Above him a brilliant flash of fire lit the opening.
The sphere itself hovered above the hole.
CHAPTER III
Primary Objectives
The sphere pulsed again. But this time no flaming whip sprang from its surface. There was a single flash. For an instant Taylor caught a glimpse of bestial eyes, looking angrily at him from the center of the flash. Then there was nothing. He was in the darkness of a tunnel. Even the charred embers of the wooden trap door above him seemed dimmed by a cloud of dust.
The sphere had simply exploded.
Taylor had no time to analyze the situation. His hands groped along the side of the tunnel, the one Norden had used to enter the plant on his spying expeditions. Taylor crawled slowly, feeling his way. It seemed eternity until at last he reached the end of the passage and felt the trap door overhead.
A minute later he rejoined the others, huddled in darkness outside the gate.
"The searchlight went out," Masters explained. "Something wrong with the power, I guess."