A. E. Van Vogt - The Weapon Makers

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The Weapon Makers
Weapon Shops, Book 1
(One Against Eternity, 1947)
A. E. Van Vogt
orcenturies the Isher Dynasty has ruled a huge empire that includes earth and other planets. The
Dynasty's power is checked only by the Weapon Makers, a group of dedicated scientists who prevent
total take-over, who provide checks and balances to the Dynasty's political establishemnt. Now, for the
first time in history, there is a spy among the Weapon Makers. He is in the confidence of the young
Empress. Then Wy is it the Empressherslef who insists that he be killd? Why has she conceived this
passionate hatred of Captain Hedrock? Suddenly the brilliant captain is hunted by both powers ... and
not even his incredible talent for survival is likely to help.
First published in book form in 1946.Originally serialized inAstounding Science Fiction in 1943.
Although this book is published in 1946, I think it is actually the sequel toThe Weapon Shops of Isher ,
published in 1951.
CONTENT
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
One
HEDROCK ALMOST FORGOT THE SPY RAY. IT CONTINUED TO glow, the picture on the
screen showing the Imperial conference room as clearly as ever. There were still men bowing low over
the hand of the cold-faced young woman who sat on the throne chair, and the sound of their voices came
distinctly. Everything was as it should be.
For Hedrock, however, all interest in that palatial room, that courtly scene, had faded. The icy words of
the young woman spun around and around in his mind, though minutes had now passed since she had
spoken them.
“—Underthe circumstances,” she had said, “we cannot afford to take further risks with this Weapon
Shop turncoat. What has happened is too important. Accordingly, General Grail, you will, as a purely
precautionary measure, arrest Captain Hedrock an hour after lunch and hang him. The time sequence is
important, as he will, as usual, sit at my table during lunch, and also because I wish to be present at the
execution.”
“Very well,Your Majesty—”
Hedrock paced back and forth in front of his viewing machine. Finally, he stared again at the screen,
which, in its present materialized form, occupied an entire corner of the apartment. He saw, with a
somberawareness, that the young woman was still in the conference room, alone now. Shesat, a faint
smile on her long face. The smile faded as she touched an instrument on her chair and began to dictate in
a clear, bell-like voice.
For a moment, Hedrock allowed the meaning of the routine palace matters she was discussing to
penetrate his mind; then he withdrew his attention. There was a purpose in his mind, a hardening
determination not to accept the failure that was here. Very carefully, he began to adjust his machine. The
scene showing the young empress faded. The viewing plate flickered with formless light, finally caught the
face of a man, and steadied. Hedrock said, “Calling the High Council of the Weapon Makers.”
“It will take a minute,” said the man on the screen, gravely, “to bring the various councilors to their
locals.”
Hedrock nodded stiffly. He was suddenly nervous. His voice had been steady enough, but he had the
feeling that it would deteriorate into a quaver. He stood very still, consciously relaxing the tension. When
he looked again at the screen, a dozen faces had replaced the one; enough members for a quorum. He
began at once an account of the sentence of death that had been pronounced on him. He finished, finally:
“There is no doubt that something important is happening. Time and again during the last two weeks,
when an Imperial conference has been called, I have found myself headed off into tedious conversations
with superior officers, prevented from returning to my rooms. To my mind, however, the significant factor
of the hanging order is the time element involved. Note that I am not to be arrested until an hour after
lunch, that is, about three hours from now. And then, too, I was allowed to return to my apartment in
time to hear the sentence pronounced. If they know the Weapon Shops, they must realize that, given
three hours warning, I have ample time to escape.”
“Are you suggesting,”said Councilor Peter Cadron sharply, “that you are going to remain?”
The cold, stiff feeling came back to Hedrock. When he spoke again, his voice shook the faintest bit
though the words themselves were precise and, in their essence, confident: “You will remember, Mr.
Cadron, that we have analyzed the Empress’ character. The abnormal sociotechnical pressures of the
age have made her as restless and as adventure-minded as are her nineteen billion subjects. She wants
change, excitement, new experiences. But above everything else she is the Imperial power, representative
of the conservative, anti-change forces. The result is a constant tug of mind, a dangerous state of
unbalance, which makes her the most difficult enemy the Weapon Shops have had in many centuries.”
“The hanging, no doubt,” said another man coldly, “will supply a fillip to her jaded nerves. For the few
moments that you jerk and bounce in the noose, her life will seem less drab.”
“What I had in mind,” said Hedrock steadily, “was that one of our No-men might resolve the various
factors and advise on the practicability of my remaining.”
