On his feet, he crouched and ran for the tall, dark ship. The intervening buildings provided him cover. Down one of the concrete streets a dozen men were huddled around a small fire near the gate, talking and laughing. Matt slipped across the street, and saw the ship's mammoth scaffolding rise up in the darkness.
It was a beautiful ship, tall and silvery, enshrouded like a statue waiting to be unveiled. He glanced about the grounds around, and his eyes widened. Great tanks of fuel stood nearby, recently-opened cartons of supplies were everywhere in evidence. A huge pile of oxygen cylinders formed a heavy pyramid. Matthews walked over to one of the open crates, peered into it. Heavy material, plastic, metal—
Space suits.
He opened the pack on his back, drew out the bundles of dynamite carefully, separated them from the coil of wire to the small detonator. Somewhere in the distance he heard talking, and he hurried his movements. Finally the deadly bundles were free.
As he stooped to duck under the first tier of the scaffolding a bright light flashed on above him, and an alarm bell started clanging. He cursed, and ran like a cat under the scaffolding, up to the great silvery fin of the ship. Of course, he should have thought that if there was no circuit alarm on the fence there surely would be one around the ship. Far away a roar of voices rose up, and shouts, the pummel of running feet. Frantically he thrust a dynamite charge under one of the fins of the ship, then ran to a second and laid another charge. A rifle cracked somewhere, and another, and he darted into the piles of boxes, unreeling the detonator wire as he ran. There were hoarse shouts all about him now. He ducked into a huge empty crate, not fifty feet from the charges. Huddling down in it for protection, he connected wires to the battery, and slammed down the plunger—
The shock wave hit him before the sound did, picking up the crate like a pill-box hurling Matthews head over heels. The roar burst in his ears, striking him like a palpable wall, and a shout of despair went up among the soldiers. Matt stood up, then, staring up at the great metal hulk. There was a heavy rushing sound and the ship faltered, shaking like a giant aspen leaf, and slowly began to tip—