They rolled forward to the foot of the huge circular stairway which led up to the Imperial Palace. Several abandoned artillery pieces stood on the sun-curled lawn. A flying tank was parked at the bottom. The body of a dead driver lay half-in, half-out, where it had fallen when Lombar had disembarked. The desert cars halted. The hundred men got out. Heller looked up at the sky. The surface action may have turned into a rout but a battle was going on up there. He knew the rebels had very few warships. He could not tell at this vast distance but it appeared one group of vessels was being hammered to bits. Even as he looked, some large craft was burning as it spiralled down toward the ground a hundred miles below. He knew the Earth invasion force and Fleet had been intact. Had Lombar thrown this Apparatus armada into the fray? If so, despite the rout which had just happened, the rebel forces were done for. This tank at the foot of the steps, he thought he recognized. A mighty brute, it may have been the one Hisst had used to flee from the Battle of Camp Kill. After a quick word with Snelz, a platoon was disposed outside to cover the entrance. Then, followed by the bulk of the company and Snelz, Heller sped up the broad, winding stair. They came to the wide, curving corridor which led to the entrance chamber. There were no troops in it. Snelz posted men in the doorways of the rooms which opened from it. Heller, by himself, went ahead. A screaming voice was coming from the antechamber. Lombar's! "You're traitors, traitors, traitors! Every one of you! You are all against me! You sold me out!" "No, no! Please Gods, we didn't!" cried another voice. "One of you helped 'Heller to move the mountain! I know it was HIM! Don't deny it! Another one of you just ordered Palace City evacuated! And now THIS, now THIS, now THIS!" There came a roar of pure animal rage. Shrieks of terror. "Lombar!" came a bellow. "Put down that gun! Listen to reason!" There came a shattering roar of a blastrifle on full automatic! Panic-driven bootbeats rushed from the antechamber. Red-uniformed Apparatus generals, spread out, came around the curve in the corridor where Heller stood. The insane roar of the blastrifle from the antechamber was mixed with the even more berserk rantings of Lombar Hisst. A general was caught in the back by a shot. He fell at Heller's feet. His arms reached out convulsively and he caught Heller's legs. "Save me! Save me! Save me!" he screamed. The other generals rushed by. Then here came Lombar, holding the roaring blast-rifle like a flaming spear. Heller leaped back. The arms of the general on the floor tripped him. He fell against the wall. Lombar rushed past, rifle blazing. Heller tried to get to his own handgun, then realized how useless the discharged weapon was. Snelz's troops had pulled back into rooms, diving out of the path of fire. Lombar reached the main entrance. Several generals were still on the stairs racing down. Lombar cut them to bits. They fell like thrown balls of red, streaking the steps with blood. Snelz's platoon outside, taken by surprise, sought to bring weapons to bear. Lombar swept a path of fire over their heads like a flaming scythe. They ducked. Down the steps raced Lombar, shooting as he went. He was taking five at a time, moving too fast to be hit. At the bottom he gave the dead driver a yank and threw him to the pavement. Hisst leaped into the tank and slammed the turret shut. Snelz's platoon fired but their shots glanced off the armor. Heller was coming down the steps. He halted for an instant to try to get the sidearm off a dead general. Then he realized it would have no effect on the tank and threw the bloody weapon aside. Lombar was getting the tank started. Heller leaped down the last ten steps. He grabbed at the snout of a protruding weapon, intending to haul himself up, to get at the turret. The weapon went off. Lombar had fired it from within. It jarred out of Heller's hands.

I

The tank swept forward with a roar and Heller fell to the pavement. The flying monster rose. Its course was erratic. It smashed into a statue at the bottom of a balustrade. Then it curved sideways, beginning to rise. Heller raced across a strip of lawn. An artillery piece was there, one of the heaviest. He leaped onto the pointer's ledge. He began to spin wheels. The tank was flying low. It went across the park. It clipped the central statue there and the sculpture overturned. Lombar was trying to go between two palaces and get cover. Heller was getting the cannon centered, eye pressed to the sight. He was bringing the tank into the middle of the circle. Ahead of Lombar lay the pools where Madison had first found Teenie swimming. They lay there now, no lights or moving water, but they were full and lapping under the hot desert wind. Heller fired! The heavy blast hit the tank below the right rear rollers and up into its belly.

FIRE BLOOMED!

The tank did a complete forward somersault, leaving a blazing loop in the air. It hit the center of the lowest pool with a whistling sizzle and splash! Heller was off the cannon and running toward it. Then suddenly the turret opened. A blastrifle came into view. Heller was totally in the open. There was no cover. He was unarmed.

The tank was nearly submerged in the water. The blastrifle levelled from the open turret. The yellow eyes of Lombar Hisst sighted down it. Jettero Heller pulled up. He was almost to the edge of the pool. There was no cover. He could hear the din of battle somewhere in the sky. He thought if he could only get his hands on Hisst he might end this. But in that split instant it looked like Hisst was going to end him instead. Heller had a handgun. It was almost totally discharged. He doubted it would even cause a bruise at this distance. Hisst fired. Heller had jinked to the left. The shot missed. But Heller had drawn as he jumped. He didn't fire at Hisst. Heller fired at the water between him and the tank. An enormous spray shot up! Under the cover of it, Heller dived into the pool, totally submerged. Hisst's blastgun churned the upper surface, boiling spray and froth. Swimming underwater, Heller reached the bottom of the tank. Looking up, he could get a dim and wavy outline of the turret. Hisst seemed to be having a fit. He was firing all around the tank, hoping to hit the man he knew must be there somewhere. The concussions were hurting Heller's ears and he protected them with his cupped hands. He was running out of air. There was a pocket of it trapped under a tread fender. He stuck his nose up into it and got a breath. Suddenly he was aware that the shooting above him had stopped. He waited a moment. He could hear a rushing sound. He decided to chance it and surface. Ready to spring up over the submerged hulk and get to the turret, Heller put his face out. Nothing happened. He rose up further. Hisst was gone! The man had leaped off the tank and was almost to the far edge of the pool, swimming! Heller, instantly struck out in pursuit. Lombar got out on the edge. He saw Heller swimming swiftly toward him. Hisst unslung the blastrifle and pointed down. He pulled the trigger. It was wet and shorted out. It did not fire. Hisst threw it away. He looked around wildly. He had recognized Heller. His rage went into panic and then deeper into insanity. He saw a flight of steps near to hand. He raced up them. He was grabbed suddenly from either side. Two men in silver livery threatened him with electric battle-axes. Lombar stumbled to his knees. He looked up and stared into the face of a teen-aged girl-Teenie, Hostage Queen of Flisten. "You are my prisoner," she said. And to her men, "Take him inside and knock him out if he so much as twitches!"