“We will consult Edward Gonish,” said Peter Cadron. “Now please have patience while we discuss this
matter privately.”
They withdrew, but not visually, for their faces remained on the viewer, and though Hedrock could see
their lips move, no voice came through. The conversation went on for a very long time, and there was a
seemingly endless period when something was being explained to somebody not on the screen. The time
grew so long that Hedrock stood finally with teeth clampedtight, and clenched hands. He sighed with
relief as the silence ended, and Peter Cadron said:
“We must regretfully report that the No-man, Edward Gonish, considers that there are not sufficient
known factors for him to offer an intuition. This leaves us with only logic, and so we wish to ask one
question: At what time will your present chances of escaping from the palace begin to deteriorate
sharply? Can you possibly stay for lunch?”
Hedrock held himself steady, letting the shock of the report of the No-man’s verdict drain out of him.
He hadn’t realized how much he was depending on that superbly trained intuitive genius to decide on his
life or death. In an instant, the situation had become uncertain and dangerous beyond his previous
conception. He said at last, “No, if I stay to lunch I’m committed. The Empress likes to play cat and
mouse, and she will definitely inform me of the sentence during the meal. I have a plan, dependent on her
emotional reactions and based on the fact that she will consider it necessary to justify herself.”
He paused, frowning at the screen. “What were the conclusions of your discussion? I needevery
possible assistance .”
It was Councilor Kendlon, a thick-faced man who had hitherto not spoken, who said, “As you know,
Hedrock, you are in the palace for twopurposes, one being to protect the Weapon Shops from a
surprise attack during what we have all agreed is a dangerous time for our civilization. Your other
purpose is, of course, your own pet scheme of establishing a liaison between the Weapon Shops and the
Imperial government. You are a spy, therefore, only in a minor sense. Any lesser information you may
gain is yours alone. We do not want it. But think back in your mind: Have you heard anything—anything
—that might provide a foundation for your theory that something tremendous is being planned?
Hedrock shook his head slowly. Quite suddenly, he felt no emotion. He had a sense of being physically
detached. He spoke finally as out of a remote, cold region, precisely, evenly, conclusively, “I can see,
sirs, that you have come to no decision, yet you cannot deny that you are reluctant to have my connection
here broken. And there is no doubt of your anxiety to learn what the Empress is concealing. Finally, there
is, as you say, my pet scheme. Accordingly, I have decided to remain.”
They were notso quick as that to agree. The strange, restless character of the empress made it possible
that the slightest wrong word on his part would be fatal. Details—details—they discussed them with a
painstaking thoroughness. There was the fact that he was the first apparent traitor to the Weapon Shops
in history, one who nevertheless refused to give any information to the curious ruler. His striking
appearance, mental brilliance and strong personality had already fascinated her, and should continue to
do so. Therefore, except for the fact that she was engaged in something secret and important, the threat
of hanging was a test, product of suspicion. But be careful. If necessary, give her secret Weapon Shop
information of a general nature, to titillate her appetite for more and—
At that point the door buzzer broke off the conversation. With a start, Hedrock flicked off the controls,
and shut off the power. Then, acutely conscious that he had allowed himself to become jumpy, he
deliberately removed the plain gold pin from his tie, and bent down over the table. The ring lay there, a
small, bright design, its ornamental head an exact duplicate of the spy-ray machine, the image of which
was built up into solid form by the atomic forces manufactured by the perfect power plant inside the ring.
It would be quicker to release the tiny, automatic lever that was attached to the ring for that very
purpose, buthis own nervous condition was more important.
It was as delicate a task as threading a needle. Three times his handtrembled the slightest bit and missed
the almost invisible depression that had to be contacted. The fourth time he got it. The spy-ray machine
winked out like a smashed light, except that there was no debris, nothing but empty air. Where it had
stood on the corner table was only the blanket he had used to protect the table top from scratches.
Hedrock whisked the blanket back to the bedroom, and then stood for a moment with the ring in his
palm, undecided. He put it finally in a metal box with three other rings, and set the controls of the box to
dissolve the rings if there were any tampering. Only the ring gun remained encircled on his finger when at
last he walked coolly to answer the insistent buzzer.
Hedrock recognized the tall man who stood in the corridor as one of the Empress’ orderlies. The fellow
nodded recognition, and said, “Captain, Her Majesty asks me to inform you that lunch is being served,
and will you please come at once.”
