Destiny Doll Read Free Page A

Dobbin, conversationally, not even panting with his running. "There is no time. We must reach the safety of the city."
    "There is time, by God," I yelled, jerking up the gun and aiming it at the ground in front of us, between Dobbin's ears.
    "Shut your eyes," I yelled to the others, and pulled the trigger one notch back. Even through my eyelids, I sensed the flaring of the laser-light as it bounced back from the ground. Under me Dobbin reared and spun, almost swapping end for end, and when I opened my eyes we were heading back toward the ship.
    "You'll be the death of us, crazy being," Dobbin moaned. "All of us will die."
    I looked behind me and the hobbies all were following. Dobbin, it appeared, was leader and where he went they were content to follow. But farther back there was no sign of where the laser bolt had struck. Even at first notch capacity it should have made a mark; there should have been a smoking crater back there where it struck.
    Sara was riding with one arm up across her eyes.
    "You all right?" I asked.
    "You crazy fool!" she cried.
     "I yelled for you to close your eyes," I said. "There was bound to be reflection."
    "You yelled, then fired," she said. "You didn't give us time."
    She took her arm down and her eyes blinked at me and, hell, she was all right. Just something else to bitch about; she never missed a chance.
    Ahead of us the bug that had been spraying the ship was scurrying off across the field. It must have had wheels or treads underneath it, for it was spinning along at a headlong clip, its long neck stretched out in front of it in its eagerness to get away from there.
    "Please, sir," Dobbin pleaded, "we are simply wasting time. There is nothing that can be done."
    "One more word out of you," I said, "and this time right between the ears."
    We reached the ship and Dobbin skidded to a halt, but I didn't wait for him to stop. I hit the ground and was running toward the ship while he still was moving. Although what I intended to do I had no idea.
    I reached the ship and I could see that it was covered with some stuff that looked like frosty glass and when I say covered, I mean covered—every inch of it. There was no metal showing. It looked unfunctional, like a model ship. Reduced in size, it could have passed for those little model ships sold in decorator shops to stick up on the mantle.
    I put out my hand and touched it and it was slick and hard. There was no look of metal and there was no feel of metal, either. I rapped it with my gun stock and it rang like a bell, setting up a resonance that went bouncing across the field and came back as an echo from the city walls.
    "What is it, captain?" Sara asked, her voice somewhat shaky. This was her ship, and there was no one who could mess around with it.
    "A coating of something hard," I said. "As if it had been sealed."
    "You mean we can't get into it?"
    "I don't know. Maybe if we had a sledge hammer to crack it, we could peel it off."
    She made a sudden motion and the rifle was off her back and the butt against her shoulder. I'll say this for her: crazy as that gun might be, she could handle it.
    The sound of the shot was loud and flat and the hobbies reared in terror. But above the sound of the report itself was another sound, a wicked howling that almost screamed, the noise of a ricocheting bullet tumbling end for end, and pitched lower than the shrill howling of the slug was the booming resonance of the milk-white ship. But there was no indication of where the bullet might have struck. The whiteness of the ship still was smooth—uncracked, unblemished, unmarked. Two thousand foot-pounds of metal had slammed against it and had not made a dent.
    I lifted the laser gun and Dobbin said to me, "There be no use, you foolish folk. There is nothing you can do."
    I whirled on him angrily. "I thought I told you . . .' I yelled. "One more word out of you and right between the eyes."
    "Violence," Dobbin told me, perkily, "will get you nowhere. But staying