Ten miles out the great towering structure housing mighty positron guns (anti-spacecraft batteries) rose in the blackness. Dropping down low, he slipped into a small lock behind the hangars and clambered forth beneath the vaulted roof.
The tall, blond man paused for a moment, listening for the familiar sounds of men playing poker with virile blasphemy over in Barracks, but, save for the hum of generators in the power plant, all was deathly still.
Strange, he thought, that all the men should go to Kaa, even the mechanics, draftsmen and ordinance men!
He turned uneasily towards the lighted Communications office, finding it deserted. Now where was Cravens? He should be here at the teletypes, T V P's and radios. He wouldn't have gone to Kaa nor deserted his post wilfully.
Advancing to the silent teletype machine Frederix saw that it was cut off all circuits save the direct Certagarni-Calidao band. What he read on the page brought a mounting fury into his brain:
"VRON XII DE XIV. CERTAGARNI STATION HELPLESS. SEEDRONA PLANTED. WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?
"XII REPORTING. GREATER CALIDAO ABSOLUTELY IN OUR POWER. INDUSTRIAL SECTIONS SHOULD FALL BY DAWN. BOTRODUS IS IN SAFE FOR KAA WHERE SPACESTATION HAS RESISTED ALL ATTACKS. SEND SHIPS OF YOUR STATION PILOTED BY MARTIAN GROUP IX FOR IMMEDIATE ATTACK ON KAA. UPON DEPARTURE DESTROY ALL GUN EMPLACEMENTS LEST THEY BE RECAPTURED BEFORE THE ADVENT."
The messages were dated scarcely ten minutes before. They must have been completed directly after Cravens had called the Embassy. But who had sent the first and received the second? There was only one Vron at Certagarni. It couldn't be he; he was loyal to the Legion.
Perplexedly Frederix turned towards the inner room. Simultaneously a voice cut across the silence:
"Looking for someone, Lieutenant?"