For a moment, Hedrock had the distinct impression that he was the object of a practical joke, and that
Imperial Innelda was already playing her little thrill game. It couldn’t be lunch time so soon. He glanced at
his wrist watch. The little dial showed twelve thirty-five. An hour had passed since he had heard the
sentence of death from the Empress’ firm, finely shaped mouth.
Actually, the question of whether or not he remained till lunch had not been his to decide. The event had
rushed upon him even as he was telling the council that it was an hour away. The reality of his position
became clear as he walked along past scores of soldiers who stood in every corridor on his way to the
royal dining hall; and that reality was that he was staying. It was so final that Hedrock stopped on the
threshold of the great room, stood for a moment, smiling sardonically, and was himself.
Quietly, still smiling faintly, he made his way among the tables of noisy courtiers, and sank into his place
five chairs down from the Empress at the head table.
Two
THE COCKTAIL AND—SOUP COURSES WERE ALREADY PAST.
Hedrock sat, more pensive now that he was not physically on the move, waiting for whatever was next.
He studied the men around the table, the young, strong, arrogant, intelligent thirty-year-olds who made
up the personal following of her Imperial Majesty.
He felt a pang of regret at the thought that it must now end. He had enjoyed his six months among this
brilliant gathering. It had been exciting again to watch young people tasting the fruits of stupendous
power, an untamed enjoyment of joy that was reminiscent of his own distant past. Hedrock smiled wryly.
There was a quality about his immortality that he had not allowed for, a developing disregard of risks until
the crisis was upon him, a pre-danger casualness about the danger. He had known, of course, that he
would sooner or later involve himself beyond even his secret powers. Now as in the past, only his
over-all purpose, as distinct from the purposes that people thought he had, was important.
The Empress’ voice rose for the first time above the clamor of conversation and cut off his reverie. “You
seem very thoughtful, Captain Hedrock.”‘
Hedrock turned his head slowly to face her. He hadbeen wanting to give her more than the cursory
glance he had allowed himself so far. But he had been aware of her green eyes watching him from the
moment he had seated himself. Hers was a striking, almost a noble countenance. She had the
high-cheeked, firm-chinned facial structure of the famous Isher family; and there was no doubt at all that
here was only the latest, not the last member of a star human line. Willful passions and power unlimited
had twisted her handsome face. But already it was apparent that the erratic, brilliant Innelda, like all the
remarkable men and women who were her ancestors, would carry on through corruption and intrigue?in
spite of character defects, and that the extraordinary Isher family would survive another generation.
The important thing now, Hedrock thought with a sharpening alertness, was to bring her out into the
open under the most advantageous—for him—circumstances. He said, “I was thinking, Innelda, of your
grandmother seven times removed, the lovely Ganeel, the golden-haired Empress. Except for your brown
hair, you’re very like her as she was in her younger days.”
The green eyes looked puzzled. The Empress pursed her lips, and then parted them as if to say
something. Before she could speak, Hedrock went on, “The Weapon Shops have an entire pictorial of
her life. What I was thinking of was the rather sad idea that some day you, too, would be but a pictorial
record in some dustyInformationCenter .”
It struck deep. He had known that this young woman could not bear the thought of old age or death in
connection with herself. Anger brought a gleam to her eyes, and produced as it always had in the past
what she was really thinking.
“You at least,” she snapped in a brittle, yet ringing voice, “will not live to see any pictorial of my life. You
may be interested to know, my dear captain, that your spy work here has been found out, and you are to
be hanged this afternoon.”
The words shocked him. It was one thing to theorize in advance that here was nothing but a cunning,
murderous test, a determined attempt to draw him out—and quite another to sit here beside this woman,
who could be so cruel and merciless and yet whose every whim was law, and hear her pronounce his
death sentence. Against such a flesh and blood tyrant, all logic was weak, all theory unreal and fantastic.
Abruptly, it was difficult to understand the reasoning that had made him place himself in such a
predicament. He could so easily have waited another generation, or two, or more, for a woman to turn
up again in the Isher line. It was true, ofcourse, that this was the logical point, both biologically and
historically. He ended the thought and fought off the black mood. He forced himself, then, to relax and to
smile. After all, he had drawn that answer out of her, clearly before she really wanted to announce the
sentence. In a grisly sort of way, it was a psychological victory. A few more victories like that, however,
and he’d be all set for a nervous breakdown.
