."

"Okay. Proceed as rapidly as possible for this terrain."

Murdock found a squeeze bottle of bourbon and took three gulps.Then he lit a cigarette and glared into the distance.

"Why did you miss it?" he asked softly. "Why did you miss it,Jenny?"

She did not answer immediately. He waited.

Finally, "because he is not an `it' to me," she said. "He has donemuch damage to cars and people, and that is terrible. But there issomething about him, somethingчnoble. The way he has fought the wholeworld for his freedom. Sam, keeping that pack of vicious machines inline, stopping at nothing to maintain himself that wayчwithout amasterчfor as long as he can remain unsmashed, unbeatenчSam, for amoment back there I wanted to join his pack, to run with him acrossthe Gas Road Plains, to use my rockets against the gates of the GasForts for him...But I could not mono you, Sam. I was built for you.I am too domesticated. I am too weak. I could not shoot him though,and I misfired the rockets on purpose. But I could never mono you,Sam, really."

"Thanks," he said, "you over-programmed ashcan. Thanks a lot!"

"I am sorry, Sam."

"Shut upчNo, don't, not yet. First tell me what you're going todo if we find `him'."

"I don't know."

"Well think it over fast. You see that dust cloud ahead of us aswell as I do, and you'd better speed up."

They shot forward.

"Wait till I call Detroit. They'll laugh themselves silly, till Iclaim the refund."

"I am _not_ of inferior construction or design. You know that. Iam just more..."

"'Emotional'," supplied Murdock.

"...Than I thought I would be," she finished. "I had not reallymet many cars, except for young ones, before I was shipped to you. Idid not know what a wild car was like, and I had never smashed _any_cars beforeчjust targets and things like that. I was young and..."

"`Innocent'," said Murdock. "Yeah. Very touching. Get ready tokill the next car we meet. If it happens to be your boyfriend and youhold your fire, then he'll kill us."

"I will try, Sam."

The car ahead had stopped. It was the yellow Chrysler. Two ofits tires had gone flat and it was parked, lopsided, waiting.

"Leave it!" snarled Murdock, as the hood clicked open. "Save theammo for something that might fight back."

They sped past it.

"Did it say anything?"

"Machine profanity," she said. "I've only heard it once or twice,and it would be meaningless to you."

He chuckled. "Cars actually sweat at each other?"

"Occasionally," she said. "I imaging the lower sort indulge in itmore frequently, especially on freeways and turnpikes when they becomecongested."

"Let me hear a swear-word."

"I will not. What kind of car do you think I am, anyway?"

"I'm sorry," said Murdock. "You're a lady. I forgot."

There was an audible click within the radio.

They raced forward on the level ground that lay before the foot ofthe mountains. Murdock took another drink, then switched to coffee.

"Ten years," he muttered, "ten years..."

The trail swung in a wide curve as the mountains jogged back andthe foothills sprang up high beside them.

It was over almost before he knew it.

As they passed a huge, orange-colored stone massif, sculpted likean upside-down toadstool by the wind, there was a clearing to theright.

It shot forward at themчthe Devil Car. It had lain in ambush,seeing that it could not outrun the Scarlet Lady, and it rushed towarda final collision with its hunter.

Jenny skidded sideways as her brakes caught with a scream and asmell of smoke, and her fifty-calibers were firing, and her hoodsprang open and her front wheels rose up off the ground as the rocketsleapt wailing ahead, and she spun around three times, her rear bumperscraping the saltsand plain, and the third and last time she fired herremaining rockets into the smouldering wreckage on the hillside, and shecame to a rest on all four wheels; and her fifty-calibers kept firinguntil they were emptied, and then a steady clicking sound came fromthem for a full minute afterwards, and then all lapsed into silence.

Murdock sat there shaking, watching the gutted, twisted wreckblaze against the sky.

"You did it, Jenny. You killed him. You killed me the DevilCar," he said.

But she did not answer him. Her engine started once more and sheturned toward the southeast and headed for the Fuel Stop/Rest StopFortress that lay in that civilized direction

For two hours they drove in silence, and Murdock drank all his bourbonand all his coffee and smoked all his cigarettes.

"Jenny, say something," he said. "What's the matter? Tell me."

There was a click, and her voice was very soft:

"Samчhe talked to me as he came down the hill..." she said.

Murdock waited, but she did not say anything else.

"Well, what did he say?" he asked.

"He said, `Say you will mono your passenger and I will swerve byyou'," she told him. "He said, `I want you, Scarlet Ladyчto run withme, to raid with me. Together they will never catch us,' and I killedhim."

Murdock was silent.

"He only said that to delay my firing though, did he not? He saidthat to stop me, so that he could smash us both when he went smashhimself, did he not? He could not have meant it, could he, Sam?"

"Of course not," said Murdock, "of course not. It was too latefor him to swerve."

"Yes, I suppose it wasчdo you think though, that he really wantedme to run with him, to raid with himчbefore everything, I meanчbackthere?"

"Probably, baby. You're pretty well-equipped."

"Thanks," she said, and turned off again.

Before she did though, he heard a strange sound mechanical sound,falling into the rhythms of profanity or prayer.

Then he shook his head and lowered it, softly patting the seatbeside him with his still unsteady hand.