"Quick!" Alan cried. "Three of you cut around the front of the ship. Stan and I will slip around the tail rockets."
Without waiting for an answer, he led the pilot through a fierce barrage of atomic pellets toward the rear of the spaceship. As the missiles struck the ground on all sides of them, they exploded violently, kicking up man-tall geysers of luna pumice.
"You're covered from both sides!" Alan shouted, poking his head cautiously around the rocket tubes. His answer was a stream of atomic pellets, which struck the tubes and fused them. Ignoring the deadly fire, Alan plunged on, feeling the kick of his own atomic rifle as he triggered shot after shot blindly ahead of him.
There were two men left alive back there, standing back to back, trembling, their hands high over their heads.
"Where's Keifer?" Alan barked at them.
One pointed vaguely outside the dome. "The central mountains," he said.
"What are you talking about?"
"A shipload of technicians brought the bomb there from the space-warp. That's where Terra Mines had its launching equipment. Honest. I swear it's the truth."
"Is Keifer there too?"
"Yes. With the girl. They went out in one of Terra Mines' old luna tanks to watch the launching."