There was still conversation going on in the great dining room, but not at the royal table. That brought
Hedrock back to full awareness of his environment. Some of the young men were sitting staring at the
Empress. Others looked at Hedrock, then at the Empress, then at Hedrock again. All were transparently
puzzled. They seemed uncertain as to whether it was a bad joke or one of the damnable real-life dramas
that the Empress precipitated from time to time, seemingly for the sole purpose of ruining everybody’s
digestion. The important thing, Hedrock thought tightly, was that the situation now had the full attention of
the men whom he expected to save his life.
It was the Empress who broke the silence. She said softly, tauntingly, “A penny for yourlatest thoughts,
Captain.”
She couldn’t have put it better. Hedrock suppressed a savage smile, and said, “My earlier statement still
holds. You’re very like the lovely, temperamental, explosive Ganeel. The main difference is that she never
slept with a live snake when she was sixteen.”
“What’s this?” said a courtier.“Innelda sleeping with snakes? Is this intended symbolically or literally?
Why look, she’s blushing.”
It was so. Hedrock’s cool gaze studied the Empress’ scarlet-cheeked confusion with amazed curiosity.
He had not expected to obtain so violent a response. In a moment, of course, there would be a flood of
bad temper. It wouldn’t disturb most of the bold young men, who had, each in his own way, found that
middle path between yes-man and individual that the young woman demanded of all her personal
followers.
“Come, come, Hedrock,” said the mustachioed Princedel Curtin, “you’re not going to keep this splendid
tidbit to yourself. I suppose this also is derived from the pictorial files of the Weapon Shops.”
Hedrock was silent. His smile of acknowledgment seemed to be directed at the prince-cousin of the
Empress, but actually he scarcely saw the man. His gaze and attention were concentrated on the only
person in the room who mattered. The Empress Isher sat, the flush on her face slowly yielding to anger.
She climbed to her feet, a dangerous glint in her eyes, but her voice had in it only a fraction of the fury
that he had hoped for. She said grimly: “It was very clever of you, Captain Hedrock, to twist the
conversation the way you did. But I assure you it won’t do you the slightest good. You’re swift response
merely confirms that you were aware in advance of my intention. You’re a spy, and we’re taking no
more chances with you.”
“Oh, come now, Innelda,” said a man. “You’re not going to pull a miserable stunt like that.”
“You watch out, mister,” the woman flared, “or you’ll join him on the scaffold.”
The men at the table exchanged significant glances. Some of them shook their heads disapprovingly, and
then all of them fell to talking among themselves, ignoring the Empress.
Hedrock waited. This was what he had been working for, but now that it was here, it seemed
inadequate. In the past, ostracism by the men whose companionship she valued had had a great
emotional effect on the ruler. Twice since his arrival he had seen it influence her decisively.But not this
time. The realization penetrated to Hedrock with finality as he watched the woman sink back into her
chair, and sit there, her long, handsome face twisted satirically. Her smile faded. She said gravely: “I’m
sorry, gentlemen, that you feel as you do. I regret any outburst which would seem to indicate that my
decision against Captain Hedrock was a personal one. But I have been greatly upset by my discovery
that he is a spy.”
It was impressive. It had a convincing ring to it, and the men’s private conversations, which had died
while she was speaking, did not resume. Hedrock leaned back in his chair, his sense of defeat stronger
with each passing second. Quite clearly, whatever was behind the execution was too big, too important,
for mere cleverness to overbalance.
Drastic, dangerous, deadly action was in order.
For a while, then, he was intent on his own thoughts. The long table with its satin-smooth white linen
covering, its golden dishes, its two dozen fine-looking young men, yielded before that intensity, became a
background to his ever grimmer purpose. He needed words that would change the whole design of the
situation, plus action that would clinch it. He grew aware that Princedel Curtin had been speaking for
some moments:
“—Youcan’t just make a statement that a man is a spy, and expect us to believe it. We know you’re the
biggest and best liar this side of creation when it suits you. If I’d suspected this was coming up, I’d have
attended the cabinet meeting this morning.How about a little fact?”
Hedrock felt impatient. The men had already accepted the sentence, though they didn’t seem to realize
it. The quicker they were cut out of the conversation the better.But careful now. Wait until the Empress
had committed herself, regardless of how well she did it. She was, he saw, sitting stiffly, her expression
grave, unsmiling. She said quietly: “I’m afraid I shall have to ask you all to trust me. A very serious
situation has arisen; it was the sole subject of our council meeting today, and I assure you the decision to
execute Captain Hedrock was unanimous, and I am personally distressed by the necessity.”
Hedrock said, “I really thought better of your intelligence than this, Innelda. Are you planning another of
your futile forays against the Weapon Shops, and think that I might find out about it and report it to the
Weapon Shop council?”
