"Slow now. The sideway will be coming up shortly. It should be up there on the left."
His car began to slow.
"I believe that I detect it ahead."
"Not the next one. It's blind. There's one right after it, though. It goes through."
They continued to slow as they passed the mouth of the first opening to the left. It was dark and angled off sharply.
"I've become aware of the next one."
"Very slowly now. Blast anything that moves."
Murdock reached forward and took hold of the pistol grip.
Angel braked and made the turn, advancing into a narrow pass.
"Dim the ready lights. No transmissions of any sort. Keep it dark and quiet."
They moved through an alley of shadow, the distant explosions having become a pulsing more felt than heard now. Stony walls towered on either hand. Their way wound to the right and then to the left.
Another right-hand twisting, and there was a bit of brightness and a long line of sight.
"Stop about three meters before it opens out," Murdock said, not realizing until moments later that he had whispered.
They crept ahead and came to a halt.
"Keep the engine running."
"Yes."
Murdock leaned forward, peering into the larger canyon running at right angles to their own. Dust hung in the air-dark, murky below, sparkling higher above, where the sun's rays could still reach.
"They've already passed," he reflected "and soon they should realize they're in a box -a big one, but still a box. Then they'll turn and come back and we'll open up on them." Murdock looked to the left. "Good place right over there for some more of our people to lay up and wait for them. I'd better get in touch and let them know. Use a fresh scrambler this time."
"How do you know they'll be coming back? Perhaps they'll lay up in there and make you come in after them."
"No," Murdock said. "I know them too well. They'll run for it."
"Are you sure there aren't any other sideways?"
"None going west. There may be a few heading east, but if they take them, they'll wind up in the other trap. Either way, they lose."
"What if some of those others cut down this way?"
"The more, the merrier. Get me that line. And see what you can pick up on the herd while I'm talking."
Shortly after that, he was in touch with the commander of the southern wing of the pursuers, requesting a squad of armed and armored vehicles to be laid up at the point he designated. He learned that they were already on their way to the western canyon in search of those vehicles observed entering there. The commander relayed Murdock's message to them and told him that they would be along in a matter of minutes. Murdock could still feel the shock waves from the many explosions in the eastern canyon.
"Good," he said, and he ended the transmission.
"They've reached the end," the Angel announced a little later, "and are circling. I hear their broadcasts. They are beginning to suspect that there is no way out."
Murdock smiled. He was looking to his left, where the first of the pursuing vehicles had just come into sight. He raised the microphone and began giving directions.
As he waited, he realized that at no time had he relaxed his hold on the pistol grip. He withdrew his hand, wiped his palm on his trousers, and returned it.
"They are coming now," the Angel said. "They have turned and are headed back this way."
Murdock turned his head to the right and waited. The destruction had been going on for nearly a month, and today's should be the last of it. He suddenly realized just how tired he was. A feeling of depression began to come over him. He stared at the small red lights and the larger, pulsing orange one.
"You will be able to see them in a moment."
"Can you tell how many there are?"
"Thirty-two. No, hold it ... thirty-one. They are picking up speed. Their conversations indicate that they anticipate an interception."
"Did any come through from the eastern canyon?"
"Yes. There were several."
The sound of their engines came to him. Hidden there in the neck of the ravine, he saw the first of them -a dark sedan, dented and swaying, half of its roof and the nearest fender torn away-come around the canyon's bend. He held his fire as it approached, and soon the others followed-rattling, steaming, leaking, covered with dents and rust spots, windows broken, hoods missing, doors loose. A strange feeling came into his breast as he thought about the more magnificent specimens of the great herds he had followed over the years.
Still, he held his fire, even as the first in line drew abreast of him, and his thoughts went back to the black and shining Devil Car and to Jenny, the Scarlet Lady, with whom he had hunted it.
The first of the pack reached the place where the ambushers waited.
"Now?" the Angel asked, just as the first rocket flared off to the left.
" "
Yes.
They opened up and the destruction began, cars braking and swerving into one another, the canyon suddenly illuminated by half a dozen blazing wrecks-a dozen-two.
One after another, they were halted, burned. Three of the ambushers were destroyed by direct crashes. Murdock used all of his rockets and played the laser over the heaped remains. As the last wreck burst into flame, he knew that, though they weren't much compared with the great ones he had known, he would never forget how they had made their final run on bald tires, broken springs, leaking transmissions, and hate.
Suddenly he swiveled the laser and fired it back along the canyon.
"What is it?" the Angel asked him.
"There's another one back there. Don't you pick it up?"
"I'm checking now, but I don't detect anything."
"Go that way."