“A robot control triggered when we flew over a certain point!” exploded Cully. “Some kind of radar, I’ll bet. Rogan ought to be here.”
“First,” Kimber reminded him grimly, “we’ve got to get back to tell him about them.”
A broken sled with which to cross several hundred miles of unknown country. They were going to have quite a hike, thought Dard. But he did not comment upon that aloud.
7: RETURN JOURNEY
“WONDER HOW MANY more booby traps such as that are
hidden around?” Cully glanced down the valley with open suspicion.
“Not many, I’d say,” Kimber answered weakly. “It must have been only a fluke that those guns were still able to fire—”
His voice was swallowed by an explosion severe enough to rock the ground under them. Dard saw earth, trees and debris rise into the air far down the valley as an acrid white-yellow smoke fouled the air in drifting wisps.
“That,” Kimber said into the ensuing silence, “was probably the end of the guns. They’ve blown themselves up.”
“Shoulda done that sooner!” growled Santee. “A lot sooner! How about us gettin’ away from here?” He turned to Cully who had been blasted loose from his work on the sled.