Her green eyes blazed at him. Her voice was like chipped steel as she snapped, “I shall say nothing that
might give you a clue. I don’t know just what kind of a communications system you have with your
superiors, but I know that one exists. My physicists have frequently registered on their instruments
powerful wave lengths of extremely high range.”
“Originating in my room?” asked Hedrock softly.
She stared at him, her lips drawn into an angry frown. She said reluctantly, “You would never have
dared come here if you had had to be as obvious as that. I will inform you, sir, that I am not interested in
continuing this conversation.”
“Though you do not realize it,” said Hedrock in his steadiest tone, “I have said all that was necessary to
prove my innocence when I disclosed to you that I knew that, at the age of sixteen, you slept one night
with a live snake.”
“Ah!” said the Empress. Her body shook with triumph. “Now the confession begins. So you expected
to have to put up a defense, and you prepared that little speech.”
Hedrock shrugged. “I knew something was being prepared for me. My apartment has been searched
every day for a week. I’ve been subjected to the most boring sustained monologues by the prize
dunderheads in the Army office. Wouldn’t I be a simpleton if I hadn’t thought of every angle?”
“What I don’t understand,” chimed in a young man, “is the snake business. Why do you think your
knowledge of that proves you not guilty? That’s too deep for me.”
“Don’t be such an ass, Maddern,” said Princedel Curtin. “It simply means that the Weapon Shops knew
intimate details of Innelda’s palace life long before Captain Hedrock ever came. It shows the existence of
a spy system more dangerous than anything we ever suspected, and the real charge against Captain
Hedrock is that he has been remiss in not telling us that such a system existed.’”
Hedrock was thinking: Not yet, not yet. Somewhere along here the crisis would come suddenly, and
then his action must be swift, perfectly timed,decisive . Aloud, he said coolly, “Why should you worry?
Three thousand years have proven that the Weapon Shops have no intention of overthrowing the
Imperial government. I know for a fact that the spy ray is used with great discretion, and has never been
employed at night except on the occasion that Her Majesty had the snake smuggled in from the palace
zoo. Curiosity made the two women scientists in charge of the machine on that occasion continue their
watch. The story was, of course, too good to keep in a file. And you may be interested,Your Majesty, to
know that two psychological articles were written about it, one by our greatest living No-man, Edward
Gonish.”
From the corners of his eyes Hedrock saw that the slim, lithe body of the woman was leaning forward,
her lips were slightly parted, her eyes wide with an intense interest. Her whole being seemed to move
according to his words. “What,” she half whispered, “did he say about me?”
With a shock, Hedrock recognized his moment. Now, he thought,now\
He was trembling. But he couldn’t help his physical condition, nor did he care. A man threatened with
death was expected to show agitation, or else he was considered unhuman, cold—and received no
sympathy. His voice rose against the pattern of babble from distant tables, a little wildly and passionately.
But that, too, was good, for a woman was staring at him with Wide eyes, a woman who was half child,
half genius, and who hungered with all her intense emotional nature for the strange and exotic. She sat
with shining eyes, as Hedrock said:
“You must bemad, all of you, or you would not constantly underestimate the Weapon Shops and their
lineally-developed science. What a petty idea it is that I have come here as a spy, that I am curious about
some simple little government secret. I am here for one purpose only, and Her Majesty is perfectly aware
of what it is. If she kills me she is deliberately destroying her better, greater self; and if I know anything
about the Isher line in the final issue they draw back from suicide.”
The Empress was straightening, frowning. “The presumption of your purpose,” she snapped, “is only
equaled by your cleverness.”
Hedrock paid no attention to the interruption. He refused to give up the initiative. He rushed on, “It is
apparent that you have ail forgotten your history, or are blinding yourself to the reality. The Weapon
Shops were founded several thousand years ago by a manWho decided that the incessant struggle for
power of different groups was insane, and that civil and other wars must stop forever. It was a time when
the world had just emerged from a war in which more than a billion people had died, and he found
thousands of individuals who agreed to follow him to the death. His idea was nothing less than that
whatever government was in power should not be overthrown. But that an organization should be set up
which would have one principal purpose: to ensure that no government ever again obtained complete
power over its people.
“A man who felt himself wronged should be able to go somewhere to buy a defensive gun. What made
this possible was the invention of an electronic and atomic system of control which made it possible to
build indestructible weapon shops, and to manufacture weapons that could only be used for defense.
