Ernest Carston looked at Mark pityingly, lines of weariness and anxiety creasing his face. "Do you think," he said slowly, "if there were any way out, I would be here? Vulcan and the Venus Swamp both have a thing in common: there's no escape, except through Marnik. Commander Cynthia only carries out his orders."
"But she's a woman, Carston. If she could be made to realize what another Inter-Planetary war means—the awful carnage, the destruction—perhaps she could somehow be reached!"
"I wish that were possible!" Carston exclaimed fervently. "But she's like a being that's hypnotized. George Marnik must dominate her completely, old and decrepit as he must be. Remember, it's the only life she's ever known. He must be the only being she's ever loved."
"Have you any concrete knowledge of their plans?"
"No. Only deductions. Dar Vaajo, ruler of Mars, was here three weeks ago. Cynthia brought him. For hours he was with Marnik in the latter's palace. That can only mean one thing, of course. And then there's the new metal. That is the real problem and the real menace!"
"Metal? A new alloy?" Mark Denning was all interest.
"Nothing so simple as that," Carston explained with tragic calm. "A metal unique in the universe! A new, allotropic form of beryllium which beyond a certain temperature reacts by hardening in direct ratio to pressure and heat! Once cast, it is literally heat and blast proof, and so light that it triples efficiency in relation to fuel consumption. And George Marnik's building, has been building, a fleet of these Super-Spacers!"
"I suppose they're mining that metal here?" Mark's face was white.
"Yes, on the sunward side of Vulcan! That's what swamp convicts are brought here for."
"And I suppose either the ore, or the smelted metal's being shipped to secret bases on Mars and Venus?" Mark's voice was strained and opaque.