That last ended all possibility of Weapon Shop guns being teed by gangsters and criminals, and morally
justified placing dangerous instruments in the hands of anyone who needed protection.
“At first people thought that the Shops were a sort of underground anti-government organization that
would itself protect them from harm. But gradually they realized that the Shops did not interfere in Isher
life. It was up to each individual or group of individuals to save their own lives. The idea was that the
individualWould learn to stand up for himself, and that in the long run the forces which would normally try
to enslave him would be restrained by the knowledge that a man or a group could be pressed only so far.
And so a great balance was struck between those who govern and those who are governed.
“It turned out that a further step was necessary, not as a protection against the government, but against
rapacious private enterprise. Civilization became so intricate that the average person could not protect
himself against the cunning devices of those who competed for his money. Accordingly, a system of
Weapon Shop courts was set up, to which people could turn when they felt themselves aggrieved in this
fashion.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Hedrock saw that the Empress was becoming restive. She was not a
Weapon Shop admirer, and since his purpose was to impress with the absurdity of her suspicions, and
not to change her basic attitude, he came to his point:
“What is not clearly realized by the government forces is mat the Weapon Shops are, because of their
scientific achievements, more powerful than the government itself. They understand of course that if they
should be foolish enough to overthrow the Empress they would not necessarily have the support of the
population, and that in fact they would upset the stability which their presence has made possible.
Nevertheless, the superiority is a fact. For that reason alone, the Empress’ accusation against me is
meaningless, and must have some other motivation than the one she has stated.”
Hedrock had too sharp a sense of dramatic values to pause there. His main point was made, but the
reality was so harsh that he instantly needed a distraction, something on a different level entirely; and
which, yet, would appear to be part of the whole. He rushed on: “To give you some idea of the great
scientific attainments of the Weapon Shops, I can tell you that they have an instrument which can predict
the moment of death of any person. Before I came to the palace six months ago, for my own amusement
I secured readings as to the death moments of almost every person at this table and of the members of
the Imperial Council.”
He had them now. He could see it in the strained faces that looked at him with a feverish fascination. But
still he could not afford to lose control of the conversation. With an effort, he forced himself to bow at the
white-faced ruler. Then hastily he said, “I am happy to announce, Your Majesty, that you have a long
and increasingly honorable life ahead of you. Unfortunately—” His voice took on a darker tone, as he
raced on: “Unfortunately, there is a gentleman present who is destined to die—within minutes.”
He did not wait to see the effect of that, but turned in his chair, a tigerishly swift movement.For there was
no time to waste. Any instant his bluff might be called; and his show end in a ludicrous failure. His voice
bawled across the space that separated him from a table where sat a dozen men in uniform:
“General Grail!”
“Eh!” The officer who was to carry out the hanging order whipped around. He looked startled when he
saw who it was.
It struck Hedrock that his bellow had brought complete silence to the room. People at every table had
stopped eating, stopped their private conversations, and were watching the royal table, and him.
Conscious of his greater audience, Hedrock pushed his voice forward in his mouth, tightened his
diaphragm, and brought forth the ringing question, “General Grail, if you were to die this minute, what
would be the cause?”
The heavy-faced man two tables away stood up slowly. “I’m in perfect health,” he growled. “What the
devil are you talking about?”
“Nothing wrong with your heart?”Hedrock urged.
“Not a thing.”
Hedrock thrust his chair back and climbed to his feet. He couldn’t afford errors due to awkward
positions. With a jerk, he raised his arm and pointed at the general with his finger, rudely.
“You’re General Lister Grail, are you not?”
“That’s right. And now, Captain Hedrock, I resent most violently this—”
Hedrock cut him off, “General, I regret to announce that, according to the records of the Weapon
Shops, you are due to die at exactly one fifteen o’clocktoday from heart failure. That’s this minute,
this—second.”
There was no stopping now. With a single, synchronized motion, Hedrock bent his finger, shaped his
hand to receive the gun materialized on an invisible plane by the gun ring on his finger.
摘要：

 TheWeaponMakers WeaponShops,Book1(OneAgainstEternity,1947) A.E.VanVogtorcenturiestheIsherDynastyhasruledahugeempirethatincludesearthandotherplanets.TheDynasty'spowerischeckedonlybytheWeaponMakers,agroupofdedicatedscientistswhopreventtotaltake-over,whoprovidechecksandbalancestotheDynasty'spoliticale...

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分类：外语学习 价格：5.9玖币 属性：102 页 大小：363.9KB 格式：PDF 时间：2024-12-24

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